New options for traditional Unix commands

Old or New?

Most of the replacements listed here closely resemble the commands they replace, so switching to them is usually easy. However, whether the switch is worth your while depends on you and your computing. For instance, home users might find minimal use for top, let alone htop. Similarly, to the color blind, the popular color-coding may be of little use unless you can reconfigure it.

Just as important, old habits die hard: Even when you want to switch, you may still find yourself using the old command. In some cases, you might want to make the old command an alias for the new if your distribution does not already do so. But be careful: In cases such as apt-get and apt, there is enough difference between the old and the new that you will want to keep the commands distinct. Often, the new command covers only the most common cases.

The Author

Bruce Byfield is a computer journalist and a freelance writer and editor specializing in free and open source software. In addition to his writing projects, he also teaches live and e-learning courses. In his spare time, Bruce writes about Northwest Coast art (http://brucebyfield.wordpress.com). He is also co-founder of Prentice Pieces, a blog about writing and fantasy at https://prenticepieces.com/.

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