1.0 About this tutorial

This is a tutorial that will help the new user understand what Linux is and how to use it. We will cover some of the basic aspects of the operating system and how to configure them. The user will learn some basic to intermediate commands to move around and work with the system and we will also show the user how to tie some of these commands together to make move advanced operations. The main goal of this tutorial is to give the user more confidence when working with a Linux system.

This section will briefly go over some of the history and uses of Linux, if you are already familiar with this information please feel free to move to the next chapter.

1.1.0 What is Linux?

Linux is a Unix-like Operating System originally created by Linus Torvalds while he was a student at the University of Helsinki. His main goal was to create a Minix clone and make the operating system, with the entire source code, freely available.

Here is the original quote that Linus made in comp.os.minix about his new operating system.

``Do you pine for the nice days of Minix-1.1, when men were men and wrote their own device drivers? Are you without a nice project and just dying to cut your teeth on an OS you can try to modify for your needs? Are you finding it frustrating when everything works on Minix? No more all-nighters to get a nifty program working? Then this post might be just for you.

``As I mentioned a month ago, I'm working on a free version of a Minix-look-alike for AT-386 computers. It has finally reached the stage where it's even usable (though may not be, depending on what you want), and I am willing to put out the sources for wider distribution. It is just version 0.02...but I've successfully run bash, gcc, gnu-make, gnu-sed, compress, etc. under it.''

1.2.0 Who uses Linux?

Linux users come in a variety of different people, although most of its users are fairly knowledgeable about computers and how they work.

``Linux is user-friendly. It just chooses its friends wisely.''

1.3.0 Multiple Method Disclaimer

This tutorial is designed to give you a basic idea of how to use Linux so you may program on the Beowulf Cluster at USF. It is not solely intended to make you a Linux expert, but should make you comfortable enough to use the system. Since this tutorial will be specific to the basic setup of a user account on the cluster, the examples and programs that are taught will not cover all alternative software. Please note that because we show you one way of doing something doesn't mean that it is the only way. This tutorial will use the tcsh shell for its examples, there are many other shells that you may choose from, such as: bash, korn shell, sh, csh. For the basic commands chapter, the commands will be the same on all Linux distributions. Please note that we will be using Redhat as the distribution for the cluster, there are very little differences between Redhat and other distributions. The main difference being the package system that they use, but you won't really need to use that on the cluster. If you have ever used a distribution other than Redhat you should be able to use our distribution just as easily as the other one.