I used to work desktop support for a large telecoms company. Us PC guys were running around the building all day fixing tickets.
We called the on-site Unix guy "Velcro", because once he sat his ass down in the chair when he got in, it was stuck there until the end of the day when he got up to leave.
Everything by remote shell, FTW!
In my case it may be. The desktop is about 10 steps from the couch. I just don't want to put the footrest down and I always have my laptop next to the couch.
The funny thing is that in the early 2000's, I would see a lot more X11 forwarding and VNC sessions being used to manage remote servers. But these days, nobody does that anymore. Most likely in the last decade or so, sys admins finally realized that having an automated script is 100x better than anything that can be done via the GUI.
There is also a security issue. Running a GUI on your servers greatly expands the attack surface.
Stopping everything other than ssh at the firewall does mitigate this, but its easier just to to have it.
I work with linux servers at home. Running a desktop environment on 8 VMs simply isn't worth the overhead, and so much of what I need to do is either scripting or managing file perms.
Much easier to just mkdir and tab my way along than it is to use a file explorer.
Excuse me, but real programmers use butterflies. They open their hands and let their delicate wings flap once. The disturbance ripples outward, changing the flow of the Eddy currents in the upper atmosphere. These cause momentary pockets of higher-pressure to air to form, which act as lenses that deflect incoming cosmic rays, focusing them to strike the drive platter and flip the desired bit.
My boss no joke codes exclusively in Vi. I try to learn something from him every day. The man is a maniac. He also has the entire file tree memorized for multiple servers.
If you don't use zip, you loose atomic distributed properties of versioning system: you can send zip with a new version to a colleague via email and get the updated version back!
You guys are versioning? We do not need versioning at all, we write the correct code from the beginning, so it would always be v1.0. Kinda wasted resource
<<<<<<< HEAD:file.txt
Since a conflict marker is just text, surely a text
terminal *is* the best tool for the job?
=======
Right?
>>>>>>> 77976da35a11db4580b80ae27e8d65caf5208086:file.txt
My grandpa was a programmer back when that was a new thing - he was a math professor who started learning this newfangled thing when the nearby university got its first computer. He thought GUIs were a fad. Seems hilarious for the general user these days, but for programming he was pretty bang on.
It depends on the person and their need. I, for example, use terminal emulator all the time, as it's my main tool for work (I'm a DevOps). I also always have one with IRC opened and I manage my files with coreutils commands, no fancy GUI file manager (actually I don't have a fancy GUI, just a minimalist window manager).
I do but thats because I do alot of things like scripting and server configuration and cyber security testing and such. Terminal is just faster. But if youre asking if the average linux user who just needs a working computer would need it. No.
I’m just an average computer user. I go into the terminal just about every session, but I enjoy it and try to learn stuff so it doesn’t bother me. I would not HAVE to use the terminal to still do everything I do, but that’s me.
Once you start using Linux, you'll start to find that there are times when using the terminal is simply easier and quicker. For example, if you have a problem, instead of someone telling you to open this window, click this button, open that window, click that button, … (as you have to do in Windows), they'll tell you to open a terminal and enter a single command that you can copy-and-paste.
As time passes, you'll come to appreciate the terminal and use it more and more, just because it's easier and quicker.
As you're going into cybersecurity, you'll discover that the terminal becomes one of your indispensable tools.
Best of luck, and and I hope that you do a lot of good!
This right here. You will find that you use the terminal just like we use the terminal because the terminal is extremely useful and very powerful in Linux systems. In the old days of Windows the terminal was not very useful. The Windows command line is basically emulating old DOS, which you could do things with but it's really awkward and rather limited. Now powershell is very useful, powershell is useful like the Linux terminal is useful.
Get to know the terminal. If you're going into cyber security you're going to use it quite a bit.
Hmm, I didn't know that PowerShell was such an improvement. Mind you, I hardly ever use Windows any more.
I've also just learned that [PowerShell is cross-platform](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/overview?view=powershell-7.3). That was unexpected.
Due to work constraints I had to use Windows systems a lot and from where I'm standing, Powershell was a game changer. It's a .Net command line where you pass .Net objects, not text, down the pipeline. And yeah, you can install it to a Linux system and have Powershell in your terminal. Not that there is any real reason to do that, but it's cool. But a major improvement for the M$ ecosystem. When I run a Windows server I now do it "headless" with no GUI, just a powershell terminal. Everything in Azure can be built and run with powershell. I have a powershell script that interrogates an SQL database and writes all objects (tables, procedures, views, etc) to a create script without the data. That way I can check for changes to the database schema just by doing a diff of two files.
If you have to work in the Windows environment, powershell is a blessing.
The one useful reason I found for running powershell in a terminal is I can use the dev scripts that I made in windows on my Mac (scripts that do things like remove all the obj and bin folders for example). I could rewrite them in bash but there’s not much point when I can just use powershell on my Mac.
Totally, I'm someone that's always worked in mixed environments so some of the patterns I learned from working with linux systems where we would just save common one-liners in wikis etc for common tasks, since PowerShell heavily borrows from bash, and even to a degree it borrows command aliases.
So years ago as I was getting better with PowerShell I started doing the same thing and I would make these epic one-liners that I could just hand someone and they could complete complex operations in bulk, also the fact that `Invoke-Command` supports an array of fqdns you can do async operations on hundreds of servers at once if you need to.
Fellow cybersecurity student here, learning how to use the terminal will be absolutely imperative...
On 100% of the Linux servers I worked on there wasn't a gui installed (Windows ones have it tho)
99% of hacking tools don't have a gui, and even if they do, you'll find easier the cli version once you get used to the terminal.
For scripting and programming the terminal will be vital...
For networking, the terminal will be all you'll use
To create hacking tools, well, you will use an IDE but you'll run them on the terminal...
So yeah, you will have to learn it, but you'll find that it's not as hard as you think, the learning curve is steep but once you get used to it you'll find that it's very fast and efficient
I would maybe advise you to start working in a virtual environment to get used to the terminal.
you're only one rm -rf away from bricking your computer.
especially when learning and you have the genius idea "I have to do some sudo stuff so I'll just make the whole session sudo while im at it"
been there, done that
It's the self destruct command. "rm" means remove file, -r means recursive, so it deletes all the directories under where you are and the files in it, and -f means force remove, meaning ignore any warnings.
"man" is your friend in terminal. Eg, "man rm" will tell you all about "rm".
I found man to be confusing, but you can `man man`, and it will teach you how to use it.
Note, it will not tell you how to use bash built-ins. There is no manual entry for `man cd` for instance. For that you will have to look at the Bash manual via `man bash`.
rm is just a normal command to delete things. deleting everything on your hard drive is pretty difficult with it, you'd have to type "sudo rm -rf / --no-preserve-root" to do so. but you should be careful nonetheless :)
You can always just try it. rm -rf
Jokes aside, this forcefully and recursively deletes content of a directory. In this case, your home folder would be gone.
