Many Thanks for the replies. They were very informative. Basically I did do a google search during the whole of this morning but I couldn't find a page that lists all what I wanted to know, and the other pieces were quite dis jointed from my perspective. All the same nothing beats getting experienced advice. I'm still not sure where the terminal sits in terms of linux OS. I understand a shell executes my commands, so why do I need a terminal, why not just have a shell. Also why are some terminals called consoles. What is the difference between the gnome-terminal and say xterm or the kde version or the xfce version. Many Thanks for your help Shahzad
