My Thoughts On Ubuntu

[londonlad]

hi all,

now then, it is a very good os indeed, whoever designed & thought of this is very talented, very secure too.....except, i cant get to grips with this terminal/code stuff! some posts say its really easy, but sorry, i find it hard to learn. some software comes in the shape of a package, & they remind me of an .exe file. on my system i have vista-ultimate x32, its my wifeys system that has ubuntu 7.10 on it, i have alot of learning to do, coz i do actually like it. for me, it has pros & cons.....

[bigtomrodney]

The cool thing about Linux these days is that you can do pretty much anything without the command line. There is a kind of unwritten convention about giving instructions in command line but there's a very simple reason for that. It's easier to write and follow.

For example, the same instructions through GUI and Command Line :

GUI

• Go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager
• Enter your password when prompted
• Click on the refresh icon, it looks like a little winding arrow thing
• Wait for it to refresh
• Type firefox into the search bar
• Click on it and choose install
• Click on the Apply button, it looks like a little cog
• Done!

And then the Command Line version

• In a terminal type sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install firefox
• Enter your password when prompted
• If asked, confirm by typing 'y' and enter
• Done

Really it's just a quicker way to get things done. Sometimes there is a feeling with new users that Linux is backwards for doing things this way. There is almost always a GUI method. The funny thing is that every starts out without knowing it but when they have been using it for a while it just seems like the quickest and most direct way to do something. But hey it's like being a good driver; No-one is born with a steering wheel in their hand

[HighDensity]

Couldn't of put that better myself really, after using Ubuntu for the last 3 month's or so for everything, except some games, i have started to gather a command line knowledge base in my head, so i agree it's faster and easier to use the command line, just takes time and actual use of it to learn the codes, and one of my biggest problems when started was if i had a problem i would think what i would do in windows, then try to fix it in linux, thats a big no no. But Linux is for sure the way forward!