Getting Started with Linux

talks
Published

April 2, 2025

For the Layer8 Cybersecurity club here at Cal State Northridge, and potentially more clubs, I will do a presentation introducing people to Linux

Below is the same presentation, rendered to html with the slide titles as headers.

If you want to see the presentation in slides form, click the “RevealJS” format on the right, under “Other formats”.

Here is a qr code to the slides:


Introductions:

  • Jeffrey Fonseca (@moonpiedumplings)
    • Linux user for 6 years
    • Sophomore
    • Vice President of Layer 8
  • Mustakimur Rahman (@arithmeticninja)
    • Linux user for 7 years
    • Senior
    • VP of IEEE

What is Linux?

  • Linux is an Operating System
  • Lowest level of software on a computer
  • Runs “drivers” which are responsible for interacting with hardware

Why Linux in the Industry

  • Linux is “open source” — No license fees
  • Linux is more performant than alternatives
  • Used in the vast majority of servers
  • Games, web servers, etc

Why Linux Personally

  • It’s faster!
    • Uses less RAM
  • No ads, bloatware
  • Many tools are designed for Linux first

Introduction to Linux

  • “Command Line” — alternate way of interfacing with applications
  • It’s not programming. It’s not a logic puzzle that needs to be solved.
    • Commands are designed to be used.

Introduction to the Command Line

  • All computer operating systems have a cli
  • Command format: commandname --argument1 inputfile

Terminal and Shell

  • ls — list files in current directory
  • cat <filename> — print file contents
  • pwd — print current working directory
  • cd change directory

More Commands

  • ssh -p portname username@ip/hostname connect to a remote machine
  • find -iname "*texttofind*" find files by some text
  • grep filename search a file for text within it.
  • man commandname Built in documentation about commands

Distributions

  • Linux is just the kernel, but more than the kernel is needed
  • When people package up the kernel + utility software, it becomes a “Distro”
  • Red Hat Linux is the most widely used distribution, 70% of enterprise use cases*

Red Hat Administrative Commands:

  • dnf — package manager.
    • dnf install packagename installs more software
    • dnf remove packagename
    • dnf update update packages

Overthewire

Web Based Terminals:

Further Resources

Thank You!