From the course: Learning Linux Command Line

A very quick intro to Linux - Linux Tutorial

From the course: Learning Linux Command Line

A very quick intro to Linux

- [Man] Linux is a general purpose computer operating system originally released in 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is defined by its kernel, which is the core component of the operating system. The kernel is software which allows other software to communicate with a computer's hardware. Linux was inspired by MINIX, which in turn was inspired by Unix. And Linux is based on a philosophy that software and operating systems should be free. Both free of cost and freely changeable. The software license, which allows this in the case of the Linux kernel, is called the GNU General Public License. This emphasis on freedom, both of cost and modification, has helped Linux to become popular for many different applications and purposes. And Linux has popped up everywhere from the majority of the servers that run web services we all use, to many super computers, to many Wi-Fi routers, and other network hardware, to some car entertainment and navigation systems, some mobile phones and tablets, and all sorts of other devices. While the Linux kernel is at the heart of all installations of Linux, the software that surrounds the kernel that provides capabilities like software package management, control of services, the location of configuration files, and so on, differs between them. Many of the standard tools that we use on the Linux system come from the GNU project, and aren't actually part of Linux itself. And so taken together, the combination of the kernel and these common tools is often referred to as GNU/Linux. Different groups of software and configuration choices that are maintained by individuals or groups of people are called distributions, or distros. Most major distributions of Linux fall into a few categories based on the original distribution from which they were derived. There's Arch, Debian, Red Hat, and Slackware, and many other distributions that we might use, or we might use distributions based on, or derived from, these particular distributions. Depending on your industry, your company, your institution, or any number of other factors, you're likely to end up using the command line on a system that inherits from one of these distributions. In this course, we'll focus on Ubuntu Desktop, which is based on Debian Linux. Ubuntu Desktop is user-friendly and it includes many tools and programs that make it a good choice for learning about Linux. In your work, you may use it Ubuntu, or you may find yourself using another distro. In practice, many companies and organizations use a distribution of Linux derived from either Debain or Red Hat. Linuxmint, Ubuntu, Elementary OS, and Kali Linux are all derived from Debian. CentOS, Fedora, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux are all part of the Red Hat ecosystem. Though, as I mentioned, there are many other distributions in common use too. The history of all the different distributions of Linux is beyond the scope of this course, but you'll need to be aware of what system you're using and that you may need to adapt what you're doing to account for differences in distributions. Different distributions make different choices about some of the tools and philosophies they adopt. But as you begin working with Linux through the command line, most of what you'll do is the same across major distributions. That's because the text interface, often called the command line, is a program called a shell, and we'll be using the Bash shell, which is available almost everywhere. So what we explore in this course will apply on any Linux distro you might find yourself using in the future. As you extend your learning and explore software packages and system administration, there will be differences, but for now don't worry too much about them.

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