When you boot any Windows desktop system, the it automatically starts up and the desktop always appears – whereas on Linux systems, you may not see a desktop at all!
After booting Windows, you’re working in the “point-and-click” GUI (Graphical User Interface) desktop environment – and you can do tasks like run software programs and work inside of them.
Linux Desktop Systems and Non-Desktop Systems
When you’re working on a Linux server system, a desktop may or may not be installed on the system.
Linux server systems don’t always require a desktop and so this software may not be installed.
A Linux (and Windows) desktop requires additional memory and also requires additional processing power. This “overhead” is required to run the “point-and-click” GUI desktop environment “on” top of the OS.
On these Linux server systems (that don’t have a desktop), you just boot to a black screen and you’re presented with white lettering and a “text-based” login prompt – that simply says -
Login:
At this very basic prompt, you type in a Username and press Enter and then a Password and press Enter to log in to the system.
How To Run Linux Commands on a Linux Server System
When you log in to a Linux system that doesn’t have a desktop, you’re logging in to a “terminal” and you see the command line prompt.
Once you’ve logged in, you can immediately start running commands to do System Administration jobs, creating users, copying data and program files, and assigning permissions to users and groups.
So, some types of Linux servers are installed with a “point-and-click” desktop and many are not. This is dependent on the type of the server.
If a desktop is not required for running a server, then it is not installed when the operating system is installed.
Tags: linux system