Look Ma, No Terminal!
A common misconception with Linux is that you have to know how to use the terminal in order for you to use linux. The fact is you won’t have to use the linux terminal more than you would use CMD in Windows or the terminal in Mac OSX. Today we will look into some of the applications that a “normal” computer user would use without having to know the terminal. Here the term “normal” is vague; since every computer users needs are different from one another, but we will try to cover some basic applications that a normal computer user might use.
Web Browsing: Links and Lynx are great for web browsing on the terminal, especially if you like showing off; practically speaking it has little advantage over a full blown graphical web browser. Most of the popular web browsers can also be used with linux. Here is a list of 9 Web Browsers for Linux. If you are too attached to IE (why??), you could use IEs4Linux to install IE on your linux system.
Text Editors: Vim - Emacs - nano are not practical text editors. Powerful editors? Yes. Practical? No . What a “normal” computer user needs is a simple text editor for simple text editing; gedit and kate are the best text editors out there for linux. If you are too attached to windows notepad; you can use it under linux too with wine, which is installed by default.
Word Processors: For a more complex text editing options, word processors are the ideal choice and linux gives you a great list of options to choose from. Abiword and Kword is my personal choice; but you can also use a more popular word processor like Openoffice. Although I haven’t tried it myself, it is possible to use every single version of MS Office with wine .
Instant Messaging: There are many options for Wine; but one that stands above all is Pidgin; not only is it platform independent; it supports almost all major IM protocol that we know of: AIM, ICQ, Jabber/XMPP, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, IRC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, QQ, Lotus Sametime, SILC, SIMPLE, MySpaceIM, and Zephyr.
Video Player: VLC is the most popular video player in Linux; every single video formats that you could play under windows with VLC, can do the same under Linux.
Games: The subject of this post is to identify if a regular computer user can do their day to day tasks without having to use the terminal; NOT whether Linux users can have the same experience a normal windows user have; which includes having the ability to play all sorts of games available for PC. (Blame the gaming industry and the hardware makers for not supporting linux, but that’s a different topic) It is possible to use “some” (windows) games under linux without having to tinker with the terminal, you can get the list here. Of course, for linux games all games can be played and installed without terminal, unless the game itself is a terminal based game.
E-mail Client: Mozilla Thunderbird is most widely used Linux e-mail client and my personal choice. Other options include Kmail for KDE users, Evolution, Sylpheed and Balsa .
If you consider yourself a “normal” computer user and don’t find yourself creating a custom GRUB splash image or doing something silly like playing movie in ascii art; there is very little reason for you to use the terminal.
(For the purists: Yeah yeah, “linux is actually a kernel”; spare me the argument)
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You covered the basic applications a person needs, but what about how to install them? Tarballs aren’t exactly self explanatory to a new Linux user. And as for putting Linux on a laptop and trying to get the devices to play easily and without a 6 page document and 14 command line possibilities to decipher, it’s not really a walk in the park.
Dan: That was real 2 or 3 years ago. Right now is easier to install Ubuntu 8.04 and have it fully functional in a lot of laptops. Is even easier than a walk in the park, is more like sitting on a bench, reading the news paper and eating and ice cream. Try doing the same with windows from scratch…
And almost every single program he is talking about is available in the common repositories so you can simply install it in the add/remove program, or use synaptic. And on top of that, tarballs? I think you are talking about the content of the package, because tarballs are easily open with any default zip like gnu program…
RRoman - no offence, but you sound like you need to take a real walk in a park and eat a real ice cream..
Dan, I second that: Ubuntu. I didn’t have to do much to get everything the average user wants on my setup. Why are you still using tarballs? get a distro with a package manager and you will only need tarballs if you are installing fringe or advanced software. Also gui archive capabilities are built into gnome/kde. The only thing difficult for the average user setup that I encountered was installing flash, and word is that will go away with 8.10. And while ubuntu is especially appealing to the average user, most other distros use the above features also. Now if only linux had Microsoft Office, itunes, a REAL text editor, and native builds of games…
No, it’s still “real”. Many laptops have one or two pieces of hardware that just don’t play nice. A low-end Dell works fine in most cases, but more exotic hardware like fingerprint readers and hard drive shock sensors - not so much. Some wireless cards still don’t have proper drivers. If you think setting up ndiswrapper is easy for a newbie, think again. Even something as basic as sound was butchered in the last Ubuntu release (they did fix it, but it didn’t help the image of Linux).
Truth is, it IS easier to get a missing driver installed on Windows. You go to a manufacturer’s website, download an installer, and click “Next” a couple times. Of course, if hardware manufacturers would just release the specs, Linux would support everything out of the box. Problem is, they don’t care. For the most part only server hardware gets that kind of attention, since that’s where most Linux installs run.
