Linux Filesystems 101 - Block Devices
What next?
Want to learn more about Linux filesystems? Here are some recommendations.
Reinforcing
Here are some other resources you can use to reinforce the information covered in this course.
Actual hardware
The best way to learn about Linux filesystems is to experiment with an actual machine. Luckily Linux doesn't need very new or fast hardware to run well. If you have an old PC or laptop lying around collecting dust, this would be a good candidate for installing Linux for experimentation purposes.
The VMs in this course use stock Ubuntu version 16.04. If you're experimenting with older hardware, you might want to consider using either the Lubuntu or Xubuntu flavors of Ubuntu.
VirtualBox
While arguably not the best VM software available, VirtualBox has these important points going for it:
- It runs on Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux
- It's easy to install and configure
- It's free!
If you don't have extra hardware lying around to play with, running Linux in a VM is a decent alternative, as you have already seen!
Manpages
Almost all Linux commands have well maintained documentation built right into the operating system. This information is called the Linux manpages (manual) and can be accessed from a command line via the man command. For example:
man fdisk
This will give you information on the usage of the fdisk command. You can also find these manuals online. The Ubuntu manuals are located at http://manpages.ubuntu.com/. As an example, take a look at the manpage for fdisk.
Expansion
Here are some resources to expand your knowledge of Linux filesystems. They build on the information introduced in the course you have just completed.
Future Tech.io courses
Okay. I haven't written the next course in this series yet. But I have big plans! Keep your eyes open for Linux Filesystems 102 - Disk Partitions. (Link TBD)
Linux Advanced File System Management (Pluralsight)
Pluralsight is an excellent online training site. It offers a large number of courses on a wide variety of topics, presented by very knowledgeable experts. Pluralsight is a paid resource, but it is well worth the money if you are serious about a career in technology.
The Linux Advanced File System Management Pluralsight course, by Andrew Mallett, covers many of the same topics that we have learned here, but also gives much more detail about topics such as XFS, btrfs, RAID, and LVM.
More Linux commands to inspect hardware (BinaryTides)
The BinaryTides article on 16 commands to check hardware information on Linux gives a very comprehensive list of ways to explore your Linux computer's hardware.