So, you have come to linux and wonder how it is different from DOS or Windows…

You probably have noticed quite a few things that are harder in Linux than in the “OS you are used to”. But I would like to point you to some things that are much easier.

I use the commandline. Start using it, too. You will not regret it.

• TAB is your friend! If you are typing long filenames or commands, hit the TAB-Key and the shell will complete it if possible. If there are more than one possibilities, hitting TAB twice will show them. Type another letter, and TAB again. Nice, isn't it?
• Combine commands using a 'pipe': |
• Redirect output using >
• Use the history by using the arrow-keys to move 'up' and 'down'

File links - By using links, a file can be referenced by more than one name.

Can you tell the difference? - So, it happened again: After weeks of faithfully serving my ears, XMMS decided to annoy me by playing a song from the playlist, but not moving to the next song after that. Last time that happened, I simply deleted the config-files and started XMMS again. This time, I want to find out if I can do something more subtle to cure the condition if it ever arises again.

Killing my software - …or “Fifty ways to leave your process”

Sensitive data in history - OOps, I accidently typed the root-password on the command-line…

Time will tell - No math needed.

chown and chgrp - Only as root or if the user is in the 'receiving group'

Make a group directory where a number of users can read and write to files

Recursive search and replace - Search and replace a string in many files at once.

Directory-Bookmarks - Typing long path names at the command line can get to be a chore very quickly. Using shell-variables, it you can build a bookmark-list for your bash.

How to delete multiple blank lines: “cat -s” will compress multiple blank lines into a single blank line.

Regular Expressions - grep, sed, perl and others

Puzzling commandlines - Puzzling together commandlines can be puzzling sometimes…

...a red guitar, three chords, and the truth... - This tutorial covers listing, filtering and counting of files (ls, grep, wc)

Backup your data - “Important data always has a backup. You can also invert this: If there is no backup for some data,…” (Stonki on suse-linux@suse.de) What follows comes *with no warranties*. If you trash your data, its your fault!

Stamped and categorized - Adding 'Watermarks' to many pictures (ImageMagic, and bash's 'for…do…done')

Sometime in Summertime - Mass-renaming photos to include data and time in the filename

OGG to MP3 - Oops, wrong format…

URL-Lists for Google - Creating URL-Lists for Gootle if you are using DokuWiki (like we do). Uses find and sed for shaping the output.