10 things you need to know about Linux if you are coming from windows

Posted February 19th, 2009 by kaikokan

What you need to know about Linux if your coming from windows:

1. There is no registry in Linux

In windows there is the registry, the registry is a database which keeps all your settings. If you want to change anything not in a menu (or in a menu) you need to use the regedit program. Or a script.
In Linux there is no such thing as a registry.

2. In Linux everything is a file

All configurations are in text files, and everything in Linux is treated as a file. This is a much simpler approach which makes it very easy to change things in Linux. In Linux even your filesystem itself can be viewed as a file.

3 In Linux there's no such thing as drive letters

In Linux all your "drives" are on the same tree, this means that instead of navigating to a drive letter you always navigate to a subdirectory.

4. You should see the command line as the registry editor

If you perceive the command line stuff in Linux as a difficult thing to cope with, remember the following.\
The command line makes it possible to do everything (and a whole lot more) you would need to use regedit for in windows. The usual things are possible in the GUI, tweaking has to be done on the command line.
But you don't have to use the command line to change your garbage bin icon. You need regedit to do such a thing in windows. Think that's easy?

5. If you are used to windows command line, there are some differences

the slash is the other way:
/ instead of \ (it's closer to your fingers while typing)
cd works
dir = ls (remember ls as list)
copy = cp
rename = mv (mv is actually moving, but you can move a file to another name)

6. Get used to tab completion

On the command line use the tab, tab is auto completion if you type the first few letters of a command and then tab it will try to fill in the rest. This works equally well with filenames. Try playing with it.

7. man is for manual

If you need to know how to use a command, type man [commandname] on the command line.
Try man man to get the man(ual) of how you can use man.

8. Find yourself a package manager

Package managers are programs which install software, almost every software you use in windows is available in Linux for free, with a package manager you can list and search trough available sofware and install problem free. If your not used to Linux and coming from windows, package managers are your life saver.

9. There's no such thing as .exe

In Linux there's no such thing as .exe files. If something is executable it has it's executable bit set.
You can find executables with ls -F this will show an asterisk * on every executable file.
use man ls to find more listing options.

10. execute programs in the current directory with ./programname

Starting a program which is in the current directory is done by prefixing it with a ./ so the shell will start looking in the current directory.

that's not quite true

Anonymous 2 years 49 weeks 6 days 23 hours ago

point:

2. yes, but ...
4. registry editor ++, if you had su
9. ever heard of mono, beagle.exe anyone ?

1 and 3 need comment. 1. A

Anonymous 2 years 49 weeks 6 days 23 hours ago

1 and 3 need comment.

1. A single source registry to handle settings, so that you can ... Oops, here is where MS fracked up. You can't a) change it directly, b) change it safely, c) back up application data, without backing up the entire thing, at least not at all easily, d) things like program locations and directories get placed in the same areas as the data you might want to "actually" keep, so even if you do back them up, it will back up things that don't work on a new install.

The idea could have been a god send. Instead it became a monolithic idiocy, which kept people from "finding" settings to change them, let alone allowing them to, where everything used UUIDs that are even more confusing than the Linux file directory structure, and nothing could be backed up feasibly, unless the program doing the backup had a "clear" idea where the data for "that" application was in the registry. And, that is presuming the whole thing doesn't just get corrupted, fracking the whole system up in the process.

I wouldn't mind a registry, done right, or even designed to "link" the existing configurations files for application into the tree, so that when you got to edit settings in Gimp, you just look for Gimp, and it opens "that" file. Mind, those would need to be added manually, until such a time as applications started automatically telling the registry to "add" their setting files. Making it a monolithic DB was stupid, the system of tying all the bits together even stupider, etc. Decent idea, bad design, horrifying execution.

3. There are some advantages to having "storage devices" treated as "distinct" entities, with unique properties, which are easy to find (i.e. aggregated to a single point), and where you can tell immediately what you are looking at. This isn't always the case with Linux, its not always clear "if" something is properly mounted, or just shows up in the list as a "potential" connection to such a device, etc. Ironically, drive letters, or a sort, do make their way back into the GUI, in some cases. Its simple, clean, unambiguous as to what you are looking at, and where, and you know instantly that you are looking at the "top level" in a partition, without having to worry about what "kind" of partition it is. But, its solvable without having to resort to a FAT/NTFS style OS. Just.. annoying when trying to work it out in the command line, which doesn't care about any of the "niceties" of making things less obscure. lol

Registry is just bad...bad...bad...

