Maintaining your Linux OS

Abstract

UNIX is a very stable operating system and all of the well-known distributions of Linux also provide very reliable day-to-day computing environments. This said, you will have to maintain your system both routinely — monitoring disk usage, changing user passwords, etc. — and also on a more occasional basis — configuring network usage, installing new software, and so on. The Web is a very good source of information on Linux administration and maintenance; this chapter is intended only to provide you with a basic toolkit, the key components of which will be sufficient for the day-to-day management of your Linux system. It may well be the case that you want to do more with Linux; this chapter also provides a basis from which you can begin to explore the exciting world of Linux networking. With the introduction of networking comes the responsibility of security; if so this is also covered towards the end of the chapter. Finally, if you are not happy with your Linux installation then you will want to uninstall the operating system, and details of how to do so are provided at the end of the chapter.