Linux for Absolute Beginners
From your first command to a web server you set up, back up and lock down
One payment of $39. Instant online access to the full written course. No subscription. Refund policy.
You will use the Linux command line comfortably and run a small Linux machine. You will manage files and text, control who can do what, install and run a web server, schedule a backup and close the network doors you do not use. You finish with a configured Linux server and a runbook that documents it.
Who it is for. Complete beginners who have never used a Linux command line. It suits people who want to run a small website or project on a Linux machine, and people who need basic Linux for an IT, web or cloud role.
You finish with. Your Configured Linux Server. Assemble everything into one small, working server. A Linux machine that you set up serves the bakery website with nginx, keeps dated backups on a schedule, exposes only the network doors it needs, proves its own health with a script, and comes with a runbook that another person could follow. The project grew one piece at a time through the module projects, so this is assembly and proof, not a new build.
Certificate. Finish every lesson, resolve every quiz question with at least 50% right on the first try, and tick the capstone checklist — Apex Flow Academy issues a verifiable Certificate of Completion with a unique ID and a public verification page. It is a certificate of completion, not a degree, licence, accreditation or exam result.
01 · Start Here: Get a Linux and Use the Terminal4 lessons
Choose a free practice Linux, learn the shape of every command, find your way around the folder tree, and build the practice folder you will use for the whole course.
- 1.1Pick Your Free Practice LinuxFREE
- 1.2Your First Commands
- 1.3Find Your Way and Build Your Practice Folder
- 1.4Get Help and Type Less
02 · Work with Files: Write, Copy, Move and Delete Safely4 lessons
Put text into files, copy and move them without losing work, match many files with wildcards, and delete with a safe routine that stops accidents before they happen.
- 2.1Put Text into Files: echo, Redirection, printf and nano
- 2.2Copy, Move and Rename Files
- 2.3Wildcards: Match Many Files at Once
- 2.4Delete Safely: rm, rmdir and the Preview Habit
03 · Read, Search and Combine Text4 lessons
Read long files without flooding the screen, search inside files with grep, chain small tools together with pipes, and find files by name, type and age. You will end by turning a raw web log into a short report.
- 3.1Read Long Files: less, head, tail and wc
- 3.2Search Inside Files with grep
- 3.3Combine Tools with Pipes
- 3.4Find Files with find
04 · Who Can Do What: Users, Permissions and Owners4 lessons
Meet users, groups and sudo, learn to read and change permissions, and hand out ownership so that the right accounts can reach the right files. You end by locking down your lab and preparing the folder that will hold your website.
- 4.1Users, Groups and sudo
- 4.2Read Permissions with ls -l
- 4.3Change Permissions with chmod
- 4.4Owners and Groups: chown and a Web Folder
05 · Run a Server: Software, Processes and a Live Website4 lessons
Install software with apt, see and stop running programs, control background services with systemctl, and put your bakery page on the web with nginx. You end by reading a real web log with the tools from Module 3.
- 5.1Install Software with apt
- 5.2See and Stop Running Programs
- 5.3Run a Service: nginx and systemctl
- 5.4Serve Your Website and Read Its Log
06 · Keep It Running: Scripts, Schedules, Doors and the Capstone4 lessons
Turn commands into a backup script, run it on a schedule with cron, close the network doors you do not use, and finish by proving your server works and writing the runbook that lets anyone else run it.
- 6.1Write a Backup Script
- 6.2Schedule It with cron
- 6.3Close the Doors You Do Not Use
- 6.4Capstone: Prove It and Write the Runbook
Pick Your Free Practice Linux
You will be able to
- Say what Linux, Ubuntu and a terminal are.
- Choose a free practice setup that fits your computer.
- Open a Linux terminal and check that it works.
Why this matters
You learn the command line by typing commands and reading what comes back. So your first job is to get a Linux machine that is free and safe. A mistake on it must never harm your own files.
Learn it
Linux is an operating system, like Windows or macOS. It runs many web servers. A distribution is a ready-made bundle of Linux plus software. This course uses Ubuntu, a popular distribution. When this course was written, the current long-term release was Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. Check ubuntu.com/download for the newest one.
The terminal is a window where you type commands. The shell is the program inside it that reads them. On Ubuntu the shell is called bash.
Pick one of these four free setups.
- WSL, on Windows. WSL means Windows Subsystem for Linux. It runs Ubuntu inside Windows. You need Windows 10 version 2004 or later, or Windows 11. This is the fastest start.
- A virtual machine, on any computer. A virtual machine (VM) is a pretend computer that runs in a window. VirtualBox is a free program for this. You also download an Ubuntu installer file, called an ISO. Ubuntu lists 1.5 GB of memory and 5 GB of disk as the minimum for Ubuntu Server. A VM is the closest thing to a real server.
- A live USB stick. You write Ubuntu onto a USB stick and start your computer from it. Ubuntu's guide says 4 GB or larger, but check the size of the file you download, because desktop images can be bigger. You can try Ubuntu without installing it. Nothing you change is kept after a restart.
- A browser terminal. JSLinux and WebVM run small Linux systems inside a web page. Nothing to install. They may not support every command in modules 4 to 6, and JSLinux offers small systems such as Alpine Linux, which has its own package tool.
Official pages, all free to use:
- WSL:
- VirtualBox:
- Ubuntu installer files:
- Live USB guide:
- JSLinux:
- WebVM:
Which one? On Windows, start with WSL. On a Mac, use a VM. Apple silicon Macs need the Arm build of Ubuntu, so check the VirtualBox page for current support. If you already run Linux, use a VM for modules 4 to 6 so a mistake cannot hurt your real system. Use a live USB or a browser terminal only to try things. The capstone needs a machine that keeps its changes. Paid cloud servers exist too, and you do not need one.
See it in action
This is the WSL path on Windows. A VM follows the same idea: install, start, log in.
- Open the Start menu, type PowerShell, right-click it and choose Run as administrator.
- Type
wsl --installand press Enter. Restart when it finishes. - Open Ubuntu from the Start menu. The first start takes a few minutes.
- Choose a user name and a password when asked. Nothing appears on screen as you type the password. That is normal.
- At the prompt, type these two commands.
$ uname -s
Linux
$ grep PRETTY_NAME /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 26.04 LTS"The first command prints the name of the system's core, called the kernel. The file /etc/os-release describes the distribution. The command grep picks out one line from it. Your version number may differ a little, for example 26.04.1.
Common mistakes
- Running
wsl --installwithout administrator rights. Windows blocks the change. Close the window and open PowerShell as administrator. - Thinking the password box is frozen. Linux shows no characters while you type a password. Type it and press Enter.
- Writing a USB stick to the wrong drive. The writing tool erases the drive you pick. Check the drive name twice, and back up anything on that stick first.
- Choosing a paid cloud server. It costs money and adds risk. A free setup teaches the same skills.
If this is not working: If wsl --install only shows help text, run wsl --list --online and then wsl --install -d Ubuntu. If a virtual machine will not start, look in your computer's firmware setup for a setting called virtualization, VT-x or SVM, because some computers ship with it turned off. If a download is slow, start it first and read on while you wait.
You are done when
You have a Linux terminal open. The command uname -s prints Linux. You know which of the four setups you will use for the rest of the course.
You finished the free lesson
That is one lesson from the course. The full course gives you every remaining lesson, a quick check and a hands-on task in each one, and the workbook of templates and checklists.
Full course$39
- A free practice Linux. On Windows, use WSL with Ubuntu. On any computer, use a virtual machine such as VirtualBox running Ubuntu Server. Both are free. Check each tool's current requirements before you start.
