Why You Should Learn Scripting Even If You’re Not A Programmer

You might think that Linux scripting might only be for wizards. It can save you a lot of time, even if you don’t consider yourself a programmer. Taking a little time to learn some basic scripting could save you lots of it in the long run by automating boring repetitive tasks.

Automating Repetitive Tasks

One reason for learning about Linux scripting is that learning how to do so can save you a lot of time on repetitive tasks. While computers can save time by themselves on certain things, human operators can still get tired if they have to do the same thing over and over. This is the computer’s job, not yours.

You might have to download many files from a server or rename many images. This can be tedious, but you can put the computer to work.

A good example of this comes from the Bash subreddit. A lawyer created a script on a suggestion from ChatGPT to automate OCR (optical character recognition) tasks across 40 files. The script converted the monotonous task of opening a bunch of files to moving the PDFs into one directory and running the script.

Despite the poster not having a computer science background or experience with shell scripting, this approach saved them hours of work.

You Can Find Scripts Online and Adapt Them

The great thing about scripting is that since it’s so easy, you can find scripts that other people have written and adapt them.

If you want to convert a bunch of image files using Bash, you might try searching for something like “how to convert images in Bash.” You’ll often find a tutorial that shows you how to build an image converter using an external program like the ImageMagick suite. You can find lots of scripts you can download from GitHub.

You can also find online texts on scripting such as the Advanced Bash Scripting Guide. You can even buy books full of scripts, known as “cookbooks,” for many popular scripting languages.

You won’t be going it alone, no matter what you have to do, whether you have to rename a bunch of files or extract information from a spreadsheet. Someone has likely already done something similar to what you’re trying to do. Recipes (the kind you cook with) get passed around and modified, and so do scripts. You might find yourself doing the same.

Lots of Help From Programming Pros Online (and the Occasional AI)

Not only can you often find pre-existing scripts to flatten the learning curve, but there are lots of friendly people who can help you with your scripting projects.

A good example is the previously linked subreddit. There are lots of online forums and chat rooms dedicated to Linux and open-source programming. If you’re stuck on a problem, you can visit them for advice, such as on Reddit or Stack Exchange. Some are geared toward beginners and others are intended for those who have more experience with scripting. Be careful about asking basic questions in forums geared toward experts.

This is why you should try to read the documentation and any FAQs on your scripting language before you ask questions. People like it when it seems like you did your homework before asking a question.

Because these channels often have professional developers, if you’ve come into Linux and scripting from outside of a traditional computer science background, you can get advice from people who’ve been in your shoes. You might get pointers on how to create a Bash script like the lawyer did, as well as when not to, such as more complicated tasks involving loops.

Even though AI results can be controversial, they’re playing a larger role in advising on creating scripts. Scripting is a task that might be well-suited to AI models, as there seems to be less of a risk of “hallucinating” with coding, which tends to have more objective results. Coding relies less on knowledge about human culture. Such “expert systems” have been around for a lot longer than ChatGPT.

Related

How to Improve Your Coding With ChatGPT

ChatGPT can be useful as a programming assistant, but only up to a point.

Whenever I’ve been searching for programming problems, Google’s Gemini AI has been coming up prominently. You’ll probably see more suggestions in the future. You should still try to learn as much as you can if you get serious about scripting.

Save Time and Money With Your Existing Hardware

If you want to take advantage of Linux scripting, you might wonder if you need a new machine. Fortunately, you don’t need a new computer if you want to experiment with scripting languages.

Linux is great at working with your existing hardware. Linux distributions exist for almost any computer ever created in the last 30 years. You might not be using an old 486 PC, but that 5-year-old laptop will likely be more than enough to run a lightweight distro, and you probably aren’t going to run into any advanced problems as a beginner.

Even better, there are ways to run Linux alongside your existing OS.

You Can Use Your Existing OS

If you’re getting into Linux scripting, you likely don’t have any experience with Linux or other Unix-like operating systems. You’ll be glad to know that you can use your existing OS.

If you’re using macOS, you can just pop open the Terminal application and use the shell, similar to how any Linux user would. If you’re on Windows 10 or 11, you can install Windows Subsystem for Linux. It’s more involved than the macOS terminal and you have to pick a distribution as well, but it’s much easier now that you can use the Microsoft Store. WSL installs in minutes and Ubuntu is a good choice for someone brand-new to Linux since it’s so easy to get started with yet popular with pro developers.

Related

How to Install the Windows Subsystem for Linux on Windows 11

Linux is easier to install than ever on Windows 11.

Since WSL is intended for professional developers, it will hold your hand less than it would with than if you were using an Ubuntu desktop, but you can master the Linux command line if you’ve ever used MS-DOS, the Windows Command Prompt, or PowerShell. The advantage of WSL is that you won’t have to switch between your Windows desktop and a dual-boot or virtual machine version of Linux.

Libraries, Programs Do the Hard Work for You

You might have heard that scripting can be difficult, but there are lots of ways to make the tasks easier. Programmers hate having to do the same thing the same way twice, and that’s why they’ve created libraries to make things easier. There are libraries for manipulating files and fetching information from the internet.

You can reduce a lot of operations to giving instructions to these libraries, which are known as “library calls.” As mentioned earlier, there are also plenty of pre-existing scripts that you can adapt to your own needs. They can serve as examples for the small scripts you create yourself.

Learning Advanced Skills Lets You Automate More

Learning to write scripts is like learning a musical instrument: it takes time and you’ll only improve with practice.

It can seem complicated. I’ve been there, too. When I started, simple concepts like for loops seemed daunting. With experience under my belt, I can write one in Python in my sleep.

Knowing Scripting Languages Is a Valuable Skill

If you hone your craft at scripting languages, you’ll find you’ve mastered an in-demand skill. As of March 2025, the most popular programming language on the TIOBE Index is Python, a scripting language and a common one that many people learn when they start coding.

This is a survey of professional programmers, so if you learn Python, you could not only automate boring tasks but possibly improve your career prospects. If you know how to write effective scripts, you can have an edge over other potential applicants. Learning how to write scripts, even if you don’t have a CS degree, could pay off in more than one way.