May 31, 2023 3 min to read

How to open Bash on MacOS, Windows or Linux

Mastering Terminal Essentials for Efficient Bioinformatics Workflow.

In this blog post, we’ll guide you through opening the terminal on different operating systems and share some essential tips for using it. Let’s dive in!

How to get started?

It depends on what kind of machine you will be using. Some machines will offer you full functionalilty and some machines will offer you limited functionality. In some machines it will be very easy to open the terminal and some machines you will have to do some effort to get started.

Mac

Almost always you will be working with either from your Mac, Windows or a machine in which Linux is already running. Let’s start with what you will have to do if you wanna work on mac. It is the most simple of all actually.

If you’re using a Mac, opening the terminal is as easy as hitting a keyboard shortcut. Press “Command + Spacebar,” type “terminal,” and hit Enter. Voila! You’ll see the terminal window with a black screen and green text. You’re ready to go!

Here is another way as well:

1. Click on the Launchpad icon in the Dock (or alternatively, click on the Spotlight icon in the menu bar, or press Command + Spacebar) to bring up the search field.

2. Type “Terminal” in the search field.

3. Click on the Terminal app when it appears in the search results.

1. Open a Finder window.

2. Click on “Applications” in the sidebar.

3. Scroll down and open the “Utilities” folder.

4. Double-click on the “Terminal” app to launch it.

5. Once the Terminal app is open, you can start typing commands and using the command-line interface.

Once you have successfully openend the terminal you should see something like below:

Opening Terminal on Windows: A Bit Tricky

Opening the terminal on Windows can be a bit tricky, but we’ve got you covered. You can choose between using Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) or VirtualBox. WSL lets you install a Linux system on your Windows, while VirtualBox lets you run various operating systems within your Windows environment. We recommend using VirtualBox for a more versatile experience.

Steps to Open Terminal on Windows Using VirtualBox:

• Download and install VirtualBox from their website.
• Download the Linux distribution you prefer, like Ubuntu or Linux Mint, as an ISO file.
• Install the Linux distribution on VirtualBox.
• Open the virtual machine.
• You can open the terminal from the side bar on the left of the screen.
• You’ll have access to the terminal in the Linux environment.

Opening Terminal on Linux Ubuntu

Well, if you already have linux installed on your machine you probably know how to open the terminal but this short cut to open the terminal might come in handy. Press CTRL + ALT + T at once and you will have your terminal.

Thats all for this blog. Stay tuned for our next blog post, where we’ll explore how to navigate directories, check file sizes, and perform other essential tasks using the terminal. Happy coding!