Not to mention that most people still need to use one or two apps that are only (properly) available on Windows (Office, CAD, games…). Anyway, Linux can be a great choice for a basic web surfing system (as the recent flood of netbooks proved), or a server. The in-between cases need to be looked at individually.
By all means, go and try a Linux distro. Just don’t assume doing so magically makes you “l33t”. Use whatever system that lets you get the most done.
Linux Mint (based on Ubuntu) is even more user-friendly than Ubuntu. With Mint, the Average Joe can completely forget about the command line. For example, it comes with the Medibuntu repositories preconfigured, so you can install even codecs, Flash, etc. from Synaptic.
What about a GUI for sudo dpkg –configure -a ?
Some years ago I installed Redhat 5, not suitable in anyway for a ex m$oft user, next I tried suse 6.4 which was better but hardware support was woeful. Having to recompile the kernel to get a sound card working and then pull my hair out trying to get a printer working was enough to send me back to MS 2000. At the time the hardware support was not there to make it a viable alternative to a microsoft desktop.
So last month I tried & then installed ubuntu 8.04 on an low spec old dell laptop. Outside of a Broadcom wireless card, every thing worked from the initial install. The wireless card didn’t take too long to get working even for a muppet like me. The synaptics package manager, update utility and the install & remove apps have taking all the work out of maintaining the app & OS. So now I got a old Inspiron p4 40GB drive with 512MB ram that makes a core 2 sony vaio with 1GB ram running Vista look so bad.
Anyway as soon I get my data backed up, I’m gonna install ubuntu on PC I’m using right now.
What about installing a wireless adapter on a desktop? Still can’t sort that out, terminal or not ;)
Nice post!
little hint: VLC got an ascii-play option too and it can be reached without a terminal :)
@matt
Have you heard of Auto-NDISWrapper (http://easylinuxwifi.org)? You just download it, run the program (GUI based) tell it to start, and it will identify your wireless chipset, download the appropriate Windows driver and install and configure it.
I do not deny that the average user can work with linux without touching the command line.
However, I do not believe that you can unleash the true power of linux without touching the command line.
What you’re saying is true, but the situation you’re describing (a “normal” user only using Linux) is atypical.
Most Linux users didn’t buy a computer that just happened to have Linux on it preinstalled and preconfigured by the OEM.
Most Linux users had to install and configure Linux themselves before being able to just use it, and they didn’t necessarily have compatible hardware.
So, yeah, once it’s all set up, for normal use the terminal is unnecessary, but in setting it up (which, since preinstalled options are limited, most of us had to do ourselves) one cannot discount the terminal so easily.
The terminal is great for showing off to your non tech friends, they will think you are so smart and great with computers and next thing you know they will be asking you for computer help which is not good.
For those of us who prefer console, you’ve just made the console sound like a diseased prostitute spreading her pox on society. Those people who are used to console have found it faster and more powerful to navigate, and there is nothing IMPRACTICAL about command line, other than people rerferring to it as impractical. While I agree that new users need a hand-holding interface, limiting them to all GUI will keep them at that new user state forever.
I agree that GUI apps are necessary for people who are new to linux, and it’s possible to run a distro and never see a terminal, but an article like this pushes people to never want to learn. It’s features like this article which end up perpetuating the plague of stupid computer users.
GUI= long way round.
@lythandrel Knowing the terminal doesn’t necessarily make you smarter. You are basically agreeing with everything I said, but still find a reason to disagree with me. I never implied that using “console” is “good” or “bad”; but wanted to point out that “Using Console” is not an absolute necessity for everyday work. There are alternatives.
I use console quite often (you would know if you were following this blog long enough), this doesn’t make me smarter than someone who is not using a terminal. You shouldn’t have to be a geek to use/learn Linux.
lythandrel:
Without stupid users, people like you (technicians, analysts, programmers) probably wouldn’t have much of a career. The problem with Linux and wide-adoption has always been part usage and part perception.
Comments like yours just push average users away. I’ve been a computer technician for 12 years and would not consider myself a stupid computer user.. Every couple of years I try out a new distro of this flavor or that flavor of Linux and I reach the same conclusion: It’s not ready for wide-adoption. But it’s getting better. Ubuntu is probably the best so far.. But it still was a huge pain in the ass to get drivers for all of my devices and install some programs (open source, mind you) that I could use easily in Windows. So I scrap the project after a couple of weeks and go back to micro$0ft.
Some people like their computers for its appliance only. Not everyone is interested in learning assembly code, but they do want to use what assembly code has enabled people to develop. The same thing goes for the terminal.
