1 Chapter 2 Linux Command Line Basics 2.1 Overview System administrators are responsible for server reliability, performance, and security. To fulfill these responsibilities, a system administrator must be able to monitor and control a computer system. System administrators control and monitor Linux servers by issuing commands. He or she can issue the commands directly using the command line interface or indirectly using a GUI interface. The command line interface is nearly identical in every Linux distribution. Linux distributions include one or more GUI desktop managers. The most common managers are GNOME and KDE. The appearance and behavior of the desktop environment varies considerably depending on which desktop manager is selected. By default, when you start Fedora it opens to the GNOME interface (If you are not already logged into Fedora, you should login using an account without root privilege). The examples in this chapter primarily use the command line interface. To follow along with the examples you must access a command line prompt. At the top of the Gnome desktop is a menu bar. This menu bar has menus for Ap plications, Places, and System. The last entry in the applications menu is System Tools. When you place your mouse over this entry a submenu appears. In the System Tools submenu select “Terminal” to access the command line in Fedora.