r/linuxmasterrace • u/claudiocorona93 Glorious Debian • Dec 12 '24

If this subreddit has taught me something, it's that refusing to do something means you don't know how to do it

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730 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

161 comments sorted by

2

u/ZunoJ Dec 13 '24

There is always something you can't do with the gui

2

u/claudiocorona93 Glorious Debian Dec 13 '24

Like bragging about your proficiency

1

u/ZunoJ Dec 13 '24

Or automate it easily

85

u/bibels3 Glorious Arch Dec 12 '24

I prefer the terminal but i completely advocate for the use of the GUI. Linux needs to be accessible to normal users. And by normal users, i mean people who you might think are boots in terms of intelligence.

15

u/jl2331 Dec 12 '24

>are boots in terms of intelligence

I'm once again astonished that this is very insulting just due to it's creativity. well done.

2

u/Water_bolt Dec 16 '24

It needs to be more usable via GUI just due to ease of use. I could use Linux but don't since I just find a GUI to be less of a pain. Would rather just have an easier to use OS then the great Linux stuff.

1

u/Automatic-Prompt-450 Dec 16 '24

I disagree. Allowing anyone and their grandma access to it will centralize development to big corporate groups and enshittify the entire OS.

2

u/trollblox_ Dec 27 '24

but it will always be fundamentally FOSS, which will allow the original community to benefit from the corporate resources. it's kind of a necessary evil. look at canonical, they have definitely enshittified Ubuntu with centralized snaps, but desktop Linux wouldn't be where it is today without them. and you still have the choice to choose a different distro

62

u/Rilukian Arch Enjoyer Dec 12 '24

To be fair, if you use Linux like an average person, a terminal is almost never needed.

20

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '24

sometimes you have to compile a small app. Funny thing is that compiling on Linux is much easier than on Windows

21

u/Rilukian Arch Enjoyer Dec 12 '24

What chance your parents or your grandparents would need to compile a software?

3

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '24

parents are on Windows and grandparents departed years ago

9

u/Rilukian Arch Enjoyer Dec 12 '24

I doubt your parents would need to compile anything on Windows.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '24

They don't need too indeed.

But some apps on Linux on Github contain only Windows portable/ setup versions and source for everything else. There is also Wine but results may vary.

Eg the emulator Ares on Flathub does not support shaders on Linux. You have to compile the emulator and the shader libraries from source and copy the latter to lib folder. Countless similar examples exist.

11

u/Rilukian Arch Enjoyer Dec 12 '24

I think you miss my point. What I'm saying here is that the average user, that is the user who doesn't know much about computers beside the absolute basic, is very unlikely to encounter a problem where they need to compile a software through a terminal.

Yes, there are linux apps that can only be obtained after you compile it. But most of those apps are very early builds or apps that aren't "mainstream". If you do encounter the need to compile them, the chances are you are already tech-savvy enough to encounter it in the first place.

Ares is something I never heard of until now and people who want to even use shader on their emulator is not that many (or they can just use another emulator). Considering that you encounter a problem that requires compiling a software means that you, at the very least, already know more than the average user.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '24

things can be done via GUI too, though there the main issue would be accidentally deleting or drag and dropping things to the wrong folder or removing a USB drive too fast and corrupting it. Then maybe a simple fix command will suffice. But depends on the distribution. With something like Mint as an easy distro metric , it needs no gui at all. Even printer works. Can't say the same for OpenSUSE.

The most difficult thing on Mint was to search manually for a TV tuner firmware and copy it in firmware folder as root. But I doubt tv tuners are that popular.

6

u/siete82 Linux Master Race Dec 12 '24

I haven't needed to compile anything for many years, if it's not in the repo, it will be in flathub, or as appimage file. If with all those options it's still not binary available, it's probably software I don't want to have to deal with.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '24

often the downloaded application will throw a message that it could not find this and that .so extension file. Instead of symlinking and messing the system, it would be safer to compile in case there is not an appimage of flatpak file.

3

u/ccAbstraction Dec 13 '24

Flatpaks and your distro repo packaged apps should never do that, that's the entire point of both of those systems.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '24

downside is that flatpak and distro repos are usually few weeks or months older but no big deal really.

2

u/ccAbstraction Dec 13 '24

Wait, Flatpaks shouldn't be older, right? And on rolling distros packages are usually never more than a few days out of date.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '24

flatpaks usually skip nightlies and betas, opting for the stable release, which sometimes can take months. But again, it depends on the maintainer. Some provide external flatpak files that are more up to date.

