The starting point for any of this files and directories lark is your home directory (analogous to the "My Documents" folder in Windows) . It's where you start your brave venture into the vast world of the linux system.

roryd@frink:~$

You see that "~" character, that means your home directory. As a matter of interest, your home directory on the system is /home/users/<your_username>, which is three directories below the root directory. If you want to see what directory you are in at any time, use the "present working directory" command:

roryd@frink:~$ pwd
/home/users/roryd

Now that we've gotten our bearings, lets see how to list files.