Terminal toe-dipping
If you look on the shortcut bar you’ll see a launcher for the Terminal application. This emulates an old-school computer terminal, where in days of yore you’d interface with the machine using abstruse commands typed on a monochrome screen. This way of operating continues to this day, and with good reason – pretty much anything you can do through a graphical program can be done via the terminal, and, if you know the commands, can often be done far more efficiently or automated with scripts.
There was a time when it would be foolhardy to attempt to use Linux without some knowledge of command line incantations, but for regular desktop usage it’s no longer a requirement. Still, if you’ve ever played around with Command Prompt, Powershell or have fond memories of DOS, you’ll understand how it works. Here are some basic commands to get you started:
pwd Print the full path of the present working directory. Note that Linux separates directories with / instead of \ ls List the files in the current directory, add -l to see details. cd Change directory. Use this to navigate the filesystem. One of the most useful features of modern shells is tab completion. Type part of a command or filename, hit Tab twice and you’ll see a list of possible completions.
If you want to find out more System76 has provided a great primer on terminal basics at https:// support.system76.com/ articles/terminal-basics/.