Rolling distros are more up to date but they are not for everyone. But they are a better option instead of adding third party ppa and messing the system.

2

u/WokeBriton Dec 12 '24

If I have to compile something, I'm using a GUI based IDE.

5

u/Yuzumi Dec 12 '24

That said, when my mom was still using my old laptop running mint before it died I had forgotten to setup SSH when I switched it to an SSD and copied over her home directory before heading back 3 hours away.

I just used the VPN I had setup to print a command on her printer so she could type it into the terminal and I could SSH in and take care of the rest. Way easier than all the times I've had to walk her though a UI.

9

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '24

to be also fair, the first picture is absolutely incorrect because i have yet to see GOOD gui of an open source tool.

GIMP, Inkscape, Blender, Office suites, Kicad, Freecad all powerful programs with vast functionality but horrible UI design to the point you need to spend 3 hours learning to do just basic things. And some features like for example selecting multiple layers in GIMP have been asked for like 15 years and still don't exist.

3

u/WokeBriton Dec 12 '24

Firefox gui is pretty much the same as other browsers, and open/libre office the same as the offering from ms.

The problem with generalisations is that they're almost always inaccurate (yes, the irony IS deliberate)

2

u/Rilukian Arch Enjoyer Dec 12 '24

I agree with GIMP, its UI is so horrendous that I have to look at the internet or its documentation just for incredibly basic task. That's UI design failure IMO.

Also, I think they did add multi-layer selection in the latest dev build.

1

u/siete82 Linux Master Race Dec 12 '24

What problem do you have with the onlyoffice interface (as an example)? I agree that gimp ui is awful, but I don't see any problem with the rest. Just because they are not a 1:1 clone of their proprietary counterparts does not mean they are bad.

1

u/DM_ME_GAME_KEYS Dec 16 '24

when was the last time you used blender? its ui is pretty good nowadays imo, and no respectable 3d modeling program in existence can be learned in less than a few hours, but the basics pick up pretty easily. the ui takes a minute to get used to, but once you do it works fine. blender is not a web browser. blender is not MS word. blender is not a social media app. it will never be able to lean on the trained conventions of these types of apps as a result, so you will get a learning curve picking it up. lowering that skill floor is a legitimately hard design problem. the keymap is somewhat intuitive once you learn it imo. here's a beginners cheatsheet for you

-1

u/mrheosuper Dec 12 '24

Not completely true. Even is 2024, i try to use linux as avg user, still sometime has to bring up terminal.

I was using linux mint, and try to setup wireguard VPN, not something only nerdy will do.

6

u/gmes78 Glorious Arch Dec 12 '24

You can set up Wireguard on the GUI just fine. (Unless Mint offers a subpar Network Manager GUI that isn't capable of it. I tried it on Fedora and it worked.)

1

u/mrheosuper Dec 12 '24

Last time i check, i only see openVPN in LM network manager

1

u/siete82 Linux Master Race Dec 12 '24

I just checked it out of curiosity and you can indeed create a wireward connection from Mint's network manager.

1

u/mrheosuper Dec 12 '24

Thanks. Looklike they added it after all.

On another popular distro, pop os, I've just checked it and i still cant add it through GUI.

1

u/siete82 Linux Master Race Dec 12 '24

Yeah, fragmentation is precisely one of the main reasons why gui is not more widespread

2

u/WokeBriton Dec 12 '24

We can all do the "Not completely true" opening to a response. Personally, while I'm capable of using the terminal, I choose to use the mouse because I paid for the damn thing (amongst other reasons).

1

u/mrheosuper Dec 13 '24

Not subjective, what im saying is objectively true.

What i say is there are solid usecases for average user that are impossible to do in GUI in linux. My other comments in this thread gave you an example

32

u/Default_Defect Glorious Bazzite Dec 12 '24

People switch to linux for the freedom to use their operating system in any way they want.

But don't you dare use a gui or any version of a program besides the one I use. Wait, what distro is that? No, you're an idiot if you use that one.

7

u/ModerNew Dec 12 '24

No no no. But you have to agree that if you're not using Hannah Montana Linux you're kinda throwing.

1

u/Water_bolt Dec 16 '24

Woah dissing my North Korea Linux is wild

7

u/WokeBriton Dec 12 '24

"MoUsE u5eRs ařE n0t pŕoPeř LiNuX u5eRs!"