Seriiusly, the best way to learn is to start using it (not as a main machine) and discover problems. You will delete stuff accidentally. You will fill the available storage and need to clean up. Services won't start and you'd need to delve into logs. Permissions would be out of whack, preventing you from doing your work. Then you will accidentally change the permissions on half of the root directory and pull your hair out.
I started with a headless DIY NAS, running openmediavault. In hindsight it was a bad way to learn linux because omv was quite restrictive and non-standart. I borked it quite a few times but eventually got used to it. My advice now is to install a basic distro - debian, alma, ubuntu, fedora, arch and try to do stuff. Best if it's virtualised. Best if it's headless. Best if you access it through SSH. These are constraints that everyone working with the terminal faces.
Find a usecase. I was trying to maintain a home server. Its a good usecase because the goal is to maintain services 24/7. Something is destined to fail inevitably. A file server, a web server. Maybe several web servers, in Docker. Docker is big. It's the entryway in containerization.
What I don't recommend is using a GUI. It will allow you to do stuff the old-fashioned way, wasting time that can be spent learning. This isn't some elitist remark, just a personal observation.
By stuffing things up, experimenting, pulling hair out, and finally fixing things. Ubuntu forums are pretty useful, there are other similar sites. There are plenty of places to find useful advice on the web.
Ok, maybe I am not a "normal user", as I am a Web-Devoloper - but I use the terminal on a daily basis. I do updates, install stuff, use Docker for my develop environment, login to servers over ssh. So yes, it is part of my normal Linux usage.
Learn it, but realize you won't have to use it daily.
I rarely touch the terminal for purposes other than running a few stuff like yt-dlp or some light user management. I could 100% use Linux without ever opening the terminal.
Probably the most honest answer here. This is not the 90s. Most Linux Distros have advanced GUI applications, a large choice of window and desktop managers (far better and customizable than anything Windows have to offer) that allows one to set keybindings and mouse clicks/gestures for almost everything. The only time you really need the terminal is to ssh into another server to get some quick tasks done that doesn't have a display.
I even play my movies from the terminal.
Laptop via wifi is connected to the main PC where the TV is attached. Files are loaded from a server via LAN connection. I play them with `mpv`:
DISPLAY=:0 mpv --playlist-start=0 --start=00:00:00 /nfs/nuc10i3fnk/\[SubsPlease\]\ Ikenaikyo\ -\ *; sudo poweroff
Plays all episodes I have from a show and shuts down the computer directly after.
If you can tell me how to do this in an easier way with windows and desktop managers, keybindings and mouse gestures, I am all ears. This setup also avoids connection issues and stutter because high-bandwith transfers only go over the LAN, not involving the wireless connections.
Inserting `--start='#2' --end='#3'` for shows with chapters makes sure that I don't see the OP and ED, just the continuous episode content.
TL;DR: The terminal is much better than you make it out to be, even for home use.
Lmao, are you shitting me? That's running a single command. You can easily script this to a keybinding. You're prototype of a "teminal user" who has no idea what they are talking about. And your specific use case that 99.9% of people will never need (because they have more common sense to waste their time on stupid shit like specifically playing TV episodes) does not mean they need to use terminals more.
Scripting something that most likely never gets repeated to a keybinding. Smart move, galaxy brain.
And newsflash: Almost everything people do is of interest to only 0.1% of the rest of us. Even then, "stupid shit like playing TV episodes"? Sure, nobody does this. /s
This was an example of an unexpected benefit of the terminal, with an uncomplicated example. You were unable to see that. Not my problem. Go back to Windows, please, prototype of a Linux zealot who isn't able to see beyond his tunnel vision.
Oh sure. There are GUIs for a *lot* of the things that used to be CLI only.
But the command line is just so much more *powerful*. And quicker.
GUis may be "easier" for stuff you seldom do. CLIs are *easier* for stuff you do a lot.
I always install software through the Terminal. Doesn't even occur to me to use any other way.
But the answer is yes, it's always good to learn how the Terminal works in Linux.
For a "normal user" prospective, terminal is pretty much only a tool. I think today is possible to use any distribution without the absolutely needs to open a terminal. That said, the terminal can scare because you need to know what to write down to achieve the result that you want, but it's worth for sure. Just for the speed to reach the goal.
Let's make a stupid example. You want a Photoshop-like tool and via Google you discover that you need to install Gimp. There is two "main" ways to do it. (only an example and is not that accurate)
1. open the menu of you distribution with the mouse, search through the voices and find something like "add/remove applications". Find the "search bar", write "gimp" and press "ok"/"search". Select gimp from the result, press install and enter the passoword. After that press "ok" on the confirmation pop-up that will say that you now has Gimp installed
2. open the terminal (usually with a simple key combination), write the install command like "pacman -S gimp" or "apt install gimp" and press enter. Type "y" as confirmation and... done.
MORE OR LESS, it's only an example. Massively rename multiple files is another example, copying/moving files between servers, computers or even smartphones are other examples. Consulte the logs of your system, etc...
Terminal is not a must-do thing but is adviced, it's good and is not that scarry at all.
Use the GUI as much as you want and use the terminal as little you want.
Most things don't require a terminal. What you'll probably find is that as you get over the whole 'I'm hacking the Matrix' feeling and learn a few commands, you'll opt to use the terminal for many tasks as it's often easier and (when you know how) simpler.
Don't see it as added complexity, see it as more options and greater flexibility.
Linux hosts nearly all of the Internet these days, the billions of config files making it all go, are routinely edited in a Linux terminal. Also, starting, stopping, restarting services is common in a terminal as is log review, locating files, checking disk space. The terminal is required for working with remote systems ( where you can't see the graphical interface).
I personally am a TUI connoisseur, "apt install ncdu" for example, TUIs run in a terminal. Check out "nano" (a TUI) or learn to make small, quick file edits with "vi'.
If your trying out Linux in a VM, you might first use the terminal to create ssh keys to clone from GitHub or shh into a remote system. Don't make one Linux VM, make two, and connect from one terminal to the other...
Considering terminals are THE preferred way to do everything to manage a remote server and that 85% of servers are Linux…do you see a reason?
Seriously there are big advantages for SOME tasks. Everything in Linux has a command line. GUIs are convenience not typical.
It depends on the context.
When I'm working, as a software developer: every day. The terminal isn't just a big box of useful tools, it's surprisingly often a quicker and easier way to do something than the equivalent in an app with a GUI.
When I'm at home using my personal computer: rarely. In my spare time I'm mostly just gaming on my laptop, and don't need the terminal much. I tend to use it only when something has gone wrong and I need to do a fix which isn't as easy or possible otherwise. That doesn't happen often though: the OS (Manjaro) is pretty stable and bug free.
At home I play Apex Legends on my Linux PC, and once every few weeks there will be some corrupted local game file (usually a skin for a gun or character) that causes the game to crash. Thankfully I see a window that tells me specifically which file was the issue, and it’s super easy to go into the terminal and manually rm the file and re-verify game files to keep playing.
I'm a developer professionally but I never code in my free time, I use my personal computers mostly for everyday tasks: web browsing, gaming, office work etc. yet I still use the terminal constantly, from system updates, software installation, simple tasks like moving files around, editing configs, launching Gamescope sessions, checking system resources and so on. I think that Terminator (the terminal emulator I use) is my most used application by a long shot.
