TERMINAL icon on dock

An icon named TERMINAL has appeared on my dock with a little white dot beside it, which I think means it's open. What is TERMINAL, it sounds a bit threatening ... shall I just close it and forget about it? Regards, Minnie

Terminal is a command prompt screen from the old days of *nix. You can close it with no problem. The name is not threatening, it comes from the idea of a terminal being a workstation for the old machines in the data centers. On the Mac, Terminal emulates how those workstations looked.

Yes, you can close it. If you didn't open it, there's no reason you need it open.

Terminal is part of OS X and is by no means harmful. Out of curiosity, what did you open right before Terminal opened up?

Thanks everyone for your comments about closing the TERMINAL icon. Whew! I'm really glad I asked you and feel a whole lot better now. Best regards, Minnie