Printing and PDF export are disabled for this content. View it online at Full Stack Learning Simplified.

Linux Introduction

Linux is the open-source operating system that runs most of the world's servers, containers, and cloud infrastructure. Being comfortable on its command line is essential for backend and DevOps work — it's where you deploy, debug, and operate.

Distributions

There are many distributions (“distros”) that share the same Linux kernel but package it differently — with their own installers, package managers, and defaults.

Distro family	Examples	Package manager
Debian	Debian, Ubuntu	`apt`
Red Hat	Fedora, RHEL, Rocky	`dnf`/`yum`
Alpine	Alpine (tiny, common in containers)	`apk`

Note: Ubuntu is the most common for servers and learning; Alpine shows up constantly in Docker images because it's tiny. The commands in this course work across all of them.

The shell

You interact with the system through a shell — a program that reads your typed commands and runs them. The default on most systems is Bash; macOS and some distros default to Zsh (very similar for everyday use).

Two guiding ideas

Everything is a file — documents, devices, even processes are represented as files you can read/write.
Small tools, composed — each command does one thing well; you pipe them together for power (the Unix philosophy).

Tip: You don't need to memorize everything — learn the everyday commands well (navigation, viewing files, permissions, grep, pipes) and know how to get help (man, --help). That core covers the vast majority of real server and container work, which is exactly what this course focuses on.

Free preview. Sign in and subscribe to unlock all 809 lessons across 25 courses.