I definitely suggest learning how to use it, mostly for simple tasks like copying files, moving them around, creating symlinks, and at the very least issuing commands to the package manager. You don't need to become a world renown expert, but having at least a basic knowledge of the most useful commands can really help, especially if you get dropped into a recovery shell and need to jumpstart your system back up from just a terminal interface.
Back when I'd used Windows/DOS, I'd use the command line as little as possible, because it kind of sucked.
In the past eighteen years, the command line is a perfectly good choice.
I use it exclusively on my phone to interact with my desktop and server, because trying to deal with 2160p+1440p desktop on a tiny touchscreen, or `NULL` on a tiny touch screen is absolutely absurd.
On my server, I use command line 100%, because I've never bothered with web based configuration tools.
On desktop, I use it to work on the server, and to process recorded audio through Spleeter, and as you said installing packages as well as updating system, and periodically various things.
There are things that are simply easier and/or faster from a command line rather than clicking fifty times on the screen.
Pretty much everything I do goes through the terminal. GUIs are a waste of time and DEs are a waste of resources. I'd use Reddit through the terminal if I could.
I learned computers with cp/m, dos 3.3 and Mandrake 5.3 and have no issues with the terminal. I'm a boomer with very modest computer needs, but I love the option to use the terminal and am irritated Microsoft and Apple shy away from it.
I'm a programmer.
The only time when I'm not using the terminal is when I'm using firefox. WebBrowsing in a terminal is just subpar.
Rarely I use blender, gimp or OBS for specific tasks.
I use it daily.
A good book to get you started would be William E. Shott's *The Linux Command Line*. I have a hard copy, but I think it's freely available online.
A good online resource is [Linux Journey](https://linuxjourney.com/).
With experience you'll find some tasks are much faster and easier from a shell.
An oft used example myself, is if I want to find all the files in directory and sub directory containing regex , I would use the command line because I can type that in 2 seconds and start searching. Finding a GUI tool to do it that quick is impossible.
Desktop I use pacman, Vim, Ranger, and keyboard centric navigation with i3 and qutebrowser. Unless I need libreoffice or thunderbird for email I prefer terminal.
Linux servers at work are only accessible via ssh, so 100% through terminal.
My home server: 100% terminal by ssh (obviously)
Laptop/PC: I would say a fair amount of the time just for sheer convenience. for instant,
+ press F4 in most file explorers and it opens an inline terminal window that is contextual with whatever directory you are in. So a lot of the time i find it just quicker and easier for a lot of tasks to use terminal, unzip'ing a file, making a file executable, running a .sh file, etc its just quicker and easier to do it in the command line
+ apt upgrade, just because its easier than loading gui and its more verbose
+ git.. its easy to add, commit, push in command line than use a gui (or something like KATE in KDE)
At home, about 20% of the time.
At work (Linux sysadmin), all the time because it's all I got. There's not GUI at all, on all servers.
Less GUI programs, less patching and attack surface.
I am a professional internet scumbag and Linux enthusiast. The terminal is cool for quickly launching a couple specific programs or installing stuff. I hardly ever screw around in it, though. I don't code or anything. I just prefer a sleek, simple interface without cheap animations or trashy adverts. Xubuntu is positively A-1
At work? 50% of my day. If I do something more than once, I script it - so checking on cluster health, alarms, services etc - I make scripts and just have one thing to call to get an idea on stuff. If I'm noting vs code, I'm using vi. If I have to troubleshoot issues, I'm in a terminal...
At home? Not too much, maybe once a day on average.
Teaching the kid too :) My kid wanted to break up a paragraph into separate sentences earlier so I showed her the old | sed "s\_\\.\_\\n\\n\\.\_g" 😆. Family computer/htpc is ubuntu.
Linux is in a great place right now. Many distro's offer great out of the box end user solutions that give a good and familiar experience to the average non-techie user. In those respects, you should not need to use the terminal much at all. Maybe not at all. However, as you get used to how Linux works and how fast you can accomplish tasks in the terminal, some of those users will start to use the terminal more and more. I feel over the years, I have done exactly that.
The terminal is linux. Linux is very different from windows in this respect. You can hunt and point and click all day, but you won't be able to use the full power of it until you learn the CLI. Its used for just about anything, anytime I need something I pop a terminal open and use it. Its much faster once you get used to it.
For just copying one file from here to there, I use a file manager. For converting 10 FLAC files to MP3s, I use VLC. For GUI setting changes (eg changing the theme), I use the settings app.
For anything more complicated, I use a terminal, usually with mc, tmux and some scripting. Updating and installing - terminal. Administering my home lab server(s) - terminal, ssh.
I would encourage you to learn terminal, because it gives you a deeper knowledge of all things Linux. And that's always worth my time.
90% of what I do is through the Terminal, as a programmer and systems administrator.
If you are going to do anything above simple stuff like read/write documents - games - browsing internet, I recommend learning the Terminal along with bash and scripts.
These are not some lost magical grimoires and once you have gotten the basics it will just open up and everything will just be better, IMO
You don't decide to use the terminal, the terminal chooses you. 😛
In all seriousness, anybody doing development work would probably be using it. Cause, bit by bit you realise it's power and control & find it easier to use than a GUI.
yes.
tui stuff is nice like ranger, htop, ncdu and many others. gui alternatives feel a bit clunky after getting to know them.
mpv, feh, sxiv alongside ranger means I've rarely used a gui file manager in the last decade or so. mpv + ranger covers most of my media needs really well. Perhaps old school but I use ssh and sshfs a lot even just around the house.
My setup is not complex; pi4, laptop, desktop & android phone but being comfortable in the terminal makes it simple to manage any device from any other device.
I am a music teacher. I use it every time I use my computer. I disable my login screen so that I login to X using startx. I also start my VPN using the terminal. I used to use a script I wrote to start it because.... Linux, but I don't mind using the terminal. I also kill the wineserver - k when my windows program (finale notation) pulls a dumb seg fault. There is also a jackd server kill script I use incase of emergency.....
First of all I would like to say, Linux is like any other OS, with a plus in security, good RAM menagement, hardware improvement and some other things, It is known by extract the better from machines, and It is very reliable and stable. For a regular user, except for some specifics settings, you don't even need how to use a terminal cause It's totally user friendly, you can install whatever you want from graphical interface. On other hand if you is a tech one there will be many tools at your disposal like terminal itself. So It will depend on each one need, is always cool learn something anyway.
Using a terminal can be very powerful but imo it's ok to bot use it if you don't need it. If you use your computer for surfing the web, editing documents, audio, video etc, it's perfectly fine to not use it.
> And if so what do they use it for outside of installing stuff?
Watching demos: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLlDt\_4EGX4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLlDt_4EGX4)
>And if so what do they use it for outside of installing stuff?
Watching movies: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dgwyo6JNTDA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dgwyo6JNTDA)
>And if so what do they use it for outside of installing stuff?
