Keep in mind that the Kano is so much more than a simple platform to learn how to program. Its computer is a Raspberry Pi running “Raspbian” which is based on Debian (one of the many flavors of Linux) that has been optimized to run on the Raspberry Pi. If you've ever wanted to learn Linux but found it too frustrating to install and configure on a desktop or laptop, Raspbian is already installed and configured for you on the Kano so you are free to poke around and explore Linux. Use the touch pad on the Kano keyboard to point the mouse cursor at Apps.

In the Apps window, scroll down to Terminal and click it to open LXTerminal.

LXTerminal is the Raspbian “terminal emulator,” which is really just a text based way of operating your computer like you may have used on old-timey CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) computers. It’s been a while since I've used UNIX or Linux so I had to poke around going by memory. For example, I tried “cd /etc” and pressed enter and I was able to change to the “etc” directory. Then I typed “dir” and pressed enter and this listed the contents of the “etc” directory.

The Kano Book 2 manual has some suggestions for useful Linux commands to try such as “sudo shutdown -h”

The “sudo” command lets you run Linux commands with “super user” privileges as opposed to running commands with normal user access. The shutdown command does what it says: shuts down the computer so that you can switch it off (or, rather, unplug it from the power outlet). The “-h” option is the “help” switch and it lists the options that are available to you when using the shutdown command.

Another option that you can use with Linux commands is the “-l” switch that, like the “-h” option, lists the available options that you can use with a command. For instance, I typed “sudo –l” and got the following list of options that I could use with the sudo command (notice that “poweroff” is among them).

I typed “sudo poweroff” and pressed the enter key. I was prompted for a password (enter “kano”). The Kano promptly shut down.