Linux

If you have not used Linux, getting started takes a little extra work — but there is plenty of help online and most things are easier than they look. Linux is free and open source, needs fewer resources than Windows, and can breathe life into an old PC.

Linux ships many distributions differing in look and installed software (called packages). Package management differs per distro — RPM (Red Hat Package Manager) and DPKG (Debian) are the two main families. The course uses Debian-based Linux (Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Debian, REMnux).

The terminal — the Command Line Interface (CLI) — is where Linux shows its power, and for many it is a learning curve: new commands, flags and ways of working in a text box.

lablo@linuxserver$ sudo apt-get update