Just Serch Google after Linux Live CD
Files and folders
If you use Windows you should know that the Linux user can not drive letters (eg C:). Everything is under the "root" (presented as /). Under the root it may be called the mounting points that point to another medium or partition. For example, you can find the CD drive under / media / cd-rom, and maybe a separate disk that is mounted as / home (home directories, equivalent to C: \ Documents and Settings \ on Windows).
Otherwise the files and folders mainly is the same way on Linux as on Windows. Linux has no registry as Windows have, but all of the settings are in the files. Easily. One thing that is worth to bite mark in is that the files and folders are case-sensitive. " That is, if you type "MyFile" or "myfile" is not the same.
Rights of the files is also easier in Linux. A file can be readable, writable and executable. Hiding files and folders do to give them names that start with ".".
As you may already have noticed using Linux "/" and not "\" to separate folders. This is not that Linux goes against the standard. On the contrary, Unix-variants used this long before Windows was intended.
At the root directory you will find some folders that can be handy to know. Here is a list of what they called and what they contain:
• / sbin - binaries (executable programs) that are essential to get the system to run
• / bin - binaries (executable programs) as both administrator and normal users access to run.
• / boot - Contains files that are important for the start up of the system, including linux kernel.
• / dev - Even with disks, partitions, sound cards, media and other devices are represented by files in Linux. Under / dev you will find them all. Drives are usually represented as / dev / hda, / dev / hdb, / dev / hdc and so on (or / dev / sda, / dev / sdb, / dev / sdc), CD-ROM as / dev / cdrom and sound card as / dev / dsp. Drives and media that are represented here must first be fitted up for that one should be able to see files in there (see / media and / mnt below)
• / etc - Configuration files for the system. This corresponds to about the registry in Windows.
• / home - Home Areas (similar to C: \ Documents and Settings \ on Windows). Here you will find a folder for each user on the system.
• / lib - Shared libraries (similar to DLL and OCX files in Windows).
• / lost + found - If the system the unlikely event snout there will be initiating a filecheck during startup. Corrupt files that are found will be restored to this area.
• / mnt (and / media) - Here is mounted file systems. There is no limit to where you can mount the file systems on Linux, but you should for the sake of clarity use this folder. On some distributions are also used / media mount point. When primarily for removable media like CD-ROM, DVD or floppy disks.
• / opt - Here you will find programs that are not included as standard. Sometimes also used / usr to this.
• / proc - system and applications status at any time is here.
• / root - This is the root (administrator user) their home area.
• / tmp - Temporary files.
• / usr - applications for users. / usr / doc contains documentation for the system and / usr / source / linux contains the source code (see below) to the linux kernel.
• / var - files that change frequently are often located here, such as email, logs and files that are sent to the printer.
Actually you will not have to go around to remember all these. A minimum is that you know of / home, where to store your files.
Users and Groups
Users and groups works much like as Windows. You can not do anything unless you are a member of any groups. For example, you must be a member of the group cdrom to access the cd / dvd player on your computer. There is only one user who has full rights to everything, and it's root.
If you are a member of the admin group you can still perform typical root-tasks by "temporarily become root". In Ubuntu this is usually automatic when you are prompted for your password again those times when you will conduct a root-task. If you use the console use the command sudo (superuser do) to temporarily become root.
Applications
One thing you must realize at once. Linux distributions are based on free software and most of the software you find will also be there. Examples of free software, Firefox, OpenOffice.org and Gimp. If you have not been so much away for free software you will need to put yourself in the names of the programs and what they used to. The best is perhaps to look at a list of Windows programs and similar programs on Linux.
Ubuntu (if we stick to it) contains a ton of software as standard. It is generally a minimum of software you will need to install after, because what you need is already there.
Many have an idea that it is so incredibly complicated to install applications on Linux. It is completely wrong! Mostly you can install applications and libraries using ready-made software packages. These software packages are often located on a mirror package (a collection of software packages for a distribution). True an interface (Synaptic in Ubuntu) can you just go in and tick the applications you want to install. If a software package depends on that you have a couple of libraries installed, you do not need to think about it once, for this install it automatically. Dependency between packages namely handled automatically. The upgrade of all applications and operating system is done via the same interface.
Can not find the program you want to install here, you can often download an application package from a website. These are not the MSI package, EXE files or CAB packages that we have in Windows, but often have file extensions. Deb. For SUSE and RedHat used a different type of software packages with extensions. Rpm. These can be downloaded to run as you would on Windows.
Support
If you're still stuck, you know you can get lots of help for free via the Internet. There are lots of forums, IRC channels, blogs and wiki's on the Web where you can find information. Please check out the homepage of the distribution first, for there are often lots of links to other sources. Ubuntuguide.org is a good place to start looking for common tasks you might need to do in Ubuntu.
If you have a specific problem You may also want to search for the error message / problem in Google before you ask elsewhere.
Many people will probably call me a geek for this, but still: Learn to use the command line. It is not necessary to use Linux distributions as Ubuntu, but until you've learned a fraction will see the benefit of it. Once you do something a bit special, it is advantageous to do it in a shell (console), and before you know it you have a black belt in sudo.
Another good reason to learn to use commands, the user interfaces are changing all the time. The commands are mostly the same from distribution to distribution. If you need help to correct the error, you will often find solutions that require you to use a shell, and when it may be advantageous to some basic commands.
