Sean Tilley, known for taking the "Goodbye, GUI: Thirty Days of Command Line" challenge, has finally finished up his 30th day.

One of the strangest mind-benders these days is hearing Linux users going all Barbie and vowing "I will never touch the command line! What is so terrifying about the command line?

Today, terminal-based programs have almost disappeared. GUIs are taking over, whether we like it or not. However, there is still a place for the old command line. Take the internet as an example: everyone’s using Firefox, Thunderbird, and Pidgin for their internet activities. Even though these are great, quality, free software apps, they tend to be bloated. That’s where the terminal comes in.

Functions may be defined at the command-line and then used as many times as needed as long as a new shell is not started. This feature of the Bash shell can be a handy tool if you are repeatedly performing the same command or series of commands.

Today’s “Newbie Tip” is learning some basics about the “Command Line Interface” or as it’s mostly referred to, “Command Line”. The command line gives the user the ability to interact with the operating system by typing via a text terminal.

I am personally a strong advocate of using the Command Line. However, I am coming from a more tech type of situation than some others do. For the 'average" user however, is the Command Line relevant to everyday use?

I started learning computers back when DOS was all that was available to me, so I was comfortable with the command line. When Windows 95 was released my command line usage dropped considerably because there simply wasn't the "need" for it that there once was. I've gone from using the command line all the time to using it very seldom because GUI's were getting better and becoming more wide spread.

I thought it would be useful to break away from all the GUI-goodness and offer up a few command line tips and tricks. Why? No matter how powerful, user-friendly, and modern the Linux desktop becomes, there may come a time when you want to step up your game and get down and dirty with the command line interface.

A very quick command line tip today, for users of pretty much any Unix-based operating system, including Linux distributions. When you're looking up information on a certain web site or domain name, you might be used to using whois functions on websites such as to see who owns a domain.