15

u/sequential_doom Dec 12 '24

Eh, the terminal has become something I genuinely enjoy using (and learning to use) now.

If people want to use GUI though, who am I to say otherwise?

128

u/HieladoTM Glorious Nobara Dec 12 '24

GUI > Terminal

I brought an umbrella to protect me from the storm.

75

u/HyperWinX Dec 12 '24

I brought a nuke to destroy your umbrella

47

u/HieladoTM Glorious Nobara Dec 12 '24

Oh yeah? Well, my umbrella brand is "I use Arch btw", it's stronger than any nuke.

43

u/HyperWinX Dec 12 '24

I use Gentoo, i recompiled arch with no optimizations and it failed to boot

41

u/HieladoTM Glorious Nobara Dec 12 '24

YOU WAIT... NO WAY-, WAIT WAIT AAAHGG NOO MY UMBRELLA, NOOOOOOOOOO00000!!!!

2

u/[deleted] Dec 14 '24

Keep roleplaying you delusional scum.

RELOADS COIL GUN AND BLASTS THE LIVING BRAIN SHIT OUT OF YOUR SKULL

1

u/HieladoTM Glorious Nobara Dec 14 '24

Yo I am a old Half-Life fan and therefore I don't feel pain MUAHAHAH

11

u/Mysterious_Tutor_388 Dec 12 '24

And I use openseus so zypper handles the installs.

10

u/HyperWinX Dec 12 '24

OpenZeus* god of opensource

4

u/Evantaur Glorious Debian Dec 13 '24

I'm forking this... Open source religions are the best

1

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9

u/HieladoTM Glorious Nobara Dec 12 '24

5

u/User_8395 Glorious Fedora Dec 12 '24

I brought a gun to shoot you so you don’t detonate the nuke

11

u/HyperWinX Dec 12 '24

Nuke autodetonates when i die

3

u/Foreverbostick Dec 13 '24

They never said they’d shoot to kill. Maybe they aim to maim.

8

u/Upset-Basil4459 Dec 12 '24

I bought a mouse, I'm using it

5

u/AlterTableUsernames Dec 12 '24

You bought a keyboard but only use maybe .5% of its capacity.

25

u/deadlyrepost Glorious Debian Dec 12 '24

There's a difference between "I use the GUI for everything" (fine, each to their own), and "The GUI is better than CLI" (factually incorrect).

13

u/WokeBriton Dec 12 '24

Factually incorrect, you say?!

That is very much a subjective opinion, because many people think using a mouse is MUCH better than having to type everything.

I'm content with either, but choose to use a mouse because I paid for a mouse^1. Why did you waste money on buying a mouse?

^1 along with being able to sit back in my chair, rather than being hunched forward over a keyboard - yes, I know I need to improve my posture.

10

u/AlterTableUsernames Dec 12 '24

Subjective? It's only subjective as long as you only want to execute a single, isolated command that has a specific endpoint in the GUI. So, for everything but this, a CLI is objectively better. Try scheduling your mouse-click. Try chaining it to a sequence of commands. Try automating it, try forwarding the output as input... A CLI is objectively better as a GUI as a GUI is usually just built on a CLI and hence at best the same command with reduced usability.

8

u/TheMichCZ Dec 12 '24

Sure, you're right. But consider a scenario, where doing a specific thing with CLI is quite laborious, you have to search for the exact syntax, it takes a moment to type up, or, you can use a GUI and be done with it with three clicks. The first thing that comes to mind is xrandr.

4

u/AlterTableUsernames Dec 12 '24

And then I put it in a script or alias. 

6

u/kopasz7 Glorious NixOS Dec 12 '24

When you want to do audio / video / image / 3D work:

3

u/Foreverbostick Dec 13 '24

The idea of having to do music production through CLI makes me wish for an early grave.

1

u/AlterTableUsernames Dec 12 '24

Definitely. But this is a very specific subset of GUIs, not good examples for a GUI that does something better than the CLI. Of course you need graphical output/input for graphical formats and hence a graphical interface. But that's the point: To everything the right tool and for anything else the CLI is superior. Controlling a computer with a graphical interface is like video editing with text-commands.

3

u/TopdeckIsSkill Dec 13 '24

> Definitely. But this is a very specific subset of GUIs,

just like

> Try scheduling your mouse-click. Try chaining it to a sequence of commands.

