searching for a linux distro

Discussion in 'all things UNIX' started by Shankle, May 17, 2009.

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  1. Shankle

    Shankle Registered Member

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    Don't get me wrong as I am trying hard to end my Windows days and not succeeding so far.
    I am using Ubuntu 9.04 at the present time for email and Web browsing.
    I was forced to memorize 10,000 DOS commands back in the days when that was the only
    game in town. I refuse to repeat this nonsense in Ubuntu.
    So I ask, I there a distro out there of the 1000 or so distros that has come of age and done away with command nonsense?
     
  2. Arup

    Arup Guest

    sudo apt-get install nautilus-gksu

    With this you can move between system folders and copy paste just like you do in Windows, no more command prompts.
     
  3. Eice

    Eice Registered Member

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    I seriously suggest you just stick to Windows. If your response to anything you don't understand is to label it as "nonsense", you're still light-years away from being capable of moving out of your comfort zone.
     
  4. Arup

    Arup Guest

    Agreed........with that attitude, no sense in going to Linux.
     
  5. FastGame

    FastGame Registered Member

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    Location:
    Blasters worm farm
    PCLinuxOS ;)
     
  6. lewmur

    lewmur Registered Member

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    You don't understand, Arup.:argh: He doesn't want the easy answer. He wants you to go through the long diseration on how to "point and click" to open Synaptic, search for Nautilus, click to flag it for install and then click the apply button to install it. That's the way it's done in Windows so it MUST be the right way!:D

    Oh, wait. Windows doesn't have anything like Symantic or apt-get, do they?
     
    Last edited: May 17, 2009
  7. lewmur

    lewmur Registered Member

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    What do you have to use the CLI for in Ubuntu? There is a GUI solution for just about anything you want to do. When you ask for help, you will often be given a solution that requires you type something in a terminal simply because that is normally the easiest way to solve the problem. (And by far the easiest one to explain.) But 99.9% of the time, there is a way to do it via a GUI.

    If you paid to have Linux installed and setup, the way almost everyone does with Windows, you'd never encounter the CLI.
     
  8. lewmur

    lewmur Registered Member

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    I have an elderly friend who is so computer illiterate that when I told him to use the down arrow in the Grub menu to choose what he wanted to boot, he called me back and said it wasn't working. That if he chose anything other than the default, the computer just sat there. Didn't occur to him to hit the Enter key after highlighting his choice. Yet he uses Linux to write his daily sports column and to edit photographs of his paintings to email them to people. Wouldn't have the faintest idea of what the CLI is.
     
  9. steve161

    steve161 Registered Member

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    While I have played around with some commands, the only one I can think of that was necessary for me was "sudo dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig-config". As you said, everything else has a gui alternative. Of course, If a new user visits the Ubuntu forums, I can see where they would get the idea that the command line is necessary.
     
  10. tlu

    tlu Guest

    Ubuntu is an excellent distro, and - as lewmur already mentioned - you hardly ever have to use commands in the terminal. But since you're a new Linux user coming from Windows I suggest that you try the Kubuntu Live CD - KDE is, IMO, a more familiar GUI for a Windows user than Gnome. If you like it you can use KDE in your Ubuntu system by installing the package kubuntu-desktop via Synaptic.
     
  11. Kerodo

    Kerodo Registered Member

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    Use of the command line in Ubuntu is pretty minimal. When I do a fresh Ubuntu install, the only reason I use the command line is to manually install my ATI drivers, and to set up bind9. That's it. Very minimal.....
     
  12. Shankle

    Shankle Registered Member

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    Ok , I really don't know how to answer these answers. But of one thing I am sure, there are possible another 100 million people out here that would like to switch to Ununtu or some such distro and are finding the switch very difficult. I'm stating a fact, I've had tons of experience with computers, things just don't need to be this evasive. So I'll take Arups advice and try once more.
    There has never been a program written that can't be improved or made easier to use. That's a fact of life. If you think Linux is perfect then I have no hope of using it on an on going basis. Windows IMHO is the pits but again it's the only game in town.

    My criticisms were intended to be constructive. If you feel that Ubuntu or any other distro is above constructive criticism then you have my deepest sympathies.
    I will not post here again.
     
