<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >Introduction</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7"><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="The Unix and Internet Fundamentals HOWTO" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="The Unix and Internet Fundamentals HOWTO" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="Basic anatomy of your computer" HREF="anatomy.html"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="sect1" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" >The Unix and Internet Fundamentals HOWTO</TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="anatomy.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="sect1" ><H1 CLASS="sect1" ><A NAME="intro" ></A >1. Introduction</H1 ><DIV CLASS="sect2" ><H2 CLASS="sect2" ><A NAME="purpose" ></A >1.1. Purpose of this document</H2 ><P >This document is intended to help Linux and Internet users who are learning by doing. While this is a great way to acquire specific skills, sometimes it leaves peculiar gaps in one's knowledge of the basics — gaps which can make it hard to think creatively or troubleshoot effectively, from lack of a good mental model of what is really going on.</P ><P >I'll try to describe in clear, simple language how it all works. The presentation will be tuned for people using Unix or Linux on PC-class machines. Nevertheless, I'll usually refer simply to ‘Unix’ here, as most of what I will describe is constant across different machines and across Unix variants.</P ><P >I'm going to assume you're using an Intel PC. The details differ slightly if you're running an PowerPC or some other kind of computer, but the basic concepts are the same.</P ><P >I won't repeat things, so you'll have to pay attention, but that also means you'll learn from every word you read. It's a good idea to just skim when you first read this; you should come back and reread it a few times after you've digested what you have learned.</P ><P >This is an evolving document. I intend to keep adding sections in response to user feedback, so you should come back and review it periodically.</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="sect2" ><H2 CLASS="sect2" ><A NAME="newversions" ></A >1.2. New versions of this document</H2 ><P >New versions of the Unix and Internet Fundamentals HOWTO will be periodically posted to <A HREF="news:comp.os.linux.help" TARGET="_top" > comp.os.linux.help</A > and <A HREF="news:comp.os.linux.announce" TARGET="_top" > comp.os.linux.announce</A > and <A HREF="news:news.answers" TARGET="_top" > news.answers</A >. They will also be uploaded to various websites, including the Linux Documentation Project home page.</P ><P >You can view the latest version of this on the World Wide Web via the URL <A HREF="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Unix-and-Internet-Fundamentals-HOWTO/index.html" TARGET="_top" > http:http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Unix-and-Internet-Fundamentals-HOWTO/index.html</A >. </P ><P >This document has been translated into: <A HREF="http://theta.uoks.uj.edu.pl/~gszczepa/gszczepa/esr1iso2.htm" TARGET="_top" >Polish</A ><A HREF="http://es.tldp.org/Manuales-LuCAS/doc-fundamentos-unix-internet/fundamentos.htm" TARGET="_top" >Spanish</A >.</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="sect2" ><H2 CLASS="sect2" ><A NAME="feedback" ></A >1.3. Feedback and corrections</H2 ><P >If you have questions or comments about this document, please feel free to mail Eric S. Raymond, at <A HREF="mailto:esr@thyrsus.com" TARGET="_top" > esr@thyrsus.com</A >. I welcome any suggestions or criticisms. I especially welcome hyperlinks to more detailed explanations of individual concepts. If you find a mistake with this document, please let me know so I can correct it in the next version. Thanks.</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="sect2" ><H2 CLASS="sect2" ><A NAME="resources" ></A >1.4. Related resources</H2 ><P >If you're reading this in order to learn how to hack, you should also read the <A HREF="http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html" TARGET="_top" > How To Become A Hacker FAQ</A >. It has links to some other useful resources.</P ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="H" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="anatomy.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >The Unix and Internet Fundamentals HOWTO</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" > </TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >Basic anatomy of your computer</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >