Introducing operating systems
An operating system (OS) is a software program that acts as an intermediary between computer hardware and user applications. You’re probably familiar with Windows, Android, and iOS, which are all different types of operating systems with their own unique features and applications.
Linux is an open source OS known for its Unix-like architecture, allowing users to configure and modify the system according to their specific needs. Like other Unix-based systems, it arranges files and directories in a hierarchical structure. The root directory is at the very top of this hierarchy, denoted by a forward slash (/).
The root directory is the top-level directory in an OS filesystem’s tree-like hierarchy and is the starting point for all other directories and files. For example, if you see a file path such as /home/user/file.txt, the leading forward slash indicates that it is referencing a location relative to the root directory. That location...
