How To Run Ubuntu Commands

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Ubuntu is awesome.
Ubuntu is free.
Ubuntu is not Microsoft Windows.
Ubuntu is for most people, a change.
With Ubuntu you are not alone.

Linux and the flavour I use, Ubuntu, has a huuuge presence on the Web and with that I quickly gained a sense of comfortability that any issue I experienced (no sound for instance) had been experienced and solved by someone else or, in the case of new releases, about to be solved.

"Google your problem and read how to solve it" - that's my advice to all newbies to Ubuntu.
BUT. You will probably be asked to "run a command" somewhere within your solution.
Huh, how do I "run a command"?

Before answering that, some basics (for users, not developer or uber-geeks).
Ubuntu has two major parts to it:
  1. The GUI/Desktop - the "Windows" bit you see when you turn on the machine/log-in
  2. The Linux operating system - the clever stuff under the hood making your computer work
Unlike Microsoft Windows you can choose what GUI/Desktop to use.
I use Gnome as it came with Ubuntu and works fine. You could use KDE or any other you find fits* The GUI/Desktop, of course, interacts with the underlying Linux system.

You can, however, dive on past the GUI/Desktop and type in your own commands directly to Linux - "the command line".

All you need to do is run your "Terminal" program.
On your Ubuntu desktop menu, click on Applications > Accessories > Terminal

(what it looks like when I load my Terminal)

And then you type in exactly what they tell you to on the Web page you're reading from (e.g., how I got my sound working) - I normally cut and paste the 'code'.


* Did you know: Apple PCs run Unix on top of which they have their own Apple GUI/Desktop?

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