A terminal is the piece of hardware (keyboard & monitor) where you type in your commands to the computer and read it's responses. Famous standard ones were the models VT-52, VT-100, VT-200 etc by DEC, I was using them up to a few years ago attached to some Alpha systems. As PCs became prevalent software was written to connect the pc to the backend computers. The most common protocols were those used by the vt52 and vt100 as they were ubiquitous. The term computer console was another name for the terminal hardware. In high quality operating systems (VMS,UNIX,Linux..etc) you can connect to the computer via a communication port to control the system. Normally when you connect to a system via an emulator the screen (window) will look like the one on a console from the 70's. When you are at the command line in Linux you are in the same mode as using a terminal and connecting to your box via the RS232 port. Nowdays single users rarely need to use a terminal as the interface is in the same box. I really should get rid of the vt100s in my garage. -----Original Message----- From: fedora-list-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:fedora-list-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Shahzad Chohan Sent: Monday, April 25, 2005 10:10 AM To: For users of Fedora Core releases Subject: Terminal 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 -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe: http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list -------------------------------------------------------- The information contained in this message is intended only for the recipient, and may be a confidential attorney-client communication or may otherwise be privileged and confidential and protected from disclosure. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, please be aware that any dissemination or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify us by replying to the message and deleting it from your computer. --------------------------------------------------------