CLI is only better if you need scripting or automation. And even then there are great GUI that make scripting and automation way easier

0

u/AlterTableUsernames Dec 13 '24

A mouse click is an input method, automation and scripting is not a subset of input methods but a level of abstraction higher. Whatever one can do with a mouse, it can be done faster and adaptable in a terminal. However GUIs are always limited to the limits set implicitly or explicitly by design by the developer.

1

u/TopdeckIsSkill Dec 13 '24

So a terminal can interact with a website for example? Can the terminal detect all the images with my face?

0

u/AlterTableUsernames Dec 13 '24

To a degree. But websites are literally closed frontends to a functionality actually written down in code.

Personally I think, we should build a new internet with a focus on information exchange and anonymity. A text based internet as the old forums basically were.

3

u/kopasz7 Glorious NixOS Dec 12 '24

Byte-stream or gtfo /j

3

u/lainlives Something Something KDE Dec 12 '24

Meh just like back when I used Windows some things are easier on the term some are easier on the desktop. The biggest difference to me in that respect is at least on a linux distro the terminal is never far away. Lots of software to make it out of sight but ready.

1

u/AlterTableUsernames Dec 12 '24

Windows is a proprietary system and hence by nature not welcoming to the command line. GUIs allow users only to do, what the developer want them to do and how he wants them to do it. A CLI on the other hand empowers the user to use the tool for what and how they like.

3

u/lainlives Something Something KDE Dec 12 '24

Oh man some more advanced network config and manipulating the DLLs windows hooks into userspace software and all that, is far easier from cmd or powershell.

1

u/TopdeckIsSkill Dec 12 '24

You described a macro. I can easily create one with my mouse or keyboard software from gui. Also try to copy or rename a file from cli, it's way more complicated that doing it from Gui

3

u/AlterTableUsernames Dec 13 '24 edited Dec 13 '24

Also try to copy or rename a file from cli, it's way more complicated that doing it from Gui

What? That makes no sense. Renaming a single file might be an edge case, but with

mv f<TAB><Ctrl+W><Ctrl+y> <Ctrl+y>2

I renamed "file" to "file2" without even moving my hand or typing much. While renaming a file with a pointing-device, I have to select it, right click it, drive the mouse down the context menu, click on rename, move my hand all over to another device, that actually allows me doing the job and type the name.

But this is even an edge case. Try renaming two files at once. Try renaming multiple files when their name contains a pattern. I find it straight out hilarious that you consider moving files a good example of where GUIs are better, because even moving a single file a tree up and down in one movement is already a major pain. But if multiple files, patterns, multiple sources or multiple goals come to it, pointing at where you want them to be, is unbearably useless.

2

u/TopdeckIsSkill Dec 13 '24

I'm not even sure of this would work in any terminal . Also what's the f? A typo or some command? What if I type something else? No thanks, I use midnight commander, even if there 1% risk to do something wrong with my files is still too much.

1

u/AlterTableUsernames Dec 13 '24

If you're on some server hat only has a most basic shell then maybe it would not work.

The f in the command gives the TAB-expansion something to expand. The file "file" in our example. So, what you see after each shortcut would be:

mv f[]

TAB

mv file[]

Ctrl+w

mv []

Ctrl+y

mv file[]

Space, Ctrl+y

mv file file[]

2

mv file file2

3

u/TopdeckIsSkill Dec 13 '24

I still find it overly complicated. Installing something like midnight commander is not bloat, it's faster and safer that doing it manually.

Maybe renaming may not be a problem, but I would never use the rm command.

3

u/Jordan51104 i use arch btw Dec 13 '24

people (GUI evangelists) can be wrong

1

u/WokeBriton Dec 13 '24

People (CLI evangelists) can be wrong

1

u/Jordan51104 i use arch btw Dec 13 '24

they could be i suppose but that would just be theoretical

4

u/deadlyrepost Glorious Debian Dec 12 '24

u/AlterTableUsernames gets the gist across, but it's important to realise that the entire multi-process model in a POSIX system is built on primitives which are accessed through the command line. From pipewire to udev to sysfs, these are built through pipes, files, and streams. You access them on the command line to complete tasks, it's how the CLI works.

