Learning About Your System

Since knowledge is power, it is logical to want to know more about your system—or at least to know what tools are available at a given point in time.

If there are issues of software compatibility, it may be helpful to know the exact kernel build that you are running on.

To view information about the machine and operating system:

1.
At the command prompt, type uname -a.
2.
Press Enter. The computer will respond with text along these lines: 
								Linux linuxbear 2.2.5-15 #1 Mon Apr 19 23:00:46 EDT 1999 i686 unknown
The response to the uname -a command provides the following information: Linux:Name of the operating system (-s) linuxbear:Host name (-n) 2.2.5-15 #1:Release number of the kernel (-r) Mon Apr 19 23:00:46 EDT 1999: ...

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