#Linux for OMEGA Beginners

This tutorial is intended for new Omega users who are new to Linux.

By the end of this tutorial, users should be comfortable with some of the Omega’s built in functionality as well as getting started with their own projects.

##Introduction to Linux

####What Is Linux?

In short, Linux is an operating system (OS). Like its counterparts, Windows and OS X, it provides the software bridge between applications and hardware processes. As an example, the OS will relay instructions from an application to the computer’s processor and then pass the results back to the application. Unlike the previously mentioned OSs, Linux is mostly Open Source. This means that no one part is responsible for the development or support, rather development is collaborative. Refer to this article for a more extensive read on Linux. Linux comes in many distributions/distros (versions) each tailored to serve particular applications.

####What Distribution Does The Omega Run?

The OMEGA runs OpenWRT. OpenWRT is the most distribution most catered towards embedded applications and can typically be found running on routers. OpenWRT is robust; in that supports many packages and architecture which makes it ideal for embedded devices. In the interest of being memory efficient, OpenWRT doesn’t come with all of the packages found on a larger distribution such as Ubuntu and available packages may have functionality stripped down.

For now we will move onto using OpenWRT on the Omega, but we do encourage users to further peruse the OpenWRT wiki which can be found here.

Next, we will move onto introducing users to the command line interface.