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As my dad was doing research, he stumbles upon a site that includes a virus scam. After that close encounter with the said virus scam, I’ve decided to switch from Windows to Ubuntu Linux.

The Linux OS is hardly ever targeted by viruses because most viruses are written for Windows. It is also preferred by people not just because it has a more secured environment but also because it is free to obtain.

I first tried whether I can access the live demo CD version of Ubuntu to make sure my PC is capable of installing it. And to also familiarize myself with the Ubuntu environment which I find very neat. Below is a screenshot of Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) desktop.

There is a downside to this if you used to be a Windows user, because it is most likely that some of the programs you’ve used in Windows will not work in Linux. But some Windows programs have Linux counterparts such as OpenOffice to Microsoft Office.

But don’t fret, there is a way for you to still use Windows in a Linux environment and that is by installing VirtualBox. (I will discuss VitualBox on my next blog post.)

Some of the positive things I’ve noticed with using Ubuntu Linux compared to Windows is it boots up and shuts down pretty quick. It takes about 2 minutes for my Windows to boot up and shut down. But in Ubuntu, it takes only a few seconds.

Another thing is that you don’t really need an antivirus for Linux though if there is a slight chance you might get one specifically malwares then you can install ClamAV. In my case, I have not installed any antivirus in my Ubuntu.

One of the negative things I find in using Ubuntu is installing my printer. It did detect my printer but unfortunately my Canon PIXMA iP1800 is not listed under their available print driver and thus I cannot install it. But luckily, I am able to enable it through VirtualBox.

Another negative thing is when connecting USB devices. I have a 320GB WD Elements external hard drive, the problem is when safely removing it. When I click “safely remove”, the icon disappears indicating it’s been removed. But when I unplug the device, it gives an error that it hasn’t finished writing the changes and when I unplugged it, there might have been data loss.

So the downside is that it doesn’t give you a pop-up message like in Windows that the device has been safely removed or can now be removed. I tried not removing my external HD after I clicked “safely remove”, the icon would disappear but after some time the device icon would appear again indicating the device is plugged in. I’m still figuring out a way around this.

Well, so far this is what I have experienced in using Ubuntu Linux. This is just the beginning and I’m pretty sure I’ll encounter more things to come. I’ll be blogging about using VirtualBox next time so come read again.

Depending on the number of files you’ve installed on your system and its layout, you will probably find several other directories on any Linux system. Some other commonly used directories on Linux system are the following:

• /home: A directory that holds the subdirectories where different users store their files. For example, most (if not all) of the files owned by the user “wvh” are stored in the /home/wvh directory (or subdirectories of that directory). The directories used by individual users to store their personal files are known as their “home directories” – this name led to user directories being stored in /home, not the other way around. On older Unix and Unix-like systems, users’ home directories were stored under /usr (pronounced “slash user”), but are now created under /home to simplify system upgrades.
• /opt: A directory typically used when installing third-party software. This directory takes its name from the idea that it contains “optional” (i.e., non-system) software that may differ across different machines.
• /usr: A directory hierarchy that contains files meant to be used by normal users as they use a Linux system. The directory /usr/bin contains applications that users may need to execute, /usr/lib contains libraries used by those programs, and so on.
• /var: A directory that holds other directories with variable content. For example, the directory /var/log contains log files for system applications and events. These log files are created while a system is running, and can grow very large over time.

As you can see, a Linux system provides a large, hierarchical collection of files and directories that are organized to simplify locating certain types of files such as executables, libraries, configuration files, system status information, and so on.

All Linux systems provide a standard set of core directories. The following directories are used to hold programs that must run when you are booting your Linux system, configuration files for those programs, libraries used by those programs, temporary files created by running programs, and so on:

• /: As the top-level directory of Linux system, this directory must exist so that other directories can be located within it.
• /bin: A directory that holds core applications used by a Linux system.
• /dev: A directory that holds special files, known as device nodes, which are used to access any devices that are attached to your Linux system.
• /etc: A directory that holds system configuration information, contains the files that explain the sequence of applications that execute on a Linux system as part of its boot process, and stores configuration files for some of the applications that are executed by a Linux system.
• /lib: A directory that holds libraries of functions that can be called by other applications.
• /proc: A directory in which the Linux kernel tracks active processes and general status information.
• /sbin: A directory containing applications that are usually executed only by the superuser.
• /sys: A directory in which the Linux kernel tracks the status of system hardware and related hardware interfaces.
• /tmp: A directory that holds temporary files created by various applications on a running system.

You will find these standard directories on most Linux systems, regardless of the type of distribution or the size of the disk they are using.

dir (directory)
cd (change directory)

• cd <foldername>
• cd .. (back one level)
• cd ../ (back to root)

man (manual pages)

• man ls (manual for list directory contents)

ls (list directory contents)

• ls -l (long form timestamp)

pwd (print name of present working directory)

• man pwd

mkdir (make directory)

• mkdir <directory name>

rmdir (remove directory)

• rmdir <directory name>

rm (remove file)

• rm <filename>
• rm -r (remove folder and files)

touch (create text file)

• touch FileName

apt-get (install or update)