Find Computer configuration and OS

uname -a : find the computer hardware info

For example: uname -a on my hp portable
Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.29.6-desktop-3mnb #1 SMP Fri Dec 4 14:50:15 EST 2009 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8600 @ 2.40GHz GNU/Linux


ls /etc/*release*
cat /etc/one_release_file : to find the OS