- If you use a virtual machine, the free Ubuntu Server installer file from ubuntu.com. Ubuntu lists 1.5 GB of memory and 5 GB of disk as the minimum for Ubuntu Server, and your own computer needs room on top of that.
- A machine that keeps its changes. A live USB stick or a browser-based terminal is fine for Modules 1 to 3, but Modules 4 to 6 need WSL or a virtual machine.
- A notebook or a plain text file for your notes
- Nothing to pay for. A paid cloud server is not needed for any lesson.
- A computer that runs Windows 10 (version 2004 or later), Windows 11, macOS or Linux, and that you may install free software on
- Administrator rights on that computer, so that you can install WSL or a virtual machine program
- A working internet connection
- No Linux or programming experience is needed
Your Configured Linux Server
Assemble everything into one small, working server. A Linux machine that you set up serves the bakery website with nginx, keeps dated backups on a schedule, exposes only the network doors it needs, proves its own health with a script, and comes with a runbook that another person could follow. The project grew one piece at a time through the module projects, so this is assembly and proof, not a new build.
- A practice lab in your home folder that is organized and locked down, with the modes and owners recorded in notes/permissions.txt
- nginx serving the folder /var/www/bakery at http://localhost, with a second page and a notes/web-report.txt summary built from the real access log
- The script bin/backup.sh, scheduled by cron for 02:30 every day, with at least one archive that you restored into another folder and compared with diff -r
- Firewall rules for ports 22 and 80 recorded with sudo ufw show added, and active on a virtual machine, or a written note of the limit if you use WSL
- The script bin/healthcheck.sh that prints three PASS lines and exits with status 0, a saved result file, and evidence that it printed FAIL when you stopped nginx
- The file notes/runbook.md with eight parts: what the server does, where things are, the daily check, how to restart the web server, how to restore from backup, how to change the website, what is exposed to the network, and what you do not yet know
- Linux
- The core of an operating system, like the engine of a car. Windows and macOS are other operating systems.
- Distribution
- A ready-made bundle of Linux plus software and tools, such as Ubuntu.
- Terminal
- A window where you type commands and read the answers.
- Shell
- The program inside the terminal that reads your commands and runs them. On Ubuntu it is bash.
- Path
- Directions to a file or folder. An absolute path starts with a slash. A relative path starts from where you are.
- Redirection
- Sending a command's output into a file instead of the screen. One arrow replaces the file, and two arrows add to the end.
- Wildcard
- A symbol in a file name, such as a star, that stands for other characters, so one pattern can match many files.
- Pipe
- The | symbol. It sends the output of one command into the next command as its input.
- Root
- The administrator account that can do anything on the machine. Do not confuse it with the top folder, which is also written as a slash.
- sudo
- A word you put before a command to run that one command as the administrator, after you give your own password.
- Permission
- A rule about who may read, write or run a file. There is one set for the owner, one for the group and one for everyone else.
- Owner and group
- Every file belongs to one user, its owner, and to one group of users. Permissions are set separately for each.
Browse the full Academy encyclopedia
13 checks were run and recorded while writing this course (code, formulas, commands and facts), and it lists 28 official sources it was checked against. Prices, features and policies of outside tools can change, so check each tool's own website.
Created by Apex Flow Academy with AI assistance. For education only; not legal, tax, financial or medical advice. Results depend on your effort and circumstances.
Python From Zero: Write Programs That Work
You write and run real Python programs from the first lesson, and you finish with three small working tools that you built yourself, tested with checks you wrote, and can change without starting over.
Python Automation: Make the Computer Do Your Boring Work
You automate files, spreadsheets, email drafts and web lookups that eat your week. You finish with your own script that plans before it acts, keeps a log, is tested against sample data, and runs on a schedule.
SQL: Ask Any Database Any Question
You will be able to write SQL that answers business questions from a database: choose and sort columns, filter rows, summarise and group, join tables, and check that your numbers are right. You finish with a report you built and checked yourself.