Linux

Operating System (OS)

• Software program which enables the computer hardware to
communicate and operate with the computer software. Eg. Windows,
Linux and MacOS
Introduction to Linux
• OS like Windows
• Not same as Unix
• Belongs to the family of open source Unix like OS
• Derived from Unix and continuation of the basis of Unix design
• Unix clone developed from scratch by Linus Torvalds
• Linux kernel released in September 1991
• Free and open source
Introduction to Linux
• Multi-user (More than one user can access the machine)
• Multi-tasking (More than one program can run at a time)
• Multi-processor (Capable of supporting and using more than one
processor at the same time)
• Multi-threading (Different parts of a s/w program can run
concurrently)
• Coexists with other OS
• Different Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, Linux
Mint etc.
Significance
• Powerful
Runs on multiple hardware platforms
Users like its speed and stability
No requirement for latest hardware
• Free and open source
Licenced under GPL (freedom to run, study, share and modify)
Linux vs Windows
Sr. Linux Windows
No.
1 Open source and free to use Neither open source nor free
2 More efficient in operations than Windows Less efficient as compared to Linux
3 Highly secure Less secure than Linux
4 Runs faster than windows latest editions Slow on older hardware
5 More reliable than windows Sometimes need more time to kill a hanged application
6 Utilized by corporate organizations as servers and operating Mostly utilized by gamers or business users
system for security purpose by Facebook, Google, Twitter etc.
7 Has diverse distributions which are highly customizable Very few customization options available
8 Command line is highly useful tool for administration and daily Command line is not utilized as frequently as in Linux
tasks
9 Complicated installation process but has the ability to complete Provides user’s a simple system to operate but takes longer time to
complex tasks easily install
10 users have full control of updates and they can be installed updates come at inconvenient times which makes users frustrate and
easily whenever required and it takes less time without any take more time to install
reboot
Installation
• Download and install Oracle Virtual Box: https://
www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
• Under “VirtualBox 6.1.12 platform packages”, click on hosts as per
your OS eg. For windows, click on “Windows hosts”.
• Download Ubuntu: https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop
• After installing Virtual Box, follow below link to install Ubuntu in it
https://itsfoss.com/install-linux-in-virtualbox/
Linux Shell
• A shell is a program that receives commands from the user and gives
it to the OS to process, and it shows the output.
• Linux's shell is its main part.
• Its distros come in GUI (graphical user interface), but basically, Linux
has a CLI (command line interface).
Shells
• Various shells are Bourne shell (sh), Bourne Again Shell (bash), Korn
Shell (ksh), C Shell (csh) etc.
• Command to see the valid shells: cat/etc/shells
• Command to see the current shell: echo $0
• To find the by default shell for the current user: echo $SHELL
Basic Linux shell commands
• pwd: When you first open the terminal, you are in the home directory
of your user. To know which directory you are in, you can use the
“pwd” command. It gives us the absolute path, which means the path
that starts from the root. The root is the base of the Linux file system.
It is denoted by a forward slash( / ). The user directory is usually
something like "/home/username".
Basic Linux shell commands
• ls: Use the "ls" command to know which files are present in the
directory you are in. You can see all the hidden files by using the
command “ls -a”.
Basic Linux shell commands
• cd: Use the "cd" command to go to a directory. For example, if you are in
the home folder, and you want to go to the downloads folder, then you can
type in “cd Downloads”. Remember, this command is case sensitive, and
you have to type in the name of the folder exactly as it is. But there is a
problem with these commands. Imagine you have a folder named
“Raspberry Pi”. In this case, when you type in “cd Raspberry Pi”, the shell
will take the second argument of the command as a different one, so you
will get an error saying that the directory does not exist. Here, you can use a
backward slash. That is, you can use “cd Raspberry\ Pi” in this case. Spaces
are denoted like this: If you just type “cd” and press enter, it takes you to the
home directory. To go back from a folder to the folder before that, you can
type “cd ..” . The two dots represent back.
Commands
• du (Disk Usage): is a Unix computer program to display the amount of
disk space used under a particular directory or files on a file system.
du counts the disk space by walking the directory tree.