You’ve probably heard a bit about Linux Distros with exotic names such as “Ubuntu”, “Slackware”, “Red Hat” and hundreds of others. So just what is a distro? Simply put it’s a collection of programmes that when bundled together make a working computer system.

Technically speaking a Linux distro comprises the Linux kernel and thousands of other programmes that make it all work together. Programmes to drive your graphics, programmes to enable your wireless card, programmes to send and receive e-mail, understand mouse movements and even just to play games or surf the web. The majority of these separate programmes are written under the GNU licence; hence a Linux distro is more properly called a GNU/Linux distribution or just Linux for short.

The choice of which programmes to include in a distro is vast, so different people compiling these distros will have different ideas about what is the best combination and of course what the typical end use is.

This page is intended to be an introduction into Linux for the absolute beginner or “Newbie” as he or she is often known. So let’s jump in at the shallow end! What is Linux? It’s a computer operating system (OS), just like Microsoft Windows, it loads up and runs all the other programs that you use on a computer. Without an operating system your computer would be just a brick.
You can run either or both Linux and Microsoft Windows on the same computer, but not at the same time. Whilst running one operating system you can’t run any programmes designed for the other OS, well you can, but it’s tricky and outside the scope of this article.
Linux is similar to the venerable UNIX Operating system as are many other OS’s such as Apples OSX and BSD and users familiar with those OS’s should have few problems switching to Linux, however this article is intended for those switching from Microsoft Windows.
So, in what ways is Linux different from windows?

Ayn Rand once said that the political right and the political left both allow individual freedom in just the matters that they do not think are important. Thus, people on the political right think that personal morality is the most important thing, so they are willing to allow freedom when it comes to property and economic matters but at the same time wish to legislate morality. Since many on the political right are religiously motivated, their preferences may be simply stated: That in the matters where "you can't take it with you," they allow freedom, while personal practices that may offend God are cause for legal and political attention.
On the other hand, people on the political left don't care so much about personal practices, and probably don't give much weight to the moral prohibitions and requirements of traditional religions, whether they happen to believe in a traditional God or not. Less concerned with hellfire and brimstone in the hereafter, the rewards and punishments of the present world are the preoccupation instead, usually in so far as these seem to be morally deserved or undeserved. Instead of divine justice, social justice -- or perhaps a sense that divine justice would be social justice. Thus, since the proper distribution of rewards in society is thought of as a matter of judicial or political decision, the political left is hostile to economic freedom and the free market, which do not appear to distribute wealth and rewards according to deserts (or "need").