Behind the pretty graphical interfaces of a Linux-based operating system such as Raspbian, is the console.

The console is the most basic way of communicating with the innards of the Raspbian operating system. The console's history started at the very beginning of computing where the interface to a computer was a keyboard and a teletype machine. At that time, operators would type a command and the result would be printed in front of them.

A teletype machine

Fortunately, with the development of computer monitors, we no longer need a typewriter to communicate with our computer and there are many different ways in which this can be done. You already learned how to use the Raspberry Pi's graphical user interface Xfce, and this chapter will run you through how you can use the built-in console terminal application called bash.