[ Thanks to Jason
Greenwood for this link. ]
“Linux is commonly used for a wide range of technical and
commercial reasons today. Linux runs on a tremendous range of
supported architectures, processors, buses, and devices, and
combines the power of inherent multi-tasking with the attractive
notion of an open, royalty-free operating system. At the high and
medium ends, Linux systems support enterprise infrastructure such
as file, mail, and web servers, and business-unit infrastructure
such as firewalls, VPN servers, routers, and gateways. In its
smallest incarnations, Linux is commonly used in embedded systems
such as process control systems, PDAs, home gateways, and set-top
boxes.“Linux systems used for enterprise and business-unit
infrastructure are often very similar to desktop Linux systems from
a startup and system administration point of view. They typically
also use the same startup mechanism to determine the processes that
should be started at boot time, as described in the next section.
The previous whitepaper in this series, ‘Using the 2.6 Kernel with
Your Current System,’ provided an overview of the types of changes
you might need to make to the command files (scripts) that are
executed when booting 2.6-based systems of these types…”