Launching a Terminal

The terminal is the program that lets users access an OS’s Command Line Interface (CLI).

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Launching a terminal on Mac

The terminal program on Macs is simply called “Terminal”. You can open it in two ways:

  1. Finder –> Applications –> Utilities –> Terminal
  2. Press Command+Spacebar. Type “terminal” in the Spotlight Search popup and you will see an option to open the Terminal.
    1. CMD+Spacebar is a great way to open apps quickly on Mac.
    2. You may wish to drag the Terminal application to your Dock at the bottom.
A screen shot of a newly-opened Mac Terminal

The terminal on Mac will look something like this.

Ubuntu (on Windows)

Using the Windows Subsystem for Linux

Windows has several terminal programs. Windows PowerShell and Command Prompt are for interacting with Windows CLI directly. We want to open an Ubuntu terminal for interacting with the Ubuntu OS you installed in the previous lab.

  1. Open the Windows menu and search for “Terminal”
  2. It will most likely open a window like this:
    A screen shot of a newly-opened Windows Terminal

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJWhyycbPyA

    This is PowerShell (for talking to Windows) and is not what we want.
  3. Click the dropdown to the PowerShell tab. You should see an option for Ubuntu. Select it. After a moment, you should see the Ubuntu Terminal that looks like this:
    A screen shot of a newly-opened Ubuntu Terminal on WSL

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJWhyycbPyA

Using VirtualBox

  1. Open VirtualBox and start your Ubuntu virtual machine.
  2. Once Ubuntu opens, click the “More Apps” icon and find the Terminal.
  3. Alternately, press the Windows key (called the super key in Ubuntu) and start typing “Terminal” and you will see it suggested.
    • The Windows key and typing a search term is a great way to find things in Ubuntu and usually faster than clicking through a menu.
A screen shot of a newly-opened Ubuntu Terminal

https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/command-line-for-beginners#3-opening-a-terminal

Last modified August 29, 2024.