Master Linux Basics: Choosing Distributions, Understanding Architecture & Filesystems
This article provides a comprehensive overview of Linux fundamentals, covering distribution choices, kernel architecture, core components, filesystem types, standard directory hierarchy, shell usage, and common applications for both server and desktop environments.
System Selection
Linux distributions fall into two categories: commercial (e.g., Red Hat, Fedora, CentOS) and community‑maintained (e.g., Debian, Ubuntu). The Red Hat family includes RHEL, Fedora, and the free community clone CentOS. Ubuntu, built on Debian, combines Debian’s strengths with its own enhancements and is popular for desktop use.
If you need a stable server OS, CentOS is a good choice; for cloud environments Ubuntu is often preferred, and Hadoop was originally developed on Ubuntu.
Architecture
Linux consists of kernel and user space. The kernel includes memory management, process management, device drivers, filesystem, and network management.
Linux Kernel
Understanding the kernel helps with resource utilization and system tuning.
Linux divides memory into pages (e.g., 4 KB) and uses mechanisms such as the slab allocator. Processes are scheduled entities; inter‑process communication includes signals, pipes, shared memory, semaphores, and sockets. The kernel provides APIs like fork, exec, kill, and exit.
The filesystem is a hierarchical tree that unifies multiple physical filesystems under a virtual filesystem layer. Device drivers expose hardware through abstract interfaces.
Linux Filesystems
Linux supports many filesystems; EXT4 is commonly recommended.
File types include regular files (text or binary), directories, links, device files (block or character), pipes, and sockets.
Standard Directory Layout
/bin : binary executable commands
/dev : device special files
/etc : system configuration files
/etc/rc.d : startup scripts and configuration
/home : user home directories
/lib : standard libraries
/sbin : system administration commands
/tmp : temporary files
/root : root user’s home directory
/mnt : mount point for temporary filesystems
/lost+found : recovered files after improper shutdown
/proc : virtual filesystem exposing kernel and process information
/var : variable data such as logs
/usr : large hierarchy containing applications, libraries, documentation, source code, etc.
Shell and Commands
The shell is the user interface to the kernel; Bash (GNU Bourne Again Shell) is the default on most distributions. Linux commands can be grouped; an illustrative image is shown.
Shell scripting combines commands to automate tasks. Common scripting languages on Linux include Bash, Perl, and Python, with Python often recommended.
Linux Applications
Typical Linux installations include text editors (Emacs, Vim), programming languages, X Window system, internet tools, and databases. Vim is especially valuable for developers; a cheat‑sheet image is provided.
Package management differs: Ubuntu uses apt, CentOS uses yum. Building from source requires familiarity with configure, make, and Makefiles.
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