So... you want to learn how to use the Ubuntu terminal? I can only say that this is a great choice on how to spend your time! The terminal is one of the most versatile and powerful tools available to you when you use your computer. The terminal -- known as the shell, console and prompt -- gives you access to a wide array of tools to manage your files, profile, computer and work flows. It is not a coincidence that almost all programmers and system managers use terminals in their daily lives.
Truth be told however: the terminal looks kind of scary the first time you open it. It is a weird throwback to a time that computers had no nice graphical user interface (GUI) and everything had to be done by typing in the right commands. Nowadays almost all computers have nice icons, intuitive design, appealing colours. All these make it easier for you, the user, to use the machine.
A more graphical presentation of information is awesome: things are just a lot more clearer when it is properly designed and it seriously helps people to find exactly that file or operation they were looking for. The downside was however that interfaces cannot show all available options. Did you know for example that you can actually program in Excel? Or that Word can be linked to databases to make a mass mailing in which names are automatically filled in at the right places in the mail? Or that Windows (as well as Ubuntu) allows you to connect to a server and show its files, all while in the file explorer (given that you have the proper credentials of course)? Displaying all in-depth options of a program of an operating system like Windows would quickly clutter the screen, so designers put these options away in submenus of submenus. Great if you don't need them, but once you do the extra steps become quite tedious.
Terminals don't have this problem. All possible options are right there at your fingertips. Whether it is moving a file, connecting to a server, extracting a zip file, compiling a program you wrote: almost everything you can think of can be done with a single command. This comes of course at the cost of having to actually know these commands. A black screen with a white blinking cursor does not give you much input on what to actually type, even when you know what you want the computer to do.
In this course you will get to know the basics of one of the most prominent terminal languages: bash. After this course you will be able to do everything with the terminal you are able to do with the GUI of Windows and Ubuntu and more.
The course is split into several lessons. In lesson 1 we will familiarise ourselves with the terminal and with the way Ubuntu is built up. We will also see how to perform basic file manipulations, like creation, moving and deletion of files.
In lesson 2 we will dive deeper in the file system and gain more control over our files. Subjects we will see here are how to archive files, how to search for files and how to restrict the permissions people have over your files.
After finishing lesson 2 you will be properly introduced to the terminal and can start using it in your daily life. As a physicist an understanding of a bit more unusual commands can however come in handy. In lessons 3 and further we will therefore have a look at how we can connect to other computers and transfer files between them. We will also have a look at how we can manage processes on our machine and how we can actually run programs without the need for ugly IDEs.