Chapter 4
Trying Out Linux
IN THIS CHAPTER
Starting Linux and logging in
Getting familiar with the shell
Shutting down the system
You’re sitting in front of your PC, about to turn it on. You know that the PC has Linux installed. (Maybe you did the installing yourself, but who’s keeping track?) You’re wondering what to expect when you turn it on and what you do afterward. Not to worry. If you’re using Linux for the first time, this chapter shows you how to log in, check out the graphical desktops, try some cryptic Linux commands, and (finally) shut down the PC.
If you’re trying one of the Live distributions, all you have to do is boot from the bootable media (flash drive/DVD/CD), as explained in Book 1, Chapter 2, and you can try that distribution without installing or overwriting your existing operating system.
For those of you who already know something about Linux, flip through this chapter to see whether anything looks new. You never know what you don’t know!
Starting Linux
When you turn on the PC, it goes through the normal power-up sequence and loads the Linux bootloader, which for most Linux distributions is the Grand Unified Bootloader program (called GRUB for short). ...
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