25 Essential Commands for Linux Newbies

The terminal in Linux, and the need to use it, is a widely known fact, and one of the big reasons why Linux has earned the reputation of being harder to used compared to other commercial alternatives out there.

However, in my experience, Linux isn’t any more difficult to use than any other system. It’s just different. Yes, you will need to use the terminal. But, with a little practice, you can become an expert in the Linux terminal. Once you do, I believe you will find that in many ways using Linux is actually easier and faster compared to the other options out there.

What Is Linux?

At its most basic, Linux is an operating system, much like Microsoft Windows and Apple macOS. It was originally created in 1991 by Linus Torvalds when he became interested in UNIX based operating systems but became frustrated with licensing issues surrounding many operating systems of the time. Linux isn’t a port of UNIX per say, as it’s built from the ground up. But it does share many similarities to UNIX, thus coining the term UNIX-like operating system.

Today, Linux can be found in the form of distributions, created by different groups of people and companies. Some of the most popular distributions today are:

• Ubuntu
• Linux Mint
• Red Hat Linux
• Fedora
• openSUSE

Because of its free and open source licensing policies, today tt powers a majority of the world’s servers, especially for the Internet. But it can also be found powering routers, switches, and even our televisions and many more devices.

The Linux Terminal

The Linux Shell, more often referred to as the Linux Terminal, is a text-based application designed to receive commands from the user and show the output of these commands. From here, you can completely control every aspect of your Linux operating system. While you still may have a graphical user interface for day-to-day tasks, chances are you will have to use the Terminal to properly administer your Linux operating system.

Essential Linux Commands

Now that you understand exactly what the Linux Shell or the Linux Terminal actually is, let’s take a look at 25 essential commands that you will need to know when you start using Linux.

1. clear

When you are working in your terminal, the output can fill up your terminal window. By executing the clear command, you can clear your terminal window of all that added output that you don’t need and start with a fresh, empty terminal window.

Debian 9: Stretch released

The most used Linux Distribution, indirectly or directly, Debian is like a father to many big and small distros.Today Debian team announced the release of Debian Stretch, the new Debian release.This release really excites us.Wondering, Why? Find yourself by reading the full post.

Before we start, We want to thank Ian Murdock, the man without whom we must not be having the Linux as interesting as it is now to use and of course the availability of a variety of other distros based on Debian can't be ignored.

What is new in here?

• Well starting from the very first thing that may decide whether you'll try or use new Debian or not and it is, of course, the system requirement.The new Debian Stretch has more new adds to the system support.With one new added architecture and one removal may make some difference.64-bit little endian MIPS has been added and sadly PowerPC is no more supported in Debian 9.Other than that 32-bit PC(i386) is not kicked out of the supported list, as per many other distributions dropping the support of it.ARM EABI, ARMv7, 64-bit Pc are some other supported architectures. 

• With the release of Debian 9, Firefox and Thunderbird are making a return.Replacing the long time occupied at their places Iceweasel and Icedove are removed.

• MariaDB is now the default MySQL variant.MariaDB 10.1 has been added to the same.Apache 2.4.25,Chromium 59.0.0371.86, GIMP 2.8.18, LibreOffice 5.2, systemd 232, Thunderbird 45.8 are some of the update packages.With the inclusion of 15346 new packages, a total of 61687 packages is in here in the Debian 9.Out of which most of the packages, about 29859 packages have been updated.

• In Debian 9 Linux 4.9 is the base Kernel.

• UEFI boot is now better than before, so Windows Laptops must not get any issue in installing Debian 9 on their system.
• Debian Stretch has wide range of almost all major DEs, GNOME 3.2KDE Plasma 5.8, LXDE, MATE 1.16, Xfce 4.12
• Xorg server doesn't require root anymore.
• New deb.debian.org mirror has been introduced.All major to minor main archive, port archive, security archive are available in there.

We will be back with full detailed post on Debian 9 Stretch.Till then You may give it a try.

