'The Linux Command Line' by William Shotts

Reviewed by Pranav Minasandra

30 Jul 2022

Switching to a linux operating system and using the command-line day-to-day might seem intimidating at first. However, not only does it open up a host of creative and career avenues, it also changes the way you interact with your computer; ending up at a point where you finally feel in-control. Recent experiences with many scientific projects has convinced many of my friends of how easy linux Operating Systems (OSes) can make your life. William Shotts’ book, The Linux Command Line, is an excellent starting point to familiarise oneself with the shell and start using linux software freely.

This post was motivated by a large number of similar events: friends of mine (scientists) struggling to run their code in Windows, but failing due to the many many obstacles Microsoft as well as other software designers have placed in their way. All these problems seemed to go away as soon as they approached the problem again, this time with Ubuntu. Files that failed to open in Windows could be opened easily; where earlier one would run out of RAM, now code ran smoothly; and so on. This is not surprising. Windows was never written as an OS for people who needed to write code; and more recently, their determination to treat their users as dolts seems to be getting worse. Yet, what seemed like a steep learning curve prevented a majority of my friends from regularly using the linux command line. There was not much I could say: I had been in the same position when I first was forced to switch to linux back in 2016 as a result of a burnt internal HDD and the sheer cost of a Windows OS.

In 2017, a friend of mine recommended William Shotts’ The Linux Command Line to familiarise myself with the shell. There is possibly no better introduction to this topic anywhere in existence. Shotts is the master of the philosophy that everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler. His book goes into the appropriate amount of depth needed to become completely familiar with your OS, and serves as a good launchpad if you want to explore even more. The book is also quite interactive and engaging. One could finish it in its entirety in a handful of sittings.

Being familiar with the command line has many advantages:

• you can be far more explicit when issuing commands,
• you can write interactive and configurable code more easily, and most importantly,
• your computer skills won’t go out of date any time soon: the shell is a robust structure that only changes slowly over several decades

Perhaps what is most commendable–Shotts embodies the philosophy of open-source software extremely well by releasing his book freely. Here it is. If you have been considering improving your programming skills, or just want to get to know your computer better, please download this book.