Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Bash is an extremely powerful piece of software. One of bash's most powerful
features is its ability to run scripts. A script is simply a collection of commands
stored in a file that can do things, such as run a program, read keys from the
keyboard, and many other things. Later on in this topic, you will see how to use
bash to make the most from your Raspberry Pi!
Shell utilities
A command interpreter is not much of use without any commands to run. While
bash provides some very basic commands, all the other commands are shell utilities.
These shell utilities together form one of the important parts of Raspbian (essential
as without the utilities, the system would crash). They provide many features that
range from copying files, creating directories, to the Advanced Packaging Tool
(APT) - a package manager application that allows you to install and remove
software from your Raspberry Pi.
You will learn more about APT later in this topic.
The X.Org graphical server
After the shell and daemons are loaded, by default the X.Org graphical server is
automatically started. The role of X.Org is to provide you with a common platform
from which to build a graphical user interface. X.Org handles everything from
moving your mouse pointer, listening, and responding to your key presses to
actually drawing the applications you are running onto the screen.
The desktop environment
It is difficult to use any computer without a desktop environment. A desktop
environment lets you interact with your computer using more than just your
keyboard, surf the Internet, view pictures and movies, and many other things.
A GUI normally uses Windows, menus, and a mouse to do this.
Raspbian includes a graphical user interface called Lightweight X11 Desktop
Environment or LXDE. LXDE is used in Raspbian as it was specifically designed
to run on devices such as the Raspberry Pi, which only have limited resources.
