I Love the Penguin

Dear friends,

Yesterday, we had our first sessions in CMSC11. Sir Tecson gave us the guidelines in how to use the computer lab, the priniciples of Computer Science, this and that.

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What amazes me most here in UP Mindanao is that this institution uses only open-source software, and it only uses the open-source Operating System, Linux. In UP Min, most of our Linux PCs run in the Mandriva Distribution under the K Desktop Environment. After just the first semester, I really fell in love with Linux with its stability, strong architecture, being virus-free and virus-proof (unless you move files to Windows), and undeniably as user-friendly as Windows (if you feel comfortable with Windows software, and its open-source Linux counterparts).

I am glad UP Mindanao's Information Technology Office (ITO) has made a decision to shift the main OS from Windows to Linux, to avoid the hassles of commercial licenses of commercial software, like Windows. Microsoft, the company that makes the Windows OS, has made a fight against pirates, and now requires yearly or monthly renewal of licenses, which costs a lot. Linux, on the other hand, is always free and can be copied, reinstalled, modified, personalized, and be shared on to others. Therefore, no hassles on licenses.

Open-source software are very useful, if you had been using commercial software, but starters of using these kinds of software will be benefited from it, too, for these are very stable and can be modified in any way, since they are free.

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Anyways, we were introduced to Computer Science in both our Laboratory and Lecture sessions. In our laboratory session, we were first acquainted on how computers look like here in the CSM (College of Science and Mathematics) Computer Lab. They're in Mandriva Linux, of course, and you need to log-in to use these computers.

We will first program in the C language, and we will use the Turbo C compiler (software that runs the instructions that the codes have expressed). However, Turbo C is a MS-DOS executable program, i.e. it's extension is "*.exe" Linux can't automatically open MS-DOS executables, so it needs an emulator, a program that emulates an Integrated Desktop Environment (IDE). In the ComLab, the MS-DOS emulator is DOSBox. Here's a psuedo-code algorithm on how we did it:

1. Open DOSBox.
   
2. Output "Z:\>".
   
3. Input "mount C: /home/student/installers/" .(*the Linux directory is where Turbo C (tcc/bin) directory is located)
4. Check if directory is incorrect. If so, Close DOSBox and go back to Step 1. Otherwise,
   
5. Input "C:".
6. Output "C:\>".
7. Input "cd tcc/bin".
8. Output "C:\tcc\bin>".
9. Input "tc".
10. Open TurboC.
11. End.
    

Opening a MS-DOS executable is quite complex in Linux, but it is still possible.

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So would you OPEN-SOURCE? Love the Penguin. Love Tux, the Linux mascot, NOW!


KENNETH

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