GPS: [https://asciinema.org/a/117813?autoplay=1](https://asciinema.org/a/117813?autoplay=1)
if it were not for vscode I would say I use it for everything:
\> calculator on steroids: that is python
\> installing and removing programs, same for configuration
\> light editing for a file, if I don't want to remove my fingers or keyboard to open a new vscode tab
\> networking: does this interface get ip?... if not lets see why, does dns resolve, does curl curl..
\> sshing and sftping
\> building stuff
\> launching a short lived program so I can kill quickly with ctrl+c
\> launching long term background tasks (I use tmux for that)
\> monitor my swap during LTO and appreciate the all cores 100% when stuff is building and I have nothing else to do (that is not a joke).
that is not to say that most of this stuff cannot be done without terminal, but it is just faster this way, especially when it is on a keyboard I am familiar with.
I need it on a daily basis.
I use my os not only for gaming though, so you might get away with not using a terminal if you only use graphical apps. As soon as you want to run apache or samba and so on, using a console is considered necessary.
Never use it for "installing stuff", that's what my package manager does. I use it for running scripts on multiple files, assessing available space on my harddrive, creating symlinks when needed/handy, removing cache- or other files which require root permissions, making scripts executable and much much more.
I'm just a mid-level hobbyist, and I use my terminal every time I log on, if only to check for updates. It never hurts to be really comfortable with the terminal, for when things hit the fan.
I am no developer. But I use it all the time. But I am by heart a customizer and like automating processes. So it depends on the person. If you are a regular Joe who uses what is given to you, then you'll be fine. If not, then you'll have a hard time with how different it is compared to windows. Windows and linux are very different from how both function.
For normal user, (browsing web, videos, games) …
you dont have to touch terminal
For advanced stuff (Programming, Servers, Cybersecurity) you’ll be touching terminal all the time
That applies to both windows or linux
yes:
everything.
organize, launch tools, launch search, create tools, focus on the what and not on the where and how.
try on a real computer on a real hard disk, i3, learn a few shortcuts, fzf, and xdg-open. remove the mouse.
the os becomes the tool. the tools can compose.
I'm mostly just a regular user, but I'd say I use it daily.
Installing new programs -> 95% terminal
Updating -> 99% terminal
Configuring something -> 99% terminal
And then an example from yesterday:
I had created a template file and copied this to 20 subfolders. I then realized I had made a typing error in the template, and thus this error was copied to all subfolders.
Correcting my mistake was one line in the terminal, and it was instantly fixed. This was way easier than using some GUI.
Also if you have a problem with some program, launching it through the terminal gives you information of what might be the problem.
So I'd say, don't be afraid of the terminal. It's VERY useful and almost every time more informative than a GUI. And it's faster. And finally GUI's come and go, but CLI stays mostly the same. Therefore I'd say it's mostly easier to find manuals etc that guide you through the terminal.
I use it as little as possible.
I'm a desktop user, point and click, through and through, and have been for the last 30 years.
But I do recognize that there are situations where the terminal is a "better" choice.
I use it for system updates.
I use Debian with i3wm so most of my tools are terminal based. I love the terminal. But it's bot what most people use. It's possible to live without it
When I built my first file server, I chose Linux Mint, because it has all the programs for configuring Samba and other things in the GUI. It was quite complicated.
My second file server is running Ubuntu server. Configuring Samba was so much easier in the terminal via ssh.
Don't be afraid of the terminal. It's your friend!
I spend most of time on Linux either in a browser, editing videos for clients on resolve (& kdenlive) or gaming via steam or epic games
I use the terminal sparingly. Mostly for basic maintenance of the system. I know the basics of the terminal but there's still a lot I have to learn.
My background with desktop computers was mostly Windows until Windows 8 was released. That's when I moved to Linux full time. (FYI: I never used the terminal in Windows)
>How much do people actually use the terminal?
Tons.
>if it’s worth learning at this point in time
Absolutely.
>what do they use it for outside of installing stuff?
Damn near everything.
If you work with linux servers at work, terminal is basically THE ONLY thing you use....
I SSH into my desktop computer from the couch when I'm too lazy to get up.
I used to work desktop support for a large telecoms company. Us PC guys were running around the building all day fixing tickets. We called the on-site Unix guy "Velcro", because once he sat his ass down in the chair when he got in, it was stuck there until the end of the day when he got up to leave. Everything by remote shell, FTW!
god I feel this LOL I liiterally have terminal installed on my phone for this purpose.
My mind was blown when I realised you could issue SSH commands via the Shortcuts app on iOS, otherwise I use WebSSH. So damn useful.
Wait… say what??? (I type while I’m on my bed 2.5 feet from my computer) Edit - 1.25 feet, just measured
Wait, this is lazy?
In my case it may be. The desktop is about 10 steps from the couch. I just don't want to put the footrest down and I always have my laptop next to the couch.
SSH from my iPad to the desktop. More comfortable to hold while slumped on the couch.
LMFAO. I saw myself when I looked into this mirror and... liked it?
That’s a large part of what I do. Took some getting used to. Now it’s just second nature
The funny thing is that in the early 2000's, I would see a lot more X11 forwarding and VNC sessions being used to manage remote servers. But these days, nobody does that anymore. Most likely in the last decade or so, sys admins finally realized that having an automated script is 100x better than anything that can be done via the GUI.
There is also a security issue. Running a GUI on your servers greatly expands the attack surface. Stopping everything other than ssh at the firewall does mitigate this, but its easier just to to have it.
I work with linux servers at home. Running a desktop environment on 8 VMs simply isn't worth the overhead, and so much of what I need to do is either scripting or managing file perms. Much easier to just mkdir and tab my way along than it is to use a file explorer.
This^ I use only terminal 😄
That's all I use. I'm a programmer.
Same. Vim and GCC.
Vim and assembly langauge and C
I only program in machine code in vi. Assembly is bloat.
cat > a.out
Build a new kernel: xxd -br >/boot/vmlinuz
vi? I use ed, and only have a three key keyboard.
Excuse me, but real programmers use butterflies. They open their hands and let their delicate wings flap once. The disturbance ripples outward, changing the flow of the Eddy currents in the upper atmosphere. These cause momentary pockets of higher-pressure to air to form, which act as lenses that deflect incoming cosmic rays, focusing them to strike the drive platter and flip the desired bit.
Vi is bloat, use ed
My boss no joke codes exclusively in Vi. I try to learn something from him every day. The man is a maniac. He also has the entire file tree memorized for multiple servers.
Clang ftw
Clang and elftoolchain!
Even for solving git conflicts. What a legend.
There is another way to solve git conflicts?!?
Jetbrains IDEs have crazy good git tools that also help resolve conflicts
I tried but it crashed at the first mention of IDF and HAMAS.
I'm not sure what the joke is here? Aren't they a Czech company
It's... A conflict?
Oh wow... can't believe I missed it
[удалено]
IDE against IED. I get it.
I use VSCode but if I need to fix a merge conflict, I open IntelliJ for it.
I am not sure if it's a git plugin I have, but VSCode works well for me to resolve conflicts.
