LinuxQuestions.org

Libraries: what they are, how they work, why you need them

Posted 05-11-2018 at 09:37 AM by hazel
Updated 01-16-2020 at 04:50 AM by hazel

All serious software nowadays does most of its work using libraries. The top-level program code is mainly a caller for library functions written by other people, and it is these that actually do most of the heavy lifting. Without libraries, programming would be impossible for anyone but professionally trained coders.

A library is a collection of functions that do a particular set of interrelated jobs: reading and writing a particular media format, doing quad-precision maths, parsing...

hazel

LQ Guru

Posted in For newbies

Views 2362 Comments 1 hazel is offline

Package managers and how to use them

Posted 01-01-2018 at 07:33 AM by hazel
Updated 05-27-2022 at 04:46 AM by hazel

A surprising number of Linux newbies do not seem to understand how to use a package manager despite the fact that they probably have smartphones and are therefore likely to be quite familiar with the concept of an app store.

Linux was using app stores long before Steve Jobs created the iPhone. However in the Linux world they are called repositories (repo for short).

Windows users tend to acquire bad habits where software installation is concerned. They browse about...

hazel

LQ Guru

Posted in For newbies

Views 1254 Comments 1 hazel is offline

Installing a Brother printer in 64-bit Linux

Posted 11-28-2017 at 12:13 PM by hazel
Updated 11-03-2023 at 02:00 AM by hazel

Having just succeeded in installing the software for a new Brother laser printer in Debian and Crux, I thought it would be worthwhile summarising the procedure.

Proprietary Linux drivers for Brother printers typically come in two packages, one labelled cupswrapper and the other lpd. You will need to install both. Only two formats are available: rpm and deb.

If you have an rpm-based or deb-based distro, the simplest way to install is to use the all-purpose installation...

hazel

LQ Guru

Posted in Uncategorized

Views 1270 Comments 3 hazel is offline

So what is Unix?

Posted 09-02-2017 at 01:01 PM by hazel
Updated 07-29-2019 at 11:17 AM by hazel

People often ask "Is Linux the same thing as Unix?". And they are usually told that Linux is one of the Unix family of operating systems but that there are many others. This site, unusually for a Linux forum, has forums for some other Unixen as well. But what qualifies an operating system to be considered as Unix? Here are my

on the properties an OS ought to have to qualify for this distinguished club. Additions are welcome.

1. All hardware and filesystem...

hazel

LQ Guru

Posted in Uncategorized

Views 1012 Comments 4 hazel is offline

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