1. Introduction

1.1. About the FAQ

This document contains a collection of the answers to the most common questions people ask about Linux.

It is available as WikiText source, DocBook XML, an ASCII text file, an HTML World Wide Web page,

Postscript, PDF, Plucker, and as a USENET news posting.

DocBook XML is generated from WikiText source using wt2db. HTML is generated from the XML using the

LDP's XSL customization layer on top of Norm Walsh's standard DocBook XSL stylesheets. Text is generated

from the HTML using lynx. Most of these programs are found in most Linux distributions.

The Usenet version is posted regularly to news:news.answers , news:comp.answers , and

news:comp.os.linux.misc . It is archived at ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-hierarchy/comp/os/linux/misc .

The latest versions are available from the Linux Documentation Project.

1.2. Where To Send Comments

If you have any comments, or if you have a question about Linux that was not answered here, feel free to send

it to the maintainer: David Merrill. I won't guarantee to answer all questions, but I'll answer as many as I can.

Questions that I receive repeatedly will be added to the FAQ. If you wish to refer to a question in the FAQ,

please include the title of the question in your email.

If you have an addition to the FAQ, by all means send it. Contributions may be in any format, but I prefer

comments in English to patch files. Context diff is not my first language.

1.3. Authorship and Acknowledgments

This FAQ is currently compiled and maintained by David Merrill, [email protected] , with assistance and

comments from Linux users all over the world. Over the years it has passed through several hands, and I'd like

to recognize all the folks who have worked on it.

In addition to those of us who have been official maintainers, the FAQ is full of individual contributions. The

name of the contributor is listed along with the contribution.

The FAQ was maintained by Robert Kiesling until January, 2002

Freddy Contreras, [email protected] , designed and GPL'd the Linux Frequently Asked Questions

logos.

Special thanks are due to Matt Welsh, who moderated news:comp.os.linux.announce and

news:comp.os.linux.answers , coordinated the HOWTO's and wrote substantial portions of many of them,

Greg Hankins the former Linux Documentation Project HOWTO maintainer, Lars Wirzenius and Mikko

Rauhala, the former and current moderators of news:comp.os.linux.announce , Marc-Michel Corsini, who

wrote the original Linux FAQ, and Ian Jackson, the previous FAQ maintainer. Thanks also to Roman Maurer

for his many updates and additions, especially with European Web sites, translations, and general miscellany.

1. Introduction 1.Other contributors include:

Doug Jensen [email protected] ·

Last but not least, thanks to Linus Torvalds and the other contributors to Linux for giving us something to talk

about!

1.4. Copyright and License

Copyright (c) 2001 Robert Kiesling. Copyright (c) 2002, 2003 David Merrill.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free

Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no

Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is

provided in the appendix, GNU Free Documentation License.

The maintainer would be happy to answer any questions regarding the copyright.

Unix is a trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. Other trademarks

belong to their holders.

1.5. Disclaimer

While every attempt has been made to provide accurate and helpful information, I make no promises or

guarantees of any kind. Use this information at your own risk.

The Linux FAQ

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