  13. tlu

    tlu Guest

    Sorry - I don't understand this reaction o_O Did anybody offend you here?
     
  14. ahriman

    ahriman Registered Member

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    Well, for example:
    He didn't say he didn't understand the CLI, he said he didn't want to bother
    learning the Linux equivalents of DOS commands he used to use.
    I doubt he is computer illiterate, as this insinuates, just not computer obsessed (unlike me:) )
    I doubt he wants a long dissertation from you.

    There is no need to be reflexively snarky towards someone who is saying they want to
    move to Linux. Is there? These comments have a ridiculing tone . Why so unfriendly?
    There is a tone of "oh, he's so stupid" here that is not pleasant.
     
  15. lewmur

    lewmur Registered Member

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    Sorry, but I didn't see anything "constructive" about your criticism. You ranted about not wanting to have to learn a thousand commands like you did for DOS. How is there anything constructive about a totally untrue generalization?

    If you had stated that, while you understood that many Linux people tended to use CLI shotcuts to solve problems, that people trying to switch from Windoze would be more comfortable with the GUI solutions, that might be considered "constructive." Your rant wasn't. See the difference?
     
  16. Mrkvonic

    Mrkvonic Linux Systems Expert

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    Moving to a new operating system is hard.

    By the way, think of the command line as speech and GUI as mime. It's sometimes easier to say (write) what you need than gesture it.

    Linux is far from perfect. As to Windows, it's no better, but people are visually used to Windows. I bet if you moved the My Documents off the desktop 99% of Windows users would not know how to find their data. But they "see" Windows and can emulate the mouse motions.

    When you move to Linux, you need to learn a whole new visual style, to say nothing of understanding the system.

    However, after a while, things start to look more natural and the more proficient you get, the more intuitive the command line feels. That said, I prefer copying files with file explorers - it feels like moving wood from one pile onto another :)

    Mrk

    P.S. Documents and Settings\username\My Documents versus /home/username ... I'm not sure which is worse ...
     
  17. lewmur

    lewmur Registered Member

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    When the post is "snarky" it tends it get "snarky" responses. I found this statement to be "snarky."

    "I was forced to memorize 10,000 DOS commands back in the days when that was the only game in town. I refuse to repeat this nonsense in Ubuntu."

    And I found your post to be "Holier than thou."
     
  18. lodore

    lodore Registered Member

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    i like the fact linux has commandline.
    with windows you have to use the GUI.
    with linux you can use commandline or GUI.
    sometimes commandline is faster.
    no one is forcing you to use the commandline.
     
  19. Kerodo

    Kerodo Registered Member

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    Also using command line for some things is more efficient and creates less overall bloat in the OS. Otherwise you'd need a GUI for every little thing.
     
  20. ahriman

    ahriman Registered Member

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    Kerodo:
    Totally agree! I prefer an OS to not boot into a graphical interface. This is one of the things I
    don't like about Windows. Or Ubuntu. Or SUSE. Slackware, last time I looked, still did this properly.
    OpenBSD still does also. Then, when you need a graphical interface you can choose which one you
    want to go with.

    Like Ratpoison! :cautious:
     
  21. Eice

    Eice Registered Member

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    You're obviously using the wrong operating systems, all three of them. You need to go here instead.

    Enjoy. ;)
     
  22. Pedro

    Pedro Registered Member

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    No i don't think he is..
     
  23. lodore

    lodore Registered Member

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    Hello ahriman,
    with suse you can simply press esc to get a verbose boot same with ubuntu i think.
    debian still has text boot.
    fedora has graphical boot but same as above just press esc for text boot.
     
  24. tk55

    tk55 Registered Member

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    what do you mean no one is forcing you? i thought that's precisely what the op was talking about. something in linux you don't have gui but "forced" to use command line to do the jobo_O

    even if there's a gui option, you have to use command line to get it? which means you need to know the command in the first place?

    are you guys saying that moving from dos to windows was going backward!!!o_O

    bottomline, if linux is not "ever" going to go gui, it'll "never" replaces windows for the general windows public, but only for geeks.

    to the op, like fastgame said, i believe pclinuxos is the most windows like. try it.
     
  25. Pedro

    Pedro Registered Member

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    tk55, i think you completely misunderstood lodore.
     
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