When I started using Linux, I wondered when I would get to actually use it “on the job”.\u00a0 It wasn’t easy sometimes to work with a Windows-based computer\u2014when there’s a skill set available that can help you do things faster on the computer.\u00a0 This skill set is the Linux command shell, but as mentioned your computer runs Microsoft Windows.\u00a0 What can you do??<\/p>\n
At one job, I was able to install Perl.\u00a0 At another job one had to submit a request (with business justification) to add software to a workstation.\u00a0 Instead of Perl I thought “why not Python?”\u00a0 Since both times it was a Windows XP Environment, I used the DOS command line (or “CMD” app) to execute the Perl or Python programs.<\/p>\n
I used the DOS CMD because (at that time) I did not know about Cygwin.\u00a0 Using the DOS CMD to execute programs is easy.\u00a0 The difficult part is dealing with case-insensitivity (which hurts portability) and using a shell to navigate folders with spaces in the names is a real pain.<\/p>\n
Using the DOS shell to execute programs is not the same as using Cygwin.\u00a0 Cygwin is command shell that emulates a working Linux environment.\u00a0 Installing Cygwin with the base packages is simple and will provide a good “starting point” for learning some shell commands.<\/p>\n