Why has everything become so complicated?

[fingal]

I used to be very attached to my GUI, but now I keep it to a minimum and use the CLI about as much as I use the frontend. For me it's a 'left hand, right hand' thing. The CLI is my left hand, the GUI is my right hand (maybe ), and I need both to make things happen.

[bigtomrodney]

Well you mentioned HAL, and yes it can seem like an extraneous step. However this really is something that makes daily like easier and although perhaps less relevent to us,writing a GUI. It means that while you need 10 different drivers for the mainstream wifi cards, you interface with them the same way. That whether you're using a €2000 PS based printer or a cheap Tesco brand printer you still get to use the print button. There are more minimal ways to do these things. In particular you could build a system specifically for your hardware (gentoo/lfs) or check out the latest barebones system on distrowatch.com. What I found though in this kind of setup is that you get a system that works perfectly for you, but someone calls over with something simple like a USB device or you buy some new hardware and all of a sudden you're back to an hour or two trying to get it to work.

I regularly run maintenence for other people so I find that when plugging things in and out it's nice to have them just work.

[Dapper Dan]

I used to be very attached to my GUI, but now I keep it to a minimum and use the CLI about as much as I use the frontend. For me it's a 'left hand, right hand' thing. The CLI is my left hand, the GUI is my right hand (maybe ), and I need both to make things happen.

I feel the same way! Both help me get things done. I like the command line to do the real basic work, but there are many times when I just need to "see" a visual image of what I'm dealing with... especially when looking through a new package to compile. I'm left handed so I think my right brain sometimes just needs to see those folders and files in konqueror to help me get centered with what I'm doing.

[hazel]

However, when Hardy Heron is available, you will need to reinstall it (along with the other programs you delete) before you can do teh upgrade. It's takes a little longer, but it's pretty easy.

Are you joking? I'm still with Dapper Drake and I intend to stay there. I don't agree with the Ubuntu philosophy of constant upgrading; it's just a way of constantly introducing new bugs. I've seen the trouble people are having with Gutsy Gibbon. Besides, one of the things I hated about Windows was the "upgrade escalator". When I find something that works, I like to stick with it.

Anyway, I downloaded fluxbox and installed it. It loads super-fast, then gives me a blank desktop and no way to start my apps. Good, now I know what to do: read all the documentation and then configure, configure, configure!

[RobinVossen]

Right Mouse button to call menu
If you dislike Flux since you have a hard time configureing it setup OpenBox

[hazel]

Right Mouse button to call menu
If you dislike Flux since you have a hard time configureing it setup OpenBox

Did I say I disliked it? I love this sort of challenge. Yes, I found the menu straight away only it had no apps on it. Discovered I had to run menu-update first and now I have a fully working system. Configuration files look sort of like those I was used to from fvwm, none of this weird xml hierarchy. This is the kind of gui I can understand.

One of the things I love about Linux is that if it does get all bloated, someone will provide a simpler alternative program. Unlike a certain other system I could name!

[fingal]

Unlike a certain other system I could name!

Not... RISC OS? It's brilliant I tell you!