Simplifying getting started with the Command Line

[Nathaniel]

Hi Group,

When I started out with Linux I knew the real gurus used the command line
and that it was really powerful etc etc as I'd read a lot of magazines etc
that kept promoting it. The problem was and still is that when you open a
terminal you are met with a prompt and a flashing cursor and the rest of the
screen is blank.

I knew about the man pages but that just frustrated me more. 1 of my friends
is a long time Linux user and I would say to him "Whats the point of having
the man pages when I don't know what the commands are to start with?" I can
hardly type $ man <command> if I don't know the command now can I?

Anyway my point is this. After almost 12 months of frustration I finally
found out about the man -k <keyword> command. I couldn't understand why this
wasn't displayed in a new terminal above the prompt so you could see it the
first time you logged in. Then I also found the apropos command.

Is there a reason the Linux community makes it so hard to learn the command
line?

What I propose is a simple "First time here? try man -k <keyword> to get you
started"

Is this a possibility?

-- 
Regards

Nathaniel

http://about.me/nathanieloffer
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