General information about UNIX/Linux and such Labs at Penn State
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"UNIX" or UNIX-like operating systems:
Solaris, an operating system manufactured by Sun Microsystems, Inc. qualifies for the registered trademark UNIX (R) owned by the Open Group and Linux does not. Linux is an open source operating system meaning it is free for everyone and not supported by a specific company. It is based on a kernel (core part of the operating system)written by Linus Torvalds and the rest of the basic system components (compiler, libraries, system tools) is from the GNU project (meaning "GNU's not UNIX (R)," a play on the trademark). Other companies or organizations such as Redhat and Debian will bundle Linux with their own brand and utilities called a "distribution." But many people just call these operating systems "unix" because they work the same way, typically with similar typed commands on a terminal interface, a graphical environment known as X Window System, and other more subtle details. Other variants of UNIX (or unix-like) operating systems include AIX, IRIX,HP-UX, BSDi and free, open source ones like OpenBSD or FreeBSD just to name a few. Macintosh as of version X has BSD UNIX internals.
UNIX/Linus Labs on campus:
There are many labs on campus managed independently by various departments and colleges and their choices of operating system and vendor are their own to make. Computer Science and Engineering (CSE), Mathematics, Statistics, Earth and Mineral Sciences, Mechanical Engineering and many other departments may choose some version of UNIX for their labs with the intent to support a specific curriculum. Information Technology Services (ITS),supplies a lab in Hammond with a commercial version of Redhat Linux (a version of Linux you have to pay for). It is supported by the Classroom and Lab Support (CLC) group in Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT), a unit of ITS.
Support contacts for UNIX/Linux labs:
You may contact the lab support of the CSE labs via
lab-support@cse.psu.edu, Math via help@math.psu.edu, the ITS Linux lab in
Hammond via clc-linux@psu.edu. Other contacts may be found if you search the department pages online. Better yet, look for signs in the lab that indicate who
manages the lab and how to contact them. That will best help you direct
your questions to the proper people who manage the labs you are most
interested in. If you are a Computer Engineering student, try the CSE
contact mentioned or the link below.
ptpadmin@psu.edu work in Academic Services and Emerging Technologies
(ASET), a unit of ITS, and are primarily responsible for unix workstations
intended for remote login, not as labs. They care for the general purpose
ITS UNIX clusters cbs.aset.psu.edu, which runs Solaris, and
rs6klab.aset.psu.edu, which runs AIX, a variant of UNIX from IBM. The
High Performance Computing Group of ASET also run large scale
"beowulf" clusters on some distribution of Linux.
Check out the following sites for more information:
Penn State
Computer Science and Engineering: http://www.cse.psu.edu/
CSE IT Support: (The "IT Support" nav menu may help if email does not)
Mathematics: http://www.math.psu.edu/
Information Technology Services: http://its.psu.edu/
ITS Linux Lab: http://clc.tlt.psu.edu/Labs/Linux/
ITS UNIX Cluster: http://aset.its.psu.edu/unix_group/unixcluster.html
High Performance Computing Group: http://gears.aset.psu.edu/hpc/
Software and UNIX
Sun Microsystems: http://www.sun.com/
Solaris: http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/
International Business Machines (IBM): http://www.ibm.com/
Advanced Interactive eXecutive (AIX): http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/aix/
Silicon Graphics (SGI): http://www.sgi.com/
IRIX: http://www.sgi.com/products/software/irix/
Apple: http://www.apple.com/
Macintosh OS X: http://www.apple.com/macosx/
Linux in general (one of many sites on the topic): http://www.linux.org/
GNU project: http://www.gnu.org/
Redhat Linux: http://www.redhat.com/
Debian Linux: http://www.debian.org/
OpenBSD: http://openbsd.org/
FreeBSD: http://www.freebsd.org/
UNIX (as a registered trademark): http://www.unix.org/
Berkeley System Distribution (BSD) family of UNIX: http://www.bsd.org/
Solaris, an operating system manufactured by Sun Microsystems, Inc. qualifies for the registered trademark UNIX (R) owned by the Open Group and Linux does not. Linux is an open source operating system meaning it is free for everyone and not supported by a specific company. It is based on a kernel (core part of the operating system)written by Linus Torvalds and the rest of the basic system components (compiler, libraries, system tools) is from the GNU project (meaning "GNU's not UNIX (R)," a play on the trademark). Other companies or organizations such as Redhat and Debian will bundle Linux with their own brand and utilities called a "distribution." But many people just call these operating systems "unix" because they work the same way, typically with similar typed commands on a terminal interface, a graphical environment known as X Window System, and other more subtle details. Other variants of UNIX (or unix-like) operating systems include AIX, IRIX,HP-UX, BSDi and free, open source ones like OpenBSD or FreeBSD just to name a few. Macintosh as of version X has BSD UNIX internals.
UNIX/Linus Labs on campus:
There are many labs on campus managed independently by various departments and colleges and their choices of operating system and vendor are their own to make. Computer Science and Engineering (CSE), Mathematics, Statistics, Earth and Mineral Sciences, Mechanical Engineering and many other departments may choose some version of UNIX for their labs with the intent to support a specific curriculum. Information Technology Services (ITS),supplies a lab in Hammond with a commercial version of Redhat Linux (a version of Linux you have to pay for). It is supported by the Classroom and Lab Support (CLC) group in Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT), a unit of ITS.
Support contacts for UNIX/Linux labs:
You may contact the lab support of the CSE labs via
lab-support@cse.psu.edu, Math via help@math.psu.edu, the ITS Linux lab in
Hammond via clc-linux@psu.edu. Other contacts may be found if you search the department pages online. Better yet, look for signs in the lab that indicate who
manages the lab and how to contact them. That will best help you direct
your questions to the proper people who manage the labs you are most
interested in. If you are a Computer Engineering student, try the CSE
contact mentioned or the link below.
ptpadmin@psu.edu work in Academic Services and Emerging Technologies
(ASET), a unit of ITS, and are primarily responsible for unix workstations
intended for remote login, not as labs. They care for the general purpose
ITS UNIX clusters cbs.aset.psu.edu, which runs Solaris, and
rs6klab.aset.psu.edu, which runs AIX, a variant of UNIX from IBM. The
High Performance Computing Group of ASET also run large scale
"beowulf" clusters on some distribution of Linux.
Check out the following sites for more information:
Penn State
Computer Science and Engineering: http://www.cse.psu.edu/
CSE IT Support: (The "IT Support" nav menu may help if email does not)
Mathematics: http://www.math.psu.edu/
Information Technology Services: http://its.psu.edu/
ITS Linux Lab: http://clc.tlt.psu.edu/Labs/Linux/
ITS UNIX Cluster: http://aset.its.psu.edu/unix_group/unixcluster.html
High Performance Computing Group: http://gears.aset.psu.edu/hpc/
Software and UNIX
Sun Microsystems: http://www.sun.com/
Solaris: http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/
International Business Machines (IBM): http://www.ibm.com/
Advanced Interactive eXecutive (AIX): http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/aix/
Silicon Graphics (SGI): http://www.sgi.com/
IRIX: http://www.sgi.com/products/software/irix/
Apple: http://www.apple.com/
Macintosh OS X: http://www.apple.com/macosx/
Linux in general (one of many sites on the topic): http://www.linux.org/
GNU project: http://www.gnu.org/
Redhat Linux: http://www.redhat.com/
Debian Linux: http://www.debian.org/
OpenBSD: http://openbsd.org/
FreeBSD: http://www.freebsd.org/
UNIX (as a registered trademark): http://www.unix.org/
Berkeley System Distribution (BSD) family of UNIX: http://www.bsd.org/