first part of line in terminal

[Colin Law]

On 9 January 2011 04:51, Doug <dmcgarrett at optonline.net> wrote:
> Before the ~$ on the terminal, there is--depending on how I installed the
> os, I guess--a two word
> opening--I don't know what to call it.  On this particular distro, it says
> doug at dougpclos:  On another
> machine, where I open up an Ubuntu terminal, it says doug at doug-MM061:
>
> I assume that the first word--doug--is the user, i.e., me.  What is the
> second?  Is it a machine name?

By default the second is the machine name or hostname I believe.  It
can be changed, google shows many links, though some seem to only
apply to particular versions of Ubuntu.

> I have to change it in various distros so as to make it consistent across
> several distros installed on any one machine.  So where can I find it to
> change it?  And what is MM0-61?  I'm sure I never put that in

When installing Ubuntu there is a field for entry of the machine name,
which is defaulted to a value the installer chooses.  I don't remember
exactly where that is, but I do know that it is easy to miss, I have
more than once not noticed it and ended up with machine name I did not
want.

Colin