Why Learn to Use the Linux Command Line?


Is it really necessary to learn to use the Linux command line?

Yes, it's necessary. Here's a brief explanation of why that's the case.

Years ago, computer graphics that today's users take for grantedcolors, lines, icons, and windowsrepresented a very rare, expensive, and specialized technology. Most computer systems did not ship with graphics capability because they were intended to perform office, database, and network-related tasks; such tasks involved the manipulation of letters and numbers, not of pictures and colors. Unix systems, which were common long before MS-DOS or Windows systems became established in the marketplace, were among the workhorse systems designed to manage very large amounts of information very efficiently. Developers didn't have graphics, desktops, or personal computers in mind when they built Unix.

A powerful, network-oriented Unix graphics system had been added to Unix by scientists and researchers by the time Linux was developed in the early 1990s. This system was called the X Window System, and it is still in use today. However, the original set of powerful text and information processing paradigms and tools remained of the greatest selling points of Unix, and one of its most unique strengths.

Linux (and, by extension, Fedora Core) uses the X Window System to provide you, the user, with a powerful, friendly graphical user interface that is in many ways like those found in Windows or Mac OS. Unlike Windows or Mac OS, however, Linux and the X Window System are much more complex, flexible, and powerful than just what you see on your desktop.

Furthermore, the nuts and bolts of Linux, toothe configuration details, much of the functional infrastructure, and the primary method of storing and retrieving dataare closely tied to text, text files, and data processing.

After a user masters the command line, the rest of the Unix world, including the desktop, seems to fall magically into place, and a new universe of functionality unmatched by Windows or Mac OS is opened. Only rarely do users master other Unix functions before mastering the command line.

Even though the thought of a "command line" is daunting to many first-time Linux users, this chapter introduces the command line in contexts that you are now already familiar with from Chapter 5, "Working with Files on the Desktop"tasks related to the manipulation of files and directories. It should therefore be a somewhat approachable introduction to a powerful set of tools.



    SAMS Teach Yourself Red Hat(r) Fedora(tm) 4 Linux(r) All in One
    Cisco ASA and PIX Firewall Handbook
    ISBN: N/A
    EAN: 2147483647
    Year: 2006
    Pages: 311
    Authors: David Hucaby

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