A terminal is a device that allows a user to enter data or commands for a computer system and displays the results. Operating systems such as Windows, Mac, Linux, etc have a terminal installed inside them.

Types of Terminals

• Intelligent terminal: This type of terminal uses a central processor to send and receive data. Examples are modern banking, retail, industrial data collection applications, etc.

• Smart terminal: This type of terminal uses a microprocessor, which has some processing potentialities without the computer host's knowledge. It has more processing power than the intelligent terminal.

• Dumb terminal: This type of terminal does not contain any processing potentialities. It just works as an input or output for a processor.

Uses of Terminals

1. Sends text commands to the computer to perform simple tasks
2. Data processing
3. Data transcribing

How to open a terminal

WINDOWS

1. Open Start
2. Search and open Run
3. Type 'cmd'

MAC

1. Open Applications
2. Open Utilities
3. Double-click on Terminal

LINUX

• Press (ctrl + alt + T)

OR

• Type 'terminal' in the search box, and open it.

Basics commands for terminals

• cd: Change directory
• open 'filename': Open a file/application
• clear: Removes previous commands
• exit: Closes the terminal
• mv: Moves a file

There are more terminals, but these are the major ones you should know.

Summary

A terminal is a device that allows a user to enter data/commands for a computer system and displays the results. There are 3 types of terminals: intelligent, smart and dumb terminals. It is mainly used to perform simple tasks on the computer, even though there are other uses. All operating systems have a terminal.

I hope you enjoyed reading my articles and try to practice some commands and also find new ones to try out.