I have used Arch for >13 years (btw) and use the terminal every single session. I also work with Linux servers daily, so I tried the other families with DEs (Debian/Ubuntu, RHEL/CentOS/AlmaLinux/Fedora).
I’m comfortable (and prefer) doing everything with CLI tools. For me, it’s a bit difficult to convert my Windows friends, as they all see me as some kind of hackerman.
What’s the landscape like nowadays, in terms of terminal requirements?
Bonus question: Which distribution is the most user-friendly while still updated packages? Does anything provide a similar experience to Arch’s amazing AUR?
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I choose to use terminal because I can update my software without requiring a restart (I used Debian btw); for some reason, GNOME’s Software app cannot do this without restarting. I also prefer terminal-based text-editing for coding and scripting.
Depending on use-case, you can absolutely just use the distro without ever touching the terminal. It requires extra work to sift through all the online advice and docs that center around CLI commands though. The Average Windows User won’t be digging that deep in their system to customize the shit out of it like an Arch user, so they won’t need to touch the stuff that can only be accessed via command line. The Above Average Windows User will already be comfortable with the command prompt anyway.
Which distribution is the most user-friendly while still updated packages?
All of them? Why would a distro choose to be hostile to its users? (/s)
I assume you mean “beginner friendly”? In that case, I would stick to Debian: more stability than windows, harder to break than Arch, and lighter-weight than Fedora.
Those are the only 3 I’ve daily driven in the past couple of years, and that’s my takeaways. I can’t give informed input on any of the popular derivatives, except Ubuntu which I did use for awhile (back in 2014-2016): it was more prone to breaking shit than Debian, less beginner-friendly too (fuck Snaps, and fuck your Pro subscription data-harvesting up-selling bullshit).
there’s three thing I use the terminal for:
Updating my apps and systems Running development apps Quick and easy edits or file movements
So I am a new Linux user (Bazzite) and what I have experienced so far is that for my daily driver use I don’t need the terminal at all. But the moment I want to do anything even slightly more complex, or even just to use a program I want that is not in bazaar, all the user documentation gives me terminal commands.
So while I am sure it is possible, in reality the terminal still remains prominent and it feels really important to know to use it.
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Can I? Yes. Will I? No.
Some things are just faster to do via terminal so I learned to use it over GUI for some scenarios.
SUSE has had graphical administration tools for literally decades. Somehow people always forget that.
Installing stuff works well from UI as well? I on/off did stuff with Ubuntu and every time I tried the App Store there was useless.
IMO the gnome store is lacking. Fedora KDE has Discover for it’s store. It has more buttons (GASP) and has easier control over which additional repos are shown in the store.
Yes, of course.
Using Linux Mint, most of what I use I could without terminals if I wish. However, just like with Windows, terminal intervention will be needed sooner or later, usually to figure out why a given program isn’t working.
Exactly. You can get away without using the terminal on a lot of linux distros in the same way you can get away without using CMD on Windows… until one very specific thing breaks and suddenly it’s time to run
sfc /scannowfor the millionth time.I personally don’t understand why that command doesn’t run every time the system starts up by default, I wrote a script that ran it on startup years ago and I can’t tell you how many times it tells me that there were files that needed repairing.
There’s a sysd GUI that you can use to look at logs. It’s much faster to just refresh the UI than searching your history for the right command
I cannot vouch for every distro and every use case out there, but for me, yes you can daily drive without having anything to do with terminal. Some distros have worked a lot ensuring this.
I would recommend to start with Linux Mint.
I agree. In my opinion Mint is one of the few distros that actually manage to make everything doable without the terminal.
With Linux Mint you don’t need the terminal 99% of the time. The rest distros are close to 95% of the time. I always suggest Mint to new users.
Last time I set up Mint the only thing I needed the terminal for was to disable a setting on Java 8 that prevented it from launching on Xfce.
I didn’t need to use the terminal to do that, though. It just didn’t feel right editing a system config file with a GUI text editor.
Unless you install fresh, run into NO issues. And basically do nothing but websurf, and basic functions, not likely.
Keep in mind, even IF something could be done by GUI, if you ask for help, 95% of the replies are immediately going to tell you to open CLI…
Remember Linux isn’t an OS, it is a collection of 30+ different OSs that are mostly compatible.
basically do nothing but websurf, and basic functions
That’s 99% of what most people do.
Keep in mind, even IF something could be done by GUI, if you ask for help, 95% of the replies are immediately going to tell you to open CLI…
To be fair, you’d find that with Windows too; someone telling you to run some command in Powershell or the prompt (even Start > Run).
Absolutely not stop lying.
I would disagree. Almost every Windows tutorial I found for problems told me how to go through the UI. It was even hard to find tutorials for CLI at times because Windows doesn’t provide good CLI tools for things like switching audio devices.
The first two thirds of this comment apply to any OS, most of all: windows. I would rather use a terminal any day than edit the registry to fix a basic issue I’m having 🤮
We’re talking about normal people.
Normal people don’t fix computer issues. They also don’t install operating systems, so this is all a bit academic.
Exactly. Windows simps gonna simp.
Depends on what they are doing, but I guess it’s pretty usable without cli interventions - at least for standard apps and unless something gets screwed. Fedora KDE.
Just lie and say they will never need to touch the terminal, then help them out when they need to and eventually they will see its not a big deal
I think Gnome + Flatpak is a great setup for GUI only. Fedora is annoying to set up with nonfree drivers and codecs, otherwise it’s a great choice for this.
(Also, don’t try convert your friends, just wait until they come to you and ask for help installing Linux.)
Yes.
After god knows how many years now of being on Linux exclusively, I tend to look at the terminal (commands in general) as a convenience more than a necessity. Meaning that in a lot of cases, knowing a command and quickly typing it to start an update (for example) is just faster and easier than pulling up the GUI every time.
turns off SteamDeck sorry, what’s a “terminal”? Isn’t it at the airport?
Jokes aside… yes, obviously, it only depends what you actually need to do. I recommend though NOT to be afraid of the terminal. The whole point about using Linux is to do whatever one wants. If that means avoiding the terminal, sure, that’s fine, BUT I believe the goal still is to be able to do MORE and the terminal is itself a very powerful tool. It’s not the terminal itself as much as the composability of the CLI.
So… finding a distribution with all the GUI and TUI and avoiding the CLI until they actually want to use them is great. Avoiding it entirely because no new skill was acquired is a missed opportunity IMHO. I want more Linux users, yes, but I also want BETTER users of any OS. Skilling up users so that we can all do more, together.
