Linux: How to change OS language via terminal?

 

In this post , I will be talking about how to change language of Linux OS from Terminal. If you are not a frequent user of Linux and struggling to do so, then follow the below mentioned steps.
We can change the OS language in two ways, both the steps are easy to do and takes less that a minute.

1. via UI
Open search (press the windows button on Keyboard) and type “Language Support” and change the language via dragging the preferred language on to the top and hit “Apply system-wide” button.


2. via Terminal
As most of the Linux users preferred to work via terminal by firing the commands which makes this approach convenient. Further more , we can leverage this in our automation work as well.

How to change OS language via terminal in Ubuntu Linux?

**Note : Below steps are tested with Ubuntu 18.04 OS , I believe same steps will be true for other Linux distributions.
Before proceeding to the steps , there are two modes Permanent and Temporary.

In Permanent mode – OS language changes for the system-wide meaning applicable for all the applications.

In Temporary mode – It will not change the OS language but it works for a particular instance of the terminal , this is useful if you want any particular application to open/display UI in any desired language.

Permanent mode :

Step1 : Display the current locale settings
$ locale

Step2 : Display the available Locales into your system
$ locale –a

Incase the locale which you want to set for your Linux OS is not available in the list , user can install the locale in system using below command

$ sudo apt-get install language-pack-XX

For PT(Portuguese) language
$ sudo apt-get install language-pack-pt



Step3 : Edit the below file and modify the variables value [Making changes for pt_BR(Portuguese Brazilian) ]
$ sudo gedit ~/.pam_environment


LANG="pt_BR"
LANGUAGE="pt_BR"



Step4 : Edit below file and modify the variables
$ sudo gedit /etc/default/locale

LANG="pt_BR.UTF-8"
LANGUAGE="pt_BR"


Step5 : Logout/reboot the system


Step6 : Run below command and see the updated value
$ locale


Step7 : Now launch your application to see the UI appearing in the pt_BR language.


Following the above steps , Linux OS language changes on the permanent basis until you change the language again i.e all the UI’s will now be displaying in pt_BR language in the above case. Suppose you want to change the language back to English , follow the steps 3, 4 and 5 and set to en_US for LANG and LANGUAGE variables.

Temporary Mode:

Incase you only want any specific application to open in any particular language, i.e on temporary basis then you have to follow below steps:
For example: I want to open gedit application(Text editor) in pt_BR(Portuguese Brazilian) language while my OS language is in EN i.e UI appears in English language for all the applications.

Step1 : Make sure , you have the locale installed in which you want to open/see the UI of application else follow the step2 above to install the desired locale to your system.

Step2 : Once you have the locale available, then open terminal and export the below two commands
$ export LANG=pt_BR.UTF-8
$ export LANGUAGE=pt_BR
And on the same terminal instance , open the application
$ gedit

You will see gedit application UI appears in pt_BR language.
This solution is temporary because as soon as you close the terminal, all the settings will disappear.


Thanks for reading, do let me know if you have any doubts or questions. Happy to help!!

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AI Terminologies Explained for Beginners

  AI Terminologies Explained in Simple Words (Beginner-Friendly Guide)

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming industries, education and businesses. Whether you are a student, beginner or a working professional, understanding basic AI terms is essential and necessary to be in the race of the AI fast world. These are the most common words you come across while talking to colleagues, students or while you are in any meeting keep hearing these words  .

In this guide, we explain important AI terminologies like temperature, confidence, one-shot learning, few-shot prompting, prompt engineering, and agentic AI using simple real-life examples.

1. What is AI Temperature?

In AI models, temperature controls how creative or predictable the response will be.

Think of it like adjusting the mood of the AI — serious and factual or fun and creative.

🔹 Low Temperature (0.1 – 0.3)

• More factual
• More predictable
• Less creative
• Best for coding, math, reports

Example:
If you ask: “What is 10 + 5?”
It will always answer: 15

🔹 High Temperature (0.7 – 1.0)

• More creative
• More variation
• Slightly unpredictable

Example:
“Write a story about a robot.”
Each time, you may get a different story.

