Linux is often regarded as a complex operating system. In fact, even though it’s free, some experts argue that there’s a DIY tax involved. A lot of this reputation comes from the terminal: that dark screen where everything looks like code. The terminal is where Linux shows its real power and flexibility, and it’s not scary once you understand it.
But to get the best of it, you must master certain commands—and I’m not talking about the usual suspects like sudo or cd. I mean the commands that make you faster, more capable, and ultimately a real Linux power user
find
Stop getting lost and start discovering
When you’re new to Linux, you might notice that files seem to disappear, often finding yourself re-downloading something that already exists. The “find” command is the fix; it’s like a map to everything on your computer.
I may run a command like find ~/Documents -name “*.pdf” to locate every PDF I’ve ever created. I don’t have to open folders manually or guess the directory where I placed a file. Running the command find ~/Downloads -size +100M searches for files in the Downloads directory that are larger than 100MB, and find ~/Documents -mtime -7 searches for files in the Documents directory that were modified less than 7 days ago.
Mastering the “find” command made Linux feel very transparent. Nothing was hidden—I only needed the right command to find it. The “find” command makes your filesystem feel less intimidating.
nano
Change—don’t just watch
The “nano” command is used for opening, viewing, and editing text files directly within the terminal interface. Before I mastered “nano,” I treated configuration files as dangerous, because I could break something with one wrong keypress. However, “nano” makes editing forgiving, quiet, and simple.
The command nano ~/.bashrc opens my personal Bash shell configuration file for editing. After editing, Ctrl+O saves and Ctrl+X exits.
It’s straightforward and always displays commands I may use at the bottom of the screen to remove the guesswork. I might even make small changes, like tweaking environment variables or adding an alias (alias ll=”ls -la”).
less
Calm in the chaos—learning to listen to the logs
You may easily get overwhelmed by errors, logs, and long command outputs on Linux. This is where the “less” command becomes indispensable. It ensures you can scroll through the output at your own pace or search for keywords.
For example, running the command less /var/log/syslog will open your system log in a controlled view. You may then jump through pages using either PgUp / PgDn, or press / and type error to search for specific terms. Use q to exit at any time.
I may even pipe commands into it. For instance, dmesg | less or journalctl -u NetworkManager | less help me inspect system messages without flooding my screen.
The “less” command helped me stop guessing what could be wrong. It made me read my system like a diary. And once you can understand logs, it builds your confidence in using Linux—you will have fewer reasons to ditch Linux for Windows.
&& and ||
Stop typing commands and start speaking logic
In my early days running commands on Linux, I always ran them one at a time: sudo apt update, then sudo apt install package. It works, but it’s quite clunky. A better approach is chaining commands using && and ||.
So sudo apt update && sudo apt install package will run the first command and proceed to the second if the first was successful. I use || to handle failures. The command make || echo “Build failed” prints a message if the build fails. This way, I make the terminal respond to logic and not just input.
You may even combine multiple steps. The command mkdir project && cd project && git init creates a folder, navigates to it, and initializes a repository in one line. Command chaining easily makes Linux feel more like a conversation than a chore.
ps / kill
Take back control and start fixing crashes
I remember my panic the first time I had an app freeze on Linux. I didn’t want to reboot and risk losing work. But once you know “ps” and “kill”, you’ll never panic.
The ps aux | grep processname command shows all your active processes, the memory they use, who started them, and their PID. Running kill PID will instantly terminate a frozen process, and you don’t have to restart the computer.
In some cases, you may need to use kill -9 PID to force the process to stop.
These commands give you some calm and allow you to investigate and resolve problems quickly. You can even combine these commands with top and htop to monitor resource use and potentially stop a process before a problem occurs. Understanding these commands makes Linux less fragile, and you less scared of the occasional crash.
Mastering the Terminal turns fear to confidence
Linux isn’t inherently complicated. You just don’t know how to locate files, edit safely, read logs, chain commands, and manage processes yet. Once you master these, your distro feels like a more capable and usable tool.
While they will help with day-to-day use, you should go a step further to learn commands like chmod, chown, and umask that turn you into a Linux admin.