Anonymous 2 years 49 weeks 6 days 4 hours ago

The registry could have been a good idea, but it went horribly bad. First, it's a very simple database that simply corrupts too easily. Second, it's entries are just too cryptic to find and change for the unenlightened. You can decipher a Linux .rc file fairly easily. It's almost written in plain English! The registry entries simply make no sense. Third, it's poorly organized. Fourth, making changes within the registry can lock your computer up completely. This is flat out scary!!! On the other hand, you might screw up an .rc file in Linux, but you can get root access and delete the file in your user account and it'll get rebuilt for you the next time the application fires up and it'll return to default settings. It's almost like self-healing applications... Lastly, the registry can be a place for horrible nasties such as malware and worms to do extensive damage. It's like one-stop shopping for them!

Installing Software

Anonymous 2 years 50 weeks 10 min 13 sec ago

You touched on this in point 8, the big thing I have found with new Linux users is that they still think like a Windows person. When they want a program for a task they use Google and find the projects home page and hit download for an installer. You have to drum into them that this is generally the wrong approach and that the first place you look is in Synapatic or Add/Remove programs for the version specifically tailored for your system. It is a different mind set and once you are used to it you realise that it is vastly superior, as all updates then come through one place and there is no malware.

Get all your software from your Linux distributor

Anonymous 2 years 50 weeks 2 hours 15 min ago

Arguably, the most significant advantage of Linux
for the casual user
is that all the software you ever need is available
from a single supplier -- at the click of a mouse.
Windows users are expected to be their own
system's integrator, Linux users have
the option of leaving this to the distros' experts.
Most Linux users, indeed most computer users,
wind up subtly breaking things when they install
software obtained from hither and yon.
Things work for a while, then the system
turns to muck; the curse of the Microsoft
Windows user.

Unless you understand the consequences:

o Do not install software drivers from the
hardware manufacturer's web site.
o Do not install programs directly
the program vendor's web site.
(Yes, this means don't get flash
from the Adobe web site.)

o Do rely on your Linux supplier to
supply you with the above.

On a related note, there are further
do's and dont's when it comes to support:

o Do not take advice from random
web sites, forums and the like.

o Do get help from your Linux distributor
and it's community.
o Do get help directly from a program's
author and the the project's community.

o Do go to http://www.linuxfoundation.org/en/OpenPrinting
for help selecting and operating
printers, or buy a printer that supports
either postscript or pcl.
o Do go to http://www.sane-project.org/ for help
selecting supported scanners (and
certain video cameras)
o Do go to http://gphoto.org/ for help selecting
supported cameras.

Appended is my standard rant regarding
installing 3rd party software.

-----------------------------

What I am saying is that every time you install 3rd party software on
Linux you're relying on that 3rd party to make sure that it works well
with everything supplied by your Linux distributor. And works well
with every other bit 3rd party software installed as well.

The deeper into the operating system the 3rd party software inserts
itself, the harder is is to be certain it's going to work with
_everything_ else installed on the system. Which is why MS Windows has
such a problem with drivers breaking other things. Unix-like systems
have less of a problem in that regard, but the issue still exists.
(Apple mitigates the problem by strictly limiting the available
hardware.)

Although MS Windows users rely on 3rd parties all the time and things
usually work, they have no choice but to do so. The problems of 3rd
party software are not obvious to the MS Windows user and most people
have no reason to think about the question.

First, many suggest that to install software on Ubuntu just 'download
(from some random place) a .deb file', the kind of program package
that Ubuntu uses, and install it. The problem is that unless the .deb
package was created specifically for Ubuntu there may be subtle
differences that cause problems. Usually not, at least not in the case
of Ubuntu, but what normal user is going to be able to track down such
a problem, or even recognize that it exists? The MS Windows analogy
would be programs that only work with specific service packs. Who
wants to mess with that stuff?

Second, and any computer user will recognize this situation, once you
start installing 3rd party software nobody knows who to point the
finger at when something breaks. If you stick with, e.g., "pure
Ubuntu" you can go to Ubuntu, the community or paid support, and there
can be no finger pointing.

Then there's the issue of upgrading the operating system. MS Windows
users only have to think about this once every
how-long-it-takes-to-release-Vista, but then see all the headaches
involved in having old 3rd party software and a new operating system.
Linux users automatically upgrade all their applications when they
upgrade their operating system. But 3rd party applications can't
automatically upgrade and are left laying about causing trouble. Best
case they simply don't work.

In the worse case installing 3rd party software can break your
operating system upgrade entirely. The author of the article will
probably experience problems, and blame it on Linux.

