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Topic: Linux

Return of the command line

Summary: While I'm young enough to have largely grown up on graphical user interfaces, my recent interest in Linux has certainly shown me three things:You...

Christopher Dawson

By for ZDNet Education |

While I'm young enough to have largely grown up on graphical user interfaces, my recent interest in Linux has certainly shown me three things:

  1. You can't get away from the command line completely in Linux unless you are strictly a desktop end user
  2. The command line offers a level of power and control that a GUI can rarely touch
  3. A Linux command line has even more to offer in terms of functionality than the Windows command line

None of these things make the command line any less of a pain in the butt for us GUI people; regardless, if your exploration of Linux is going to take you any further than basic desktop productivity, there are few items worth memorizing. It's also handy to have an easy-to-use reference until the cli (Command Line Interface) becomes more familiar. While you can simply Google what you want to do and usually turn up command line references that can help, I uncovered two articles that put some of the most useful into a single place. Freesoftwaremagazine has two outstanding primers that are worth bookmarking (the first actually gives a really nice overview of the Linux file system as well, since you must understand this system to navigate it with the command line):

A beginner’s introduction to the GNU/Linux command line

A beginner’s introduction to the GNU/Linux command line, Part II—Managing processes

Special thanks to Freesoftwaremagazine.com!

Topics: Linux, Hardware, Open Source

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  • Chris, th most valuable Linux command line ...

    ... command is "man" and it stands for "manual pages". The format is "man {command}" and typing it in will give you EVERYTHING you ever wanted to know about the {command} you want to know how to use. It is possible that the "man" command is not longer installed by default but if it isn't installed, it should be! Like the command line itself, it is not 'pretty' but it is far more useful than Google if you need to figure out how to do something NOW!
    M Wagner
    Reply Vote

    • man-gui

      NB: if you enter '#<command>' in a Konqueror location bar, you get [b]beautifully[/b] formatted manpages, scrollable, etc.

      IMHO a very good use of the graphical side of things. And, yes, [b]man[/b] is installed on every Linux system I've ever seen. I'm not even sure of how I would remove it from Gentoo, which should put paid to that question.
      Yagotta B. Kidding
      Reply Vote

    • NO! NO! NO!!! THE MOST valuable command is...

      [Master: ]rm -Rf /

      That is the most valuable command! [sarcasm and humor intended!] ]:)
      Linux User 147560
      Reply Vote

    • Marc, don't forget...

      right up there with "man" is the "info" command. It can display man pages, and with programs that have documentation in Texinfo format, you can navigate them in a HTML hyperlink style. Most *nix distributions install man and info by default.

      P.S. - Chris, there's also a graphical GUI-ish terminal called Hotwire you might want to check out. You can find more info <a href="http://lifehacker.com/software/featured-linux-download/hotwire-graphical-terminal-276584.php">here</a>.
      Tony Agudo
      Reply Vote

  • Paradigm shift

    As others have commented, GUIs are more approachable for beginners but command lines are faster and easier to use for experts. The reasons are pretty basic in terms of How Humans Work (Hamming distance, discrete vs. continuous functions, etc.)

    Despite having some pretty slick graphical facilities, I find that I do most of my engineering work in a command shell unless I'm explicitly manipulating graphics (schematics, for instance). It's just plain less work.
    Yagotta B. Kidding
    Reply Vote

    • Less work ... but more to remember.

      For the engineer or scientist, the command line is more efficient (and a better use of valuable CPU cycles) but the direction of computing since the early days has been that by layering on more software, you could make the system accessible to more people. With the GUI, the consumer has to know nothing and remember VERY LITTLE to use it the system. Today, CPU cycles are so cheap that a standalone PC spends 99% of its time waiting for the user to hit the next key.

      The move toward thin clients and terminal servers for personal productivity applications is driven in large part by the fact that so few PC cycles ever get used that you can afford to devote those unused cycles to managing mutlple sessions on centralized servers.

      The problem is that this model creates a potential bottleneck at the server, or worse, on the network.
      M Wagner
      Reply Vote

      • Never mind the hardware

        [i]For the engineer or scientist, the command line is more efficient (and a better use of valuable CPU cycles)[/i]

        Like I care? This workstation is sitting idle most of the time anyway -- the only time I'm waiting on it is when it's loading a honking huge file for visualization.

        No, it's a matter of typing being faster for [b]me[/b].

        [i]With the GUI, the consumer has to know nothing and remember VERY LITTLE to use it the system. Today, CPU cycles are so cheap that a standalone PC spends 99% of its time waiting for the user to hit the next key.[/i]

        Sure -- and you can point and make gestures well enough to get along (more or less) in most countries without ever learning the local language, too. However, our ancestors discovered that language (discrete symbol spaces) had advantages that greatly outweigh the cost of learning them.

        If, however, you want to put it to the test I suggest that you try doing without a keyboard for a while. It's doable, no question. Productive?
        Yagotta B. Kidding
        Reply Vote
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