Lec. 1 Introduction to Linux

The UNIX operating system was developed in the early 1970s by a group of enthusiasts at Bell Laboratories in the USA. Since then it was modified by a number of different groups and evolved into many similar but not identical flavours. Linus Torvalds, at the time a computer science student at the university of Helsinki, started a freely available academic version of UNIX ‘LINUX’ that was to become the standard for all Linux implementations that followed. Now-a-days Unix and Linux have become almost synonymous with each other. Linux is structured so that the user works within a ‘shell’ that can be configured by the system administrators, working behind the scenes.
LINUX is a multi-user, multi-tasking operating system, which has the following features:
Hierarchical File System Process Management Command Interpreter (Shell) Commands: File Management Editors ...
As it is written in the language ‘C’ it is possible to run Linux on any machine that has had a ‘C’ compiler written for it. As a result Linux is available on many types of machines from super computers to PCs. Currently UBUNTU is the flavour of Linux that has gained great popularity that we recommend to users but do not officially support it.