Consider what happens when you install, say, the nvidia 3rd party
video driver yourself. It may not, and probably won't, work when you
upgrade the operating system. Then you are left, if you're lucky, with
no graphics and just a textual old-style terminal. It's possible,
although not likely, that a security update would change the system
enough to break the video driver you installed. I want my computer to
be there when I need it and so stay away from 3rd party drivers. This
is what the saying "use binary-only drivers, hate life" is all about.

Linux users upgrade their operating system, and all their software,
often. As often as every 6 months. Linux users (should) choose their
distribution in part based on how often upgrades are available and how
long each version is supported. I prefer stability and don't want to
fuss with upgrading every 6 months, others want to be closer to the
bleeding edge. Some Linux distributions remain supported for 8 years
or more, so if you just want something that's kept secure you can
avoid the hassles of change.

3rd party software makes upgrading much more of a hassle. To be
entirely safe you either wipe the hard drive and re-install, or
un-install all the 3rd party software, upgrade, and then re-install.
Just keeping track of all the 3rd party stuff that's installed, and
how it was installed and how to remove it or replace it with newer
versions of the 3rd party software, can be quite a hassle. Not to
mention checking to be sure that you've got the version of the 3rd
party software that works with everything else on your system. This
process is no worse that what MS Windows users have to do every time
they upgrade their operating system but Linux users have the
opportunity to upgrade the operating system a lot more frequently.

Which brings us to the support you get from 3rd party software
vendors. Typically, especially when it comes to hardware drivers,
support is dropped fairly quickly. Linux users like to run recent
software on older hardware. What happens when Nvidia stops releasing
new drivers, drivers that work with the latest Linux version, for your
3 year old video card? You no longer have the option of upgrading your
entire system. For that matter when a new version of your Linux
distribution is released, you'll have to wait for new versions from
all your 3rd party software suppliers. It's rarely worth the bother.

There can be cases where 3rd party software is the right choice, but
most MS Windows users that switch to Linux are not making educated
decisions. Sure, any particular problem is unlikely, or MS Windows
would not ever work. But add up the millions of lines of code and
multiply by millions of users and every problem is sure to occur to
someone. Don't be one of the many that get bit.

One could argue that,,.

Anonymous 2 years 50 weeks 2 hours 54 min ago

a file named .exe, marked as executable in the file system IS an exe file. But that is just knitpicking.

Otherwise a very well written article and accurate.

Good work,

One could argue that,,.

Anonymous 2 years 50 weeks 3 hours 2 min ago

a file named .exe, marked as executable in the file system IS an exe file. But that is just knitpicking.

This is a great start, but

Anonymous 2 years 50 weeks 5 hours 13 min ago

This is a great start, but it is missing two things that I think are important.

1. When installing a program, either by binaries or source code, you do not have to reboot, unless it deals with the kernel directly.

2. There is no default GUI so you will have to pick a GUI that you like. Start out with a desktop environment like gnome, kde, xfce, rox, and the likes, and if you start to feel that is bloated, change the window manager. And for any windows person looking for a GUI that is like windows, IceWM (window manager) and KDE (desktop environment) are your closest in my mind.

Revise and enhance

Anonymous 2 years 50 weeks 5 hours 28 min ago

1. Linux has a scattered bunch of text and XML files for configuration. Harder to navigate but easier to fix. Gnome has a registry of sorts (see gconf-editor).
2. The difference is that in Linux hardware devices are represented by files and use the same ownership and permission system as files.
3. It's similar to the way network shares are represented by addresses in Windows.
4. You should see text editors as the registry editor
5. Linux = /, Windows = \ (remember that Windows is backwards). dir = dir (ls is also available)
6. Also available in Windows shells although cmd.exe doesn't handle file names as well.
7. info is for information
8. Package managers are like Windows Add/Remove programs except they are actually useful in finding programs to install.
9. The names of executable binary programs may end with .com or .exe but the extension doesn't matter and most Linux apps don't have one. They will only run if the file has an execute attribute set. Executable scripts like .bat and .cmd work the same way. Linux scripts may end with .sh but many don't bother with an extension. A special case is a directory which must have the executable bit set else you may not be able to navigate them.
10. In other words the current directory is not automatically part of the path.
11. Environment variables still exist. Use the set command just like in Windows. more is more but less is better. Enter "set | less" to browse the environment settings (q to quit, / to search).
12. On FAT filesystems the read-only file attribute is the opposite of the Linux write permission attribute. Compared to NTFS the Linux permissions are much simpler. Every file belongs to an owner and a group. There are three classes of permissions can be set for these - the owner (user), the group, and everyone else (other).