Operating systems and Linux distributions

2014-03-12T16:07:03Z

Enozkan: /* Mac OS X */ Xquartz/X11 is no longer installed by default on OS X.

=Operating Systems=

==Linux==

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux GNU/Linux] aims to be a free and open-source unix (or unix-like) operating system that will run on most types of computer hardware and uses an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Window_System X11 graphical user interface]. Various [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_distribution distributions of GNU/Linux] exist that have different package management systems and other features. Most of these are ideal platforms for X-ray crystallography and other scientific computational requirements.

===Linux Distributions===

* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_%28Linux_distribution%29 Ubuntu]

* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian Debian]

* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux Red Hat] with its clones [[CentOS]] and [https://www.scientificlinux.org Scientific Linux] (binary compatible; produced from the source provided by Red Hat)

* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedora_%28Linux_distribution%29 Fedora]: see [[CCP4 on Fedora 12]]

* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opensuse OpenSuse] will run most Red Hat and Fedora packages

* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandriva_Linux Mandriva]

These differ greatly in the time they support their releases:
* OpenSuse: 2 years
* Fedora: 18 months
* Ubuntu: 18 months
* Ubuntu LTS: Server 5 years, Desktop 3 years
* RedHat, [[CentOS]], Scientific Linux: 7 years
* Gentoo: less relevant; "rolling releases"
* Debian: 1 year after a new release; thus usually 2.5 - 3.5 yrs
* SUSE Linux Enterprise Server: see http://support.novell.com/lifecycle/lcSearchResults.jsp?st=suse+linux+enterprise+server; generally 6 years or more

===Useful Links===

* [http://xanana.ucsc.edu/~wgscott/xtal/wiki/index.php/Crystallography_on_Ubuntu Crystallography on Ubuntu Linux]
* [http://linux.dell.com/wiki/index.php/Repository Dell's RPMs for Linux machines, including BIOS-update stuff]

==Mac OS X==

Mac OS X is a proprietary [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeBSD BSD]-Unix-derived operating system that runs on Apple's computers. The BSD-subsystem, called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_(operating_system) Darwin], attempts to be open-source. Unlike most other flavors of Unix, OS X is not based on an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Window_System X11 windowing system], but instead uses a proprietary [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqua_(user_interface) Aqua] graphical user interface. For crystallographers and others who need the conventional X11 windowing system, an [http://trac.macosforge.org/projects/xquartz Xserver for OS X] is available, and can be easily installed on all versions of OS X.

===Links:===

* [http://www.apple.com/macosx/technology/unix.html Apple's Mac OS X Unix] page.

* [http://xanana.ucsc.edu/xtal/ Crystallography on OS X]

==Irix (SGI)==

By all accounts, SGIs are now obsolete. They are more expensive and perhaps offer higher productivity, but it is not worth the money when $500 Linux box takes 1/2 hour to calculate a simulated annealing omit map. There are some examples of software (such as [http://wiki.c2b2.columbia.edu/honiglab_public/index.php/Software:GRASP GRASP]) that you can only run on SGIs, not Linux. O is also wicked fast on SGIs.

Irix is a flavor of UNIX and is still supported by [http://www.sgi.com/products/software/irix/ SGI].

== See also ==
Linux [[filesystems]]

CCP4 wiki - User contributions [en]

Operating systems and Linux distributions