Linux

My older brother had Linux on his laptop. I remember when I was about 14, I snuck into his room, booted up his pc and tried to go on the internet to watch anime, but everything was side-ways. I paused for a minute, trying to navigate this layout. I eventually got to animefreak.tv but this memory stuck with me. This was my first experience with linux.

Now 10 years later, as a Web Dev Student, I want to embark on the journey on learning more about Linux. Why is it so popular? Why do people like it? Let´s find out!

Basics: What is Linux?

Linux is an operating system, just like Windows or Apple's mac OS. Operating systems are collection of software that manage the different devices and applications in your computer. These bits of software take care of processes like shutting down your computer, booting it up, and giving your programs an interface to interact with devices like your keyboard and mouse.

Why do people like it?

Linux is free and extremely flexible. You can personalize it to your hearts content. You can put together a version of Linux that works for your device and is optimized for your needs. Linux is used in a lot of different types of computers. like smart refrigerators, other IoT devices, internet routers, Android smartphones, supercomputers and more.

Command Line Basics

Let's learn some basic command line or terminal commands that will allow you to start familiarizing yourself with your system. There is a program between you and the terminal called the shell. A shell is a program that interprets text commands and sends them to your operating system to execute. The most common shell program is called Bash, which comes included in most Linux installations.

pwd prints the directory you're currently in (print working directory)

cd changes the directory to your specified argument. If you provide no arguments it will by default take you to your user's directory, which you can refer to in paths with ~. . and .. represent your current and parent directories respectively and are also valid arguments.

mv moves a file or directory to your specified directory.

mkdir makes new directories where the names are your arguments. You can also make directories inside directories that don't exist yet with the -p flag.