Malta Linux User Group

Nowadays, as soon as you get Linux installed, you get a nice graphical interface and rarely if ever need to make use of the so-called terminal mode (aka shell prompt).

However, in Linux the simple, modest terminal is not merely an afterthought, but an extremely powerful tool. While it may be true that you don’t need to use it, it’s not that difficult to learn, and very useful to know. Fortunately for yourself, with Linux’s users and security, you can create a new user for playing around, then you can experiment to your heart’s content without breaking anything.

In this document we will go step by step through many common tasks. Hopefully by the end you will feel quite familiar with the terminal. This will come in handy when, for instance, you encounter some document which instructs you to open a terminal and enter certain commands.