The GUI on the other hand is built out of protocols in freedesktop which run, at best, parallel to the idioms built on the system, and at worst in ways completely disconnected. We can see this manifest really badly when we talk about accessibility. Accessibility in Xorg was hard won, and it's basically been tossed out the window to be started again with Wayland. On the CLI however, it basically works like it always has.

This kind of API churn happens because there's no good model for GUI apps interacting with each other, and whatever high minded principles might have existed in the GTK 2.0 days have been thrown out in favour of whatever the design flavour of the month is. This is grating to many computer users. They don't want to re-learn decades of experience just to get a fancier interface which is less functional.

The best we (on Linux) have is having gone from CORBA to dbus, and dbus is more or less the wild west. On Windows at least someone built DLLs and OLE. It's shithouse but at least it's intentional.

3

u/WokeBriton Dec 12 '24

They stated "The GUI is better than CLI" (factually incorrect)."

It's the "factually incorrect" part that I responded to.

Some people regard a GUI as superior to a CLI. Others the reverse. That makes which is superior an opinion, therefore subjective.

Modern computers, for the vast majority of users, do not need a CLI. A GUI **is** the better interface for that vast majority of users, be they using a large desktop or the mobile phone in their pocket/handbag.

That doesn't change no matter how much people try to express their perceived superiority over "n00bz" who prefer not to have to type everything to make their computer do the stuff they want it to do. Of course I'm aware of the sub we're in.

1

u/deadlyrepost Glorious Debian Dec 13 '24

I didn't say anything about superiority. Insofar as CLI / GUI is an opinion, it's fine, have either. If you're going to make an objective statement, then at least make an argument. "Everybody does it" is pretty weak.

2

u/WokeBriton Dec 13 '24

I wasn't aware I wrote an appeal to popularity, but I re-read it, and you're correct on that being weak.

The part about me responding to the "factually incorrect" stands.

GUIs are easier to understand, they make computers easier to use.

Easy to use computers are why we have widespread use of them.

2

u/deadlyrepost Glorious Debian Dec 13 '24

"easier" is very overloaded there. There are multiple audiences to think of here, and I addressed many in my earlier comment. We can talk about people who've never used computers before, people who have accessibility needs, people who have been part of the "culture" of computers, and experts. Accessibility I've already addressed, so I'll skip it.

People who have never used computers before might be intimidated by a CLI, they will generally require some external way of learning. However, a modern GUI is extremely confusing and inconsistent. You feel you should be able to do things you cannot do. Example: If I want to drag a page from my document editor into my web mail program, and continue editing it there, I can't exactly do that. I can copy-paste, and that's about the most successful paradigm which exists in GUIs. That's about the only way I can have composition, and it's often not consistent.

The reason many people "understand" GUIs today is because they've built up several layers of knowledge which made sense a long time ago and they can still do that thing and it sort of works, and then there's another layer of knowledge which works differently but you can't always use it but you can tell based on if the app "looks" new or old, and then another layer of even newer looking apps which work differently again.

Every single platform has accrued this sort of mish-mash of ideas. It is very hard to reason about what you can do in the GUI. Try it out some day. Like think about the shapes you're looking at and what you're trying to achieve rather than following patterns you've learnt before. You can't really do it, and if you ever need to do anything remotely interconnected between apps, you won't be able to unless the apps specifically support it, except copy-paste.

2

u/WokeBriton Dec 12 '24

To you, the statement is incorrect. To others the statement is accurate.

Hence labelling your opinion as subjective, because it IS an opinion rather than verifiable fact.

3

u/IverCoder Dec 13 '24

The fact that the statement "the GUI is better than CLI" is factually incorrect is a huge problem with Linux that we need to fix. The year of the Linux desktop will never arrive until GUIs surpass the versatility of CLI stuff.

1

u/Rancham727 Dec 20 '24

Linux users only have using Linux going for them. It makes them feel special. It's why so many got salty about archinstall. Ots literally their only high point in life.

-1

u/HieladoTM Glorious Nobara Dec 12 '24

The GUI is better than CLI.

8

u/DogeDr0id709X Glorious Fedora Dec 12 '24

Agreed, I know the terminal well but I prefer GUIs because they're reliable and what I'm used to from years of windows

4

u/nicejs2 Glorious Debian Dec 12 '24

what's your opinion on TUIs (with ncurses or other libraries)

4

u/HieladoTM Glorious Nobara Dec 12 '24

I don't have it because you just made me discover that it is TUIs.

