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Here is a first time users guide to Unix. It won't be correct all the time because unlike MS-DOS and similar operating systems written by one company, there are literally hundreds of versions of Unix. Unix was developed by a couple of guys working for AT&T. They wanted a multitasking (doing many things at once) operating system for their own use. As is always the way when software engineers write something for their own use, it was totally user unfriendly. After all, the designers knew what everything did so there was no need for them to explain things. This strategy resulted in Unix's greatest strength and weakness. Almost anything can be done from the Unix command line. With a bit of skill a Unix guru can make the tea without getting up. Unfortunately the commands of Unix had no corresponding verbs in English and so most Unix commands are abbreviations built up from several english words. Unix is a multi-user system. Most personal computer systems are single- user, i.e., they think that there is one person sitting in front of the keyboard and monitor but they don't know who. Unix can have many people using that single computer at the same time. They can be sitting in front of a variety of devices such as dumb terminals (they only give you letters and numbers on the screen) or fancy X-terminals with graphics and a mouse. When you sit down in front of a keyboard, monitor and mouse the Unix computer doesn't have to be in the same box. It may be in a different room or even halfway across the world! (This gives some net surfers a distorted view of geography. They often think that the UK is closer to the US than France, say, because there are faster computer links to the States. The computers "appear" quicker.) So that the computer knows one user from another, each person is given a unique User ID. My first Unix User ID was "zmacy61." This was fairly typical of colleges which have hundreds of users. It was later changed to the more friendly "alm" (my initials). At work I am "alexmc." Thankfully someone asked me what User ID I wanted. Once we have gone to all that trouble to give everyone their own ID it seems a shame that you could pretend to be someone you don't like and send rude electronic mail messages to your teachers or boss. For this and other reasons, users not only have to know their ID, but they have to remember a password as well. This ought to be a near random bunch of letters that only the user knows. It mustn't be written down anywhere. It will be stored on the computer in an encrypted form. If you forget your password no one will be able to tell you what it is. Your only recourse is to grovel to your system administrator who has the ability to wipe your password. He will get all pissed off at yet another newbie who can't remember a simple password and modify a file called /etc/passwd which, as you might guess, contains all the User ID's and passwords. It is a statistical fact that five people in every class of one hundred forget their password sometime in their first year. How you get and change your password will depend upon your own site. You will be told. There are several important things to consider when choosing passwords: Firstly you must choose one you can remember, and secondly you must choose one that no one else can guess. Unfortunately I can't help you to remember your password, but there are many tips you ought to follow in order to make your password difficult to guess. You must never make your password a word in the dictionary. Many computers have electronic word lists and it is an easy task for some hacker (or student) to write a program which takes each word in the dictionary and tries to log in with it. Some computers reject any password which is in their dictionary for that very reason. It is a bad idea making your password a swear word or any word related to sex. These are very common passwords and these are usually appended to the word list of our proverbial hacker program. Make the password long. Most systems require six to eight characters - and if the system allows characters like !@#$%^&*()+-=:";'., then use them too. Another tip is not to use the names of your wife, boyfriend, kids, cat. Don't use your car number plate or phone number. These are favourites because people think "No one will guess that!" You should choose a password which you can type quickly so that people looking over your shoulder don't get all the characters. There are exceptions to this such as "qwerty", "fred", "123456" which are really bad ideas. My favourite password was "No.4Nem". It isn't a word, it contains punctuation marks, and I could remember it because it was on a poster: a full length Bryan Talbot picture of Nemesis the Warlock, Number 4 in the series. Ok? Got that? Now we can login and start to use the system. All articles written by me are Copyright Alex McLintock. They may be copied and distributed for any edition of the Project Galactic Guide. They may not be separated from the Guide or used for any purpose other than as a part of the Project Galactic Guide. (Ask first!)