A Polite Introduction to the Command Line

It's time to introduce you to a new friend. Okay, the friend is actually an application and you'll find it in the Applications menu under Accessories. On the surface, this friend (okay, program) may not seem as friendly as others you've met, but after you get to know the terminal program, you'll be impressed with the power and fine control it puts in your hands. This is your command prompt. In Windows-land, you might have thought of it as the DOS prompt.

The terminal application is your access to the Linux command line, known as the shell. There are many types of shells, each of which works similarly (for example, all allow you to run commands), but each may have different capabilities. The default on Linux is called bash, the GNU Bourne-Again SHell.

The shell is powerful, and learning about its capabilities will make you a wizard of the Linux world. Become one with the shell, and nothing can stop you. The shell is the land of the Linux systems guru and the administrator. For the most part, you can do just about anything you need to do by staying and working with the X window system and your Ubuntu GNOME desktop. Here's another treat. Although the graphical interface makes things friendly and easy-to-use, there are times when working from the shell can be so much faster. Despite the fact that you can do pretty much everything you need to do from the graphical desktop, every once in a while, I will ask you to do something from the shell prompt.

As time goes on, you too will feel the power of the Linux shell.