Introduction

In our last chapter, we jumped right into how to make our hardware dance or at least blink for us. This time, you will learn more about how to bend the software to your will.

We'll build on some foundational principles first and then head towards greater complexity of scripts, including how to compile an open source software package, install it on your system, and troubleshoot it when things go out of whack. Lastly, we'll examine some core, system-level software called systemd, a framework that has become an essential ingredient in modern Linux distributions.