Simple Analogy:
Low Temperature = Calculator
High Temperature = Creative Writer

2. What is Confidence in AI?

Confidence means how sure the AI model is about its answer.

AI works using probabilities. It predicts the most likely next word or answer based on training data.

Example: Question: “Who is the CEO of Google?” Answer: Sundar Pichai

The AI has high confidence because this is widely known.

But if you ask:
“Who will win the 2035 Cricket World Cup?”
The AI cannot be confident because it’s a future event.

⚠ Important: High confidence does NOT always mean 100% correctness.

3. What is Prompt Engineering?

Prompt engineering is the skill of writing better instructions to get better results from AI. In simple word, the instructions which you give to AI is called as prompt. The better you give the instruction/prompt to AI better you get the result. Treat AI as a small kid and instruct it with detailed instruction called as prompt.

❌ Weak Prompt:
“Write about AI.”

✅ Strong Prompt:
“Write a 500-word beginner-friendly article explaining AI terminologies with real-life examples for students.”

Better instructions = Better results.

For students and corporate professionals, learning prompt engineering increases productivity.

4. What is Zero-Shot Learning?

Zero-shot learning means the AI performs a task without seeing examples first.

Example:

“Classify this sentence as positive or negative:
‘I love this product.’”

AI answers: Positive

You didn’t provide any example — that’s zero-shot.

Modern AI systems from companies like OpenAI and Google are very strong at zero-shot tasks.

5. What is One-Shot Learning?

One-shot learning means giving the AI one example before asking it to continue.

Example:

Translate English to French:

Dog → Chien
Cat → ?

AI understands the pattern and answers:
Cat → Chat

You gave one example — so it’s one-shot learning.

6. What is Few-Shot Learning?

Few-shot learning means giving multiple examples before asking the AI to respond.

Example:

Happy → 😊
Sad → 😢
Excited → 😄
Angry → ?

AI replies: 😡

Because it saw multiple examples, accuracy improves.

Few-shot prompting is very useful in corporate environments where format consistency is important. Suppose you are developing a customer bug analysis report which categorizes bugs as Critical, High, Medium and Low. In this case if you provide few examples then AI will use these examples as training data and next time while marking any bugs, AI will use these as an examples and mark the given bugs accordingly with other analysis.

7. What is Agentic AI?

Agentic AI refers to AI systems that can take actions independently to achieve goals.Unlike traditional chatbots that only answer questions, agentic AI can:

• Plan tasks
• Break goals into steps
• Use tools
• Execute actions

Example:

Normal AI:
Answers your travel questions.

Agentic AI:

• Searches flights
• Compares prices
• Books tickets
• Sends confirmation email

It behaves like a digital assistant that works toward a goal.

Agentic AI is becoming important in automation and enterprise systems.

8. What is Hallucination in AI?

Hallucination happens when AI generates incorrect or made-up information confidently.

Example:
If AI invents fake statistics or imaginary research papers.

This is why students and professionals must verify facts before publishing or submitting work.

9. What Are Tokens in AI?

Tokens are small pieces of text that AI reads and processes. In a simple word, a token is a chunk of text — it can be as small as a single character or as large as a whole word, depending on the language and context.

For example:

“Artificial Intelligence is powerful”

"In English, "cat" is usually one token."

Is broken into smaller parts called tokens.

More tokens = More processing cost.

This concept is important in corporate AI usage where cost management matters.

10. What is a Large Language Model (LLM)?

A Large Language Model (LLM) is an advanced AI system trained on massive text data to understand and generate human-like language.

These models can:

• Answer questions
• Write essays
• Generate code
• Summarize documents
• Translate languages

Examples of LLMs include models developed by:

• OpenAI (GPT models)
• Google (Gemini models)
• Meta (LLaMA models)

LLMs model real-world usecase :

• Chatbots
• AI writing tools
• Coding assistants
• Virtual support systems

Conclusion

Understanding AI terminology is essential in today’s digital world.

Whether you are a student learning AI basics, a beginner exploring new technology, or a corporate professional adopting automation, concepts like temperature, few-shot learning, and agentic AI will help you use AI effectively and responsibly.

The more clearly you understand AI fundamentals, the more powerful your usage becomes.