What is Linux?

Basics about linux

First of all let me make it clear that Linux is not Windows. Distributions like Ubuntu may allude you in to thinking the opposite, but sooner or later you will realise the fact. So do not use Linux because you want a free Windows.

With that out of the way, I may not introduce what Linux actually is. Linux is an operating system, that is free as in freedom (not in the sense of free beer). That means that you can alter, use, modify and redistribute the software you obtain as freely as you please (there may be the restriction of using the same licence on redistribution). Linux is however just the operating system, any other software that you install on top may have different licences but most of them tend to have free licences anyway. Most software is also free as in free beer.

Linux is based on unix. It has a lot of small programs that do very little very well. I personally prefere doing things through the terminal, but a lot of users do use fancy GUI (for example, compiz). Linux usually is very modest in its resource usage, and supports a lot of old and new hardware.

Getting to know Linux may be hard and frustrating but the rewards in my view outweigh these. Software on Linux is usually built on each other. That is, to install program X you may need to install program Y first. This is due to the openness of the code. This is where package managers come in. Most package managers will check and install the dependencies for you, and also remember the software you have installed. Some distros also come with software bundled in, and some will just give you the basic software and let you install what you want. My two favorite distributions are ArchLinux and Gentoo.

Bpack

Bpack stands for basic package manager

Bpack is a package manager to be used with Linux/BSD. If you do not know what a package manager is, in a nutshell, a package manager is a software that allows easy installation of other software. Bpack is source based and aimed at LFS users but it can also be used on other distros as well.

If you are interested, please check out the website on the links section.