Survey of Operating Systems - Chapter 9

Absolute Path

A directory path that begins with the top level. in Linux, an absolute path begins with a forward slash (/) to indicate the root directory.

Root Account

All-powerful account that is only used when absolutely necessary to do advanced tasks.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Basis for Red Hat's commercially available distribution.

BASH (Bourne-Again SHell)

Default for most Linux systems, it is an enhanced version of the original SHELL program.

Path

Description that an operating system uses to identify the location of a file or directory.

Open-source software

Distributed freely with all of it's source code that anyone can access.

Terminal Window

Equivalent to a windows command prompt window, where you can experience the Linux CLI.

Switch Users

Feature that allows the currently logged-on user to leave their apps and data open in memory.

GNOME

One of two Linux's main GUI

X Window

Open group that continues work on the X Window System.

Ubuntu

Open source OS distributed by Linux. This version features a GUI.

GNU

Organization that developed a free version of a UNIX-like operating system.

Home Directory

Place in Linux where a user has full control over files and directories without requiring elevated privileges.

Symbolic Link

Points to another directory.

Daemon

Program that runs in the background until it is activated by a command.

World Wide Web (WWW)

The graphical Internet consisting of a vast array of documents located on millions of specialized servers worldwide.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)

The protocol for transferring the files that make up the rich graphical Web pages we view on the World Wide Web (WWW). It includes the commands a Web browser uses to request Web pages from a Web server to display on the screen of a local computer.

Web

A shortened version of the term World Wide Web (WWW).

Access Mode Number

A value assigned to a file permission in Linux. The user (owner), group, and others each have a different access mode number calculated using the following values: read = 4, write = 2, and execute = 1.

Object code

An executable program in another language that can be interpreted by a computer's CPU

Linux

An open source operating system based on UNIX that was developed by Linus Torvalds and others beginning in 1991.

Live Image

Bootable image of the operating system that will run from disc or other bootable media without requiring that the OS be installed on the local computer.

Case-Sensitive

In an operating system, a feature that allows the OS to preserve the case used for the characters in a file name when creating it, and requires the correct case to open or manage the file.

Case-Aware

In an operating system, a feature that allows the OS to preserve the case used for the characters in a file name when creating it, but does not require the correct case when opening or managing the file.

Command-line history

Linux saves the shell commands you enter for the duration of the session and you can scroll through these commands while at the $ prompt.

Kickoff Application Launcher

Menu on the KDE GUI that is similar to the windows 7 start menu.

X Window System

Standard developed in 1984 at MIT for use with UNIX.

Wild Card

Symbol that replaces any character or parameter.

Source Code

The un-compiled program statements that can be viewed and edited with a text editor or special programming software.

Launcher

This feature is on the Ubuntu Unity GUI. Bar on the left side of the screen that serves the same purpose as the OS X Dock or the pinned items feature on the taskbar on the Windows Desktop.

Apache HTTP Server

This web server software was originally written for UNIX but also runs on Linux. Another name for this is simply "Apache".

Burn

To write digital data just once to a disc. Traditionally this term refers to the writing of data to a disc (CD-R, DVD-R, or BD-R) that can only be written to once in any given area of the disc. Once full, you cannot add data to the disc. It is "write-once." The source files can be individual files or an ISO file.

Command completion

When you enter the command name and a few more characters of the options, Linux will autocomplete the command.

Owner

Who created the file.