IanGraham wrote:Good morning from Wales, UK
I would be grateful for clarification of this point:
when I go into the Terminal (Ctrl Alt T), am I still ‘inside’ Zorin, or whatever distro is installed ?
Or, on the analogy of Dos and Windows in the early versions up to (I think) XP, is the terminal at a more basic level of the computer ?
And if the latter, is it therefore possible to run a command to format the hard drive ?
Many thanks,
Ian G.
The terminals we use on Linux Emulate a Shell Terminal. The terminal is the main interface between the Operating System and the User. The terminal accepts code in the language of the Linux Operating System. This is why you can open any application in terminal, including the terminal and why all GUI applications you run can also be displayed running in a terminal. It's function and design varies distro by distro -or terminal application by terminal application. Some terminal emulator apps have more functionality than others. In using the terminal, you are as much within the distro as you are in using the file manager.
I would not say that the terminal is a more basic level of the computer. It is an application that can communicate with the OS on the OS's level. And the OS's level is not basic, either.
ALL computers and all Operating systems have long runs of code that you could call basic- but are no more than a physical representation of what commands are being given- if we wanted to break it down to it's most basic level; we would have a very long print out of "yes" or "no" queries over and over and over again.
The Windows Command Prompt - DOS - is not really any different.
Yes, you can run a command in a terminal to format a hard drive, but only for a hard drive that is not mounted.
If you try to format your own drive... well... That would be like replacing the floorboards of your boat while you are standing in the boat. While at sea. When you have only a few floorboards. And when you have to pull up all the floorboards in order to replace them...
