How important is it to learn the command line operations on Linux?
For people just wanting to use Linux for basic applications such as word processing, e-mail and surfing the web, the command line (i.e., the all-text user interface) is no longer as important as it used to be. This is because of the tremendous progress that has been made in recent years on improving the GUI (graphical user interface). But for people wanting to become a power user or a system administrator, becoming skilled with the command line is extremely important. This is because the command line provides tremendous power and versatility, much more than is available on operating systems that do not have true command line operation (such as the Microsoft Windows systems). Although it may at first seem troublesome, most people have found that command line operation becomes quite easy, and even somewhat intuitive, with practice.
