Using Linux is not the same as using Windows or macOS. While the Microsoft and Apple operating systems have a very limited number of versions and editions, within the Linux ecosystem we can find a large number of distributions, each one based on others and with a specific version of the Kernel. This can make users who do not have much knowledge within this operating system look somewhat lost and have trouble knowing exactly what Linux they are using.
Normally, if we have installed a Linux distro , we know which one we have installed. We should even know which version of it we use. However, if we usually practice distro-hopping (constant change of distro) or someone else has started the PC, we may not know what Linux we are using.
If we need to obtain information about the type of Linux we are using, then we leave you a series of tricks with which we can find out everything possible about our Linux distro.
See the “About” section of the Linux distro
All distros that have a graphical interface will have, on one side or the other, an information panel about the distro itself. In the case of Ubuntu, for example, this panel can be found within the System Configuration panel. And in it we will be able to see basic information about our PC (hardware, processor, graphics, etc.), as well as the version of Ubuntu used, version of the desktop, window manager, etc.
If we prefer, we can also use different terminal commands that allow us to obtain much more detailed information about our distro.
Linux commands to find out which distro we use
The first thing we will have to do to obtain this information is to open a terminal in our distro using the Control + Shift + T keyboard shortcut (or the keyboard shortcut that we have configured) and execute the following commands:
cat /etc/*-release
This command will allow us to obtain information about the specific distribution that we are using, both the name and the version and the code name of it.
lsb_release -a
This command will show us practically the same as the previous command, but in a much smaller and more concrete way. At the end it can be used as a summary of the first one.
hostnamectl
This command allows us to go a little further. Instead of focusing on the distro that we use, it allows us to see other related information, such as the machine ID, the network name and even the version of the Linux Kernel that we have installed.
uname -a
This is also quite a useful command. With it we can see a line of information about our Linux system, although the most interesting is the Kernel used.
Programs to find out distribution information
If the above commands do not help us (they are not compatible with 100% of the distros), or they do not provide us with all the information we need, we can also resort to other similar programs that allow us to obtain more information about our Linux distro.
One of the favorites by users is neofetch . This program, when run, shows us a summary of everything related to our Linux software, from the operating system to the version of the distro, Kernel, desktop, theme and icons … everything we may need. We will also see a summary about the hardware of our PC.
It is not installed by default, so we will have to install it in order to use it with the following command:
sudo apt install neofetch
Very similar to neofetch we can find another program called screenfetch . The purpose of this program is the same, and the information that returns us practically identical. The main difference is how they use ASCII to show the type of Linux distro that we have installed on our PC.
We must install this program manually by executing:
sudo apt install screenfetch
And another program quite similar to the previous ones is Archey4. This program is, broadly speaking, similar to the previous two, but with the peculiarity that it can read the sensors of our PC, so we will also be able to obtain the temperature of the PC and other lower-level information.
This program is not in the repositories, so we will have to download it and install it manually from its GitHub page .
And if we want to do it from a program with a graphical interface, we can resort to very complete tools such as hardinfo. This program would be the AIDA64 equivalent of Windows operating systems, but totally free and open source. With it we will be able to obtain a much more complete and easy to interpret report from our PC. We can find out everything about the distro we use or the Linux Kernel we have installed. We can also obtain information about the hardware of our PC.
This program must also be installed manually on the distro using the following command:
sudo apt install hardinfo
