Shell

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A shell is simply another term for a user interface. The term is a metaphor that refers to the outer-most layer of an Operating System, the software that makes a computer interactive, that brings it to life. If the operating system is the guts of the computer, the shell is its skin or, well, its shell. That is, it's the part you actually touch when interacting with it.

Shells are usually either textual, in which case they are often called command-line interfaces or CLIs, or graphical, which are the windows, menus, and icons you may be most familiar with. Graphical shells are also called graphical user interfaces, or GUIs (pronounced "goo-ees").

A shell account is a registered user account that grants access to a shell. Shell accounts can often be obtained on public access computer systems free of charge (see free shell account providers), or are created for you by an employer or the administrator of shared computing resources such as shared servers (called "mainframes").

Read next: Securing a Shell Account on a Shared Server ➡️