This is a practical guide to Linux, not a reference manual. It starts from "what is Linux" and works up to the things you actually need: editing files, permissions, the directory tree, network and process commands, environment variables, and compression. Then it goes further, into recovering a forgotten password, SSH, upgrading a distro, dual-booting, and playing games.
The examples use Fedora 44 as the reference distribution. Other distros appear where they differ, since the author runs an Ubuntu VM alongside it, but Fedora is the one the text is written against.
You do not need any prior Linux experience. The tutorial begins by explaining what Linux is, why you might want it, and which distribution to pick.
If you are coming from Windows, the preface has one piece of advice worth repeating: abandon Windows inertia thinking. Do not be afraid of the terminal. A GUI is not mandatory.
What Linux is, why to use it, and which distribution to choose.
The working core of the tutorial. Setting up a C++ and Python environment, editing files (Vim, nano, Gedit), the directory structure and path syntax, file commands, users and permissions, network commands, process management, environment variables, compression, and a collection of tricks worth knowing.
The situations that actually happen. What to do when you forget your password. SSH with MobaXterm. Upgrading a distribution. What to do when the C drive is almost full. Upgrading Ubuntu when it is supposed to be dead. And a chapter on the philosophy of using Linux at all.
Running Linux alongside Windows. An Arch Linux installation guide, getting games working through Proton, Nvidia drivers on Fedora, and the software the author actually uses.
Closing thoughts.
- Distribution neutrality. Fedora 44 is the reference. Debian and Ubuntu appear where the commands differ, but this is not a distro-agnostic guide.
- Server administration. No systemd in depth, no containers, no security hardening, no deployment. This is about using Linux on your own machine.
- Exhaustive command references. The aim is to get you productive, not to document
every flag. Use
manand the Arch Wiki, as the preface suggests.
You need a TeX distribution with XeLaTeX. A full TeX Live installation is required
rather than a minimal one, because the elegantbook class loads ctex/xeCJK. The
document class is bundled in this repository, so there is nothing extra to install.
(Tested with TeX Live 2023.)
latexmkA .latexmkrc is included, so latexmk selects XeLaTeX automatically and runs as many
passes as the cross-references need.
latexmk -c # remove auxiliary files, keep the PDF
latexmk -C # remove everything, including the PDFThe output is Introduction to Linux.pdf
This tutorial is released under CC BY-SA 4.0. See LICENSE.