These 4 alien Linux concepts confused me when I switched from Windows

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Switching from Windows to Linux isn’t like switching from one app to another, where the concepts stay the same and only the layout changes. Linux introduces a lot of unique and unfamiliar ideas that can clash with years of intuition and muscle memory you’ve built up as a Windows user. Here are four of the most alien concepts that left me completely disoriented when I was new to Linux.

The Linux file system

There are no letters—just symbols

When I switched over from Windows to Linux, I wasn’t expecting the file system to be the first thing that would trip me up—but there I was.

On Windows, you’ve got a lettered drive system for organizing all the files and folders on your PC. In most cases, all you really need is the C: drive, where you can store everything. However, many people prefer to create additional partitions like a D: drive or an E: drive for their media files and other stuff, while keeping C: isolated for system files.

Now, Windows does follow some inherent logic to where you should install apps and store files, but you aren’t bound to it. You can use the C: drive exclusively for storage and the D: drive for installing apps—or even install Windows on D: if you want, and it should still work. This makes Windows much more flexible.

Coming to Linux, it has no drive letters. Instead, everything—and I mean everything—hangs off a single root directory called / (yes, just the forward slash). Your files, your system apps, your config files, external drives—all of it lives somewhere under that one /.

It also follows a stricter Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS). Every folder, called a directory, follows a…

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