Introduction

Linux Families

Three major Linux distribution families and their Linux distros.

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

    • CentOS

    • Fedora

    • Oracle Linux

  • Debian

    • Ubuntu

    • Linux Mint

  • SUSE

    • SLES

    • OpenSUSE

Basic Terminology

  • Kernel: Glue between hardware and applications.

  • Distribution: Collection of software making up a Linux-based OS

  • Boot loader: Program that boots the operating system. Eg. GRUB and ISOLINUX

  • Service: Program that runs as a background process. Eg. httpds, nfsd, ntpd, named.

  • Filesystem: Method for storing and organizing files. Eg. ext3, ext4, FAT, XFS, NTFS, Btrfs.

  • X Window system: Standard toolkit and protocol to build GUI on Linux.

  • Desktop environment: GUI on top of the operating system. EG. GNOME, KDE, Xfce, Fluxbox

  • Command line: Interface for typing commands on top of the operating system.

  • Shell: Command line interpreter that interprets input and instructs OS to perform necessary tasks and commands. Eg. bash, tcsh, zsh

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