Linux For Beginners
Ian's Page
| This page is for people new to Linux or newbies as they are sometimes called. |
Please read this whole page through before you dive into Linux as it will help ease you into the world of Linux.
If you are a Windows user then Linux may be a bit confusing at first but remember this is only a computer with a slightly different Operating System running on it and there are similarities between the two. If you are completly new to computers you should have few problems as you are starting with a clean sheet.
Two areas that Windows and Linux have in common are the Graphical User Interface (GUI) and the command line.
The Graphical User Interface is the screen with pictures and stuff that you see when Windows and Linux first start up, the command line is either a black screen with a little thing blinking at you or a little window that you can open in the main Graphical screen.
To navigate around the Graphical screen you will mainly use the ‘mouse’ , thats the little thing with a couple of buttons on top that fits in your hand. You use the mouse to move the ‘cursor’, usually an arrow that appears on the screen, and use the buttons to click on things such as ‘icons’, those little picture things, or files which usually have icons associated with them as well.
The command line is different in that the mouse is rarely if ever used, navigation being done by means of the arrow keys on the right off center of the keyboard, thats the big thing in front of you with the alphabet scrambled up on it, and the tab and shift keys, they usually have this written on them.
People familiar with DOS (Disk Operating System) will know what the command line is; it is the flashing thing on your black screen from where you can type in stuff and have stuff happen. The command line is a very powerful tool in Linux. It is called the command line as the stuff you type are commands that tell the computer what you want it to do.
To save people having to learn a whole lot of commands to type in, the Graphical Interface was developed to take the strain out of using a computer. Now, instead of having to spend time telling the computer what you want it to do, a mere click with the mouse sets in train a whole heap of commands and you don’t even have to know what is happening.
The Graphical Interface in Linux is determined by what is known as a window manager. This has nothing to do with Microsoft Windows, the window manager controls what you see on the screen and Linux has several window managers which have slight differences in appearance and the way they do things but are all accessed through the mouse and keyboard.
The non graphical screen is known as a terminal and when you open a terminal in a graphical environment you are opening a window which emulates a terminal into which commands can be typed and executed.
This business of typing commands at the command line can be all written down and saved in a file which can become a program which will run in Linux in your computer. This is one of the main things with Linux, everything is a treated as a file and the files can be edited to make changes to the way these programs run and what they do.
A comparison with a commercial program that runs in Windows for instance shows that you cannot edit these programs so if there is a flaw in the program you have to go back to the company and ask them to fix it, which they may charge you for so doing. In Linux even if you don’t know how to write or edit programs there are other people who can and are willing to help, mostly for little or no charge.
Not everyone who uses Windows is familiar with DOS which is the Microsoft equivalent of the command line in Linux so they don’t worry about it, the same applies in Linux, with a Graphical Interface you need not worry about the command line but, with the freedom and options it gives you, it is worth exploring if you want to do more than just point and click.
For people who just want to use an operating system Linux provides a host of tools that can be used from just a window and the amount of learning required is no greater than if you were using any other graphical based operating system. It is just a case of having some patience until you master the skills required to manipulate things in a graphical environment, which does not take that long.
If you want to get on with using Linux and wish to use Puppy read the “ Puppy for Beginners “ page which will help you to get started
If you wish to learn more about Linux and gain some skills in using it, click on the links below.
Beginners
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