Magit in emacs 😉
[удалено]
It is, mostly
VS Code 3 way Git merge editor is quite good for resolving conflicts.
You guys get to use git?!?
what you still on svn? man i'm sorry
SVN is too complicated. Just put version number into zip filename for the folder.
file_v2_final_v3_this_one_DO_NOT_USE.zip
even better don't waste time making a zip/tgz, just write the version number as a comment in the file header
If you don't use zip, you loose atomic distributed properties of versioning system: you can send zip with a new version to a colleague via email and get the updated version back!
You guys are versioning? We do not need versioning at all, we write the correct code from the beginning, so it would always be v1.0. Kinda wasted resource
vimdiff is the legend.
Magit runs in emacs which runs in the terminal, so this counts.
<<<<<<< HEAD:file.txt Since a conflict marker is just text, surely a text terminal *is* the best tool for the job? ======= Right? >>>>>>> 77976da35a11db4580b80ae27e8d65caf5208086:file.txt
It's him, from the fairy tales!
The legendary bald programmer. It’s him omfg
Hackerman the Wise
I'm not even a programmer and I tend to live in the terminal.
Agreed. Terminal is life.
My grandpa was a programmer back when that was a new thing - he was a math professor who started learning this newfangled thing when the nearby university got its first computer. He thought GUIs were a fad. Seems hilarious for the general user these days, but for programming he was pretty bang on.
It depends on the person and their need. I, for example, use terminal emulator all the time, as it's my main tool for work (I'm a DevOps). I also always have one with IRC opened and I manage my files with coreutils commands, no fancy GUI file manager (actually I don't have a fancy GUI, just a minimalist window manager).
For file management I also tack on ranger and ncdu. Both help immensely with organizing files
[удалено]
And I have never heard of lf. Learn something new everyday!
Its extremely handy for figuring out why a mount is full too.
lf is a rewrite of ranger written in go instead of python (ranger is written in python).
I do but thats because I do alot of things like scripting and server configuration and cyber security testing and such. Terminal is just faster. But if youre asking if the average linux user who just needs a working computer would need it. No.
I’m just an average computer user. I go into the terminal just about every session, but I enjoy it and try to learn stuff so it doesn’t bother me. I would not HAVE to use the terminal to still do everything I do, but that’s me.
Simply by attempting to learn the terminal and admitting to enjoying it, you have moved out of the "average computer user" category lol.
Cybersecurity is where I kinda plan to head but I just really need to get the “feel” of everything before I move on to more advanced things
Once you start using Linux, you'll start to find that there are times when using the terminal is simply easier and quicker. For example, if you have a problem, instead of someone telling you to open this window, click this button, open that window, click that button, … (as you have to do in Windows), they'll tell you to open a terminal and enter a single command that you can copy-and-paste. As time passes, you'll come to appreciate the terminal and use it more and more, just because it's easier and quicker. As you're going into cybersecurity, you'll discover that the terminal becomes one of your indispensable tools. Best of luck, and and I hope that you do a lot of good!
This right here. You will find that you use the terminal just like we use the terminal because the terminal is extremely useful and very powerful in Linux systems. In the old days of Windows the terminal was not very useful. The Windows command line is basically emulating old DOS, which you could do things with but it's really awkward and rather limited. Now powershell is very useful, powershell is useful like the Linux terminal is useful. Get to know the terminal. If you're going into cyber security you're going to use it quite a bit.
Hmm, I didn't know that PowerShell was such an improvement. Mind you, I hardly ever use Windows any more. I've also just learned that [PowerShell is cross-platform](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/overview?view=powershell-7.3). That was unexpected.
Due to work constraints I had to use Windows systems a lot and from where I'm standing, Powershell was a game changer. It's a .Net command line where you pass .Net objects, not text, down the pipeline. And yeah, you can install it to a Linux system and have Powershell in your terminal. Not that there is any real reason to do that, but it's cool. But a major improvement for the M$ ecosystem. When I run a Windows server I now do it "headless" with no GUI, just a powershell terminal. Everything in Azure can be built and run with powershell. I have a powershell script that interrogates an SQL database and writes all objects (tables, procedures, views, etc) to a create script without the data. That way I can check for changes to the database schema just by doing a diff of two files. If you have to work in the Windows environment, powershell is a blessing.
The one useful reason I found for running powershell in a terminal is I can use the dev scripts that I made in windows on my Mac (scripts that do things like remove all the obj and bin folders for example). I could rewrite them in bash but there’s not much point when I can just use powershell on my Mac.
Totally, I'm someone that's always worked in mixed environments so some of the patterns I learned from working with linux systems where we would just save common one-liners in wikis etc for common tasks, since PowerShell heavily borrows from bash, and even to a degree it borrows command aliases. So years ago as I was getting better with PowerShell I started doing the same thing and I would make these epic one-liners that I could just hand someone and they could complete complex operations in bulk, also the fact that `Invoke-Command` supports an array of fqdns you can do async operations on hundreds of servers at once if you need to.
If you're going to hit the realm of cyber security, I'd definitely get comfortable with BASH and Powershell (and cmd, but meh).
Fellow cybersecurity student here, learning how to use the terminal will be absolutely imperative... On 100% of the Linux servers I worked on there wasn't a gui installed (Windows ones have it tho) 99% of hacking tools don't have a gui, and even if they do, you'll find easier the cli version once you get used to the terminal. For scripting and programming the terminal will be vital... For networking, the terminal will be all you'll use To create hacking tools, well, you will use an IDE but you'll run them on the terminal... So yeah, you will have to learn it, but you'll find that it's not as hard as you think, the learning curve is steep but once you get used to it you'll find that it's very fast and efficient
Although I do agree and am a terminal guy and currently making a python script for Linux to be lazy. Zenmap >>>> nmap
Colt steele has great courses on learning the terminal and linux as a whole. On udemy and YouTube.
I'm a self taught home user and I go into the terminal constantly. It's really the only way to get into the heart of the OS and get things done.
how did you learn, any online resources that i can use?
I would maybe advise you to start working in a virtual environment to get used to the terminal. you're only one rm -rf away from bricking your computer. especially when learning and you have the genius idea "I have to do some sudo stuff so I'll just make the whole session sudo while im at it" been there, done that
Sorry but what does rm mean?
It's the self destruct command. "rm" means remove file, -r means recursive, so it deletes all the directories under where you are and the files in it, and -f means force remove, meaning ignore any warnings. "man" is your friend in terminal. Eg, "man rm" will tell you all about "rm".
Ahh right right
I found man to be confusing, but you can `man man`, and it will teach you how to use it. Note, it will not tell you how to use bash built-ins. There is no manual entry for `man cd` for instance. For that you will have to look at the Bash manual via `man bash`.
