5 Things Newbie Linux Converts Must Know

[Napster]

1. Mount points, Not Drive Letters

Generally in Windows, Hard drives and its partitions are recognized by their Drive letters assigned to them but the first thing you would notice while start using a Linux OS will be this. Here, Drive and partitions are known by their mount point.
The drive which you call as “C:/” is known by “\” and called as root in Linux and everything is located beneath it. When you will insert any USB device, you will notice that it will open its mount location like “/media/USB-device-name”. If you want your separate partition then you have your mount point called “\home” and you will also find your personal document folder under it.

2. No Registry Available

Unlike Windows, there is no common registry or database available for Linux. Instead, they have individual configuration files in .XML format which you can modify on your own and make any particular changes you want to make in particular program.
This is good as compared to windows, If one database of registry fails, it will stop working and your OS will not boot up and in Linux, if any one configuration file stops working then it will make only that particular program and configuration stop working and show error and the other part of the system will be working fine. If this happens, you may always look for the help available.

3. Default Software Installer

If you want to perform any task in windows, you will look for help on Google or any other website which provides software downloads and install the software via its own installer and hope that it will uninstall everything when your task will be done. By doing this process, you end up in getting your device infected by unknown virus.
While in Linux, there is a software installer given which allows you to install any package you download and it make sure that everything goes well while you perform an install or an uninstall. It tracks every process and make sure that it does not leave any unwanted file like virus or anything else.

4. System Administrator Login

5. Help Is Free

Its so much fun and educational while changing to Linux from Windows but sometimes its frustrating when you can’t get the things right and somehow you end up in stop using it. But wait a second, there are so many people who has done it before and you always get help.
You may read my article on getting help with Linux if you want help. There is a wide scope for help in this OS.

 

[mystic]

One more thing,,, UPDATE is free.........

 

[quickboy]

2. No Registry Available

Instead, they have individual configuration files in .XML format which you can modify on your own and make any particular changes you want to make in particular program.

The configuration files for everything is usually found in "/etc" folder, THey are not xml, they are in fact plain text files

For example on y system
my lexmark printer driver is configured as follows:--

*PPD-Adobe: "4.3"
*FormatVersion: "4.3"
*FileVersion: "1.0"
*LanguageVersion: English
*LanguageEncoding: ISOLatin1
*PCFileName: "LXZ600CJ.PPD"
*Manufacturer: "Lexmark"
*Product: "(CUPS v1.1)"
*cupsVersion: 1.1
*cupsManualCopies: True
*cupsModelNumber: 1
*cupsFilter: "application/vnd.cups-raster 0 rastertoz600"
*ModelName: "Lexmark Z600 Color Jetprinter"
*ShortNickName: "Lexmark Z600"
*NickName: "Lexmark Z600 v1.0-1"
*PSVersion: "(3010.000) 550"
*PSVersion: "(3010.000) 651"
*PSVersion: "(3010.000) 652"
*LanguageLevel: "3"
*ColorDevice: True
*DefaultColorSpace: RGB
*FileSystem: False
*Throughput: "15"
*LandscapeOrientation: Plus90
*VariablePaperSize: False
*TTRasterizer: Type42


THat is for driver ppd options, NOw see how the printcap file configures the printer:

Lexmark-Z600-Color-Jetprinter|Lexmark Z600 Color Jetprinter:rm=mydesk.home.net:rp=Lexmark-Z600-Color-Jetprinter:

See my DNS configuration for network, This is my resolv.conf file

search home.net
nameserver 208.67.222.222

4. System Administrator Login

Every linux distribution has an admin account called "root"
The home directory of root user is "/root"
In some Distros like Ubuntu, root passwd may not be set by default and "sudo" command is used for system administration, In such cases you can activate he root account simply by giving it a new password, using the command "sudo passwd root"
remember that "root" user is equal to GOD on a linux system, a simple command like rm can delete everything including files on a "rwx", mounted drives shared on a network.