What Is Linux OS? Explain Linux Networking Commands With Examples
The computer has become a very common electronic device in most homes nowadays and where there is a computer or PC there is the use of OS. Without OS the computer or system is just a metal box and nothing. It provides an interface between the user and the hardware resources. It is system software and performs all the basic tasks and manages the other computer resources. There are various kinds of OS that have been developed for systems to work efficiently. And every OS has its specific features and functions. Some OS are Windows, Linus, VMS, OS/400, AIX, z/OS, etc. This article will provide you with deep details about Linux OS.
Table of contents:
- What is an operating system?
- Types of Operating system
- What is the Linux Operating system
- Components of Linux Operating system
- History of Linus Operating system
- Features of Linux Operating system
- What is Linux Networking Command
- Advantages of Linux Operating System
- Disadvantages of Linux Operating system
- The architecture of the Linux Operating System
- Conclusion
What is an Operating system?
An operating system is system software that works as an intermediary between the user and hardware. It manages all the resources. The Operating system is required for the installation process to start functioning or maybe it is pre-installed in some systems. It provides an environment for the users to work on the system and can efficiently perform its tasks.
Although there are numerous functions of an OS. Here are certain functions of OS:
- Process Management
- File management
- Security
- Control system performance
- Memory management
- Devices and resource management
- Handle input and output operation
Types of OS:
The Operating System is widely categorized into five different categories:
- Batch Operating System
- Time-sharing Operating System
- Distributed Operating System
- Network Operating System
- Real-Time Operating System
What is Linux Operating System?
Linux is an open-source operating system that acts as an intermediary between applications and hardware. It establishes the connection between the software and all physical resources to perform any operation. Linux is the version of the Unix operating system. Since Linux is an open-source platform. Its source codes are easily available to the public or even anyone can watch and modify its code.
The versions of Linux are termed as “distros” or “distributions”. So here are some popular distributions of the Linux operating system.
- Ubuntu Linux
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux
- Linux Mint
- Fedora
- Debian
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Components of Linux Operating System:
The Linux operating system has three components:
Kernel: Kernel is the core unit of the Linux operating system and it provides the main functionality to the hardware resources. It has various modules and it directly communicates to the underlying hardware components. Kernel codes execute only in a special mode called kernel mode.
System Library: System libraries are special programs. It is used by the application programs to access features of the kernel. System libraries are used to implement most of the operating system functions and do need any kernel module’s code access right.
System Utilities: All the individual and specialized level tasks are in control of system utility programs.
History of Linux Operating System.
Linux was started in 1991 in the form of a personal project by Finnish student Linus Torvalds to create a free Operating System. Its source code was first released in 1991. Linux Kernel was considered the first version of the Linux Operating System. The latest version of Linux is Linux Mint 20.3 which was released on 27th June 2020.
Features of Linux Operating System
Portable: Linux can work on numerous hardware platforms without any issue. So the users have no more concern about using the Linux Operating System based on different hardware resources.
Open Source: Open sources refers that this Linux Operating system can be used by any people independently. Anyone can see the source code and can modify it according to their requirements and needs.
Security: It provides high security to the users with authentication, authorization process, password protection, control access to the internal applications, etc.
MultiUser: The same Linux Operating system can be used by more than one user because it provides a complete set of Unix compatible tools.
Fast: Linux operating system is very fast and easy to use. Responds very quickly.
Free: It is available freely and the user doesn’t need to buy it with any license.
What is Linux Networking Command?
When more than one computer is connected, they make a network whether internally or externally. This network can be small or big like LAN, MAN, or wan. And to establish communication among them, commands are used. And to maintain the network system and troubleshoot, Linux network commands are used. Here are a few most used commands with syntax and examples.
- Curl: It is a command-line tool that is used to transmit information from the server by using any supportive protocols like HTTP, FTP, SMTP, etc.
Syntax: curl [option] [URL]
Example: curlhttps://wwwcurlexample.com
- wget: it is a command-line utility to download any file from the server. The user can download any files by using different protocols.
Syntax: wget[option] [URL…]
Example: to download the webpage
Wgethttp://ex.com/example.html
To download the file from the web
Example: wget –bhttp://www.ex.com/example.html
- whois: This Linux command is used to retrieve all information about the website with its registration and owner information.
Syntax: whois
Example: whoiS example.com
- traceroute: This command is used to troubleshoot the network. It analyzes the delay and detects the path to your target. It provides the names and follows the route to the destination.
Syntax: traceroute
Example: $ traceroute example.com
- tracepath: This command is similar to the traceroute. It is used to analyze network delay. It detects the route to specify the destination and identify the hop in it.
