Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology

280 LISPA Linux system running Open Office, a full-featured (and free) office software suite (Sun Microsystems)users were criticized as being hard to install and to configurefor various types of hardware. However, current versionsof Linux have an installation experience that is comparableto that of Windows, and such details as disk partitioningand setting up networks can often be handled automatically.(There can still be problems with some devices such as wirelesscards for laptops, but even there things have improvedconsiderably.) A Linux distribution such as Ubuntu is now aviable alternative to Windows unless one has to use certainprograms (such as PhotoShop or many games) that do nothave Linux versions. However, such options as dual-booting,emulation, or virtual machines offer the ability to use bothLinux and Windows on the same machine.Further ReadingHill, Benjamin Mako, et al. The Official Ubuntu Book. 3rd ed. UpperSaddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2008.Linux.com. Available online. URL: http://www.linux.com/.Accessed September 26, 2007.Linux Journal. Available online. URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/. Accessed September 26, 2007.Matthew, Neil, and Richard Stones. Beginning Linux Programming.4th ed. Indianapolis: Wrox, 2007.Red Hat. Available online. URL: http://www.redhat.com/. AccessedSeptember 26, 2007.Sery, Pal G. Ubuntu Linux for Dummies. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley,2007.Siever, Ellen, et al. Linux in a Nutshell. 5th ed. Sebastapol, Calif.:O’Reilly, 2005.Sobell, Mark G. A Practical Guide to Red Hat Linux: Fedora Core andRed Hat Enterprise Linux. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.:Prentice Hall, 2006.Ubuntu. Available online. URL: http://www.ubuntulinux.org/.Accessed September 26, 2007.LISPAs interest in AI (see artificial intelligence) developedin the early 1950s, researchers soon became frustrated bythe low-level computer languages of the day, which emphasizedcomputation and other manipulation of numbersrather than the processing of symbolic data.