How much exactly is the terminal used?

[AeThEr777]

I have had it with windows but over the years Ive become so accustomed to it. I am completly willing and ready to switch operating systems but the Linux terminal seems so complex for a Linux newbie like myself. So my question is how often do you use it? What do you use it for? and what do find that the learning curve is difficult?

AeThEr777

[groupmsl]

You can use it as much or as little as you like. If you are just using your pc to do normal everyday tasks then you will probably never need to open it in your life!!

What are you using your pc for?

[Het Irv]

It depends on how well your computer workes out of the box, you may have to use it alot or only a little. If you post your problems on the Forums, most times someone will give you the commands you need.
The terminal is used for more complex tasks that don't have a GUI, or it can be used as a quicker way to do things.
With the help from the forums, the learning curve is not as bad as it could be, but you do have to work at it.

[forrestcupp]

In a modern Linux OS, you can do almost everything you would need to do with the GUI. You probably could go without hardly ever using the command line. The main reason people on the forums tell people things to type in the terminal is because it's easier for someone to copy and paste something in a terminal than to try to figure out whether the person is using Gnome, KDE, XFCE, or whatever. But you really don't need the command line as much now as in the past. Especially now that they are integrating "bulletproof X" and other failsafe features.

[AeThEr777]

Well generally I'm using my computer for media purposes. Watching movies, listening to musci, Internet of course, some picture editing, Maybe some documnets spreadsheet programs for school, alot of dvd burning, and the the addictive spider solitaire. Nothing to crazy i guess!

AeThEr777

[aysiu]

Just remember these few things: If someone asks you to type a command, you can usually copy and paste it instead - saves time and the possibility of typos. If you don't understand a command, you can Google its parts or even ask the person who gives it to you. Don't be afraid to say, "Thanks for that, but I'd like a point-and-click solution in this case, if you can give it to me," and most forum members here will be happy to oblige. Most tasks can be done through the GUI, but people will still give you terminal instructions for a variety of reasons (the least of which being that this is a text-based forum).

[jrharvey]

The hardly ever use the terminal unless i need root privilages. I would say maybe 2 times a month i may open up the terminal.

[AeThEr777]

Thats the only thing I'm iffy about! If my laptop doesn't exactly work right out of the box will i just have to re install the "wonderful" windows? Its a gateway Intel T2050 1.6GHZ cpu, 2 GB RAM, 120 GB hard drive and a 128 MB NVidia integrated graphics card. Its got 4 usb'a ethernet/modem memory card reader and a dvd burner. Sound like it could be a problem?

AeThEr777

[forrestcupp]

You should be ok, especially since it has an nvidia chipset. The only questionable thing will be the wireless. Some wireless cards work out of the box, and others take some setting up. But you should be able to get it working, and it may all work beautifully. Nevertheless, you should be able to still at least connect to the net with your network card.

You can download the LiveCD and try running it by booting to the CD without actually installing. That's the best way to test it out.

[AeThEr777]

good to know! Thanks everyone!

AeThEr777

[LowSky]

be prepared to use the terminal about 20% of the time in the first week, then 10% the week after, the about 2% for remaining life of the OS

[Paqman]

The hardly ever use the terminal unless i need root privilages.

Exactly, and the only time you need that is to fiddle with system files. At the moment i'm using it heaps while testing Hardy, but once things are set up and running I could go for months without touching it.

As for your laptop AeThEr777, one thing you might find a problem is wifi. Some wifi chipsets do not play nicely with Linux. You might find the make of wifi on a sticker on the bottom of the laptop.

The best way to find out if you'll have problems is to boot up into the LiveCD. It's 100% no-risk, and only costs you the price of a CD-R!

[az]

For many tasks, I use the terminal because I can get the job done faster or because I just prefer it. But that's a choice, the option to do it point-and-click is there.

[sayakb]

@OP
Completely depends upon your usage. For example I prefer locking my folders to prevent access using the CLI. (Simple, I just remove the user's read permissions). Or whenever you need to see the verbose output of every action of any application, I would call it through the CLI. Almost everything can be done through the GUI now, so it's you who would decide how much of CLI usage you need..

[AeThEr777]

What exactly is Live CD? Ive skimmed by it a few times on the posts and I dont know exactly what it is! Is it like a trial of Ubuntu without installing it or something?

AeThEr777

[Kinst]

Okay here's everything you need to know about the terminal:


Copy+paste
If the terminal tells you you can't do something put 'sudo' in front


That's it. Not so scary is it?

[AeThEr777]

sudo?? does that just overide the fact that it says you cant do something? Is there a way to check the make of the wifi chipset through windows?

AeThEr777

P.S. And no its sounding less and less scary! :P

[sayakb]

sudo?? does that just overide the fact that it says you cant do something? Is there a way to check the make of the wifi chipset through windows?

AeThEr777

P.S. And no its sounding less and less scary! :P

Sudo and gksudo perform the command as root.. so you can do anything with a sudo

[AeThEr777]

By the way the wifi chipset is an: INTEL PRO/Wireless 3945ABG is there a crazy list of incompatibel chipsets somewhere on the forums?

AeThEr777

[Paqman]

By the way the wifi chipset is an: INTEL PRO/Wireless 3945ABG is there a crazy list of incompatibel chipsets somewhere on the forums?

AeThEr777

You'll have no problem with that at all, it'll work "out of the box".

The LiveCD is the normal way of trying and installing Ubuntu. You boot from the CD and it will open up a fully-functional Ubuntu system, running completely off the CD (it runs a lot slower as a result) Once you power off and remove the CD you'll boot back into Windows as if nothing happened. It's a great way to try Ubuntu without making any changes to your system.

