As my friends have become painfully aware, I’ve been using Linux for about 6 months now as I just descend further and further into computing and programming, as if hard coding my own website through the terminal with Hugo wasn’t a bad enough sign of how far my life has fallen. BTW, I use Arch. Obviously that’s not to say that Linux is hard to use or requires a self issued degree in computing. No, far from it. Beginner distros are more than available with almost everything you need to get going and without nearly the amount of headache you would think.
Part of the convenience these days comes from most beginner distros including pretty much everything you’d need for any daily driver: a package center, support for most PC games, GUI settings galore, and support of almost every program or reasonable alternative program under the sun. I didn’t have any need for the command line and, assuming I wasn’t the enthusiast I am, I probably would have never needed to. But that doesn’t mean that it’s obsolete.
There’s a reason it’s still there and not just for the Boomers. It offers quick solutions for a multitude of tasks, has robust support programs to do almost everything, and (perhaps the most important) can be used for setting up scripting and automation. While I’m no expert- really, I know hardly even the basics-, I use the terminal everyday whether for downloading Youtube videos, running syncthing, or adding to the website.
If you have been interest in trying out Linux and especially the command line, whether for personal use, cyber security, programming, or curiosity, this book is an incredible start. I even included the notes I took over it.