---
title: Introduction
author: Franklin Bristow
---

In [ancient times] :t-rex: nobody had their own machine. Nobody had their own
machine because computers were too big and/or too expensive for any one person
to have.  That meant that most people interacted with computers *remotely* ---
they sat down at something called a "[terminal]" which had a keyboard and some
kind of a display device like a **typewriter** (but more usually a monitor).

Now everyone has their own computer. In fact, everyone has *many* computers,
some physically attached to you (like your watch). But... we still can and do
interact with other computers remotely. You're interacting with a computer
remotely **right now** by looking at this course schedule!

This week we're going to do some more advanced remote interaction: we're going
to connect to computer systems at the university using a protocol called [SSH],
and we're going to start taking a look at running commands on remote systems,
and editing text files on remote systems, all using a "terminal *emulator*".

::: outcomes

By the end of this week you should be able to:

* [ ] Connect to a remote computer using `ssh`.
* [ ] Create, rename, delete, and inspect folder structures on the command-line.
* [ ] Navigate folder structures on the command-line.
* [ ] Use a command-line text editor to open, inspect, edit, and save a file.
* [ ] Complete commands and filenames with tab completion.
* [ ] Transfer files between your computer and a remote computer.
* [ ] Use the `handin` command in the U of M CS UNIX environment.

:::

[ancient times]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous
[Terminal]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_terminal
[SSH]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Shell