UNIX Lesson One

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You are a complete beginner and keen to learn UNIX!

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Okay in the examples, I am going to start very basically.

From the outset, you need to understand some basic terms.

  • Firstly – what is UNIX. Unix is an operating system. Other operating systems including Windows, Apple Mac, Novell, etc. It is what turns the computer, from an over-sized paper weight – into a living, breathing machine. 🙂

  • The operating system, talks to all the hardware. Definition of hardware is that if you drop it on your foot, it hurts. 🙂 It talks to the CPU (brain chip) of the computer, the memory (RAM Chips) which is sort of like your desk space, a working area. The bigger your desk space the more you can work on at once. Why size does matter – how big is big. Well currently 256mb (256 megabyte) should be the minimum, ideally 1GB (1 gigabyte) should be plenty.

  • So how do we interface with UNIX? Through a terminal and shell generally. Yes you can use GUIs (Window) – but the real power of UNIX is in the shell.

  • What is a terminal and a shell for that matter? A terminal is just a program that runs, that allows you to connect to UNIX machines – including your own. If you have just installed your own Linux machine, or having to use one at work – you’ll generally start from a windows environment – not necessarily Microsofts either! 🙂 If your are running Linux, generally you can right click your mouse on the background of your desktop and select terminal. From MS Windows there is a terminal program you can run, or ideally look up putty SSH client at the reference tab.

  • more to follow shortly …

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[example]

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[reference]

[tags]Free Linux Lessons, Lesson One, Unix Coding School[/tags]

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