Linux For Absolute Beginners

Define operating systems as software that enables hardware use, with the kernel coordinating memory and programs; Linux is a kernel, not an OS, with various desktop interfaces.

Evaluate why to choose Linux and why not, compare Linux with Unix, Mac OS X, and Windows, and consider hardware compatibility, virtualization options, and available free open source software.

Explore linux distributions and how distros differ in core tools, package management, and installation methods, including dependencies and online help for popular distros.

Explore how open source licenses shape the Linux kernel and its programs, guided by the Free Software Foundation, GNU, and GPL versions 2 and 3.

Learn to install Ubuntu 16.04 alongside Windows via dual-boot, shrink the primary partition, set up ext4 and swap partitions, and explore live cd recovery and disk utilities.

Install a Monteux on a physical or virtual machine using VirtualBox and an ISO. Choose dynamic disk or fixed allocation, use default install options, and note LVM and encryption possibilities.

Explore Linux desktop environments, switch between options like Plasma KDE, and use panels to launch programs. Learn to open terminals, browse with Nautilus, and manage home, trash, and network folders.

Explore Linux support for web browsers such as Firefox and Chromium, including text-based links, and the LibreOffice suite with Writer, Calc, Impress, Base, Draw, and Math.

Explore linux multimedia tools like Audacity, Blender, GIMP, ImageMagick, and HandBrake, and learn server basics with apache, nginx, and software management via repositories and dpkg.

Explore basic hardware concepts for Linux. Learn how 32-bit and 64-bit CPUs differ, including x86 and x86-64, and how binary bits address memory across ARM devices.

Explore why the Linux command line empowers users, learn how to access the terminal, navigate the file system, and run programs using absolute and relative paths.

Launch programs from the command line, run them in the background with the ampersand, and manage foreground tasks with ctrl-z. Explore bash, command completion, history, and efficient shortcuts.

Learn how the man pages offer brief command references across sections for executables, files, and administration, and practice viewing commands like ls and password with specific sections.

Learn to use Linux man pages to find command details and options, searching with apropos and in-page text. Compare man pages with info pages that provide hyperlinks and hierarchical navigation.

Learn how Linux treats items as files, and distinguish system files from user files. Explore FHS concepts of shareable vs non-shareable and variable vs non-variable files, and root privileges.

Explore the Linux filesystem hierarchy standard and how root and key directories organize system and user files, including /boot, /bin, /lib, /usr, /etc, /home, /var, /tmp, /mnt, and /dev.

Master listing files with Linux's ls options like -l, -a, -F, color, and -R, and learn to create files with touch and copy files with cp using -i, -f, -a.

Master how to move and rename files with mv, including same-file system renaming and cross-device moves, and explore hard and soft links with practical examples.

Learn how to delete files in Linux using rm, with interactive prompts and force options, understand recursive deletion and wildcards (globbing), and the importance of caution with root access.

Explore advanced command line techniques in Linux for searching, extracting, altering, and archiving data, guided by regular expressions and practical grep workflows.

Master grep and regular expressions in Linux to search text with patterns, options (-c, -i, -R, -f), and practical examples on system files like /etc/passwd.

Learn how the wc command counts lines, words, and characters in plain text files, with options like -l, -c, and -w, and explore related tools cat, cut, and sort.

Explore advanced command line techniques in Linux, focusing on i/o redirection: redirecting standard input, output, and error to files or devices, combining commands with pipes, and using here documents.

connect command outputs to the inputs of other commands with pipes and redirection, filter with grep, extract fields with cut, and use xargs or command substitution to process files.

Learn how tar archives consolidate files into a single archive, create, extract, and list contents, and apply gzip, bzip2, or xz compression for efficient backups.

Understand how Linux package management handles dependencies, and compare high-level and low-level tools like apt-get, yum, rpm, and dpkg, with repository updates.

Understand that a process is an executable program instance managed by the kernel, and that systemd starts PID 1 to form a process tree and manage orphans.

Monitor and manage system resources by processes using top, free, and related commands to track cpu, memory, load average, swap, and detect memory leaks.

Learn how a process log file records events with timestamps and severity levels to help troubleshoot issues. Explore /var/log locations and real-time viewing with tail -f.