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by h4n1 1267 days ago
I'm not a programmer either. I just started running Linux out of curiosity, followed a few "copy-paste this into your terminal" guides, eventually got the hang of it and now I do almost everything in it.

It both is and isn't "a whole language". Most commands just execute a single program with options and/or arguments, except you don't have the overhead of opening a GUI, finding the right dropdown menu, etc. You quickly start to pick it up like you would a spoken language, remembering the "words" for actions, and it becomes a very natural way to think.

IMO the biggest stumbling block is just learning how to type efficiently. This includes knowing about tab completion, history search, putting stuff in your .bashrc and so on.