📖Introduction

What is Linux Kernel?

Linux is a kernel. A kernel is a program that manages hardware resources for the user. It connects the operating system to the hardware.

What is GNU?

GNU packages are the core of the GNU operating system. GNU stands for GNU's Not Unix. It is a Unix-like operating system. It is free software—everyone can use it and redistribute it.

What is GNU/Linux?

GNU/Linux is when GNU ang Linux hold hands! Together they form a complete operating system. In the rest of the notes, we will refer to it as simply Linux.

What is a Distribution? (distro)

A Linux distribution is an packaged version of GNU/Linux. It also has additional software like package managers, desktop environments, etc.

There are many distributions of Linux. Some of the most popular ones are Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch Linux, etc.

What is a Shell?

Shell is a program that takes commands and passes them to the operating system to execute.

What is a Desktop Environment?

It is the graphical user interface (GUI) of an operating system.

Some of the most popular desktop environments are GNOME, KDE, Xfce, etc.

What is a Package Manager?

It allows to install, update, remove and manage software packages.

Some of the most popular package managers are apt, dnf, pacman, etc.