Computer - The physical device that you use. Examples: PC, Mac
Operating System (OS) - A program that you interact with and that makes sure the computer does what you want it to do. Middleman between you and the computer. Examples: Windows, macOS, Linux
When you create and save a file, the OS makes sure the data is stored on the hard drive. When you open a file, the OS gets the data and displays it for you.
When you listen to music, the operating system makes sure the speaker plays the correct sounds.
Applications - The programs built on top of the OS that you interact with. Here are some of my most used applications:
Graphical User Interface (GUI) - Anything that has pictures that users can interact with.
In 1968, Bill Gates wrote his first program on a computer. In 1969, Steve Wozniak was expelled from the University of Colorado Boulder for sending prank messages on the University's computer system. During that time, the OS that they used was very different. There were no pictures or icons and nothing to click on (computers did not have a mouse). You had to type out what you wanted the computer to do. The interface looked like this:
This is called the terminal.
Beginning in the 1970s, many computer scientists decided that the terminal was too complex for most people to understand, and that it was keeping computers limited to business settings. One of these people was Steve Jobs, who would go on to found Apple along with Steve Wozniak. In 1984, he launched the first Macintosh, a computer with an OS that has a GUI that allows users to see files and folders and interact with them using a mouse.
In 1985, Microsoft launched Windows 1.0, an OS that also came with a GUI:
These GUIs are dumbed-down versions of the terminal with only basic features so that people can to understand how to use a computer. GUIs hide away all the powerful text interface programs which with they were built on. In this chapter, we will be learning some important terminal commands.
To access the power text interface that powers the GUI, open the terminal application on your computer.
For macOS and Linux, this is called Terminal.
For Windows, the terminal application (called PowerShell) can be opened by typing PowerShell from the search bar.