Linux · Stage 0 – Before You Touch the Terminal · Lesson 5 of 51

What Is the Terminal?

Understand what a terminal is and why text commands remain useful beside a graphical desktop.

A GUI is excellent for visual work. A terminal is excellent when you want an exact, repeatable instruction. Clicking through ten folders may take many actions; one carefully written command can describe the destination directly.

A prompt may look like maya@ubuntu:~$. Do not type that prompt when copying a command. Type only the command that comes after it.

Commands are case-sensitive: uppercase and lowercase letters may mean different things. The terminal also treats spaces as separators between a command and extra information.