Hello and welcome to the first post related to the Linux Operating system (or kernel, whoever you want to refer to it as) during these (course or tutorials or whatever) we will be learning about the basics of the operating systems built on top of the Linux kernel. In this (whoever you want to call it) we will be learning how to use a desktop Linux distribution, if it sounds hard, don’t worry, it will not be unless you know how to follow steps and you can learn from your own mistakes. In order to clarify some questions that new users have when switching to Linux I will be answering some questions below that will give you a better understanding about what you will be dealing with. What is Linux? If you said to yourself, “I know what Linux is, it is an operating system” you are wrong, Linux is not an operating system. Linux is an Unix-like kernel, meaning that you can perform many of the commands used in Unix (If you do not know what Unix don’t worry, you might have not been alive when it was created). People tend to call Linux the operating systems that are built on top of the Linux kernel, such as Android, Debian, Ubuntu, Chrome Os, Red Hat, Fedora, Etc. Linux was first created for personal computers equipped with the Intel-x86 processor, but the fame of the operating systems created with this kernel have spread worldwide to many different platforms including servers, smartphones, routers, mini computers, smart TVs, Network Attached Storages, robots, cars, mainframe computers, super computers among others. Nowadays Linux is the most used operating system in the server space because of its security and stability, but it only holds about a 1% of the market share in the personal computer environment. Who created Linux and when? The Linux Kernel was created by the Finnish computer science student Linus Torvalds in September of the year 1991, who back then was 21 years old. He promised that the kernel will be free for anyone to use and that they could manipulate it in any way that they wanted to. After it was released, many different companies and developers have contributed to this kernel to become what it is now. What are distributions? In the Linux world, a Linux distribution (or distro) is the name given to the personal desktop operating systems that are built on top of the Linux Kernel. These usually can be installed in most common computer hardware because of the vast variety of drivers included in the Linux Kernel. Linux distribution usually are packed with the necessary software that a normal user will need in order to have a good computing experience, and also software centres, and other tools to easily install software. Linux distributions for the most part are free (free of cost) and are made by individuals in the community as well as companies. Most Linux distributions are usually usable out of the box without any tweaks, making it easier and less painful for users to start working with them. Can I run my Windows applications on Linux? If you asked that to yourself while reading this, I want to ask you a question, can you run OSX applications on your windows machine? or Linux or DBS on it? If your answer is “No”, then that is your answer. Linux is a completely different operating system to Windows, which makes their applications incompatible with each other. However, there is an application under Linux called Wine (Wine is not an emulator) which allows you to run windows applications on top of a compatibility layer, which is usable and gets the work done in many different instances, and some applications run as flawlessly as if they were being run natively. There was also a certain project that wanted to achieve the same experience but with OSX applications, which I believe was called Darling. Even if you are not able to run the same applications that you used while using Windows, there is a great variety of different applications that are made to perform equally as well and at the same time have the same features in order to create the perfect alternative for those well known applications, such as Chromium, which replaces Chrome (even though you can install chrome on Linux) which performs faster and better than Chrome itself, or Kingsoft office and Libre office, which work as replacements or alternatives for the Microsoft Office suit. There are also many applications that are both working under Windows as well as Linux, such as Firefox, Steam, Chrome, Skype, Dropbox, Teamviewer, among others. Okay Angel, Linux sounds great, but why should I switch to it? Security: I’d say the main downside that Windows has is security, which is the strongest aspect of Linux. Mainly because of how fast and actively the Linux kernel is developed, as well as the small size of usage in the desktop ecosystem, as well as the way that Linux is made (you can only install applications with root permissions) allows it to be extremely secure and for attacks to your machine to be unlikely to happen (unless you give permission to it). Viruses are not a problem because many viruses are not made for it, which you need to give permission for them to attack you, and also, because Linux and Windows are very different in the way they are made, Windows viruses can not affect Linux, meaning that you can plug an usb full of windows viruses to your Linux machine and get none of them in your computer (I have done this and it is hilarious). Flexibility: Another thing that is great about Linux is that there is a lot of variation in it, as well. In the Linux Distributions there is something that is called the desktop environments, which are about the most basic way of customizing your Linux installation, you can completely change the way that you Linux desktop looks and acts, as well as the resources consumed by it. At the end I will have a slideshow with many different pictures of the different desktop environments that are available under Linux for you to use so you can see the difference between them. In the software camp, there is also a lot of flexibility as well, for instance, if you distribution comes with a music player by the default and you do not like it, you can just go on the software center and look for another one that could suit your needs better. Learning and employability: There is also the understanding that you will gain involved learning Linux. Since the most common Linux terminal commands are based of those in Unix, you could easily learn commands that will work on other platforms, such as DBS or OSX. From this you could even build a career, many employers are looking for individuals with decent skills in the Linux environment and these jobs are well paid, which is something to take in consideration with the state of our current economy. Right now, I believe that the Linux foundation is providing free online Linux courses as well that are worth hundreds of dollars for free which can give you a push into the market. Community: Moreover, the community of Linux users, although sometimes can be not so welcoming, are the most friendly folks you will ever meet and in most cases can help you with problems that you are facing. Usually, if you are facing any problem, there is about 80% chances that someone more advanced that you faced the same issue and solved it already and the answer might be somewhere online, while using Linux, google search will be your best friend, know how to use it wisely. There are other good resources such as forums, IRC chats provided by distributions, Subreddits, among other ways in which you could get help at. Knowledge is power: Knowing Linux will help you have a better understanding, not only of Linux distributions, but also other technological devices and operating system as stated before. You can take your machine and know what is going on in it, fix problems that before you though that only a technician was able to fix, make it look the way that you want it to without no boundaries, and the best thing about it, do all of this for free, no licences or paying for expensive proprietary software. At the end of this post, there will be a slideshow with many different images of different desktop environments and distributions in order for you to visually understand what I am talking about. Well, I hope that with these questions and answers you had grasped the basic understanding of what is Linux, how does it started and why you should use it. This is the first part of this basic introduction to Linux, the next part will be on picking and installing a linux distribution, In this case we will be using Ubuntu Linux as our learning environment, but after you gain some knowledge you can always switch to any other distribution of your liking, or that performs well for you. If you have any questions, suggestions, corrections, or changes to the above post, please leave it in the comments below, or contact me directly in the tab named “contact”. Thank you, please stay tuned for future posts and welcome to Linux.
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Angel MercedesElectrical Engineering student and lover of all things Open Source, 3D Printing, Electronics and Linux. Categories
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May 2017
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