In this article I will cover some general technical concepts that relate to Linux. You will need this information to understand and perform an installation, which I will cover in the next article. This article covers some of the major terms used in Linux, as well as the fundamentals of how the system operates. Finally I discuss partitioning and formatting of file systems.
Linux is a different than Windows, and therefore a lot of the terminology changes as well. Listed below are some terms that you must know to effectively learn Linux, along with a general definition of each.
Unix: Refers to a classification of operating system, not a specific version or vendor’s operating system. Sun Solaris, SCO Unix, FreeBSD, and Linux are all types of Unix.
Linux: A specific implementation of Unix, written using open source code and protected under the GPL.
Distribution: A specific vendors implementation of Linux. Consists of the core Linux kernel and a collection of utilities and applications provided by the vendor. Many distributions also contain an implementation of XWindows.
XWindows: The common name for XFree86.
XFree86: A series of programming models and libraries that are used to provide a GUI desktop that runs on Linux. Gnome and KDE are all built on the XFree86 model. A desktop consists of two things – the window manager which provides for the operation of the GUI, and the desktop environment, which is a collection of GUI based tools and provides a look and feel. Gnome and several others use SawFish as the Window manager, KDE provides it’s own, called KWM.
Kernel: The core of Linux. The Kernel controls access to the processor and controls the execution of processes on the computer. The kernel is a single file, usually stored in the /boot folder and can be upgraded independently of the Operating System. All distributions of Linux use the same Kernel.
Root: The “super-user” account. All Linux systems have a root user account that has unlimited access to the systems resources. It can also refer to the root of the file system, denoted by “/”.
Daemon: A service that runs on a Unix computer. Daemons typically listen to a TCP/IP port for network requests and then respond. Servers are collections of daemons. Some examples of daemons include named (Name Daemon or DNS), telnetd (Telnet Daemon), inetd (Internet Daemon), and httpd (Web Server Daemon).
Process: An instance of an application that runs on a Unix computer. A server that provides HTTP services and Telnet services has a process for both httpd and telnetd.
Shell: A command interpreter, commonly accessible through a text terminal (command prompt). Different shells have different capabilities and limitations. Some examples include the Bourne Shell (sh), the Bourne Again Shell (bash), the Korn Shell (ksh) and the C Shell (tcsh). Most Linux distributions install multiple shells, with bash being the shell activated by default. You can activate another shell by typing it’s name, assuming it’s installed.
Shell Script: A series of shell commands saved in a file. Similar to a Batch file in DOS, but with more functionality. Commands available in Shell Scripts are dependant on the shell they are written in. The C Shell allows C language code to be written in Shell Scripts, while bash is limited to basic conditional logic and file manipulation. Many of the core functions on a Linux system are nothing more than complex shell scripts.
Open Source: Applications that are open source make the source code freely available for modification and redistribution by anyone. Open source code is protected by the GPL.
GPL: General Protection License – mandates that open source code may be freely modified and redistributed provided that all modifications to code are distributed as well. This means that if an organization used open source code in an application, although they many resell the application for profit, they must also provide the source code of the application at no charge.