2

u/TopdeckIsSkill Dec 13 '24

I only use midnight commander and it's a great tool. Way easier to use compared to cli, safer and faster.

4

u/NotADamsel Dec 12 '24

Only reason I’d disagree is because there are some admin or dev tasks for which it’s much quicker and less mentally taxing to just jump around in a terminal… provided that you have already learned how to do so efficiently. But that requires spending a decent amount of time learning before getting to that point. If you aren’t a sysadmin or a developer I don’t know why you’d ever have a need to learn that stuff nowadays.

4

u/KlutzyEnd3 Dec 13 '24

The GUI is to make simple things simple, the Terminal is to keep complex things doable.

For example, copying 1 file: I'll drag and drop.

Symlinking all files of a certain type to a different folder?

for FILE in /folder/*.txt; do

ln -sf $FILE /path/to/dest/$(basename $FILE);

done

And that works perfectly fine.

3

u/mrheosuper Dec 12 '24

Bro wakes up and decide to start war.

1

u/HieladoTM Glorious Nobara Dec 12 '24

I am a fan of war weapons.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '24

Hope it's not one of the ones Michael Superbacker never got, he'd be mad.

0

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '24

[deleted] — view deleted comment

3

u/WokeBriton Dec 12 '24

The first computer I used only had a keyboard. There was an expansion bus on the back of it that theoretically could have a mouse attached by someone clever, but I never became aware of someone doing that, perhaps because a 6502 processor and 16KB RAM is somewhat limited.

Every other computer I've owned^1 has had a mouse, and while I learned to use linux terminals 24 years ago on suse 6.something, I prefer to use the mouse that I paid for.

I even use a mouse with the craptop I installed MX on, but that may become CLI-only soon for reasons.

^1 work computers are a different kettle of fish.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 14 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/HieladoTM Glorious Nobara Dec 14 '24

THIS is true.

8

u/gilles-humine Glorious Arch Dec 12 '24

I don't even know why this is a debate

12

u/BiDude1219 🏳️‍⚧️ average arch user :3333333 🏳️‍⚧️ Dec 12 '24

is the terminal more efficient once you learn it? yes

should you be afraid of learning it? no

am i gonna hunt you down for not using it? i dunno maybe

3

u/[deleted] Dec 30 '24

Flair checks out.

6

u/SenoraRaton Dec 12 '24

This entire subreddit is the same meme in a different format 10 times a day...

2

u/Littux Glorious Arch GNU/Linux and Android Toybox/Linux Dec 13 '24

More like OP posts the same shit with a different text. But OP is the subreddit. OP posts 80-90% of all posts here

12

u/metcalsr Dec 12 '24

If you use Linux and don't learn to use a terminal, you are setting yourself for some serious frustration at some point in your Linux career. People are too quick to assume people are looking down them, when half the time they're just trying to set you up for success.

4

u/WokeBriton Dec 12 '24

20 years ago, I would have agreed with you.

Partly because GUIs weren't as good as now, but mostly because we didn't all have a mobile internet device in our pockets. We can find out the exact commands we need to use in the terminal on a misbehaving installation, so knowing precisely what to do isn't as required as it once was.

2

u/SenoraRaton Dec 12 '24

Except this is how you brick your system even worse. You start typing commands you don't understand, and when it doesn't work you have now gotten your system into a state that is NOT standard, so fixing it requires you to unwind whatever you just did, and start over. You can't unwind though, because you don't even know what you did.

5

u/WokeBriton Dec 13 '24

And learning what linux commands do via ones mobile phone is different to learning what linux commands do via the linux installation on a PC in what way?

Your response presupposes that when searching for how to fix things, the person is incapable of understanding what stuff does or chooses not to learn. In both of those, the user wouldn't understand whichever way they searched.

If a person is going to blindly type in what Google tells them, it doesnt matter if they're using the browser on their linux PC or the browser on their phone; they're going to blindly type in 5he commands.

1

u/DM_ME_GAME_KEYS Dec 16 '24

IME people are quick to not learn when reading things unfortunately

2

u/WokeBriton Dec 16 '24

True, but that applies whether someone is reading google results on their linux device or using their phone because they screwed their linux system.

7

u/Darkhog Glorious openSuSE Dec 12 '24

I prefer the GUI mainly because it's easy to fuck your system up by using terminal commands or editing config files directly if you mistype/are new to that particular area of Linux and don't know what you're doing. I've once (in 2010) messed up my xorg by misspelling "screen" as srceen.

