About Linux

As mentioned earlier, an excellent choice for a WAVE host is a PC running Linux. Linux is a (very) complete, and completely free, robust, modern reimplementation of the UNIX operating system, written by Linus Torvalds and a cast of thousands. It is freely available in source and ready-to-run form from many sources (LWN.net maintains a list of over 400 sites at http://lwn.net/Distributions/). You can also obtain Linux on CD-ROMs from many commercial sources, generally at very low prices (typically US$10 to $40, depending mainly on the amount of printed documentation and technical support offered). Current Linux distributions include TCP/IP networking including NFS support, the complete collection of GNU software including the GNU C/C++ compiler, Ghostscript, TEX, X11R6, and much more. Some also include XView 3.2, olwm and olvwm; these are also available from PhysioNet. For further information, visit the home page of the Linux Documentation Project (http://www.tldp.org/), where you may also find the Linux HOWTO documents mentioned earlier.