How to see load averages on linux?

$ top
or 
$ uptime

e.g.
load average: 0.35. 0.23, 0.25
First column; last one minute
Second column; last five minutes
Third column;  last fifteen minutes averages for each cpu

How to know system hardware and software information?

to get os version:
# cat /etc/*release*

to get os kernel version:
# cat /proc/version

to get cpu info:
# cat /proc/cpuinfo
or
# lscpu

to get ram info:
# cat /proc/meminfo