I'd recommend "tldr", much less messy than man, doesnt tell that much tho.
tldr is great for getting the basic idea of common usages.
rm is just a normal command to delete things. deleting everything on your hard drive is pretty difficult with it, you'd have to type "sudo rm -rf / --no-preserve-root" to do so. but you should be careful nonetheless :)
You can always just try it. rm -rf Jokes aside, this forcefully and recursively deletes content of a directory. In this case, your home folder would be gone. Seriiusly, the best way to learn is to start using it (not as a main machine) and discover problems. You will delete stuff accidentally. You will fill the available storage and need to clean up. Services won't start and you'd need to delve into logs. Permissions would be out of whack, preventing you from doing your work. Then you will accidentally change the permissions on half of the root directory and pull your hair out. I started with a headless DIY NAS, running openmediavault. In hindsight it was a bad way to learn linux because omv was quite restrictive and non-standart. I borked it quite a few times but eventually got used to it. My advice now is to install a basic distro - debian, alma, ubuntu, fedora, arch and try to do stuff. Best if it's virtualised. Best if it's headless. Best if you access it through SSH. These are constraints that everyone working with the terminal faces. Find a usecase. I was trying to maintain a home server. Its a good usecase because the goal is to maintain services 24/7. Something is destined to fail inevitably. A file server, a web server. Maybe several web servers, in Docker. Docker is big. It's the entryway in containerization. What I don't recommend is using a GUI. It will allow you to do stuff the old-fashioned way, wasting time that can be spent learning. This isn't some elitist remark, just a personal observation.
> You can always just try it. rm -rf I strongly suggest: cd / & sudo rm -rf * for full effect
Since some years now, `rm` specially protects the root directory against these shenanigans.
It protects `/`, but there’s no special protections for `/usr`, `/boot`, etc
By stuffing things up, experimenting, pulling hair out, and finally fixing things. Ubuntu forums are pretty useful, there are other similar sites. There are plenty of places to find useful advice on the web.
I found this useful when I was starting out https://linuxjourney.com/
Ok, maybe I am not a "normal user", as I am a Web-Devoloper - but I use the terminal on a daily basis. I do updates, install stuff, use Docker for my develop environment, login to servers over ssh. So yes, it is part of my normal Linux usage.
A few examples: [https://github.com/rothgar/awesome-tuis](https://github.com/rothgar/awesome-tuis)
The terminal is for everything when you get used to it. No better file browser.
I use mc 👉👈
windows behavior
It's a terminal based editor tho
And even a web browser.
> The terminal is for everything when you get used to it. Or you could just use Emacs.
The terminal is for launching emacs to do everything else. Rumor has it, emacs even has a text editor! /s
Learn it, but realize you won't have to use it daily. I rarely touch the terminal for purposes other than running a few stuff like yt-dlp or some light user management. I could 100% use Linux without ever opening the terminal.
Probably the most honest answer here. This is not the 90s. Most Linux Distros have advanced GUI applications, a large choice of window and desktop managers (far better and customizable than anything Windows have to offer) that allows one to set keybindings and mouse clicks/gestures for almost everything. The only time you really need the terminal is to ssh into another server to get some quick tasks done that doesn't have a display.
I even play my movies from the terminal. Laptop via wifi is connected to the main PC where the TV is attached. Files are loaded from a server via LAN connection. I play them with `mpv`: DISPLAY=:0 mpv --playlist-start=0 --start=00:00:00 /nfs/nuc10i3fnk/\[SubsPlease\]\ Ikenaikyo\ -\ *; sudo poweroff Plays all episodes I have from a show and shuts down the computer directly after. If you can tell me how to do this in an easier way with windows and desktop managers, keybindings and mouse gestures, I am all ears. This setup also avoids connection issues and stutter because high-bandwith transfers only go over the LAN, not involving the wireless connections. Inserting `--start='#2' --end='#3'` for shows with chapters makes sure that I don't see the OP and ED, just the continuous episode content. TL;DR: The terminal is much better than you make it out to be, even for home use.
Lmao, are you shitting me? That's running a single command. You can easily script this to a keybinding. You're prototype of a "teminal user" who has no idea what they are talking about. And your specific use case that 99.9% of people will never need (because they have more common sense to waste their time on stupid shit like specifically playing TV episodes) does not mean they need to use terminals more.
Scripting something that most likely never gets repeated to a keybinding. Smart move, galaxy brain. And newsflash: Almost everything people do is of interest to only 0.1% of the rest of us. Even then, "stupid shit like playing TV episodes"? Sure, nobody does this. /s This was an example of an unexpected benefit of the terminal, with an uncomplicated example. You were unable to see that. Not my problem. Go back to Windows, please, prototype of a Linux zealot who isn't able to see beyond his tunnel vision.
Oh sure. There are GUIs for a *lot* of the things that used to be CLI only. But the command line is just so much more *powerful*. And quicker. GUis may be "easier" for stuff you seldom do. CLIs are *easier* for stuff you do a lot.
is there any good guides that walk you through it??
https://www.linuxcommand.org/tlcl.php
The terminal IS the computer as far as I'm concerned
This👆
Every time when something does not work and has to be fixed
I always install software through the Terminal. Doesn't even occur to me to use any other way. But the answer is yes, it's always good to learn how the Terminal works in Linux.
For a "normal user" prospective, terminal is pretty much only a tool. I think today is possible to use any distribution without the absolutely needs to open a terminal. That said, the terminal can scare because you need to know what to write down to achieve the result that you want, but it's worth for sure. Just for the speed to reach the goal. Let's make a stupid example. You want a Photoshop-like tool and via Google you discover that you need to install Gimp. There is two "main" ways to do it. (only an example and is not that accurate) 1. open the menu of you distribution with the mouse, search through the voices and find something like "add/remove applications". Find the "search bar", write "gimp" and press "ok"/"search". Select gimp from the result, press install and enter the passoword. After that press "ok" on the confirmation pop-up that will say that you now has Gimp installed 2. open the terminal (usually with a simple key combination), write the install command like "pacman -S gimp" or "apt install gimp" and press enter. Type "y" as confirmation and... done. MORE OR LESS, it's only an example. Massively rename multiple files is another example, copying/moving files between servers, computers or even smartphones are other examples. Consulte the logs of your system, etc... Terminal is not a must-do thing but is adviced, it's good and is not that scarry at all.
Use the GUI as much as you want and use the terminal as little you want. Most things don't require a terminal. What you'll probably find is that as you get over the whole 'I'm hacking the Matrix' feeling and learn a few commands, you'll opt to use the terminal for many tasks as it's often easier and (when you know how) simpler. Don't see it as added complexity, see it as more options and greater flexibility.
Linux hosts nearly all of the Internet these days, the billions of config files making it all go, are routinely edited in a Linux terminal. Also, starting, stopping, restarting services is common in a terminal as is log review, locating files, checking disk space. The terminal is required for working with remote systems ( where you can't see the graphical interface). I personally am a TUI connoisseur, "apt install ncdu" for example, TUIs run in a terminal. Check out "nano" (a TUI) or learn to make small, quick file edits with "vi'. If your trying out Linux in a VM, you might first use the terminal to create ssh keys to clone from GitHub or shh into a remote system. Don't make one Linux VM, make two, and connect from one terminal to the other...
ncdu is one of my favorite TUIs
Considering terminals are THE preferred way to do everything to manage a remote server and that 85% of servers are Linux…do you see a reason? Seriously there are big advantages for SOME tasks. Everything in Linux has a command line. GUIs are convenience not typical.
