Basic stuff:

--All the cmi lab comps use linux. Each person has a separate user account. With this one user account and password you can login to any lab computer, and squirrel mail.

--It is important to keep your password secret, unless you want embarrassing mails sent to the whole hostel. To change your password, open a terminal (Alt-F2 -> gnome-terminal), and then run the following command:
$ passwd

--Another sure-fire way of getting implicated in a hostel-wide spam scandal is to leave a computer that you have logged into unguarded. To prevent this, lock screen when you have to leave the lab for a short bathroom break, and please LOG OUT if you are going for a longer bathroom break. (If not, irritated people without comps may just kill your login, and you will lose unsaved data)
(Lock screen by pressing Ctrl+Alt+L or select Lock Screen from the menu) 

--All the comps are networked. This means that any file you save on one computer(inside your home directory) is also available on any other lab computer when you log in.

--Your home directory is the folder in which you should keep all your files. You should also change permisssions for this folder to make sure other people cannot change/delete/steal stuff from you (or worse, lock you out of your own home folder). For details on linux permissions look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_system_permissions and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chmod

--Mounting pendrives:
$ pmount /dev/sd<Tab>
you'll get a list of drives, the pendrive will normally be the last one. For example:
arjun@sl15:~$ pmount /dev/sd
sda  sda1  sda2  sda3  sda4  sdb  sdb1
Choose sdb1:
arjun@sl15:~$ pmount /dev/sdb1

Now you should get an icon on your Desktop.

After usage, you need to "unmount" (safe-remove) the drive before removing it. Do this:
$ pumount /dev/sdb1

--For help on any shell command, type either:
$ man <command-name>
or
$<command-name> --help
to get a short help message which will tell you what the command does, how to use it, and what options you can use. (man will give a longer, more technical description, use --help for general stuff, man only when you are looking for something more specific and complicated)

--Basic shell commands:
    -pwd: print working directory
    -cd: change directory
    -ls: list files in current directory
    -cp: copy
    -mv: move
    -rm: remove (delete). To remove directories and their contents, use 'rm -r'
    -mkdir: make directory
    -touch: create a file