Linux Explained

Articles in 'Linux Explained'

Oops, I think I've wrote a book

Lastly, this blog has been filled by a series of articles named Linux Explained. Since a long time, I’ve wanted to share some knowledge about Linux and try to explain it to people in simple and accessible terms. But, the more the articles were spawning, the more an idea was germinating in my head … Why not compiling these articles into a book ? In the 8th part of the Linux Explained series, I’ve said I could have talked about several more topic regarding Linux and I’ve had an idea regarding this.

March 8, 2023 - 2 minutes read time

Linux Explained part 8 : Remote access with SSH

For the last entry of the Linux Explained series, we will explore the remote access and administration of a Linux machine using SSH. From RSH to SSH The Remote Shell, or rsh, is a command line computer program created in 1983 as a part of the Berkeley “r-commands” - r for remote -, released for the first time in 1981, made to enable the users of an Unix computer to connect to another one using the network.

March 7, 2023 - 18 minutes read time

Linux Explained part 7 : The memory management

For this next entry in the Linux Explained series, we’re going to explore one of the Linux Kernel crucial functionality, the memory management. What is the memory for an operating system The memory management is a critical aspect of an operating system. It’s goal is to provide a dynamic way to allocate the portions of the system’s memory when a process request it and free it when its task is over and reuse it for new tasks.

March 2, 2023 - 13 minutes read time

Linux Explained part 6 : The Standard Streams

Now we have seen plenty of basis about Linux, let’s dig into some nice other features. This one will be about the Shell Streams, or Standard Streams, the basic input and output channels you may interact with. What are the Standard Streams On a Linux text-based shell (and on other systems too), you have the notion of Standard Streams. In the shell, you can interact with commands, files and manipulate them through the Standard Streams.

February 23, 2023 - 19 minutes read time

Linux Explained part 5 : The users management

For the fifth entry of the Linux Explained series, we will now see how does Linux manage the users. What is a user and group for Linux ? If you remember the Unix history in the first chapter, one detail about the Multics, then Unix conception was to be multi-users. A multi-user software is a program able to give access to the computing resources by multiple users of the machine. Nowadays it must seems to be pretty obvious, but in the dark ages of computing, the ability for a computer to executes several processes simultaneously was limited.

February 18, 2023 - 16 minutes read time

Linux Explained part 4 : The files permissions

In this fourth entry of our Linux Explained series, following the filesystems definition, we will now see how Linux manages the access to the files and folders. The file permissions Now we have seen how do Linux organizes its filesystem, let’s see how it manages the permissions of the files and folders. It won’t be a surprise, Linux’s file permissions are also inherited from Unix. The file permissions are one of the core features of Linux’s security model : determine who can access to what and what they can do on it.

February 13, 2023 - 13 minutes read time

Linux Explained part 3 : The Filesystems

In this third entry of our Linux Explained series, we’re going to see at a deeper level the filesystem management that have been mentioned previously. The first part will be a general description of what is a filesystem. Then, we will see describe how Linux organizes and uses its filesystem. What is a filesystem ? A filesystem, or FS, is the method an operating system uses to structure the data on a storage device (hard drive, SSD, USB flash stick, whatever).

February 12, 2023 - 12 minutes read time

Linux explained part 2 : Bootloader, Init and Shell

Second entry in our Linux Explained series, let’s talk about three common concepts composing a Linux Distribution : the Bootloader, the Init Process, and the Shell. In a simple words (I hope), we will see what are these three concepts and how do they work together in a Linux distribution. The bootloader The bootloader is a software that is responsible for booting the operating system of a computer. Booting the computer is the moment when you push the “Power On” button and have the hardware powered and initializing.

February 7, 2023 - 13 minutes read time

Linux explained part 1 : History and basic concepts

On this blog, I’ve wrote some articles about Linux. But maybe you’re not entirely familiar with the lowest layers of the Linux distributions. I’ll propose you a little series of articles about Linux, its history, what is the Linux Kernel, the concept of Linux distribution, what are the filesystem permissions, etc. This first article will cover the general informations about Linux : what is it, its history, and what is a Linux Distribution.

February 4, 2023 - 8 minutes read time