I never knew about the Alt-F2 thing! How useful! Thanks for sharing that tip.
I have thought for a while that it would be great if something like that could be built into the taskbar in GNU/Linux desktops in some way, so new GNU/Linux users can see what's going on under the hood, and run commands, from within the default interface. Switching to a terminal or opening a virtual terminal window becomes second nature eventually, but for people who've never used a computer without pointing and clicking, it can be quite intimidating at first.
