Chapters 6 and 7 of the Linux Foundation LFS101 course cover System Configuration from the Graphical Interface and Common Applications. On the surface, these sound like the "not-so-technical" chapters, the ones you skim to get to the real stuff.
But I actually found them more useful than I expected. Here's why.
Chapter 6: System Configuration from the Graphical Interface
After all the kernel talk and boot process deep-dives from previous entries, this one felt like a breather. It's about what you can configure directly through the Ubuntu desktop, no terminal required.
Display, Date & Time Settings are all inside GNOME's Settings panel, just like you'd expect. But one thing that caught my attention was the NTP (Network Time Protocol) option for syncing time automatically. In DevOps, this actually matters. If multiple servers disagree on the time, your logs won't line up and debugging becomes a nightmare. So even "setting the clock" has a real professional reason behind it.
Network Manager is what Linux uses to handle all your connections: WiFi, ethernet, VPNs. The GUI version lives in your top-right taskbar and does a lot of the heavy lifting automatically. The insight the course gives though is that everything you configure through that GUI maps to a config file underneath. The GUI is the training wheels. Knowing what's behind it is what matters for DevOps.
Installing and Updating Software the course clears up a distinction I was fuzzy on:
sudo apt update # refreshes your list of available packages (installs nothing)
sudo apt upgrade # actually downloads and installs newer versions
Always run update before upgrade. Now I properly understand why. ✅
Chapter 7: Common Applications
This chapter is a guided tour of the Linux app ecosystem. The apps work great, they just have different names to what you're used to.
Internet & Communication
| Need | Linux App |
|---|---|
| Web browser | Firefox, Chromium |
| Thunderbird, Evolution | |
| File transfer | FileZilla |
| Messaging / VoIP | Pidgin, Ekiga |
Nothing groundbreaking, but good to know your way around.
Productivity & Dev Tools
LibreOffice is the open-source Microsoft Office. Writer, Calc, and Impress cover Word, Excel, and PowerPoint respectively. It even reads .docx and .xlsx files. Won't need it much for DevOps, but it's there.
On the dev side, Linux is properly in its element: gcc for compiling, gdb for debugging, Eclipse or VS Code as an IDE, and of course git for version control, which was also created by Linus Torvalds. The man really said "I'll just build Linux AND the version control system while I'm at it." 😂
Multimedia & Graphics
VLC needs no introduction, it plays everything, everywhere, always. Audacity covers audio editing, Kdenlive handles video editing, and GIMP is the open-source Photoshop alternative that's been around since 1996. Inkscape handles vector graphics too (think open-source Illustrator).
The full ecosystem laid out like this is honestly impressive. There's a free, open-source alternative for basically everything.
The One Big Takeaway
Linux is a complete operating system, not just a terminal with some files floating around it.
Everything in the GUI maps directly to a config file or CLI command underneath. Using the desktop to set things up is fine. Knowing what's happening underneath is what separates someone who uses Linux from someone who understands it.
That's the gear I'm trying to shift into. Slowly but surely.(Just like the way penguins walk)
P.S. I've updated Flashy with a new deck for both chapters, go test yourself if you've been following along!
What's Next?
Command Line Operations we're leaving the desktop behind and going full terminal. Nervous and excited in equal measure. See you in the next one!
Top comments (2)
Actually when it comes to some "productivity" tools or so for like planning or anything like that I use Obsidian. I'm not a big fan of Libre Office, the font changing is madness.
That’s interesting, I haven’t explored them in much detail yet but I’m sure with time I would settle on which one to use :)