Mike McKee

Every fantasy-lover knows you can’t complete a quest without embarking on a few side missions. The same rules hold for the Dorky World of Data.

I can’t conquer it without taking some time to explore the worlds I pass along the way.

And recently, I’ve discovered one…

The Beautiful World of Bash.

If you know anything about Bash, you know it isn’t beautiful on the outside. All you see is a black screen with green text. Not your drop-dead gorgeous prom queen. It’s the nerd picking their nose in math class.

But, hey, beauty’s on the inside, right?

While it may not look nice, Bash has more beauty on the inside than the try-hard who’s part of every “save world hunger” club out there.

As of now, I don’t plan on conquering the Beautiful World of Bash, but I’m sure gonna seduce it.

Here are seven reasons why:

Version control
Navigate computers
Automation
Cybersecurity
Cloud Technologies
Flexibility in the Future

Let’s chat about some of these…

Version Control

You can’t spell programmer without GitHub.

Whether you work alone or in a team, one of the most crucial parts of any programming project is version control. And unless you’re a rebel, you’ll probably use Git and GitHub.

They rule the world.

And if you want to use Git easily, you MUST know how to use your computer’s terminal.

It’s one of the only ways to push, pull, merge, and do all that fun stuff with code.

Since I’m using a MacBook at the moment, learning Bash will help me use Git faster.

Navigate Computers

This one’s a bit controversial…

Most people would never dare use their computer without a mouse.

But I’m the opposite.

I’d rather be cool like those hackers you see in movies and navigate my laptop using nothing but my trusty ole keyboard.

Here’s why (it’s simpler than you’d think)...

I type faster than I can move a mouse and click it.

There’s no other reason.

Why waste time opening up a GUI and clicking on one too many folders when I can clickety-clack my keyboard for two seconds and do the same thing 10x quicker?

Automation

I’m an automation geek. I’d marry it if I could.

Some people don’t mind doing monotonous tasks over and over again. It’s easier work, right?

But I absolutely hate them.

I’d rather break my fingers than type the same command over and over again.

That’s why I’m an automation believer.

It allows me to skip the boring work and focus on more fun adventures.

While I don’t know Bash’s full automation capabilities, I know there’s a lot to learn.

So this is one feature I’m excited about the most.

Cybersecurity

Whether it’s hacking or system administration, understanding command lines is the bread and butter of cybersecurity.

Who would Mr. Robot be without the command line on his laptop?

The answer…

A lame robot.

All the cool cybersecurity and hacking activities take place in the command line shell. So learning a language like Bash is a no-brainer here.

Cloud Technologies

Remember when I said I’d marry automation if I could? Well, if that happened, I’d make cloud technology my best man.

See, the future is in the clouds.

Nearly everything will be hosted there one day, so there’s no downside to learning how to interact with cloud tech.

While it would be fitting best man for me, I’ve already got some beef with it.

I tried learning how to use Google Cloud Functions to run code, but the process was too confusing for me at the time.

I felt like a failure and vowed to one day conquer the Crazy World of Cloud Computing.

Now I’m not planning on doing it soon, but it’ll happen one day.

And since all cloud tech is accessed using command line interfaces, learning Bash will make the cloud less daunting.

Flexibility in the Future

Every computer has a command line.

So every computer uses a shell scripting language.

While Bash isn’t the only one out there (Windows PowerShell exists, too), it’s one of the most popular. Mastering it now will make learning other languages easier in the future.

You do the math.

If I master Bash, I can master other shell scripting languages.