If you’re a student or new user looking for a Linux system to start learning on, the easiest place to start is Ubuntu Linux OS. It’s a great Linux operating system for Linux beginners. Ubuntu is an open-source Linux operating system that runs on desktops, laptops, servers, and other devices. Students and new users will find that Linux isn’t so different than Windows in many ways, especially when it comes to its filesystem layout. Both Linux and Windows have a hierarchical filesystem layout, meaning there is a single “root” directory and all other directories branch off the root directory. Windows directories are designated with letters, such as C: or D: and Linux root directory is designated as / Linux systems have several directories under their ( / ) directory. Windows on the other hand have few because Windows keeps everything under the:
C:/Program Files C:/Program Files (x86) C:/Users C:/Windows
Windows keeps applications either in C:/Program Files or the C:/Program Files (x86) directory. Individual user profiles are kept in the C:/Users directory. Linux on the other hand keeps its applications mostly under the /usr directory and individual user profiles are kept under the /home directory. Linux /home directory corresponds to the Windows C:/Users directory. These are the default user profile directories where all user’s content is stored by default on both systems. When writing a directory path under a Linux system, you should always begin it with the root ( / ) directory. similarly, Windows should start with its root ( C:\ ). Below is a table of Linux filesystem directories: As you can see above, Linux has many more directories branching off its root directory. Windows stores configuration files in many different locations, most of them reside somewhere under the C:\Windows directory and many other sub-directories like C:\Windows\system, C:\Windows\system32, and others. Linux uses the /etc/ directory to keep configurations settings and others Below is an image of both Windows and Linux filesystem layout Linux (Ubuntu ) Windows 10 Filesystem That’s it! There is more to this topic, but our goal here was just to provide an introduction to both filesystems and how their directories are layout.
