The Command line is for everyone!, Apr 2005

This was a 90 minute talk [1] given at Linux Fest Northwest 2005.

I decided this year that I didn't feel like doing a security talk. Instead I wanted to introduce something powerful and mysterious to the GUI masses -- the bash command line.

The official description was as follows:

Who needs mice? Drag and drop? Copy and paste? Everyone knows that the command line is where the power is, but it's also considered a scary or intimidating thing. Often, this is because those who have mastered it don't know how to explain it, or choose to let it remain magic to impress or taunt their friends.

The saying goes: "Unix is user friendly - it's just very selective about who it's friends are." In this hour, Bri will bring you from your first prompt to familiarity with essential shell functions (the pipes, loops, and metacharacters that shall become second nature) until you too are on a first-name basis with the shell.

I had a lot of fun. There was quite a different group of people in the audience this time - lots of new faces and new Linux users - and that was great.

The talk was recorded and streamed live. Hopefully they'll have the downloadable version up soon, at which point I'll link to it or run for cover, whichever's appropriate.

NOTES:

[1] It was probably shorter than 90 minutes, because we started a bit late, due to laptop/overhead communication difficulties, being the guinea pig for streaming camera, and a confused bus driver who tried to drop off all of us Seattlites at some UW campus by mistake.

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Copyright 2005, Bri Hatch of Onsight, Inc.

Presented at LFNW - LinuxFest Northwest, Bellingham, Washington, Apr 2005

Presentation created using vim and MagicPoint.