MX Distro for "not new" users

[Mauser]

I never ever seen anywhere where the discussion of the C.L.I. and the G.U.I. to be so civil and informative as on here. It's refreshing to see this. You really get to see the points of view about it. We all have areas in knowledge where we struggle and others we excel on. For me the command line was always a roadblock. I was never afraid of the command line, it's just one of those things I could never understand. The command line for me is like a foreign language that I don't understand. When someone doesn't understand the command line it's slower for them to use it than the G.U.I. because of the time it takes to search the Internet to find out what commands to type and if they can find it greatly far exceeds the time it takes to move and click the mouse several times. It's also very uncomfortable to use the command line because it's like what asqwerth said, because a nasty command might hose your system. But I what's great about this thread I have a better understanding where the ones who know the command line are coming from. I can see the command line is faster for them and I hope they see the G.U.I. is faster for those like me. Auro Kumar Sahoo and asqwerth last posts said it best.

[Mauser]

I Think that the real thing is that with Linux and MX is that we have many choices and some newbies just are not use to that being they come from an OS culture that only offers one way. It can be overwhelming to them at first. But once understood they see the potential and will learn. There will always be those who do not want to learn or grow , but just want to point and click and have an OS that just works for them without any real effort on their part and that is the MS / OSX crowd. They are mostly better off staying with that. The CLI is a very powerful tool and in many ways outshines the Desktop. But you can't convince everyone that it is easy to use. JMHO :)

That's a rude post. It's not just new users. It's not the point of learning. Some people can't ever understand the command line like me that can't ever understand the command line no matter how much they try to learn it.

[kc1di]

That's a rude post. It's not just new users. It's not the point of learning. Some people can't ever understand the command line like me that can't ever understand the command line no matter how much they try to learn it.

I don't mean to be rude, But it's true many many people do not want to learn it. But in your case you've stuck with Linux so you are doing Ok without it. The command line is not needed as much today and you should be able to do everything you need to do without it. I was just saying that there is a mindset among some that they don't want to learn in that way. It's Ok I'm not saying they are bad people or anything like that they just choose not to get that involved with their OS.
And that's fine - But then you also have the ones that learn the new OS and benefit for the terminal immensely. Obviously your doing fine and have stayed the course. But I personally can't imagine not using the terminal for many things and would not want to see it go away. And as I said it's just my opinion and anyone can have their own as they wish. And as I said sometimes just the sheer amount of choice is daunting to a new user. Enjoy and Cheers

[philotux]

I use both GUI and CLI. I have to say that I have learned much more about the working of the OS by running some commands in the terminal and seeing the outputs. But of course in many situations I prefer to use the GUI because it is more convenient.

[hhkr]

I also use CLI and GUI, I started out on CLI with slackware, red hat and gentoo. Its kind of nice using the GUI now.

[Mauser]

That's a rude post. It's not just new users. It's not the point of learning. Some people can't ever understand the command line like me that can't ever understand the command line no matter how much they try to learn it.

I don't mean to be rude, But it's true many many people do not want to learn it. But in your case you've stuck with Linux so you are doing Ok without it. The command line is not needed as much today and you should be able to do everything you need to do without it. I was just saying that there is a mindset among some that they don't want to learn in that way. It's Ok I'm not saying they are bad people or anything like that they just choose not to get that involved with their OS.
And that's fine - But then you also have the ones that learn the new OS and benefit for the terminal immensely. Obviously your doing fine and have stayed the course. But I personally can't imagine not using the terminal for many things and would not want to see it go away. And as I said it's just my opinion and anyone can have their own as they wish. And as I said sometimes just the sheer amount of choice is daunting to a new user. Enjoy and Cheers

O.K. Fair enough. Sorry, I misunderstood your post as Linux elitism snobbery which turned out not the be the case. You are correct on the ones who don't want to don't want to try to learn. It's not just trying to learn the command line, it's also trying to learn the different G.U.I.s of Linux as we call them desktop environments. You don't have to worry about about the terminal going away. Even in Windows they still have the command prompt. It's not a one size fits all. There is nothing wrong with using the interface you prefer. Yes, when I switched to Linux back in September 2015 I didn't realize there was this much choice in Linux.

[dphn]

Sometimes, I need only a commandline. There are many good tools. Best CD-Ripper in my opinion is abcde. There are so many options, you can save the audio in various formats with one rip with settings in abcde.conf

At first it's a lot of work to set your personal configuration by editing such a file. You must play around with such tools, reading documentations and examples in the net. But when you have done, the terminal applications works most fast with a simple command when you changed the global configs to your personal ones.

[Moltke]

I never ever seen anywhere where the discussion of the C.L.I. and the G.U.I. to be so civil and informative as on here. It's refreshing to see this. You really get to see the points of view about it. We all have areas in knowledge where we struggle and others we excel on. For me the command line was always a roadblock. I was never afraid of the command line, it's just one of those things I could never understand. The command line for me is like a foreign language that I don't understand. When someone doesn't understand the command line it's slower for them to use it than the G.U.I. because of the time it takes to search the Internet to find out what commands to type and if they can find it greatly far exceeds the time it takes to move and click the mouse several times. It's also very uncomfortable to use the command line because it's like what asqwerth said, because a nasty command might hose your system. But I what's great about this thread I have a better understanding where the ones who know the command line are coming from. I can see the command line is faster for them and I hope they see the G.U.I. is faster for those like me. Auro Kumar Sahoo and asqwerth last posts said it best.

I like using both; CLI and GUI. CLI for - but not limited to - updating/upgrading the system, installing/searching for software, navigate the system, writing scripts and many other tasks I feel more confortable at it. I use a GUI for things I can't or don't know how to do via terminal like editing an image, a document, browsing the internet - yes, I know about links and the likes but it's not as good as a web browser, at least in my exeperience - and so many other areas where a GUI is needed. Also, I love MXPI cause it gives you the chance to install software from the test repo and flatpaks. I think GUIs and CLIs are needed for different reasons and it's fine to use whichever you feel more confortable with.
You can navigate your system via CLI with ls, cd or even invoke thunar like

Code: Select all

$ ls /etc/apt/sources.list.d

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$ thunar /etc/apt/sources.list.d

search for software

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$ apt search firefox

One can do many things that some might think are only GUI available via terminal and even faster. And now that I'm at it I just realized I use my keyboard most of the time so that might be the reason I prefer doing things at the terminal . I installed awesome-wm which is keyboard centered which I really love but also log in to xfce when needed. So maybe those people who feel more confortable at using a GUI are more used to use the mouse which is fine too, I just don't like having to reach the mouse everytime.

[KBD]

Probably nothing terrifies a new user to Linux more than the terminal. When I first came to Linux I was 'like a deer caught in the headlights' when it came to terminal commands. I still mostly prefer a GUI. I like the terminal for quick system info, a few commands are useful, some are quite powerful, and I appreciate what it can do. But especially for new users, GUI is going to make them feel more at home, and some of us do simply pick up information easier from a visual rather than a text output.

[Eadwine Rose]

Not just new users.. I can usually make sense out of it, but often I will try to avoid it, or I must have done it before and know the command works and is safe.