Syntax: tracepath
Example: tracepath example.com
- ping: It is one of the most used Linux networking commands The main objective of this command is to check the network connectivity between two nodes.
- Packet Internet Groper is the full form of ping. It sends the ICMP echo request to check the connection of the network.
Syntax: $ ping
Example: $ ping example.com
- dig: It stands for Domain Information Groper. Dig command is used to analyze the query of the DNS name server.
Syntax: dig
Example: $ dig example.com
Advantages of Linux operating system
- It is an open-source platform and needs no license to use it. The user can easily modify the code and enhance the code according to their requirements and needs.
- The main benefit of using the Linux operating system is that it offers high security to the system. It is less vulnerable than the other Operating system and the Linux system also doesn’t require any antivirus programs.
- It is considered very lightweight. Lightweight means that the requirements are very less to run on any platform. The disk space, RAM requirement is very less.
- Linux is very stable and doesn’t require rebooting again and again to maintain the computer’s performance. The chance of hanging up or slowing down Linux is very less. So the user will not have to face so many issues of speed and hanging up on the system.
- Its performance is very high because it can handle multiple users simultaneously.
- A larger number of software updates are available in this Linux Operating system. The user can select the required updates based on their requirements.
- Linux operating system is available in different versions such as Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, Linux Mint, Arch Linux, etc.
Disadvantages of using Linux Operating system.
- One of the most common problems with this is that the hardware drivers are not available.
- Linux has less user interaction as compared to any other Operating system.
- It has very little market share.
- There is no unified installer or package manager in the Linux operating system.
- Linux is very hard to learn for Windows users or less experienced people.
- Troubleshooting in Linux operating system is complex. Since it is open-source any user can interrupt the source code. This can make the code corrupt sometimes.
The architecture of the Linux Operating System
The Linux operating system consists of mainly five components:
- The kernel
- System Library
- Hardware layer
- System Utility Programs
- the Shell
The Kernel: it is the core of the Operating System and is responsible for all the major executions in the OS. The kernel also offers the facility of hiding the low-level hardware and application programs of the system. The kernel is further classified into different types:
System Libraries: These are specialized for some special function and used for implementing the operating system functionalities. It also doesn’t require any kind of access rights to the module of the kernel.
System Utility Programs: It is responsible for any individual task or specialized operation in an Operating system.
Hardware layer: The Linux Operating System consists of different hardware layers which contain numerous peripheral devices like CPU, HDD, RAM, etc.
The Shell: The shell acts as an interface for the kernel and the user. It adopts the services of the kernel and also takes commands from the user and runs the function of the kernel. This is categorized into two types :
The OS is mandatory for every system. Therefore the demand and development of OS are still in a running process. The developers are working to add some new features to the existing OS and release new versions of the OS, in three to four years. The future of IT is very bright since everything is being done on system and laptop and so many IT engineers are working every day to add some new technology to our daily life and making it more advanced.
Sai Priya Ravuri is a Digital Marketer, and a passionate writer, who is working with mindmajix , a top global online training provider. She also holds in-depth knowledge of IT and demanding technologies such as Business Intelligence, Machine Learning, Salesforce, Cybersecurity, Software Testing, QA, Data analytics, Project Management, ERP tools, etc.
Linux Windows Install Setup Configuration Project
What is Linux Linux kernel Linux utilities and Linux distro — Linux Fedora Core Project.
What is Linux?
Linux is complete multitasking and multi-user operating system base/clone from UNIX operating system.
Performance similar to high-end UNIX operating system.
Linux originally developed for 32-bit x86-based PC (Intel CPU base), platform.32-bit or 64-bit architecture
Linux Kernel.
• The core of operating system.
• The interface between system hardware and software.
• Tranlates hardware language to or that can be use by the operating system (Hardware driver).
• Developed from scratch by Linus Torvalds with assistant programmers, hackers around the globe.
• Actually ‘Linux’ is just the kernel, all Linux Operating System distributions used Linux kernel as the kernel for their operating system.
Linux Associated Utilities.
• Standard tools found on (nearly) all Linux systems
• Many important parts of software, tools, compilers, debugger, editor, application utilities come from the GNU project.
• Massive number of software packages for all kind of purposes.
• Free Software Foundation’s project to make a free Unix
• Some claim the Linux Operating System as a whole should be call ‘GNU/Linux’
Linux distributions.
Linux distro is complete Linux operating system, ready to install and can be running on your PCs or Servers.
• Usually call Linux Distro.
• Gather and compile by various vendors.
• Kernel plus utilities plus other tools, packaged up for end users.
• Generally with installation program
• Distributors include: Fedora Core, Red Hat, Debian, SuSE, Mandrake
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