Green as a dollar

[steeldriver]

The above is all fine and dandy, but IMHO is "too much information"

As a regular user, you don't need to worry about /dev or any of the hda, sda, fd0 and so on - these are low level device files that the user (almost) never needs to interact with

In desktop versions of Ubuntu, there are some default directories under /home/username which is where you will spend 99% of your time:

/home
├── steeldriver
│   ├── Desktop
│   ├── Documents
│   ├── Downloads
│   ├── Music
│   ├── Pictures
│   ├── Public
│   ├── Templates
│   └── Videos

For example, /home/user/Downloads is where most browsers will default to saving downloaded content from the internet.

Things like floppies, USB sticks and other external drives will generally automount under /media/user

/media
└── steeldriver
    └── 387D-22B1

[oldos2er]

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Li...emTreeOverview

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesy...archy_Standard

[Mike Zahorik]

Thanks for the replies. Actually, that 'too much information' is exactly what I'm looking for. Figuring out how Word or a spreadsheet works is rather boring. I'm more interesting in the mechanics of the operating system. I found a book at the library, yesterday, 'Beginning Ubuntu Linux'. Although it was written when Ubuntu 9.04 was the thing, it has some good stuff in it. The first 10 chapters are basic stuff I think I figured out already. But after that there is a chapter on the file system, which I will be experimenting with. Then there is a chapter about the BASH, which I find very interesting. I'm more interested in learning about the kernel and the shell rather than the GUI. They also talk about alternate Bash's. So, I have a bunch of new things to try and I'm sure that questions will follow. Thanks a lot, Mike

[Bucky Ball]

Don't forget to have a dig around the threads in here. You might pick up something interesting.

[Topsiho]

Probably things get more clear when you realize that Linux derives from Unix, which was an OS used in big mainframes, that were operated by an operator, and served many clients (some times from all over the world) who had accounts. So Unix, and thus Linux, are multi user multi tasking OS's from the start, run by a root, with (one or) many accounts.
The users each had/have their own directory under /home, that they can use, without having access to the directories of the system itself, or of the other users, unless permissions are set to give access. So reading about permissions is one paramount item you have to do.

The operator (root) has all rights on the system to enable him to run it, to change the system files and configurations, to administer the accounts, and so on.

In Ubuntu the user who installed the system is a normal user, without admin rights (he is no root), but is usually the only user who can get these rights using sudo.
That's why he can change system files and configurations, if he precedes his command by sudo, and gives his password. He then is root for a period of 15 minutes. This for safety reasons, so no one uses his system as root full time.

This also answers your question that as a normal user you don't save or read files to or from another place then from your own directory under /home, except when you use another medium, such as an external disk or USB thumb, which usually is mounted under /media, as someone already mentioned here.

Success

Topsiho