• Haunting_Tale_5150@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    When I was using linux, I used linux mint. There were some things I did need terminal for, but there’s a surprising amount of things that allow you to use a simple gui.

    Getting people used to linux with mint or a similar distro that allows clicky things is probably the best way to go imo.

      • jeta@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Linux mint I guess. As from my experience, it have almost everything needed by a regular user:

        • Great application center with flatpak and Flathub enabled out of the box, which already covers almost every application needed by a regular user
        • Graphical driver installer
        • Ability to install apt packages without terminal
        • Good pack of preinstalled applications - it’s already possible to do almost everything regular user needs, like browsing the web, working with office documents, reading PDF files and so on
        • Driverless printer support out of the box

        Also it looks awesome out of the box (especially after recent redesign), and works fine even on not so capable hardware

        The only thing I don’t really like about it is it being based on LTS release of ubuntu, which may lead to some problems on newer hardware. Still can be fixed by installing mainline kernel and adding ppa repositories, but it’s not really easy to do without using terminal

        • AgreeableLandscape@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          but every distro will lead to some googling

          This is really important to know going into any new tech platform. You will need to search things up, this is true even on something like iOS where they spend billions of dollars on making everything as intuitive as possible.

      • comfy@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        I’ll give a +1 for Mint and Pop_OS!, especially Mint (Cinnamon edition) for people who don’t want to learn a new layout either.

      • Doomguy@lemmy.mlOP
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        1 year ago

        Probably POP_OS to my understanding, I haven’t used it much myself but I hear good things in terms of a “Just works” distro.

  • depreciated_cost@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Yeah the question is never going to be

    How to do with GUI?

    It’s rather going to be

    why on earth would I do that when I can just click some buttons on windows?

    or

    Can’t we just use settings menu?

    • asexualchangeling@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Yeah showing people how the terminal works is great for power users, but it does nothing for the average user, and kinda is part of the reason so many people think that all linux is is the terminal

      Really as much as the more tech savvy might not like it, if we want to see higher adoption of linux we need to spread awareness of just how much easier it is to do things in the Linux GUI than it is in Windows

      Like for instance, I can install almost whatever I would ever want with a click of a button without opening a browser, meanwhile I’ve never managed to get the Microsoft store to actually install things that I paid real money for

      • Doomguy@lemmy.mlOP
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, you’re right GUI configuration is huge for long-term market share increase for home desktop use. Jokes aside I do use GUI apps/settings mixed with CLI apps/commands, just depends on the situation and my mood, some things I’ll use both depending if my hands are on the keyboard or mouse already lol.

        Some things I can just not do with GUI personally is Git, package building, or using a package manager, I perfer CLI commands for those things because I find the GUI options less efficient/slower/more annoying. But I feel we do need GUI options for everything so people aren’t forced into the command line against their will.

        Options are good and in a perfect world you should be able do do anything from a GUI or CLI!

    • xethos@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Can’t we just use settings menu?

      Which one? I heard Microsoft’s up to three now

  • zwekihoyy@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    a gui is legitimately slower in most contexts. I will never understand why people feel like they need one so bad.

    edit: spelling mistakes.

    • comfy@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Hmm, now that I think about it, I want to say a GUI provides a (potentially false) sense of security.

      At the very least, it gives an intuitive sense of direction, so that you can use a program with very little understanding of it. Things like Handbrake over ffmpeg I’d prefer over having to look up how to do 2-pass conversions online every time I want to make one.

    • scrchngwsl@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      The menus tell you all of the things it can do in a relatively intuitive way. It’s easier and quicker to get started than reading the help/man page and remembering commands. Much shallower learning curve – but of course, a much lower ceiling on what you can do as your proficiency grows.

  • Ephera@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    That’s me with Git. If my colleagues need help and they’re on the CLI, I can just literally spell them out everything they need. But if they’re using some sort of Git GUI, it’s always like, WTF are all these buttons? Are you sure, Git even has that many features? How do I tell it to do XYZ with certain flags? Are you sure, this isn’t missing some Git features?

    • Adda@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      This is myself with my colleagues. I use Lazygit and GitUI daily, otherwise I would spend a lifetime typing out numerous Git commands every day. And it is amazing how much one can do and how fast with these TUIs. But if a colleague needs something, and of course, they do not have these programs, all I can is just shrug and point them to the internet, as I have already forgotten all the little flags and parameters for more advanced commands. It is incredible how easy these TUIs make Git to use.

      • Ephera@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Well, cool that it works for you, but that is kind of why I stay away from the GUIs, too: I do not want to forget how the CLI works. Or even just become less comfortable in it.

        When you need to look anything up about Git, you get told commands, and I need to mess with Git repos on remote servers every now and then.
        Also, even if I can’t help colleagues in their GUI, they generally have the CLI somewhere.

        I do use a shell with type-ahead suggestions to alleviate the typing somewhat.

    • from software paypig@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      I think git’s CLI is not a good user interface but with how ubiquitous it is as a VCS, it’s better to power through the oddities and become proficient in it.

      • Ephera@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, I always tell new trainees, they can use a GUI, but they won’t get around learning how the CLI works, as when they look anything up about Git, they’ll only find commands.

    • comfy@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      At some point, I realize that I’m furiously clicking the up arrow twenty times just to reenter a command that was two words long anyway and far quicker to type out. Not even CTRL+R would make it more efferent than typing.

      • xethos@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Even with mid-command matching, like “ctrl+r Doc” for “cd Documents”? Just in case not everyone has found that you don’t have to match from the beginning of the string you’re looking for.

  • bzlcos@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Unfortunately people will never use anything that requires cli usage for basic operations en masse which kinda hinders significant adoption of Linux

    • Lobstronomosity@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Basically me whenever I try to use Linux on a permanent basis. What’s that, you want to run a program at boot? You’ll have to do it all in CLI and there’s a pretty high chance you’ll brick the OS. Oh, and don’t make any spelling mistakes!

      • NoNatNovember@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        Not sure which distro you were using, but most have an autostart gui option and you would have to make some serious spelling mistakes to brick your system.

        • Lobstronomosity@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          In this case, Raspbian on a Raspberry Pi. I was trying to set up a script that would connect to a network storage device automatically. There’s not a simple way to do it, you have to go about it in a hacky way.

  • jakobmn@feddit.dk
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    1 year ago

    While I love using a terminal, there are certainly things that I prefer a TUI or a GUI for. But they should be navigable using the keyboard. I can move files around much faster using Total Commander or Midnight Commander rather than using the terminal.

  • Pantherina@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    People say Linux is complicated while you can literally just run one script and have everything setup.

    • TheBelgian@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      no, you can literally dictate what to do without having a computer in front of you… On Windows, try to remember in which window, page of that window and which button to click to change anything.

  • grumpychocobo@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Truth. Been using macOS as my day to day for 15 years and was doing Solaris UNIX admin work for years before that. To this day, some stuff, it’s just easier to open the terminal.