What would happen if I cd upped to the highest level folder, and then did rm *.*?
Would the computer crash?
Not much would happen. Why? First off, the directory that contains all the directory’s (the root directory (/)), you wouldn’t have the privileges as normal user to write (or remove) files.
Secondly, unless you include recursive (-r), only files will be removed, no directory’s.
Still not recommend to run the command. You can actually do it, install a virtualbox, then run (in the virtualbox): (WARNING!! BE VERY CAREFUL HERE) sudo rm -rf /*
It is possible to recover somehow, there are instructions on how to do this, but it is absolutely not recommend.