Ever Forward

Ever since I started with computers in 1995 I have found some need to use the command line to accomplish certain tasks.  If you just want to do word processing, nothing beats a good graphical word processor.  But some tasks – especially automated ones – practically beg for the command line.  In order to automate tasks, you really need to know the command line commands.  But if you don’t use the command line frequently, or are new to administering GNU/Linux systems, you might find Mark Sobell’s book, A Practical Guide to Linux Commands, Editors and Shell Programming really useful.

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Someone I know well and admire greatly recently sent me a question about the premise of my book, Penguin in the Pew.  His question, I think, reflects the mindset of many who remain outside the realm of the libre software domain.  It has taken me some time to get around to answering his question, but I thought I would expand on my response to him here on my blog.

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The other day I started to write a short post about how I was having fun bashing shell scripts.  But then it occurred to me that could be hazardous in today’s society.  Why people would be outraged that, not only was I happy to bash those poor defenseless shell scripts, but then go on and brag about it.  The reaction would surely be swift and strong.  The blogosphere would go berzerk, and my ugly mug would be front and center on World News Tonight.  People would form the Society for the Protection of Shell Scripts. They would be calling for everything from a criminal investigation to congressional hearings.  Oh sure, it would be funny, once everyone realized I was talking about writing programs for the GNU/Linux command line.  But you know what?  There are lots of things in the libre software world that would cause other people to wonder about our sanity.

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