🐧 Free Linux course: the system that runs the Internet
Welcome to the most pedagogical Linux discovery course. In 6 short lessons, you will understand the operating system that powers around 90% of the world's servers, all of the Top 500 supercomputers and most of the cloud.
What this course aims for: answering once and for all the questions "What exactly is Linux?", "What is the difference between Linux and Ubuntu?", "Why don't servers use Windows?", "Which distribution should I choose?" — without ever asking you to type a command.
What this course does not do: teaching you to use the terminal. Commands, user management, Bash scripting and security are the subject of the Premium Linux 1 to 5 path.
What you will discover
Course content
| # | Lesson | Main objective | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The problem Linux solves | Understand why servers do not use Windows | 6 min |
| 2 | What is Linux? | Kernel, distributions, Unix philosophy | 6 min |
| 3 | Which distribution to choose? | Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, RHEL, Alpine compared | 6 min |
| 4 | How Linux works | Kernel, shell, files, processes, permissions | 7 min |
| 5 | Real-world use cases | Web server, cloud, Docker, Kubernetes, embedded | 6 min |
| 6 | Recap and FAQ | Summary, frequent questions, next step | 5 min |
| 7 | Quiz and attestation | Validate what you learned with 5 corrected questions | 3 min |
Is this course for you?
- You are a computer science student and you see "Linux" everywhere without knowing what it is.
- You are a developer and you know your code runs "on a Linux server" without knowing what that implies.
- You are switching careers to DevOps and you know Linux is unavoidable.
- You are aiming for a system administrator position and want to understand why most of that job happens in a terminal.
- You are simply curious to understand the system that runs the Internet.
Prerequisites: knowing how to use a computer. That is all. No programming knowledge is required.
Course outline at a glance
What you will know at the end
No commands to memorize. By the end of the course, you will be able to:
- Explain in your own words why Linux dominates servers and not consumer desktops.
- Clearly distinguish the Linux kernel from the distributions (Ubuntu, Debian, Alpine).
- Choose the right distribution for a given context: learning, server, container, enterprise.
- Describe the Linux architecture: kernel, command interpreter, file system, processes, permissions.
- Identify the four major grounds where Linux is unavoidable: servers, cloud, containers, embedded.
- Understand the Unix philosophy and why it still influences the whole ecosystem.
⏱️ Estimated duration
About 35 minutes of reading in total. Each lesson is self-contained — you can read one per day, or chain them all in one evening.
Prerequisites and recommended companions
To read first, if you are a complete beginner:
- DevOps Practices Discovery — the entry gate of the path
Natural next steps after this course:
- Git — the concepts — version control, the second indispensable skill
- Docker Discovery — containers rely on Linux kernel mechanisms
- Premium Linux 1 to 5 path — the commands in practice
Frequent questions in one answer
What is the difference between Linux and Ubuntu?
Linux refers to the kernel — the central part managing memory, processes, files and hardware.
Ubuntu is a distribution: a complete, usable assembly gathering that kernel, a package manager, a command interpreter, system tools and a graphical interface.
Useful analogy: Linux is the engine, Ubuntu is the complete car. Debian, Fedora and Alpine are other cars with the same type of engine. Lesson 2 develops this.
Why don't servers use Windows?
Several reasons add up:
- No licence to pay — decisive at the scale of thousands of machines.
- Lightness — a Linux server needs no graphical interface.
- Stability — systems run for years without a reboot.
- Automation — everything is drivable from the command line, hence scriptable.
- Ecosystem — almost all server and cloud tools are designed for Linux first.
Details and figures in lesson 1.
Which distribution should I choose to start?
- To learn: Ubuntu. Abundant documentation, huge community, and most tutorials take it as reference.
- For a server: Debian, remarkably stable.
- In a company: RHEL or Rocky Linux, often expected for the support.
- For containers: Alpine, extremely lightweight.
Full comparison in lesson 3.
Do I need Linux to do DevOps?
Yes, it is a non-negotiable prerequisite. Almost all server infrastructure runs on Linux, Docker containers rely on Linux kernel mechanisms, and Kubernetes orchestrates Linux machines.
Without understanding processes, permissions and the file system, you would run commands without knowing what they do — and you would be stuck at the first real problem.
That is why Linux is the first step of our path.
Can Linux be used as a daily main system?
Yes, and it is more and more comfortable. Ubuntu, Fedora or Linux Mint offer a fully mature desktop experience.
The remaining friction points: some proprietary professional software (Adobe suite, some business tools) does not exist on Linux, and a few games remain problematic despite big recent progress.
For a developer, on the other hand, Linux is often more comfortable than the alternatives, because the development environment looks like the production environment.
This discovery course explains why Linux dominates and how it works. To learn to type the commands, manage users and permissions, write Bash scripts and harden a server, move on to the Premium Linux 1 to 5 path — included in all our paid plans.
Other discovery courses not to miss
- DevOps Practices — the entry gate of the path
- Git — the concepts — version control explained
- Docker Discovery — containers, built on Linux
- Kubernetes Discovery — orchestrating Linux machines
- Observability Discovery — logs and processes
- DevSecOps Discovery — permissions and least privilege
Ready? Start with lesson 1 →