What Is Ubuntu BASH Shell?

The best way of explaining the BASH shell to a Windows user is to compare it to the DOS command prompt. It lets you issue commands directly to the operating system via the keyboard without needing to mess around with the mouse and windows (although it is sometimes possible to use the mouse within a BASH shell to copy and paste text, and sometimes to control simple textbased menus). The big difference is that the BASH shell has commands for just about everything you might do on your system, whereas the DOS command prompt is restricted to tools capable of manipulating and viewing files and directories, and on Windows 2000/XP machines, configuring certain system settings.

In the old days, the DOS command prompt was also the visible layer of an entire operating system in which DOS programs were designed to be run. However, the shell is merely one of the many ways of accessing the Linux kernel and subsystems. It’s true that many programs are designed to run via the BASH shell, but technically speaking, most actually run on the Linux operating system, and simply take input and show their input via the BASH shell.

Linux finds itself with the BASH shell largely because Linux is a clone of Unix. In the early days of Unix, the text-based shell was all that was offered as a way of letting users control the computer. Typing commands in directly is one of the most fundamental ways of controlling any type of computer and, in the evolutionary scale, comes straight after needing to set switches and watch blinking lights in order to run programs.

That the BASH shell can trace its history back to the early days of Unix might sound like a tacit indication that the BASH is somehow primitive—far from it. It’s one of the most efficient and immediate ways of working with your computer. Many people consider the commandline shell to be a way of using a computer that has yet to be superseded by a better method.

Most Linux distributions come with a choice of different kinds of shell programs. However, the default shell is BASH, as is the case in Ubuntu. BASH stands for Bourne Again SHell. This is based on the Bourne shell, a tried-and-tested program that originated in the early days of Unix.

The other shells available include PDKSH (Public Domain Korn SHell, based on Korn
Shell, another early Unix shell), and ZSH (Z SHell), a more recent addition. These are usually used by people who want to program Linux in various ways, or by those who simply aren’t happy with BASH.

The BASH shell is considered by many to be the best of all worlds in that it’s easy enough for beginners to learn yet is able to grow with them and offer additional capabilities as necessary. BASH is capable of scripting, for example, which means you can even create your own simple programs.

When you run a shell on a Linux system, the system refers to it as a tty device. This stands for teletypewriter, a direct reference to the old system of inputting data on what were effectively electronic typewriters connected to mainframe computers. These, in turn, took their names from the devices used to automate the sending and receiving of telegrams in the early part of the twentieth century.

Technically speaking, a shell refers to any type of user interface. The windowing system offered by Windows and Macintosh operating systems are a type of shell. However, many people in the Linux and Unix worlds use the word shell as shorthand for a shell that offers a command line.

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Source of Information : Beginning Ubuntu Linux - From Novice To Professional