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CYBERSKILLS Academy
Beginner5h 11m · 18 learning steps · 3 required checkpoints

Basic OS & Linux

Understand what an operating system is actually doing, then drive Linux from the command line with confidence.

For anyone moving into IT or security who has used a computer for years but never looked underneath. No command-line experience is assumed: if you have never opened a terminal, this course still starts at the beginning, and an early lesson sets up a Linux you can safely break. The Setting Up course helps but is not required, and no compiler or other toolchain is needed.

Course preview

What you will be able to do

  • Explain what an operating system does, in plain language, without hand-waving
  • Move around a Linux filesystem and read what a listing is telling you
  • Read and change permissions, and recognise the permission mistakes attackers look for
  • Inspect running processes and keep a system patched
  • Chain commands together to answer a question from a log file
  • Write a shell script that takes arguments and stops safely when something is wrong
  • Schedule work to run unattended, and diagnose it when it fails
  • Reach and manage a remote machine over SSH using keys rather than passwords

Before you join

Course roadmap

English is available for every learning step.

This is the full learning route. Lessons build on earlier work; required checkpoints are the points where the route asks you to demonstrate it.

  1. 01

    What an operating system actually does

    Lesson · 12 min

  2. 02

    Linux, kernels, and distributions

    Lesson · 14 min

    Builds on: What an operating system actually does

  3. 03

    Get a Linux you can break

    Lesson · 15 min

    Builds on: What an operating system actually does

  4. 04

    The filesystem is one tree

    Lesson · 15 min

    Builds on: Linux, kernels, and distributions · Get a Linux you can break

  5. 05

    Move around and look at things

    Lesson · 16 min

    Builds on: The filesystem is one tree

  6. 06

    Create, copy, move, delete — safely

    Lesson · 18 min

    Builds on: Move around and look at things

  7. 07

    Users, groups, and root

    Lesson · 15 min

    Builds on: The filesystem is one tree

  8. 08

    Read and change permissions

    Required checkpoint · 22 min

    Builds on: Create, copy, move, delete — safely · Users, groups, and root

  9. 09

    Processes and keeping software current

    Lesson · 18 min

    Builds on: Read and change permissions

  10. 10

    Signals, jobs, and stopping things properly

    Lesson · 16 min

    Builds on: Processes and keeping software current

  11. 11

    Pipes, grep, and reading logs

    Required checkpoint · 20 min

    Builds on: Processes and keeping software current

  12. 12

    Patterns: regular expressions that earn their keep

    Lesson · 18 min

    Builds on: Pipes, grep, and reading logs

  13. 13

    Reshaping text: sed and awk

    Lesson · 18 min

    Builds on: Patterns: regular expressions that earn their keep

  14. 14

    Your first shell script

    Lesson · 18 min

    Builds on: Reshaping text: sed and awk

  15. 15

    Decisions and loops

    Lesson · 20 min

    Builds on: Your first shell script

  16. 16

    Writing scripts that fail safely

    Lesson · 18 min

    Builds on: Decisions and loops

  17. 17

    Scheduling work with cron

    Lesson · 16 min

    Builds on: Writing scripts that fail safely

  18. 18

    Working on remote machines with SSH

    Required checkpoint · 22 min

    Builds on: Scheduling work with cron

Learn with an account when access opens

Your CYBERSKILLS account will keep progress and checkpoint results together. Until then, this syllabus is here to help you choose the route that fits your goal.

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Basic OS & Linux · CYBERSKILLS Academy