[Osiris]

Source The different ways to execute a Linux application

I remember, way back, when I first started using Linux either was either in full-on command line only Linux or I was using Fvwm95. Executing commands in command line meant I had to know the name of the command. And when I was in the Fvwm95 desktop, if there wasn’t a menu entry for an application the only other way I could start up an application was to open up the command line and hope I could find the exact command to run. Typically this meant scrolling through the contents of /usr/bin with the command ls -l | less. And in today’s Linux (or at least in my main machine) there are approximately 2004 commands within /usr/bin. That could mean a lot of searching.
Fortunately Linux has grown up quite a bit so it’s not that difficult to start an application. In fact, I would argue that starting an application in Linux is easier than it is in Windows. How can I say that? Well, why don’t we examine the various ways you can start an application within Linux and you can make the judgment yourself.