Return of the command line
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 can't get away from the command line completely in Linux unless you are strictly a desktop end user
- The command line offers a level of power and control that a GUI can rarely touch
- 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!