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Can you use Linux today without the terminal? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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I have used Arch for >13 years (btw) and use the terminal every single session. I also work with Linux servers daily, so I tried the other families with DEs (Debian/Ubuntu, RHEL/CentOS/AlmaLinux/Fedora).

I'm comfortable (and prefer) doing everything with CLI tools. For me, it's a bit difficult to convert my Windows friends, as they all see me as some kind of hackerman.

What's the landscape like nowadays, in terms of terminal requirements?

Bonus question: Which distribution is the most user-friendly while still updated packages? Does anything provide a similar experience to Arch's amazing AUR?

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[–] 1 point 9 months ago (4 children)

It's not, though. Tying a command doesn't take a lot of time, but learning what commands are useful in a specific situation does. Even "ls -la" is an achievement you need experience for. And it doesn't help that if you get stuck and ask (around here or in other enlightened circles) the answer you receive is usually some variant of "Have you read the 40-screen man page?"

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago (3 children)

    Again, though...why is that bad? Did you know how everything in Windows worked the first time you used it? Of course not. Why is this different? There are going to be growing pains to learning anything new. What's wrong with reading the manual if you don't know how something works? Isn't that what they're for?

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    Just for the record, these are not the same questions you asked in your first post. But to answer them: nothing is different about this. But at some people don't want to keep learning how to use stuff, they want to start using it. And there's a difference between "learn how to use a new vacuum cleaner" (to give a particularly obvious example) and "learn how to use a completely new paradigm that is different from everything you have used before and doesn't have a clear starting point". (And before you say that the first steps are easy, let me rename all commands in your CLI and see how quickly you find out how to read a man page.)

    Mind you, I'm not talking about myself, having used CLIs since the 80s, but just because I know how to do something doesn't mean it should be a fun activity for everyone.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    But at some people don’t want to keep learning how to use stuff, they want to start using it.

    That is impossible, then. I don't know what else to say to it. You can't use something without first learning how to use it. Life is learning new things, forever. We don't know how to do anything without learning first, and in the age of the web learning something has never been easier.

    And before you say that the first steps are easy, let me rename all commands in your CLI and see how quickly you find out how to read a man page.

    If I wanted to do something, then I'd figure it out. I do this all the time in my work. I don't know how every tool works, I don't know how every environment fits together. I still don't see how this is an argument for "I do not want to learn."

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago

    I still don’t see how this is an argument for “I do not want to learn.”

    Because this is just one thing that you clearly know how to do and probably enjoy.

    I don't know how many of the following things you are good at and enjoy, but the same argument applies to all of them: cooking, knitting, repairing a car, welding, growing crops. All of these are desirable and apply to things that most of us use regularly. But you just cannot expect everyone to learn them all in order to enjoy the products they could create or enhance by them. It is not problematic to say you just want to use something and not learn everything that is necessary to create or master it.

    If you cannot see that this is true of a CLI, then I have run out of ways to try to explain it to you.

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