GUI Fan Club – for a Terminal-free Ubuntu experience ! (Only if you want it…)

[jerome1232]

Personally I don't see much difference between remembering commands, and remembering where to find everything in a million gui's.

I guess most people are just use to the gui and don't want to learn to use the command line.

[Rocket2DMn]

Moved to Tutorials & Tips.

[mgmiller]

What I did was combine tracker with deskbar and added the google-suggest and wikipedia-suggest addons from here: http://www.k-d-w.org/node/39

Now the all powerful alt/F3 can do almost anything very quickly, much like gnome-do. High lite a word or phrase and when you hit alt/F3 it pops up with the selection already loaded and your choices are below. You can also have it do system commands if you like or if you input someones name from your address book, will send an e-mail.

Just right click the deskbar icon and select preferences and you can see the choices of actions. Click to enable. You can even change the order the actions are displayed.

One function that was lost in the transition to Firefox 3 was the ability of deskbar to hook into your bookmarks and browsing history. This feature will be back in Intrepid and I really miss it, although, once FF is open, the address bar does many of the same functions.

To enable deskbar, right click your panel and select "add to panel" and select "deskbar".

This is a feature that is installed by default, but not enabled. I think it should be enabled by default also.

[2CV67]

I'm not sure if you're thanking me for giving you the GUI-ised version of the instruction rather than the terminal-ised (sudo apt-get install nautilus-gksu) version; but if so, then you're welcome

Yessir! Sorry I did not attribute it to you in this thread.
I did officially thank you for that post though.
Thanks again!

Also, be aware that when faced with the choice between Windows 95 and Mac OS, most people still bought Windows 95 even though it definitely required use of the terminal and the Mac OS didn't even have a terminal. Once you use the terminal on GNU/Linux enough, you remember the commands that you use, just like how salespeople can remember model numbers.

I started with punched cards so the original Mac with about 7" screen & a mouse was an absolute revelation as an interface.
Later I changed from Mac to Windows (95) because it was cheaper, even though it was less good.
In 13 years I hardly ever (never?) needed to use terminal.
Now I have decided to avoid Vista and shift progressively from XP to Ubuntu, again because it is cheaper, whether it is better or not as good.
Philosophically, I like & support Ubuntu.
Practically, it is still not, BY MILES, fit to be used by anybody else in my family, for lots of reasons including terminal.

Personally, maybe due to age, but I don't think so, I admit that I can remember for a short time, the commands I use frequently & recently, but that is not enough.
I don't intend to become an Ubuntu Geek - I just want to be a computer user.
There is no place there for learning hundreds of commands which need to be memorized & typed without error.

If somebody would like to start a philosphical thread on this subject, I would be delighted to join in.
Please post a link here!

But I would like this thread to stick to its original purpose of providing a repository of helpful tips & tricks for people who want or need to have thier Ubuntu as a GUI experience.

Thanks!

[KillerKiwi]

gnome-schedule - for scheduling things

rapache - for configuring apache https://edge.launchpad.net/rapache

nautilus-actions - add context menu items to nautilus

quicksynergy - set up a synergy keyboard / mouse connection

[2CV67]

Thanks for those suggestions, KillerKiwi.

Small problem (at least for me) I can't see your links.
When I click, I get:

Firefox doesn't know how to open this address, because the protocol (apt) isn't associated with any program.

Do I have to make an adjustment, or can you clean that up for dummy users?

[KillerKiwi]

There apt install links, they should work on ubuntu with firefox....

try

sudo apt-get install gnome-schedule

sudo apt-get install nautilus-actions

sudo apt-get install quicksynergy

[2CV67]

Sorry! - I was in XP & half asleep at the time....

[mgmiller]

To make setting up samba a nice gui experience:

sudo apt-get install system-config-samba

Run it from System > Administration > Samba

Instead of manually editing /boot/grub/menu.lst, use:

sudo apt-get install startupmanager

Run it from System > Adminstration > StartUp-Manager

To create mount points for drives:

sudo apt-get install pysdm

Run it from System > Administration > Storage Device Manager

To easily switch between metacity, compiz and beryl (if it's installed) and also quicly get to the settings dialogs for everything:

sudo apt-get install fusion-icon

Run it from Applications > System tools > Compiz Fusion Icon
It will put an icon in the top panel, right click it see choices.

[Jeztastic]

This is all so true. The number of times I have struggled with the command line or editing .conf files, only to find that I could have just point and clicked in a few steps to sort it out.

I believe that there should be a Canonical policy that any official documentation or advice/support given in ubuntu should be provided side by side gui and command line, for the user to choose.

If possible, the user should be given the choice which they would prefer, and if there is doubt, the gui method should be given by default. Otherwise, Linux operating systems will just never take off.