Welcome back! So far we have covered HTML and CSS, and up next this we are meant to cover JavaScript, however, I ended up deciding to take a little break from our web development series to cover other topics. So in this blog, we will be going through some of the basics of Operating Systems. So without further ado, let's jump right in!
Introduction
Operating systems are an essential part of the IT
support. Everyone uses a computer to accomplish something,
whether that's browsing the web,
writing a novel, making graphics,
playing video games, et cetera.
Whatever the case may be,
they need to interact with their operating system to do.
In I.T.
support, it's essential to understand how operating systems
work so you can help someone accomplish the task they set out to do so,
whether that's figuring out why an application won't start,
why the graphics look funny on their video games, or anything else.
Things can get really messy and challenging and that's part of the fun. So let's begin.
Remote Connection and SSH
Picture this, you're on your way to an important meeting,
You've been rehearsing for this presentation all
week and now you're ready to
show the big wigs what you got.
But wait, the presentation, where is it?
It's not on your laptop, where could it be?
It turns out you forgot
your only copy on your desktop at home.
It's too late now to turn around and get it,
so you sit there fearing the inevitable.
But wait a minute, suddenly,
you remember that you will have
a remote connection setup from
your laptop to your desktop.
You use this connection to
log into your computer at home,
and just as if you are sitting at home,
you're able to grab the file from
your desktop and copy it to your laptop.
You then proceed to give one amazing presentation. This is known as establishing a Remote Connection.
SSH or Secure Shell is a protocol implemented by
other programs to securely
access one computer from another.
To use SSH, you need to have
an SSH client installed on the computer you're
connecting from, along with
an SSH server on
the computer you're trying to connect to.
Keep in mind that when we say SSH server,
we don't mean another physical
machine that serves data.
An SSH server is just a software.
On the remote machine,
the SSH server is running as a background process.
It constantly checks if
a client is trying to connect to it,
then will authenticate its requests.
The most popular program to use SSH within
Linux is the OpenSSH program, and for a
Windows machine we use
the popular Open Source program PuTTY.
SSH keys come in a set of
two keys called private and public keys.
You can think of them as actual physical keys
to a bank locker.
You can use one key to lock the safe,
but it won't unlock it.
The other key can then only unlock the safe,
but not lock it.
That's basically how public and private keys work.
You can lock something with the public key,
but you can only unlock it with
a private key and vice versa.
This ensures that whatever is in the safe is
available to only those with the public and private keys.
Another way that you can connect securely to the
remote machine is through a VPN.
A VPN is a virtual private network.
It allows you to connect to a private network
like your work network over the Internet.
Think of it as a more sophisticated SSH
with a lot more setup.
It allows you to access
resources like shared file servers and
network devices as if
you are connected to your work network.
Microsoft actually provides another way to connect to
other Windows computers called
the Remote Desktop Protocol or RDP.
They're also RDP clients for Linux and OS X
too like real VNC and Microsoft RDP on Mac.
RDP provides users with a graphical user interface to
remote computers provided the remote computer
has enabled incoming RDP connections.
A client program called the
Microsoft terminal services client or
mstsc.exe is used to
create RDP connections to remote computers.
You can enable remote connections on
your computer by opening up the Start menu,
right-clicking on This PC, then selecting Properties.
For more information about remote connections in windows, check out the comparison of various SSH clients, the PowerShell team blog, and click here, to view the latest PuTTY updates.PuTTY tutorial : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umFEuHWJW3w
SSH beginner's guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWKK_PNHnnA
OpenSSH tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ7h5FxlTVg
Components of an Operating System
A lot of us hear the term operating system and think of the interfaces of
our
desktops and phones like the menus, buttons, and backgrounds.
Technically, these are part of the operating system,
but it's a little more complex than that.
An operating system is a whole package that manages
our computer resources and lets us interact with them.
There are two main parts to an operating system,
the kernel, and the user space.
The kernel is the main core of an operating system.
It talks directly to our hardware and manages our systems resources.
As users, we don't interact with the kernel directly.
Instead, we interact with the second part of an operating system the, user space.
The user space is basically made up of everything outside the kernel. Anyways we are not gonna go deep into the individual aspects of the kernel, that's probably the topic for another blog. Click here, if you want to explore more about the various kernel levels.
Types of Operating Systems
but we'll focus on the major ones used in IT;
Windows, Mac, and Linux.
The Windows OS is developed by Microsoft
and used widely in the business and consumer space.
Most PCs you buy come with windows as the default operating system.
The Mac OS by Apple
is mainly used in the consumer space.
If you buy an Apple computer,
it'll come with Mac OS preloaded.
The last operating system we'll dive into is the Linux operating system.
Linux is an open-source operating system,
which means its software is free to share, modify, and distribute.
Linux is used heavily in business infrastructure and in the consumer space.
Linux itself is actually a kernel developed by Linus Torvalds.
Because of the way it evolved,
we call the Linux kernel the Linux operating system.
Today, Linux has become a huge community effort with
developers all over the world contributing to its success.
Because Linux is open-source,
lots of different organizations package their own version of it.
Operating systems like Windows or Macintosh, on the other hand,
are solely developed by their respective companies.
We call these different Linux OSes distributions.
Some common Linux distributions are Ubuntu,
Debian, and Red Hat.
Another operating system that has started to gain popularity is Chrome OS,
but we won't go into detail on that one.
You can read more about it here!
We also won't go over any of
the operating systems used in mobile devices like Android OS,
iOS, and Windows 10 mobile.
But you should be aware that mobile phone operating systems are
quickly overtaking their desktop counterparts in terms of quantity.
Mobile phone usage around the world is more prevalent than desktop computers.
One cool thing to call out is that Chrome OS and
Android OS both run the Linux kernel underneath the hood.
So, there's a chance you've already worked with Linux and don't even know it.
There are lots of operating systems out there and they all share common characteristics.
If you're able to understand the basic building blocks of one OS,
you can apply that to any operating system and understand how it works.
In IT support, it's super common to work with
many different operating systems from desktop OSes to smartphone OSes and more.
Choosing an Operating System
Well, you need to ask yourself a couple of questions.
Has the decision already been made?
The operating systems in use by an organization
have a lot to do with the applications and systems that they need to run.
Are you working with an organization or
service that requires the use of a specific operating system?
If so, you're done that's easy.
If the decision hasn't been made on what OS to use, or if you're looking for
an operating system for personal use, then you need to ask yourself,
what software will need to be run on this device.
In lots of cases,
the software will be designed to run on a specific operating system.
It's also possible that the software is cross platform,
meaning it can run on more than one operating system.
Another question to ask is, what hardware will be used?
Modern operating systems do a pretty good job of supporting common hardware.
Awesome You just took the first step towards understanding the basics of an operating system. It's not that we have covered everything here, but I believe I have given you a basic overview. If you are really interested in continuing this journey, go on, focus on different kernel levels, especially process management, we might have a part two of this blog where we would be going a little too far from the basics, Anyhow for now this is pretty much it,
I think imma sign off for now, and we'll meet again in another blog, where we will be going into the basics of Internet and Networking, until then see yall take care!
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Keep writing.. Its now taking a shape.. 👍
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