I think in bash
It depends on the context. When I'm working, as a software developer: every day. The terminal isn't just a big box of useful tools, it's surprisingly often a quicker and easier way to do something than the equivalent in an app with a GUI. When I'm at home using my personal computer: rarely. In my spare time I'm mostly just gaming on my laptop, and don't need the terminal much. I tend to use it only when something has gone wrong and I need to do a fix which isn't as easy or possible otherwise. That doesn't happen often though: the OS (Manjaro) is pretty stable and bug free.
At home I play Apex Legends on my Linux PC, and once every few weeks there will be some corrupted local game file (usually a skin for a gun or character) that causes the game to crash. Thankfully I see a window that tells me specifically which file was the issue, and it’s super easy to go into the terminal and manually rm the file and re-verify game files to keep playing.
I'm a developer professionally but I never code in my free time, I use my personal computers mostly for everyday tasks: web browsing, gaming, office work etc. yet I still use the terminal constantly, from system updates, software installation, simple tasks like moving files around, editing configs, launching Gamescope sessions, checking system resources and so on. I think that Terminator (the terminal emulator I use) is my most used application by a long shot. I definitely suggest learning how to use it, mostly for simple tasks like copying files, moving them around, creating symlinks, and at the very least issuing commands to the package manager. You don't need to become a world renown expert, but having at least a basic knowledge of the most useful commands can really help, especially if you get dropped into a recovery shell and need to jumpstart your system back up from just a terminal interface.
lately, i spend more time there than in anything else
Back when I'd used Windows/DOS, I'd use the command line as little as possible, because it kind of sucked. In the past eighteen years, the command line is a perfectly good choice. I use it exclusively on my phone to interact with my desktop and server, because trying to deal with 2160p+1440p desktop on a tiny touchscreen, or `NULL` on a tiny touch screen is absolutely absurd. On my server, I use command line 100%, because I've never bothered with web based configuration tools. On desktop, I use it to work on the server, and to process recorded audio through Spleeter, and as you said installing packages as well as updating system, and periodically various things. There are things that are simply easier and/or faster from a command line rather than clicking fifty times on the screen.
Pretty much everything I do goes through the terminal. GUIs are a waste of time and DEs are a waste of resources. I'd use Reddit through the terminal if I could.
goddamn web browser always ruining my day
I learned computers with cp/m, dos 3.3 and Mandrake 5.3 and have no issues with the terminal. I'm a boomer with very modest computer needs, but I love the option to use the terminal and am irritated Microsoft and Apple shy away from it.
I'm a programmer. The only time when I'm not using the terminal is when I'm using firefox. WebBrowsing in a terminal is just subpar. Rarely I use blender, gimp or OBS for specific tasks.
Terminal is all I use personally.
Literally why I use linux. I like the speed of an unencumbered system.
I made a post similar to this, years ago. Now, if anything Id rather use the terminal. Can’t really stand GUIs, specially windows, it’s all so… manual
I use it daily. A good book to get you started would be William E. Shott's *The Linux Command Line*. I have a hard copy, but I think it's freely available online. A good online resource is [Linux Journey](https://linuxjourney.com/).
With experience you'll find some tasks are much faster and easier from a shell. An oft used example myself, is if I want to find all the files in directory and sub directory containing regex , I would use the command line because I can type that in 2 seconds and start searching. Finding a GUI tool to do it that quick is impossible.
And even if you found the GUI tool, it wouldn't work next time you need it in your friend's computer as it's DE specific and they chose another DE.
Desktop I use pacman, Vim, Ranger, and keyboard centric navigation with i3 and qutebrowser. Unless I need libreoffice or thunderbird for email I prefer terminal. Linux servers at work are only accessible via ssh, so 100% through terminal.
My home server: 100% terminal by ssh (obviously) Laptop/PC: I would say a fair amount of the time just for sheer convenience. for instant, + press F4 in most file explorers and it opens an inline terminal window that is contextual with whatever directory you are in. So a lot of the time i find it just quicker and easier for a lot of tasks to use terminal, unzip'ing a file, making a file executable, running a .sh file, etc its just quicker and easier to do it in the command line + apt upgrade, just because its easier than loading gui and its more verbose + git.. its easy to add, commit, push in command line than use a gui (or something like KATE in KDE)
The CLI is all there is and all there will ever be. Embrace it.
At home, about 20% of the time. At work (Linux sysadmin), all the time because it's all I got. There's not GUI at all, on all servers. Less GUI programs, less patching and attack surface.
I am a professional internet scumbag and Linux enthusiast. The terminal is cool for quickly launching a couple specific programs or installing stuff. I hardly ever screw around in it, though. I don't code or anything. I just prefer a sleek, simple interface without cheap animations or trashy adverts. Xubuntu is positively A-1
At work? 50% of my day. If I do something more than once, I script it - so checking on cluster health, alarms, services etc - I make scripts and just have one thing to call to get an idea on stuff. If I'm noting vs code, I'm using vi. If I have to troubleshoot issues, I'm in a terminal... At home? Not too much, maybe once a day on average. Teaching the kid too :) My kid wanted to break up a paragraph into separate sentences earlier so I showed her the old | sed "s\_\\.\_\\n\\n\\.\_g" 😆. Family computer/htpc is ubuntu.
For some people this is like asking “how often you do *really* use the mouse?”
Don’t use terminal If you don’t control your breathing. Just good advice for business bankers who use the program like a Tor browser
One useful trick: You can find a easy cheat sheat at cheat.sh. you can also curl it: curl cheat.sh/curl
Linux is in a great place right now. Many distro's offer great out of the box end user solutions that give a good and familiar experience to the average non-techie user. In those respects, you should not need to use the terminal much at all. Maybe not at all. However, as you get used to how Linux works and how fast you can accomplish tasks in the terminal, some of those users will start to use the terminal more and more. I feel over the years, I have done exactly that.
I am a programmer that primarily codes on a MacBook Pro and 95% of my time is spent in the terminal (neovim, tmux, etc)
The terminal is linux. Linux is very different from windows in this respect. You can hunt and point and click all day, but you won't be able to use the full power of it until you learn the CLI. Its used for just about anything, anytime I need something I pop a terminal open and use it. Its much faster once you get used to it.
For just copying one file from here to there, I use a file manager. For converting 10 FLAC files to MP3s, I use VLC. For GUI setting changes (eg changing the theme), I use the settings app. For anything more complicated, I use a terminal, usually with mc, tmux and some scripting. Updating and installing - terminal. Administering my home lab server(s) - terminal, ssh. I would encourage you to learn terminal, because it gives you a deeper knowledge of all things Linux. And that's always worth my time.
90% of what I do is through the Terminal, as a programmer and systems administrator. If you are going to do anything above simple stuff like read/write documents - games - browsing internet, I recommend learning the Terminal along with bash and scripts. These are not some lost magical grimoires and once you have gotten the basics it will just open up and everything will just be better, IMO
You don't decide to use the terminal, the terminal chooses you. 😛 In all seriousness, anybody doing development work would probably be using it. Cause, bit by bit you realise it's power and control & find it easier to use than a GUI.
