What is Unix?Unix-PC Comparisons

Let's take a look at another example. Suppose you have a folder called "docs" on your personal computer, phone or stored in a cloud somewhere. Let's say you have "personal" and "schoolwork" subfolders in there, and that inside your personal folder you have a subfolder with your photos from 2015, and that they're arranged into monthly subfolders. How do you get into March 2015's photo area? Easy - you keep clicking on or touching the appropriate folder, until it opens the next, and then the next folders until you can see March 2015 - then you click on it.

Typical PC desktop environment showing folder structure

In Unix, you'd simply type the following at the command line to perform the same task: "cd /docs/personal/photos/2015/march".

# cd /docs/personal/photos/2015/march

Although you can't see your photos as icons here, the computer is performing exactly the same actions as you did by clicking on all those folders. Additionally, you can then list the photos in the directory, rename them one at a time or all at once, move them to other directories or even other computers, or much more - all by just typing a few characters.

The rest of the tutorial will introduce you to the file structures in Unix, how to navigate them, and how to use many common commands and programs to efficiently perform the work you need to accomplish.