Shell is a Unix secret weapon :)

As I wrote once:

if you don't want to know about the command line, then you have nothing to do in Linux. You will have the same Windows, but instead of some problems you will get others ...
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On the other hand, just in the shell is one of the fundamental differences of Unix-systems, what makes these systems open ...

What are the main features of the Unix shell, which are not in Windows?

1. The whole process of configuring and administering Unix is ​​based on working with text files. Shell is a complete programming language, sharpened for string manipulation and working with text files. Moreover, it was precisely as an extension of the shell's string handling capabilities that the Great PERL language was born! .
2. Thanks to claim 1, the shell is a great tool for gradually learning about the operating system itself.
3. The presence of the shell contributes to the implementation of the important principle of creating any program:
   

   If this is a simple program that is designed to perform a limited number of operations, it should be implemented as a set of commands, native to the platform on which it works (as a rule, the platform is the OS). If we are dealing with a complex interactive program with a potentially unlimited set of operations, it must be implemented as a language again on the native medium for the platform (now the most native and convenient medium when interacting with computers is still text, and not sound, graphics or something or else).
   Examples of the 1st and 2nd approach can serve as tcpdump, implemented completely in text mode, over which it is not difficult to build an interface (in fact, Ethereal - and there is a similar interface), and emacs is the most extensible text editor.
   This is the main difference in the Unix and Windows philosophy: in Win, the default interface of the program is in graphical language, which is why it is almost impossible to match programs or build new ones based on them. Because for this there is no support at the OS level. And in order to make programs extensible, you still have to use text (an example is the same VBA in Word and Excel).

4. Autocompletion of commands and, most importantly, paths. It is difficult to imagine how much time and effort this small opportunity saves!
5. A complete set of utilities for all possible administration tasks.

')
It is also worth listing the shell utilities that you definitely need to use in your daily work with the system:

• man is an OS reference that includes not only the description of the work of all commands, but also what should be in most of the configuration files, as well as a lot of other useful information;
• less - view text files;
• grep (programmers who do not know about grep are not hired at Amazon.com :);
• locate - quick file search.

and we can also recall groups of utilities, the use of which is much more convenient and efficient than their graphic analogs:

• network settings (borrowed by Windows);
• package management;
• user management;
• mount volumes ...

One can only repeat that for those who do not want to work in the shell, Linux or another Unix-based OS - in many ways the same inconvenient and incomprehensible system as Windows. But you should still try to deal with the shell - at least in order to see how information systems are properly administered.