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title: common terms every Linux user should know.
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# Common terms every Linux user should know.

* <strong>Distro:</strong> it is a shortened word for ‘distribution’; and a distribution is a particular brand of GNU/Linux operating system – like Redhat, Fedora, Ubuntu, and Debian.

* <strong>Shell:</strong>  this is the program that reads your command input and runs the specified commands. The dollar sign (`$’) preceding the cursor is called the shell prompt; it tells you that the system is ready and waiting for inputs in the form of commands.

* <strong>CLI:</strong>  stands for <em>Command Line Interface</em>. It's the simple user interface that provides the services needed by the user to interact with Linux OS using text commands. It protect the user from having to know intricate hardware details.

* <strong>GUI:</strong>  stands for graphic user interface. It is the part of the Linux system that comprises windows, icon, pictures (graphics in general), that make point and click possible.

* <strong>Flavors:</strong>  Unix has Flavours and linux is one of them, just like linux has a lot of distros which are maintained by different organisations.

* <strong>Terminal:</strong>  is an application that is used to access the Linux shell.

* <strong>Kernel:</strong>  this the core of the Linux system – what you could call a “brain”. The kernel controls the resources of a computer and determines how they are used by interacting directly with the computer hardware.

* <strong>Tux:</strong>  it is the official mascot of Linux. That is the penguin that is usually associated with Linux – if you’ve seen the yellow and black penguin online, then you have seen tux.

* <strong>User:</strong> since Linux is a multi-user based system, it 's common to have different users, each other with his own account. Are called users also, some services running in background. Informations about the users of the system are located in the “/etc/passwd” file. 

* <strong>Commands:</strong> are text inputs or instruction given to the linux machine (by typing it in the terminal) to tell it what to do (that is, for a required outcome).  

* <strong>Repository:</strong>  a repository (or “repo” for short) is a collection of software packages for a distro usually hosted online. Software programs can be installed from both the default repositories provided by the distro and third-party ones when they’re added to the package manager.

* <strong>Package Manager:</strong>  is a software program that enables you to search, install, update, and remove apps and other application management functions. Every distro has graphic from end package managers (like the Ubuntu Software Centre) and command line package management tools like the “apt-get”.

* <strong>Dependency:</strong>  a dependency is a software program that the program you want to install needs to run. When a program is being installed it gives a list of its dependencies to the default package manager to check if they are already installed, and download them from a repository if they’re not.