I work with “average users” every day, doing tech support. Average users
don’t have the ability to use the graphical tools in WinXP to configure their
machines. They think you are a computer god if you can open control panel
and tweak display or power settings. They don’t know how to use “Add/Remove programs”, and they wouldn’t know how to set up a static IP address even if they knew what it was.
So really, the idea that having a GUI makes configuring a system “easy for the average user” is ludicrous, as is the idea that it’s incredibly impossible without one. The only people really griping that use of the CLI makes Linux so hard to use are the Windows admins and power-users who are frustrated at not being power users on Linux the first time they boot it up.
What is really easier for a new user?
A). Copy & Paste this command into konsole|gnome-terminal|xterm and hit ‘etner’ and your problem is fixed.
or
B). Click on start=>settings=>control panel. Select “Foos & Bars”. Click on the “bar” tab. Scroll down until you see “Baz”. Right-click “Baz” and select Properties. etc.etc. ad nauseam.
Copying and pasting any terminal commands without understanding what it does is the worst advice you could give to any computer users, IMHO.
How, pray tell, would you suggest one of these users, who came to Linux without any knowledge of what a command line is on your recommendation, solve this problem: http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/linux/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=192300414.
“Go to Ubuntu’s website”? How? You told them command-line browsing was only for showing off, and couldn’t compare to a graphical browser, so they never bothered to to learn how to do it.
“Wait a day and update”? Ahh, but they can’t, because Update Manager requires a GUI, which they don’t have anymore. Too bad nobody bothered to tell them “sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade” was their friend.
“Get on IRC and ask for help”? Nope, because they never learned that irssi - a command line client - exists, and they can’t get to their graphical ones, if they even know what one is.
“Switch to another computer and look it up”? May come as a shock, but not everybody has a half-dozen computers within arms-reach.
“Ask your command-line savvy Linux buddy”? Lets hope they have one, because if not, they’re up /usr/bin/creek without /dev/paddle.
I’ve helped quite a few people switch to Linux - most of them Ubuntu - and the first thing I always do, before I show them where Firefox is or how to install programs with the shiny, graphical “Add/Remove” app, is show them how to open a Terminal, and have them write down some important commands. Among those are the commands for updating the system, installing software, and browsing from the terminal, just in case something ever happens.
My girlfriend has used Ubuntu 95% of the time for the last two years. She thinks the terminal is a place at the airport, and the command line is an audio animatronic show at the now-closed Wonders of Life pavilion at Epcot. She’s never needed to use either.
Greg,
“No, it’s still “real”. Many laptops have one or two pieces of hardware that just don’t play nice. A low-end Dell works fine in most cases, but more exotic hardware like fingerprint readers and hard drive shock sensors - not so much. Some wireless cards still don’t have proper drivers. If you think setting up ndiswrapper is easy for a newbie, think again. Even something as basic as sound was butchered in the last Ubuntu release ”
This problem is the same as any operating system. The problem is that many companies don’t support Linux, and this is a problem that can’t be fixed by Linux. If you need a driver that was not in your basic distribution just download it and double click it to install.
You would have the same problem with Windows (if it is not pre-installed in your computer).
I know. There are lots of hardware that comes with Windows, and not so much with Ubuntu. If you want Ubuntu out of the box, buy a Dell or ZaReason. He was talking about using a computer not building one.
Pfft, Ubuntu babies the users nowadays. Hell the only thing that you might have a problem with is getting wireless to work. Synaptic has everything any ubuntu user might need so there’s no use in teaching them how to use tarballs. I mean ffs.
Oh, and he forgot firefox in the browser section. You mention text-only browsers like lynx but you forget one of the biggest contenders in the browser war?
It seems that you are placing the word Linux where you should be putting Ubuntu. Not every distro comes with WINE installed already.
It also seems that you are trying to make the point that using a GUI is easier than the terminal. Though this can be true in certain cases it can be quite the opposite in many. I am appalled by the amount of Ubuntu (and other Debian based distro) users I see that refer only to synaptic when talking about getting packages. Synaptic in my opinion takes longer and more effort to do what you can easily accomplish with apt-get and apt-cache.
Seeing these blogs about how people don’t need to know how to use a command line to use Linux may help some people decide to head over to the Linux side, but eventually it can cause a problem. If they install Linux thinking they won’t ever need simple skills then they will never go out of their way to learn them. This causes a huge clog in the help forum, mailing list, and IRC channel and other help communication arteries that is eventually going to cause a serious problem. If people take the time to learn a few commands and play around until they get comfortable then they will increase their Linux experience by enormous amounts and increase their intelligence.
Linux is only as hard to use as you let it be. If you are willing to learn, which is not hard by any means, then it can be a fast, easy, and fun environment.
@ Bob
“they’re up /usr/bin/creek without /dev/paddle.”
I had to stop just to laugh for a minute when I saw this, I love it!