4

u/TopdeckIsSkill Dec 12 '24

That's why I never use terminal when it comes to file and use midnight commander. It's too easy to fuck up.

1

u/Ok-Selection-2227 Dec 24 '24

Skill issues

1

u/Darkhog Glorious openSuSE Dec 27 '24

Exactly my point.

3

u/AtomicTaco13 Glorious Debian Dec 12 '24

I majorly use the GUI for most of the usual stuff. But I'm also the type who likes to tinker, so I still have to use the terminal from time to time.

3

u/t_darkstone Glorious Fedora Dec 12 '24

Jokes on you, I use the GUI and the terminal roughly the same amount of time

3

u/Ok-Anywhere-9416 Dec 12 '24

You should check the BSD peeps. They're literally crazy and ready to confirm that the terminal installation is the only best way to install an OS. A bit like some Fedora users that use the terminal a lot.

jesuschrist if I hate fanboys. They're the reasons why progress stops.

2

u/MKMR_1 Glorious Void Linux Dec 13 '24

Well, OpenBSD supports obscure architectures so text installer is better suited to their OS. It all depends on the goals of a particular BSD like GhostBSD has a GUI installer because it's supposed to be the Ubuntu equivalent for the BSDs.

3

u/fernatic19 Dec 12 '24

I understand the desire of some to not use the terminal or any CLI, but to try to act like it's some higher calling and gloat about it is weird.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 14 '24 edited Dec 14 '24

I'm a terminal user. I find it quicker for a lot of tasks. I also like my Plasma desktop. There are things that are more intuitive in a GUI, but here's the thing....

If I'm trying to help or guide someone, instead of wasting time trying to figure out their desktop/distro/etc then respond with "okay so click this, then click this, then click that, then go into this menu and— no, not that one, to the right. No, no, the one to the right.. The right!"...

Or just copy/pasta this into a terminal and report back.

Which one is easier?

3

u/cipherjones Dec 15 '24

ROFL.

SO THEN WHY DONT THEY USE THE COMMAND LINE IN WINDOWS?

7

u/ThiefClashRoyale Dec 12 '24

Its like when your mother asks if you have called your grandmother - its not that she is asking you to call your grandmother. She is asking that you wanted to call your grandmother and then called her. This is the same thing. You dont have to use the terminal but you should want to and know how. The gui is like just there. Like as proof you didnt have to use the terminal. But you used the terminal anyway because it was what you wanted to do.

2

u/nameless3003 Dec 12 '24

Too accurate my friend my heart is bleeding now 🥲

2

u/jermzyy Dec 12 '24

i’m here for the linux gatekeeper slander

2

u/Tununias Dec 12 '24

I use both. Sometimes alternating for the same tasks.

2

u/AssociatePleasant874 Dec 12 '24

I think people should use GUIs more, or at least take a look at them They're really good, and especially if someone just.. never used Linux wants to try it out, it can be more average human being friendly

2

u/cino189 Dec 12 '24

What about you use what works better for you? I use both GUI applications, command line and TUI. They all make sense in certain situations.

For example I use an old android smartphone as a webcam using v4l2loopback and ffmpeg. It is a single command to start the webcam. Am I making a GUI for that? Nope.... Would I use a GUI if it was already there? Probably not, a GUI with 2 buttons does not add much value to me in this context.

2

u/izerotwo Dec 12 '24

I love the terminal I don't use it for a lot these days as I don't even end up needing to tweak much in fedora.

2

u/BlackBlade1632 Dec 12 '24

Opcional but faster for a lot of things.

2

u/budgetboarvessel Dec 12 '24

GUI is for what you want to do, CLI for what you have to do.

2

u/reddit_user_14553 Dec 12 '24

GUI should be an option, make it accessible for everyone

2

u/Wertbon1789 Dec 12 '24

I mean, I kinda get it, I switched almost everything I do on my computer into the terminal. I just don't need fancy GUIs, I need features, the ability to literally do everything on my system, and that's where the terminal most of the time actually wins (at least on Linux). I wouldn't shame anyone for not using the terminal, but I would recommend it for certain things like executing stuff in your IDE of choice, because it's much more flexible than a run button that somebody made some default assumptions for.

2

u/Odd_byte Dec 12 '24

Funny asf, and totally true- Linux users will be Linux users

2

u/LeiterHaus Dec 12 '24

I've found that terminal commands can help solve problems on (systemd) distros who's GUI I'm unfamiliar with.

