You will need a basic lab setup and at least a system with 8 GB of RAM and a dual-core processor. If you are planning to create a virtual environment, then a system with the same memory and a quad-core processor is recommended.

A VirtualBox and a VMware workstation are the best options for Windows. For Mac systems, run the testing system on parallels.

Throughout the book, we have used CentOS 7 minimal as the operating system.

We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/FundamentalsofLinux_ColorImages.pdf.

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "The first CentOS 7 VM server can now be accessed using the IP 127.0.0.1 with port 2222, the second at port 2223, and the third at port 2224."

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

# yum update -y 

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "Select our CentOS 7 server VM and click on the green Start button to start it."