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A month on the command line -- Day 1

Posted by Steven_Rosenber on · 5 comments
Click; By Steven Rosenberg 		Mail this story
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I'm tired of debating the relative merits of Linux's various desktop environments and distributions. Tired of reading about them, tired of writing about them. So today an experiment begins: My month at the command line. I'm going back. To the $ prompt. No GNOME. No KDE. Not even Xfce, IceWM or Fluxbox. No X at all. Just the console.

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Comments (5)

tuxchick ·
In my own mind there is a clear delineation: servers are CLI, desktops are CLI + GUI. X on a server? Noob! Weenie! As if! But then I use a lot of remote graphical server admin tools, such as Webmin and browser-based admin interfaces. Sure, they're not on the server, so it doesn't have the overhead of X windows, but you still get pointy-clicky.

I just like having both, and I adore graphical apps that support a full range of CLI commands.
techiem2 ·
I'm pretty much the same, but I do prefer the console for many things these days. I live in an Eterm session with screen running. mc for file management, ncmpc (ncurses mpd client) for audio control, irssi for irc and IM (via a bitlbee server). Then all the standard X apps for gui stuff like firefox, tbird, etc.

Servers never get X installed. Webmin and such of course, but never X. I'm usually admining them over ssh or web anyways, so what would be the point?
Steven_Rosenber Story submitter ·
At this point, I think the ideal setup would be running a basic X session with a Web browser, then dropping down to the console for everything else.

I'm still trying to get used to the text-based browsers (elinks and lynx).

Another thing about running from the console -- the default fonts on a PC are just the right size -- and they look so good, too. All the problems we have with font rendering in GUIs just fade away when you're looking at a text-only, non-GUI screen. It's a nice environment for a writer.
tuxchick ·
Text web browsers are for people who like being frustrated :) Poor things, it's not their fault that 95% of web sites are designed by crazy people.

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