These are the commands I know I know, these are the commands I know
I keep hearing people complain that “Grandma” or “Aunt Tilly” can’t use Linux because it’s a command-based OS (let’s just ignore the misconception that Linux has no GUI for the time being…) and they would have to learn a bunch of commands to do anything.
I like the command line, actually. It makes me feel l33t, and it reminds me of MS-DOS (which made me feel l33t as a kid) — I realize comparing something to MS-DOS is pretty damning for most people, but it’s only the feeling I’m evoking here… everything else about MS-DOS pretty much sucks, aside from the nostalgia.
So, I’ve been known to open a terminal from time to time. But what do I use it for? And is there anything I have to use the terminal for?
File Management
- ls: Lists the files in a directory, a la dir /w. Can be used with wildcards to list, say, only files that begin with ‘a’ (ls a*). I can use Thunar for this, but any GUI file manager will naturally do this kind of thing “clunkier” than the command line.
- cp: Copy. I can use Thunar for this.
- mv: Move or rename. I think it’s really cool that it does both.
Thunar does both too, but clunkier. - pwd: Print working directory. In case you get lost. This is what Thunar’s breadcrumbs are for.
- whoami: Tells you which user you are currently acting as. In case you’ve forgotten! I don’t think Thunar does this, but I can’t really see this kind of confusion happening in the GUI. However, if you’re running a program as root, it uses the default (ugly) gtk theme to remind you who you are.
- su: Switch user. Normally used to get root. Not really applicable in Ubuntu, at least under normal configuration.
- sudo: Super user do. Executes the following command as root. This is the normal way to “get root” in Ubuntu, but the normal, everyday things you need root for (installing and upgrading software) will give you a GUI prompt for a password. So you only need to get root in the terminal if you’re doing a little extra-curricular messing around.
Help! Runaway program!
This almost never happens, and when it does it’s usually Firefox, and it’s usually my fault.
- kill: You need the PID (process id number) to use this, which you can look up with the command line (but that command escapes me) or with a GUI process manager. It has 9 levels of “seriousness”, ranging from “if you could shut down at your earliest convenience, I would really appreciate it, plskthx” to “DIE RIGHT NOW MOTHERFUCKER!!” You can do that with the GUI too, but I don’t think there are quite as many levels of killination available to you (3 or 4 vs… lots, apparently).
- killall: If you know the name of the process, you can use this instead of kill.
- xkill: This command turns your cursor into a crosshairs and kill -9s the process belonging to the window you click. It’s the fastest and most fun way to deal with a runaway. There are panel applets that basically invoke this command.
So… that’s about it. While I consider all of them useful, none of those commands are really vital, especially for Aunt Tilly. Therefore, I think whining about the command line is FUD. Besides, it’s not like any of this stuff is difficult, even if you had to use it. The command line gets a bad rap because most people have only experienced it with MS-DOS and think that command lines are for OSes that are old, difficult, and useless. This really couldn’t be further from the truth. Embrace the character prompt, people!
