Why I Write About the Command Line
13 August, 2019
When I tell people I have 10 thumbs when it comes to anything technical, they don’t believe me. In fact, they point to all the articles and blog posts I’ve written about using the command line to try to refute my claim.
Nice try.
I’m no expert or wizard with the command line. Far from that. And I’m not one of those people who believes that you absolutely must be fluent in command line/shell/terminal (or whatever you want to call it) to be able to use Linux. I know any number of folks who happily and productively use Linux. Not one of them have ever cracked open a terminal window.
So why do I write about the command line, especially in posts and articles aimed at those without many (or any) technical skills? Aimed at people like me? Two reasons.
First, there are a number of command line applications and utilities that anyone can benefit from. Those range from spelling checkers to file conversion tools like pandoc to applications for writers.
Second, you don’t need to be an expert to use the command line. You don’t need to know how to script. You don’t need to remember ever option for every tool that you use. You only need to remember the options that you need to remember, nothing more.
Yes, anyone can use the command line.
That said, being able to use the command line isn’t a requirement for using Linux. But using it can expand what you can do with Linux.