I decided to use less to view About_these_files.odt , but was warned it may be a binary file and asked if I wanted to see it anyway. I typed y. I wanted see if it was the way to say yes, and I figured that whatever it showed me would be a lesson, for there are no secrets in Linux. When I pressed enter a process was initiated that led to a huge spread of highlighted characters:
I had to open a second terminal window to continue entering commands. I was able to close the initial terminal window, but had to interrupt whatever process was happening to do so.
So that's a boundary...or is it?
I then discovered through the file program that About_these_files.odt is an OpenDocument Text file, which is an XML-based file format, and though this was not human-readable, the XML structure of the characters was a little bit familiar.
I guess I started playing around because the tutorials on entering commands frustrated me a little. One was a narrated screencast, the other is a very wordy description of what commands mean; both required a lot of referring from the notes to the source to the terminal, etc. It was a relief to get to the third tutorial, essentially a list of commands.
In a way I wish I were playing with my own files, which I am constantly shuffling around in Windows Explorer, to really experience the effects of the commands I am making. I care a lot more about where the dianes_private_pics directory goes than where the /usr/share/xrdp directory goes. But at least it's hard to do damage in the sandbox, right?
