Stage 1 · Lesson 2 of 8

Your terminal and shell on Linux

Your desktop comes with a app, such as GNOME Terminal or Konsole, and a default shell, usually Bash. The terminal draws the window. The shell reads what you type, runs programs and prints what they say back.

Learn the keyboard shortcut that opens a terminal. Also learn how copy and paste work there. It is often Ctrl+Shift+C and Ctrl+Shift+V, because plain stops the program that is running.

You can switch to other shells such as or later. Learn Bash first, because servers and scripts use it.

Common trappressing Ctrl+C to copy and killing the command you were running.

A question to check yourself, an AI practice session and 1 cheat sheet entry come when you add the roadmap to your account. Add it

Resources for this stage

Start with

GuideFree
The Linux Command Line for Beginners (Ubuntu)
Canonical · Beginner
A short, friendly first hour in the Ubuntu shell once your terminal is working

Keep handy

ArchWiki
The most thorough Linux reference there is, useful whichever distribution you run
Visual Studio Code
The editor used through this roadmap, with official set-up guides for each operating system

Also worth your time

roadmap.sh: LinuxGo deeper
A map of the whole Linux topic, to see how much there is beyond this stage