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OS is the interface between hardware and user All computers need an OS OSes are used to run applications and control hardware Popular OSes include Windows, Linux, Mac OSX

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Developed in 1991 by a University of Finland student Linus

Torvalds.

Basically a kernel, it was combined with the various software and compilers from GNU Project to form an OS, called GNU/Linux RedHat, Fedora, SuSE, Ubuntu, Debian are examples of Linux distros

Linus Torvaldsa

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The heart of an operating system Device drivers

Communicate with your hardware such as block devices, character devices, network devices, pseudo devices, etc.

Filesystems
Organise block devices into files and directories

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Memory management Timeslicing (multitasking) Networking stacks - especially TCP/IP Enforces security model

The GNU Project was launched in 1984 to develop a complete Unix-like operating system which is free software: the GNU system. Founded by Richard Stallman

Richard Stallman, father of the GNU Project

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Inspired by the UNIX OS, the Linux kernel was developed as a clone of UNIX GNU was started in 1984 with a mission to develop a free UNIX-like OS Linux was the best fit as the kernel for the GNU Project Linux kernel was passed onto many interested developers throughout the Internet Linux today is a result of efforts of thousands of individuals, apart from Torvalds

History

Mobile Phones
Nokia N900 (running Maemo Linux) Samsung Galaxy (running Android) Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 (runing Android) Motorola's Moto VE66 (runing MontaVista Linux)

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PDAs, and other Handhelds Netbooks and Mini-notebooks Robots Audio/Video Devices Gateways, Servers, Routers, and Networking Equipment Linux-friendly embedded single board computers

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Can be controlled through command-line (CLI) or Graphical User Interface (GUI) GUI run through Desktop Environments (DE) KDE, GNOME, Xfce, E17 are popular Desktop Environments The GUI interface is easy-to-use and much like that of Windows and Mac OSX The CLI is similar to that of UNIX/BSD

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Modern languages are cross-platform, like Python, Ruby, Perl, Java Most Linux distros support these languages and have their runtimes preinstalled GTK+ and Qt are widely used to design applications for Linux IDEs like NetBeans, Anjuta, KDevelop, MonoDevelop, Eclipse are available for Linux too

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Linux is desktop computer ready Large number of distros targeted at Desktop users are available Linux desktop distros come with many commonly used pre-installed softwares The modern Linux interface is user-friendly and makes the interaction with computer easy

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It is possible to install/run Windows software on Linux Wine helps run a wide range of Windows applications Cedega helps run huge number of Windows games flawlessly

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Linux is the most used OS on servers 5 out of 10 reliable web hosting companies use Linux Linux is the cornerstone of the LAMP server-software combination (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl/PHP/Python) which has achieved popularity among developers Out of top 500 supercomputers, Linux is deployed on 426 of them

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16.7% of smartphones worldwide use Linux as OS Linux poses a major competition to the most popular OS is this segment Symbian Nokia, Openmoko supply Linux on their select smartphones

Linux can be used on a wide range of electronic devices, like PC, PDAs, Smartphones, iPods, MP3 Players, PlayStation 2 & 3, mission critical servers and so on

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1983 (September): GNU project was announced publicly 1991 (September): first version of the Linux kernel was released to the Internet 2001 (second quarter): Linux server unit shipments at 15% annual growth rate 2004: Linux shipped on approximately 50% of the worldwide server blade units, and 20% of all rack-optimized servers 2005: Microsoft representatives accuse Brazilian college using Famelix of pirating Microsoft Windows 2007: Dell announces it will ship select models with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed 2007: Lenovo announces it will ship select models with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 pre-installed 2007: HP announces that it will begin shipping computers preinstalled with Red Hat Linux in Australia 2007: ASUS launches the linux-based ASUS Eee PC 2008: Dell announces it will begin shipping Ubuntu based computers to Canada and Latin America 2008: Dell is shipping systems with Ubuntu pre-installed in China 2008: Acer launches the linux-based Acer Aspire One

Governments of many countries around the world are shifting to Linux from Windows due to the many benefits it offer Countries like India, France, Pakistan, Czech Reppublic, Brazil, Germany, USA, Austria, Spain, China, and Peru already use Linux

The widely popular OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) Project s XO Laptop runs on Linux Universities in countries, like USA, Germany, Netherlands, Philippines, Brazil, Russia, Switzerland, India, use Linux on their workstations and servers

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No threat of viruses Linux systems are extremely stable Linux is Free Linux comes with most of the required software pre-installed Update all your software with minimum fuss Linux never gets slow Linux does not need defragmentation Linux can even run on oldest hardware Adding more software is a matter of a few clicks Most Windows-only apps have their either their native version or alternatives for Linux With Linux, you get the highest degree of possible customizability

Linux is free and always will be as compared to the very costly Windows and Mac OSX Using pirated Windows is a bad thing

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When the system has installed, why would you still need to install stuff ? Common software such as music player, web browser, video player, image editor, PDF reader, chat messenger, office apps

Just like Windows Update tool, Linux has a more better alternative to it to update all your system in a few clicks

ls (LiSt)
lists files in different colors with full formatted text

mkdir (directory name)

The mkdir (MaKeDIRectory) command will create a directory.

cd (/directory/location)
The cd (ChangeDirectory) command will change from your current directory to any directory you specify.

cp (file or directory name)

(to directory or filename) The cp (CoPy) command will copy any files you specify. The cp -r command will copy any directories you specify.

rm (file or directory name)

The rm (ReMove) command will delete any filename you specify. The rm -rf command will remove any directory you specify.

mv (file or directory name)

The mv (MoVe) command will rename/move any file or directory you specify.

locate (file or directory name)