System Configuration Using the GUI

• The System Settings menu, allows to perform basic configuration
• gnome-tweaks allows for selecting a theme, configuring extensions, control fonts, and set which programs start when you login (among others).

Displays

• Can be accessed in the settings menu
• Allows to configure display (resolution, orientation, etc.)
• Configure multiple screens

Date and Time

• Linux uses Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) for its own internal time keeping.
• It uses NTP (Network time protocol) to sync the time
• More detailed configuration is possible by editing the standard NTP configuration file /etc/ntp.conf

Networks

• For this, the Network Manager is used.
• For Wired Connections : The Manager sets everything via DHCP. For static networks (no dynamic IP) setup can also be done. In the manager (if supported) even the MAC address can be changed
• For Wireless Connections: Are not connected by default, the manager allows to see the available ones
• VPN connections are also supported, including native IPSec, Cisco OpenConnect, Microsoft PPTP, OpenVPN

Installing and Updating Software

• Software in Linux comes in form of packages.
• They can depend on one another
• All systems have a lower-level utility which handles the details of unpacking a package and putting the pieces in the right places. ANd a a higher-level utility which knows how to download packages from the Internet and can manage dependencies and groups.

Debian Family

• dpkg (low level):
  • Install, remove, and build packages
  • No downloading or dependencies
• apt (high level) :
  • Each debian distro has its own interface on top (apt, apt-get, aptitude, synaptic, Ubuntu Software Center, Update Manager, etc)

RHEL Family

• rpm (low level): Used by RH but also SUSE/penSUSE, Mageia, CentOS, Oracle Linux, a.o
• yum, dnf (high level)

Open SUSE Family

Uses rpm through YAST(Yet Another Setup Tool) which is a graphical interface.