When you first start with Linux, you might come across new terminologies and lingo that you're unfamiliar with. For many users, this might be a chance to learn something new, while for others, the use of unnecessary jargon makes Linux and the open-source world seem complicated.

If you find yourself in similar shoes but would rather embrace the uniqueness of Linux than run away, we've compiled a list of some of the most common Linux terms, jargon, and lingo for you to make your transition to Linux as smooth as possible.

1. Linux

Starting with the most common and prominent term: "Linux." You might think that someone who has installed Linux might obviously know what it is. But that's not the case every time. Some users are under the wrong impression that Linux is an operating system. Instead, Linux is a free and open-source kernel developed by Linus Torvalds in 1991, which brings us to our next jargon.

2. Kernel

The kernel is the part of your computer that helps the operating system interact with the hardware. Whenever you click an on-screen button with your mouse or press a key on the keyboard, the information goes through the kernel which in turn, communicates with the OS to take the data as input and display the output using the hardware (monitor).

3. GNU

GNU, a recursive acronym for "GNU's Not Unix," is a collection of open-source tools that anyone can use for free to develop their own apps and operating systems. The GNU Project, founded by Richard Stallman, aims at developing and distributing software for free and provides every developer with open-source tools to do the same.

The Linux kernel is licensed under GNU's GPL (General Public License) and is thus known as GNU/Linux. Any operating system developed using the open-source GNU tools and the Linux kernel falls under the category of Linux distributions. But what are distributions, you might ask?

4. Distributions (Spins, Flavors, and Remixes)

Linux distributions
Various Linux distributions supported on Flatpak.org.

As mentioned above, any operating system that uses the Linux kernel to communicate with the computer hardware is called a Linux distribution. The word "distribution," or distro for short, comes from the process of sharing, essentially "distributing" Linux-based operating systems for free.

Developers and Linux tinkerers also release spins and remixes of mainstream Linux distros. A "spin" or "remix" refers to a customized or derived version of the original operating system. Generally, the difference between the base OS and its spin lies in the desktop interface or package selection, or both.

Take Ubuntu for example. It has several flavors of itself including Xubuntu, Lubuntu, and Kubuntu, each with a different desktop environment. Similarly, Fedora refers to its unofficial derivatives as "spins." Overall, spin, remix, and flavor, each one of them has the same meaning.

5. Desktop Environments

Linux Mint desktop interface

To make computing simpler for the users, operating systems have a desktop that offers a graphical way to manage the system. Windows and macOS are well-known for their signature desktops, but Linux does its thing very differently.

On Linux, you'll find a lot of desktops, better known as desktop environments, available to install for free. Desktop environments usually come with a window manager program and several apps and widgets that, when combined with the window manager, enrich the user experience. Some popular desktop environments are GNOME, KDE Plasma, XFCE, Pantheon, and LXDE.

6. Window Managers

window manager customization

Window managers are programs that control the placement and movement of windows on your screen. Although window managers usually work behind the scenes with desktop environments, you can also use them separately on your Linux machine. They can be complicated to set up for non-technical users though, which is primarily the reason why not everyone prefers to use them in the first place.

Window managers are lightweight and offer better performance than desktop environments as they don't ship with a host of unnecessary apps and widgets. You'll even have to install a standalone menu and compositor if you go for a window manager.

i3wm, bspwm, awesome, and Fluxbox are some popular window managers. KDE Plasma and GNOME desktops use the KWin and Mutter window managers under the hood.

7. Terminal

If you're new to Linux, you might recall getting a glimpse of a black window with a lot of text on it. That's the Linux terminal, also known as the command line.

The terminal is a program used to control your operating system's shell. A shell is a text-based or graphical interface that you use to interact with your desktop. The Linux terminal is similar to Command Prompt on Windows and helps an administrator control and manage their system efficiently.

While other OSes have long moved on from using terminal emulators, the command line is still prevalent on Linux-based operating systems.

8. Root

On Linux, root refers to two things: the root directory and the root user. The root directory is the parent directory that contains every file and folder on your system. You can use the wildcard "/" (forward slash) to denote the root directory in your commands.

On the other hand, the root user, also known as the superuser, or simply root, is the user that has all administrative privileges. The root user can view and edit any file, make changes to the system or other users, and even delete the whole directory hierarchy. Simply put, it is the Linux user with the highest level of control.

9. Package Managers

On Linux, apps are distributed in the form of packages and are available in the official repositories of your distribution. A package manager is a program used to manage packages on a Linux system. It allows you to add or delete packages from sources such as your distro's repositories. You can also add additional third-party repositories with a package manager if you want, however.

APT, RPM, and pacman are the three most popular package managers found on Linux distros. Debian and Ubuntu-based distributions use the APT package manager; Fedora, CentOS, and RHEL have the RPM package manager, whereas Arch Linux and its derivatives ship with pacman.

10. Source and Binary Packages

A package in Linux refers to an archive that contains the files necessary for the execution or installation of a program. Software on Linux is usually distributed as packages and there are two types of packages available to the users: source and binary packages.

Source packages contain the source code of a program that a user has to manually compile and install to run the software. A binary package, on the other hand, contains prebuilt and pre-compiled executables for the software.

11. Repositories

Software repositories are remote servers that store a collection of packages along with the related metadata. Every Linux distro either has its own set of repositories or uses repositories of its parent distro to provide software to the users.

12. Bootloader (GRUB)

A bootloader is a program responsible for booting your computer. Usually, the operating system and its data are stored in non-volatile storage disks, HDDs for example. The bootloader helps load the correct operating system during boot time and adds initial processes to the memory.

GRUB is one of the most used bootloaders when dual-booting Windows with Linux. Other examples include LILO, BURG, and Syslinux.

13. Process

Every program you launch on your system runs as a collection of processes in the background. A process is the fundamental instance of a running program that does the computation on your computer.

The web browser you just opened to browse the internet launches a process, or a set of processes to help you interact with it and browse the internet. Similarly, your system's file manager, terminal, media player, and every other program depends on processes to produce the output.

14. Shells (Bash, Zsh, etc.)

As mentioned before, a shell is an interface that helps you interact with your system. It can either be a command-line interface like the terminal or a graphical one like the GNOME Shell. A shell also acts as a command interpreter for any command you enter in the terminal.

You can install several different shells on Linux. Examples include Bash, Zsh, Fish, sh, Ksh, etc. Each shell has the same role: helping the user and processes interact with other processes on the system.

15. Shell Scripting

When you write a bunch of Linux commands and wrap them up together in a single file, the resulting file is called a "shell script." Shell scripting is the process of writing scripts using Linux commands, which are then interpreted by the shell installed on your system. Batch scripts are the Windows equivalent to shell scripts on Linux.

The most popular form of shell scripting is Bash scripting, which refers to writing and executing scripts using the Bash shell. Shell scripts are a powerful way to automate tasks on your Linux machine; they make computing a lot simpler and fun for the users.

There's a Lot More Left to Learn About Linux!

Knowing the terms and jargon brings you a step closer to your goal of becoming a Linux power user. To be able to use Linux to its full potential, you should be well-versed with the command line and know how to troubleshoot the operating system to make it work for you, and not the other way around.