So, I installed Linux Mint not too long ago, and while I’ve been able to do what I want to do without touching the Terminal, I am a bit curious how it works, and whether it could help me.
In particular, I am slowly getting into programming, and I’ve heard some people talk about strange, otherworldly things, like Vim, and Shell Scripts.
There was this PDF I downloaded called “The Linux Command Line” by William Shotts, but it is 570 pages long, and glancing through it, it seems to go into many different things, and I am afraid I’ll end up learning a hundred things while only ever using ten of them, if you get my meaning.
So yeah, anyone who has some tips, or resources for a Linux newbie, please let me know.
Exciting you’re interested in the terminal. Personally I find it an invaluable tool, it’s powerful and versatile, suitable for almost any task. So as you learn, I’d encourage you to be concious about what you find interesting or fun, whether it is the coding-, problem solving-, automation-part, or an entiely different aspect.
There are several gamified introductions to programming, scripting and using the shell, which may be a good start. Some of my favourites (off the top of my head) are:
- “The Bandit” on Over the Wire to get familiar with the basics of the shell (terminal).
- Rustlings a collection of small exercises, and a great intro to tge Rust programming language
I would not say that reading a book is the way to go about it. At least the way I learned was just through using my computer like normal, and naturally I ended up using the terminal for some things e.g. updating packages, doing simple operations like moving files around, etc. I don’t think it’s a good idea to specifically try to “learn the command line” as a directed/targeted goal, because like you said you could end up learning a bunch of stuff you never use.