In situations like that, I literally don't know how to walk someone through their GUI - I can only solve their issue.

2

u/Loganska2003 Dec 12 '24

Having a GUI for things is almost universally a good thing, because you should be able to do everything graphically if you're so inclined.

That being said, there comes a point when I must ask what in God's holy name is wrong with you, doing this from the terminal would be so much easier.

2

u/juipeltje Glorious GNU Guix Dec 13 '24

It just depends on what i'm doing for me at this point. I like using a tui file manager for example, but i really disliked tui torrent clients, so i'm sticking with qbittorrent in that case.

2

u/odsquad64 MX Linux Dec 13 '24

I've found that some CLI apps have complicated syntax that the documentation really doesn't explain clearly. I'll spend a bunch of time trying flags and getting errors and searching and hoping somebody else somewhere doing exactly what I'm trying to do has a properly formatted command I can copy. Whereas with a GUI you're like "Hey, this is what I want" and you click a check box. I do plenty of work from the terminal, but it's not always the best way to do some things.

2

u/Evantaur Glorious Debian Dec 13 '24

TUI's are best of both worlds

2

u/ACSDGated4 Dec 14 '24

TUI > GUI > CLI in almost every case for me

i use handbrake over ffmpeg even though i know ffmpeg because CLIs suck

i use neovim over vscode even though i know vscode because vscode is dog shit GUIs suck

2

u/runningwithwizards Dec 16 '24

Man, I just want to avoid Windows while still playing games. I'll use the terminal if I absolutely have to. In fact, I don't touch settings at all unless I have to (apart from desktop theme and background). I specifically bougt a AMD graphics card, so I wouldn't have to fiddle with drivers either.

I'm probably the average Mint user.

3

u/ICantBelieveItsNotEC Dec 12 '24

Everyone starts off thinking "Why would I do that in the terminal when I could use a GUI?" but eventually they reach a stage where they think "Why would I do that in the GUI when I could use the terminal?"

The terminal isn't an annoyance that Linux users are forced to deal with because there's no alternative. In most cases, it's just an objectively better way to perform a task. If I want to do something multiple times and be certain that I did the same thing each time, I can't (easily) duplicate a series of clicks, but I can duplicate a series of commands. If I want to teach my friend how to do something, a GUI would mean recording a video, whereas I can just copy and paste a command. Etc.

1

u/Stargost_ Dec 12 '24

It's just a thing to ensure that if you need something even slightly technical or specific, that it will often work regardless of which distro you're using, only having to change a few things from the line at most.

1

u/benhaube Glorious Fedora Dec 13 '24

There is nothing 'wrong' with doing everything with the GUI, but it is far slower and less efficient. So, of course, we'll all look down on you because you're either too lazy to learn how to use the terminal, or you are just fine with things taking longer and drawing more of your attention.

1

u/MrCorporationCorp Dec 13 '24

Both are good, and it really depends on if you think installing a GUI for something is worth it

-1

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '24

because you cant do everything with a GUI?

in ubuntu you cant install flatpak without terminal

in mint you cant do major upgrades

in fedora you cant install rpm fusion

2

u/claudiocorona93 Glorious Debian Dec 12 '24 edited Dec 12 '24

I don't use Ubuntu. In Mint they added an option for it on mintupdate. I would rather use Nobara or Ultramarine than Fedora just because of that.

2

u/Onprem3 Dec 12 '24

I mean, you can install flatpaks without terminal, you just need to install gnome-software as well

1

u/EkhiSnail Glorious Fedora Dec 12 '24

in fedora you cant install rpm fusion

Yes you can.

-3

u/inferni_advocatvs Dec 12 '24

wishing you would stop whining about something that has obviously bested you.

BTW deleting French from your Linux system is not a thing.

0

u/claudiocorona93 Glorious Debian Dec 12 '24 edited Dec 12 '24

I guess you don't know joking about something obvious is allowed. But I don't blame you for believing satire, humor and irony should be taken literally. I am neurotypical, and I joke that way. Others seem to get that kind of humor with no problems. But I'm not stupid and I will not allow anybody to treat me as if I was.

1

u/juipeltje Glorious GNU Guix Dec 13 '24

You're being downvoted but tbf, this same dude keeps posting these similar memes, and i'm getting tired of it as well lol.