Linux Guide

One of the most difficult things to get used to in the Linux world is installing new software packages. In the world of Windows, every program comes with a Setup.exe program that asks you some very easy questions and takes care of the job for you. While Linux software can be almost that easy to install, you will sometimes find software that seems to fight every step of the way. I can't cover all the problems you might run into, but I'll try to give you the basics and a few pointers to help get you over the rough spots.

What is this "shell"?

The "shell" is another name for the command shell or command interpreter. This is the program that gives you a command prompt, accepts the commands you type there, and basically makes the computer do what you tell it to. In DOS the program that did this was command.com (unless you were a real technogeek and used 4dos or something). In Linux, the shell is the first program that starts when you log in, and it keeps running until you log out, waiting to do your bidding. Linux is able to use any of several different shells, but the default Linux shell is called bash and is the only one I will discuss.

If you’re coming to Linux from Windows and don’t want to slog through volumes of references and tutorials, this primer will get you started in just a short time. We’ll cover:

• help commands to teach yourself just what you need
• documentation sources for deeper dives
• Basic similarities and differences between Windows and Linux
• Command quick reference
• How to shut down

Linux puts a lot of power at your fingertips. That's the best reason to switch to Linux; it's also the most dangerous thing about the system. Linux controls how much power you can use on the computer based on your Login ID. It keeps a database of all users, and it keeps track of which user owns which files, and which users have permission to view, edit, and execute each file, folder or program. An ordinary user will not be able to do really dangerous things, like editing the user database, or deleting every file on the system.

Understanding Linux user permissions is crucial for managing a secure and efficient system. This article will delve into the essentials of Linux user and group permissions, covering key concepts and configurations.

Managing software on a Linux system can seem daunting to newcomers, but tools like apt and dpkg make it straightforward and efficient. This tutorial will guide you through the basics of using apt and dpkg to manage software on Debian-based distributions like Ubuntu.

Linux is Free/Libre Open Source Software. You can download a free copy of Linux and install it on your own computer. No password is required for access, and no registration is required after downloading. There are no "nag" screens begging you to pay for it. It is not crippled in any way, nor is it limited to any particular kind of use. You can use it at home, at school, in your business. You can install it as many times on as many computers as you like, and you can legally make copies of it and give them to friends and colleagues (or even sell copies if you wish).

Linux is able to access directories, files, and printers that are shared from MS Windows machines, and can act as a server for Windows clients, thanks to a software package called SaMBa. The latest version of SaMBa also allows Linux computers to participate in Windows NT domain-based networks.

SaMBa is an implementation of the SMB protocol, also called the NetBIOS or LanManager protocol. This is a networking protocol used by Windows. It ships with most of the major Linux distributions, and is available for many different operating systems.

If you have come directly to this page hoping to install Linux without doing any more reading, I suggest that you reconsider. Without the proper knowledge and preparation, attempting to install any operating system (whether Linux or any other) can be a disaster. So before I launch into the resources for your step by step Linux installation, here are some things you should already have read:

Each Linux installation has its own setup utility, every one vastly different from all the others. This makes it very difficult if not impossible to write a step by step Linux installation manual. The closest thing in existence is the Linux Installation and Getting Started Guide, which should be included in HTML format with every Linux distribution, and is available online thanks to the Linux Documentation Project. This book contains a fairly good comparison of the major distributions and an outline of the installation process for each one. It also covers the basic technical concepts you need to understand during installation, and covers some issues of usability following your install. I highly recommend that new users at least skim through this book, and preferably absorb every word.

This article will explain some of the terms involved with partitioning your hard drive, as well as some concepts you will need to understand before installing Linux, and will help you determine what partitions you need to create for Linux.

What is a partition?

Imagine your company is moving into a new building that is set up like a warehouse. There are no internal walls, it's just one big room for everybody to work in. Chances are, the first thing the boss is going to do is build himself an office (he wouldn't want to associate with you workers), so he'll have a partition set up, an internal wall to separate him from you. Next, each worker will get a cubicle in the big room with smaller partitions to separate you from the person next to you.

Note: For the sake of clarity, many of these concepts have been over-simplified.

An operating system is a group of programs that help you operate your computer. It could be considered the "government" of your computer's internal society, the central program that tells the other programs what they may do and provides services they need. A computer might contain more than one operating system, but only one operating system at a time may be "in charge". The action of starting or loading the operating system is called "booting" the computer.

In the simplest terms, open source software is software you can share. But it is more than just shareware. Open source means that the source code of the software is available to the users. To understand what this means, we'll need to take a little detour into how computer programs actually get made.

To gain access to files on another device, you must first tell Linux where in the directory tree you would like those files to appear. This process is called mounting a file system. For example, you will frequently need to access files from CD-ROM. In order to do this, you must tell Linux, "Take the file system from this CD-ROM and make it appear under the directory /mnt." The directory given to Linux is called the mount point. In this case it is /mnt. The /mnt directory exists on all Linux systems, and it is intended specifically for use as a mount point for temporary media like floppy disks or CDROMs. It may be empty, or it may contain subdirectories for mounting individual devices.

Probably the most important difference (from the user's perspective) between the DOS/Windows world and the Linux world is the organization and operation of the file system.

Some ideas will seem very familiar, and others will seem completely alien, but with a good understanding of the Linux file system, you have the skill to avoid some of the most common problems experienced by new Linux users.

If you're going to use Linux, there simply is no avoiding emacs. You've probably heard of it, the powerful text editor that provokes wars between its devoted fans and fans of its more ancient but still omnipresent competitor vi. To those of us migrating to Linux from a more graphically oriented environment, both programs seem alien. You might think you can escape by using some other program, but you can't escape because every program you pick up tries to imitate emacs in some way.

A computer program is a list of instructions given to a computer to make it perform a specific task or series of tasks. Computers do not understand English (we all wish that they did!), so programmers must communicate these instructions to the computer in a language the computer understands. Computers, however, can only operate on numbers, which makes a computer's language very difficult for humans to understand.

The solution to this problem is to create an intermediate language that both humans and computers can understand. These are called programming languages. Programmers create a list of instructions for the computer in a programming language such as C, Pascal, or Fortran. This list of instructions is known as “source code”. It is textual in nature, and readable to humans (who speak the language). Programmers do all their work in this source code, changing the instructions to fix bugs, add features, or alter the appearance of a program.