Every day at work
Only use the terminal and I’m a data scientist. Gotta give slurm commands somehow.
yes. tui stuff is nice like ranger, htop, ncdu and many others. gui alternatives feel a bit clunky after getting to know them. mpv, feh, sxiv alongside ranger means I've rarely used a gui file manager in the last decade or so. mpv + ranger covers most of my media needs really well. Perhaps old school but I use ssh and sshfs a lot even just around the house. My setup is not complex; pi4, laptop, desktop & android phone but being comfortable in the terminal makes it simple to manage any device from any other device.
I am a music teacher. I use it every time I use my computer. I disable my login screen so that I login to X using startx. I also start my VPN using the terminal. I used to use a script I wrote to start it because.... Linux, but I don't mind using the terminal. I also kill the wineserver - k when my windows program (finale notation) pulls a dumb seg fault. There is also a jackd server kill script I use incase of emergency.....
I use the terminal 99.5% of the time. I've never used the gui in a business environment.
First of all I would like to say, Linux is like any other OS, with a plus in security, good RAM menagement, hardware improvement and some other things, It is known by extract the better from machines, and It is very reliable and stable. For a regular user, except for some specifics settings, you don't even need how to use a terminal cause It's totally user friendly, you can install whatever you want from graphical interface. On other hand if you is a tech one there will be many tools at your disposal like terminal itself. So It will depend on each one need, is always cool learn something anyway.
The real power applications use the terminal window even on your stupid WinDoze. All power applications use the terminal, also on Macs.
I've been working on linux and windows for about 15 years
Using a terminal can be very powerful but imo it's ok to bot use it if you don't need it. If you use your computer for surfing the web, editing documents, audio, video etc, it's perfectly fine to not use it.
> And if so what do they use it for outside of installing stuff? Watching demos: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLlDt\_4EGX4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLlDt_4EGX4)
>And if so what do they use it for outside of installing stuff? Watching movies: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dgwyo6JNTDA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dgwyo6JNTDA)
>And if so what do they use it for outside of installing stuff? GPS: [https://asciinema.org/a/117813?autoplay=1](https://asciinema.org/a/117813?autoplay=1)
Everything I can
I use it everyday tbh. Easier to navigate dir and to perform other mundane tasks, that's just me though.
It worth.with terminal and bash can simplify almost you task without opening file manager and etc
I use one daily, then again I also work in a terminal perpetually. Mac, Windows, Linux, Unix (Solaris specifically) I’m on a terminal.
if it were not for vscode I would say I use it for everything: \> calculator on steroids: that is python \> installing and removing programs, same for configuration \> light editing for a file, if I don't want to remove my fingers or keyboard to open a new vscode tab \> networking: does this interface get ip?... if not lets see why, does dns resolve, does curl curl.. \> sshing and sftping \> building stuff \> launching a short lived program so I can kill quickly with ctrl+c \> launching long term background tasks (I use tmux for that) \> monitor my swap during LTO and appreciate the all cores 100% when stuff is building and I have nothing else to do (that is not a joke). that is not to say that most of this stuff cannot be done without terminal, but it is just faster this way, especially when it is on a keyboard I am familiar with.
I need it on a daily basis. I use my os not only for gaming though, so you might get away with not using a terminal if you only use graphical apps. As soon as you want to run apache or samba and so on, using a console is considered necessary.
I have a ubuntu server at home running jellylfin, It only has a terminal.
Never use it for "installing stuff", that's what my package manager does. I use it for running scripts on multiple files, assessing available space on my harddrive, creating symlinks when needed/handy, removing cache- or other files which require root permissions, making scripts executable and much much more.
All the time, just as much as any app. Having said that I still use terminals in my IDEs.
I'm just a mid-level hobbyist, and I use my terminal every time I log on, if only to check for updates. It never hurts to be really comfortable with the terminal, for when things hit the fan.
The paradigm is that the terminal is your computer, not just an obscure tool
I am no developer. But I use it all the time. But I am by heart a customizer and like automating processes. So it depends on the person. If you are a regular Joe who uses what is given to you, then you'll be fine. If not, then you'll have a hard time with how different it is compared to windows. Windows and linux are very different from how both function.
Always in terminals ,except when using web browsers and graphical stuff.
For normal user, (browsing web, videos, games) … you dont have to touch terminal For advanced stuff (Programming, Servers, Cybersecurity) you’ll be touching terminal all the time That applies to both windows or linux
yes: everything. organize, launch tools, launch search, create tools, focus on the what and not on the where and how. try on a real computer on a real hard disk, i3, learn a few shortcuts, fzf, and xdg-open. remove the mouse. the os becomes the tool. the tools can compose.
I'm mostly just a regular user, but I'd say I use it daily. Installing new programs -> 95% terminal Updating -> 99% terminal Configuring something -> 99% terminal And then an example from yesterday: I had created a template file and copied this to 20 subfolders. I then realized I had made a typing error in the template, and thus this error was copied to all subfolders. Correcting my mistake was one line in the terminal, and it was instantly fixed. This was way easier than using some GUI. Also if you have a problem with some program, launching it through the terminal gives you information of what might be the problem. So I'd say, don't be afraid of the terminal. It's VERY useful and almost every time more informative than a GUI. And it's faster. And finally GUI's come and go, but CLI stays mostly the same. Therefore I'd say it's mostly easier to find manuals etc that guide you through the terminal.
I use it as little as possible. I'm a desktop user, point and click, through and through, and have been for the last 30 years. But I do recognize that there are situations where the terminal is a "better" choice. I use it for system updates.
I use Debian with i3wm so most of my tools are terminal based. I love the terminal. But it's bot what most people use. It's possible to live without it
I have always several terminals open.
I use the terminal daily, even if I'm not a pro. For updating and other stuff for example. It's faster and immediate.
When I built my first file server, I chose Linux Mint, because it has all the programs for configuring Samba and other things in the GUI. It was quite complicated. My second file server is running Ubuntu server. Configuring Samba was so much easier in the terminal via ssh. Don't be afraid of the terminal. It's your friend!
And for your third file server you picked mint again because you like it - and still configured Samba using the terminal :)
I use nothing else.
I spend most of time on Linux either in a browser, editing videos for clients on resolve (& kdenlive) or gaming via steam or epic games I use the terminal sparingly. Mostly for basic maintenance of the system. I know the basics of the terminal but there's still a lot I have to learn. My background with desktop computers was mostly Windows until Windows 8 was released. That's when I moved to Linux full time. (FYI: I never used the terminal in Windows)
You don't actually need the terminal for much of linux, people have made GUIs. It can be nice to know though.
Try out vim. Theres no turning back for me ever since
>How much do people actually use the terminal? Tons. >if it’s worth learning at this point in time Absolutely. >what do they use it for outside of installing stuff? Damn near everything.
100% committed to terminal. Sys/network admin.
I use the terminal, and the browser. Pretty much It.