Linux is considered a Unix-like operating system which basically means that Linux derives heavy inspiration from Unix without actually conforming to be a full Unix operating system. macOS and FreeBSD would be two more examples of a Unix-like operating system.
So why Linux over other operating systems?
First, it's free. Anyone can use Linux to do anything without paying anyone a dime. This is useful for college students who don't have any money but it's also critical for large businesses running thousands or tens-of-thousands of servers. It can save them millions of dollars to not have to pay for an operating system.
It's very well maintained. Because Linux is such a popular operating system, it has a lot of eyes on it. Engineers from all over the world and all over the industry are constantly contributing fixes and new features to Linux, both on their own free time and during the course of their jobs.
There are so, so, so many distros of Linux. They all do different things well and some of them are very specialized in what sorts of things they can accomplish but the most common people use for daily basis is Ubuntu.
other distros linux:
- Debian
- Mint
- Red Hat
- Alpine
- Kali
- CentOS
- Backtrack
There are a lot of way to run linux
Command What it does
pwd show me where I am in the file system (initially, this will be your home directory)
ls list my files
ls -a list even more of my files (including those that start with a period)
ls -al list my files with lots of details (including dates, file sizes and permissions)
who show me who is logged in (don’t be disappointed if it’s only you)
date remind me what day today is (shows the time too)
ps list my running processes (might just be your shell and the “ps” command)
Command What it does
cd /tmp move to another directory (in this case, /tmp)
ls list files in that location
cd go back home (with no arguments, cd always takes you back to your home directory)
cat .bashrc display the contents of a file (in this case, .bashrc)
history show your recent commands
echo hello say “hello” to yourself
cal show a calendar for the current month
Command What it does
echo “echo hello” > tryme create a new file and put the words “echo hello” into it
chmod 700 tryme make the new file executable
tryme run the new file (it should run the command it contains and display “hello”)
ps aux show all running processes
ps aux | grep $USER show all running processes, but limit the output to lines containing your username
echo $USER display your username using an environment variable
whoami display your username with a command
who | wc -l
Once you get used to the basic commands, you can explore other commands and try your hand at writing scripts. You might find that Linux is a lot more powerful and nice to use than you ever imagined.