Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2007 01:09:32 +1300   
   From: Philip    
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   Newsgroups: alt.comp.freeware,alt.os.linux.ubuntu   
   Subject: Re: My ubuntu experience   
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   os.linux.ubuntu:8612   
      
   Topaz_Crow wrote:   
   > On Fri, 19 Jan 2007 13:48:11 +0100, Michel Firholz    
   wrote:   
   >> Topaz_Crow wrote:   
   >>> You will   
   >>> never be able to harness the full power available on the CLI with GUI   
   >>> apps.   
   >>>   
   >> "nobody would ever need more than 640KBytes Ram"   
   >> was someone of the rookies asking  for help willing to "harness the full    
   >> power of Linux", or were them just asking to solve a small problem?   
   >    
   > Not a good analogy You can do much more with much less effort on the   
   > command line. In this case the GUI would be the 640K. :)   
   >    
   > Well, maybe this small problem is much easier to fix by giving someone   
   > a command line way of doing it than telling them how to wade through   
   > GUI menus. This is exactly the case much of the time.    
   >    
   >>> It does not hurt to introduce newbies to a little CLI action   
   >>> from time to time.   
   >>>   
   >> how do you know, what is supposed to hurt them?   
   >>   
   >    
   > Because the CLI is a good thing. It only helps. It does not harm. Not   
   > using the CLI in Linux is like, I don't know, not using the start   
   > menu in Windows. It's a tool that makes life easier if someone learns   
   > to use it. And it's not that hard if you get over the phobia.   
   >    
   >>> So giving a little help with command line actions is a little   
   >>> introduction that will not hurt at all but may help a lot.   
   >>>   
   >> sure, if they have been asking for!   
   >    
   > They are asking to learn Linux. They are going to have to get over the   
   > fact that it's not Windows and learn to use Linux of which a big part   
   > of is the CLI. And this junk about the CLI being hard is just that,   
   > junk. It's not hard if one makes the effort and it will teach them much   
   > more about what the GUI is doing than only using the GUI.   
   >    
   The command line is wonderful, stimulating, perhaps even sexy. I use it    
   constantly on my Ubuntu machines (not this borrowed pooter, tho). And    
   I'm not suggesting we lose it, just that we stop saying to potentil    
   newcomers tht it's essential to their purpose. It isn't.   
      
   New users are not attracted by being told they must type   
      
   snurge/xvgtr -i -P -n   
      
   instead of just clicking on an icon.   
      
   Every time we say that to a newcomer, we are saying: Hey, it's just like    
   they keep saying. Windows IS easier than Linux.   
      
   Do you recall those tv ads for the early Macs that showed someone at an    
   MSDOS machine typing   
      
   c:\programs\snicketyboo\getup.com   
      
   and then showed the owner of the Mac Classic just clicking his    
   single-button mouse on the image. Sold a fair few Macs, that did.   
      
   Users WANT it easy. That's why cars don't have a spark advance/retard    
   lever any more and don't demand you double de-clutch to change down a    
   gear. It's why phones don't have rotary dials but do have memories. Why    
   your toastr pops up the toast before it's burnt.   
      
   Computers, even ones running Ubuntu, are a commodity appliance, and so    
   long as we let ourselves get diverted from meeting that user expectation    
   we condemn ourselves to the fringes of the computer world.   
      
   Microsoft's Vista presents Ubuntu with a huge opportunity to push istelf    
   as the upgrade path from Windows XP. Let's not fudge it.   
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