Linux Common System Commands

There are a number of very useful shell commands that will give you a wealth of information about your system. These commands are useful for either a system administrator monitoring a system or any Linux user wanting to examine what is happening on his machine.

Command	Purpose	Windows Equivalent
ps	This command will list all currently running processes. Any program or daemon is a process.	No Windows equivalent.
top	This command lists all currently running processes, whether the user started them or not. It also lists more detail on the processes.	No Windows equivalent.
ifconfig	This will list information about network card.your	The Windows equivalent is ipconfig.
ping	This command is used to see if you can reach a specific IP address.	The same command works in Windows.
traceroute	This command will trace the route to a specific IP address.	The Windows equivalent is tracert.
finger	This command is used to get information about a user.	The same command works in Windows.
who	This command will tell you all the users currently logged in system. This is useful if your Linux to your machine is being used as a server for an office.	There is no Windows equivalent.
date	This command will display the current date and time.	The same command works in Windows.
uname	This command displays the name of the current system.	There is no Windows equivalent.
whois	This command is similar to finger and gives information about a targeted user.	There is no Windows equivalent.
env	This command will list all environmental variables.	There is no Windows equivalent.
kill	This command is used to stop a currently running process.	There is no Windows equivalent.