Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
THE MAJORITY OF
modern Linux distributions are user-friendly, with a
graphical user
interface (GUI)
that provides an easy way to perform common tasks. It is, however, quite dif-
ferent to both Windows and OS X, so if you're going to get the most out of your Raspberry Pi,
you'll need a quick primer in using the operating system.
Linux: An Overview
As briely explained in Chapter 1, “Meet the Raspberry Pi”, Linux is an open-source project which
was originally founded to produce a
kernel
that would be free for anyone to use. he kernel is the
heart of an operating system, and handles the communication between the user and the hardware.
Although only the kernel itself is rightly called Linux, the term is often used to refer to a col-
lection of diferent open-source projects from a variety of companies. hese collections come
together to form diferent
lavours
of Linux, known as
distributions
.
he original version of Linux was combined with a collection of tools created by a group called
GNU. he resulting system, known as
GNU/Linux
, was basic but powerful. Unlike other operating
systems of the era, it ofered facilities like multiple user accounts where several users can share a
single computer. hat's something rival closed-source operating systems have taken on board,
with both Windows and OS X now supporting multiple user accounts on the same system. It's
also still present in Linux, and provides security and protection for the operating system.
In Linux, you'll spend most of your time running a
restricted
user account. his doesn't mean
you're being limited in what you can do. Instead, it prevents you from accidentally doing some-
thing that will break the software on your Raspberry Pi. It also prevents
viruses
and other
mal-
ware
from infecting the system by locking down access to critical system iles and directories.
Before you can get started, it's worth becoming familiar with some of the terms and concepts
used in the world of Linux, as deined in Table 2-1. Even if you're experienced with other oper-
ating systems, it's a good idea to review this table before booting up your Pi for the irst time.
The Terminal and the GUI
As in OS X and Windows, there are typically two main ways to achieve a given goal in Linux:
through the graphical user interface (GUI) and through the command line (known in Linux
parlance as the
console
or the
terminal
).
The appearance of various Linux distributions can be quite different, depending on the desk-
top environment in use. In this topic, the recommended Debian distribution is used, but
most of the commands you will be learning are entered at the
terminal
and are typically the
same across all distributions.
Where other distributions differ, you will be given alternative methods of achieving the same goals.
