How Do You Use Unix?

Unless you're simply using a Unix machine as a platform for a prepackaged commercial application, most of your interaction with Unix is likely to be textual commands typed at a command-line prompt. Most implementations of Unix do provide a graphical user interface (GUI); however, even when running the GUI, much of what you are likely to do involves typing commands into terminal windows that are available in the GUI. We will be covering both in this book, because some versions of Unix install graphically as well as allow you to initially log in to the system graphically. This being said, it is imperative to learn the fundamentals of both methods if you are to progress past the login portion of this book presented in Part I.

So, are you worried about minimal graphical help? You shouldn't be; that's why you are reading this book! As previously mentioned, you will learn both graphical and textual methods in this book. Dragging and dropping and using a mouse are still options in some Unix systems, but the strength of Unix is at the command line. You will see this as you read through each chapter. You will be introduced to K Desktop Environment (KDE), one particular flavor of such an interface, in this book. KDE was chosen as a representative sample for this book because it is available on a wide range of Unix systems and distributions. KDE is also the default environment for SuSE, which is owned and operated by Novell, one of the best-run and supported versions of Linux available today.

As tempting as it might seem, you are cautioned not to become entirely dependent on GUI utilities even if you have a GUI product with the sophistication and convenience of KDE. This book focuses on the command line, because the command line is where most of the power lies. The GUI is only something that has gradually been developed to get more users to work with Unix; it bridges the gap between drag-and-drop on Microsoft Windows and the Unix command line. Remembering that the true power lies in the command line is what is going to make you into a Unix expert. For example, there are some commands that you can't do or can't do completely from the GUI; that alone proves that you do lose power when you use the GUI. Try not to get too accustomed to using it, but feel free to use it to help you learn Unix.