There's an icon on the LiveCD's desktop to click and begin full installation to the hard drive once you're ready.

[canthus13]

It looks like some folks have had issues with that chipset, but it also looks like they've been resolved as well. See this (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=647971) link. You may also have some power management related issues as well, but they're usually easily dealt with. The big thing is to make sure you have an ethernet cable to connect to your router with, just in case wirelss doesn't work out of the box. If you run into any problems, just post here and someone will help you out with it.

--Me

[AeThEr777]

Thanks for all the help guys! Ill take your advice and try the Live CD! Thanks for the link with the troubleshooting steps for my wifi chipset! Cheers

AeThEr777

[kerry_s]

i use the terminal cause it's low resource, it barely wakes my cpu up.
it's used everyday, barely even use my gui file manager.
i also have mine swallowed right on my desktop, so i don't even have to open anything, there just ready to go.

i use rxvt with mc on the top, that's a terminal with a terminal file manager, bottom is just a regular terminal, wterm, which is exactly like rxvt, cause it won't let me swallow the same program 2x.

pics->

[bodhi.zazen]

In general one uses a terminal or command line interface on a server. This is because most server administration involved editing config files and it does not matter if you edit them with a terminal in X or in a console without X. Now there are many options for graphical tools for server administration as well ...

On the Desktop there are many users who never user a terminal, just like windows. If, however, you administrate the computer, it may be helpful to learn a little about bash and bash commands.

Once you start learning the commands you may find you actually like the terminal :twisted:

When problem solving on the forums it is easier to use a terminal as we often want to see teh contents of configuration files or error messages. Also it is easier to describe commands.

For example, to install a package "foo",


sudo apt-get intstall foo

Is easier and shorter then:

go to System -> Administration -> Synaptic

search for foo

click on the box next to foo and select "install" from the drop down menu

click on the "apply button"

Or similar set of gui instructions.

Also gui tools may or may not display error messages, so to see them you often need to start an application in the terminal.

Gui tools often do not have all the available options. For example, Firestarter is a GUI front end for iptables, you firewall. Firestarter allows baskic firewall configuration, but many of the options and features on iptables are not available to firestarter.

[Cannaregio]

I use the terminal because it is not only very powerful and speedy, but also BECAUSE it allows you to use CLI apps INSTEAD of GUI apps.

Why should you use CLI apps instead of GUI apps?

Because they are fast and powerful, but especially because if you use your laptop for hours (say when you wardrive), not using any GUI is a guarantee of longer battery life.

Yet on a tty you don't need to renounce to your music (mocp is a wondrous application sudo apt-get install moc, try it even if you use a GUI), and you can even check your images collections (through a VGA/SVGA display) without a X server, from a tty, using the amazing zgv (sudo apt-get install zgv), from a tty terminal. You can check your pdf files, chm files, doc files, whatever, from any tty.
You can browse effectively for content with elinks (http://elinks.or.cz/) with a speed that not even the best GUI browser (opera) can match.
Moreover the really powerful wardriving applications are anyway CLI apps (kismet, mtr, nmap... :-)

Again I can work for many many hours with my laptop. Try to survive a transcontinental flight with a GUI.

And you can use the same apps inside your nice GUI: no need to click around until your head and hands turn dizzy.
Granted: it takes a little bit of learning with CLI apps, but once learned, they tend to be a lot faster than their equivalent GUI apps: njnia faster.

See http://www.cli-apps.org/

Uff. Just try moc (invoke with mocp) and judge by yourself :-)

[aysiu]

Since this has morphed from a support request into a let-me-chime-in discussion, I've moved it to the Community Cafe.

[chucky chuckaluck]

here's a little tutorial i found most helpful when i first considered switching to linux - http://linuxsurvival.com/
i didn't know a thing before i used it.

[FuturePilot]

I bust it out probably at least 10 times a day for various tasks. :D
Most of which can be done through the GUI though, sometimes it's just faster to use the command line.
For example I just used ImageMagick to resize about 20 images in one command. Through the GUI that would have taken forever.

I love the terminal. After using Linux for a while I'm sure you'll start remembering commands and you will eventually get the hang of it and see the real power behind the command line. ;)

[macogw]

I use it all the time because I like to. Given my typing speed, the terminal is much more efficient for me to use than hunting through menus. My mom has never touched the terminal and over a year of using Ubuntu though.

[Paqman]

For example I just used ImageMagick to resize about 20 images in one command. Through the GUI that would have taken forever.


ImageMagick actually has a plugin for Nautilus that lets you resize in the GUI. It's one of the first things I install (along with the "open terminal here" Nautilus plugin)

[insane_alien]

i use the terminal a lot, sure, i could do it through a GUI but i often don't see the point.

and my server doesn't HAVE a GUI(as it doesn't have a screen, or graphics chip of any kind for that matter...) so i need to use the terminal(via ssh)

[finferflu]

I have had it with windows but over the years Ive become so accustomed to it. I am completly willing and ready to switch operating systems but the Linux terminal seems so complex for a Linux newbie like myself. So my question is how often do you use it? What do you use it for? and what do find that the learning curve is difficult?

AeThEr777
As (and if) you will start using a terminal, you will realise that it's quite intuitive most of the times, you just need to get the hang of it. Most of the commands resemble common English words: cp for copy, mv for move, ls for list, and so on. Other times they're just the name of the application you have installed, and which hopefully you will remember. However you don't really need to remember everything by heart, because the terminal (so to speak) is capable of auto-completion (using the TAB key), and it will help you along the way and makes everything times and times faster. I don't think anyone uses a terminal without using autocompletion.