Far from an anachronism, the command line lives on as an indispensable part of the modern free desktop. Viva the command line!

Read email, use your calendar, and check RSS feeds faster than you can say, "Ooooo, pretty."

Gzip and bzip2 not only compress files, they also provide lean and powerful tools for viewing, searching, and comparing text files.

If your hardware or software goes on strike, or the graphical system or your Internet connection fail, checking the logfiles can often be a big help. In this month’s column, we will look at the command-line tools that can help you scour the depths of these critical files.

The GNU Project's Bourne Again Shell (bash) is now in its fourth major version, which provides numerous enhancements.

This simple command-line tool helps you keep ahead of your virtual infrastructure.

MPlayer and MEncoder have considerable potential, and you can control them by means of intelligent command-line options. We’ll put both programs to work.

On August 20, developer Andreas Krennmair announced the official release of Newsbeuter, the “mutt of RSS feed readers.”