Discord - voice and text chat for gamers

Hi guys, it is been a long pause on our website due to our exams and stuff but we are now back with more interesting stuff for you guys. Today we are going to meet Discord. If you are into online gaming and MOBA type games then you must have used or heard about Discord. It is one of the most versatile app out there for voice and text based chat. There are other apps like Skype or Teamspeak but Discord is unique in it's own way. Let's get to know more about this app.

• Cross-platform - One of the most important thing about discord is that this app is cross-platform. You can use it in Windows, Linux, Mac, iPhone, Android and even a web version if you dont like to download and install the app. In Linux we used it on Ubuntu and Arch without any problems.

  

  click to enlarge

• Stable - This app is seriously stable. It is even more stable then OS sometimes (LOL). It worked smoothly on mobile, on both Ubuntu and Arch. We also used it on windows and it didn't disappoint us there too. Discord consumes very low amount of ram and CPU usage.
• Features - Discord probably have more features compared to skype or teamspeak. Most of all it is completely free of cost. It gives IP & DDoS protection. It also gives browser support, mobile support, in-game overlay, multiple channels, bots for customization and entertainment, friend lists, direct messaging, low latency, etc. 

  

  click to enlarge

• 

  android app for discord

• Connectivity, fun & bots - Once you get used to discord and made friend over it, you will start to enjoy it even more. There are lots of customizations to channels, one can make separate channels for different games or can merge them all at one place and categorize them. Another fun part of discord is the bots. There are lots of different bots for discord. They can simply manage and moderate your channels, play music while you are having a voice chat or not, can play various games, can predict future (no, but yes :P ) and do many more stuff. bots work same across all the platform and same commands can be used to manipulate them. You can simply have a concert in discord with hundreds of people listening to it. 

So give this app a try, we are damn sure this won't disappoint you at all. For downloads and more information just head over to http://discord.gg
 

What is Debian? A brief introduction

Hello buddies.!!

Today we have something interesting for you. We are gonna introduce the Linux world to you slowly and steadily.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE- What is Linux? A brief description.
and  How to install Desktop Gadgets in Linux using screenlets?
 

So here's the first piece of our intro series. Today we are going to know about Debian. It is one of the first Linux distribution. Debian was initially launched at 1993 August. The name Debian was given by the creator of Debian, Ian Murdock and his wife Debra.

Debian is a huge set of open-source packages. Debian also supports installation of non-free packages, but the number is big in free packages. According to official source Debian contains about 37500 free packages in its repository. And Debian provides all this for free of cost. A team of around thousand or more people work on Debian to make it better.

The latest stable release of Debian is 7.5 Wheezy. Debian has also released the alpha 8.0 Jesse for further development. By default, Debian uses Gnome desktop environment. But it also gives an option to choose between Gnome, KDE, Xfce and LXDE environments too. Debian is very easy to install due to its graphical installer.

Debian is robust and secure Operating system. Debian supports most of hardware and architectures, so you usually don't have to worry about whether it will run on your PC or not. Now the thing is drivers? you must be wondering how to get drivers for Debian. Do not worry, for most of new and old hardware the community of Debian has made drivers. So you don't have to wait for your vendor to make drivers for your hardware. And once again as it's open-source, so it's all for free.

Debian is supported by the community. So you can be assured that your problem will definitely get solved as there are actual users of Debian supporting you. Debian has wide range of software to choose from, which is of course free of cost. Debian is also very stable and powerful OS, which will give you amazing performance, security, a good Graphical user Interface (GUI) and also ease of use.

When it comes to stability, we mean less crash and hangs but more performance. Debian fulfill this role very well. Debian is also very easy to upgrade. The Debian team has worked hard to compile all the packages in there repository so that we can easily find them and install in our system.

So overall, it's been 20 years for Debian. So we can see the hard work and dedication of Debian team to keep it in the best condition for users. Debian can be installed either via buying a DVD or by downloading ISO files. So we would like to suggest you to give Debian a try. It has lots of things on grand scale to provide you.

Debian is the first one in our Introduction of Linux world section. We will be back with another Linux distribution next time. Stay tuned, there is lot more in Linux world. Till then, ciao.