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.

If you work on Linux you’ll know that the command line is the way to go (in some cases at least). If you are in GUI mode than you can access the command line via the Terminal. Here are some applications/utilities that will transform your command line experience.

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?

The truth about Linux today is that one may never have to actually touch a terminal or issue a single Linux command in order to run some versions of this flexible alternative operating system. But once a user becomes accustomed to using the command line interface, it soon becomes the preferred method in many tasks.

You can connect to a FTP server from linux through command line with ease.
Just open a terminal and type:

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.

Cygwin is a great application. What it allows you to do is bring the command line environment and many commands from the Linux world onto a Windows machine. If you have no choice but to use a Windows-based computer, yet you wish to have the power and flexibility of a Unix system, then Cygwin is for you.

The reason people go for an operating system like Linux is the sum of its parts—its total usefulness. It is stable, affordable, fast, and runs on all kinds of hardware. It is also extremely flexible right out of the box, largely because of its powerful command-line interface (CLI), or shell.