linux_learner Posted March 26, 2004 Report Share Posted March 26, 2004 gui's are a nice way to break in newbies. i would not consider myself exactly a newbie, yet my skills in linux are not as mature as they could be. gui's can also be crippling. i rely on gui's quite heavily, but can navigate reasonably ok with out a gui. in the linux world, you can and do have it both ways. this is one thing i'm relatively sure will never change. its what gives linux its strength. you have the ease of a gui for newbies, and the power of the shell for those who want it. i think yast going GPL is great news for several reasons. one it would mean other people can contribute to improve upon yast. two is, it could help unify the distro's a bit, while maintaining their uniqueness. one of the things i have heard newbies say over and over about linux, is that they wish they could install things as easily as they did on windows. while i disagree with the windows permission structure, the simplicity (to a point) would be a nice way to help newbies get into linux. imagine being able to click on a *.bin, or a *.tar.gz, or a *.rpm, or a *.deb, or whatever and a gui installer checks the package for proper installation and deps, then resolves any deps and installs it. while maintaining the option of going to a shell and running the usuall commands. gui tools should never be excluded, but rather be there to enhance the product. when gui tools get to be as powerfull as the shell, then we have something. remember with linux, we always have choice. this or that. we the user, have absolute control. i dont see that philosophy changing. its what makes linux great. gui tools are just enhancements, and should never be discouraged. just my 2 cents Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sitor Posted March 30, 2004 Report Share Posted March 30, 2004 Hi, I'm an IT professional (one of the things I did recently was the technical coördination of the Belgian Electronic Identity card certification services). However I'm not at all ashamed (like a lot of people seem to be) to state that I do prefer GUI heavily over CLI. As a matter of fact, if I wouldn't have been able to configure my MDK box with GUI tools, I would probably not have been a Linux user and advocate now. I'm not afraid of CLI, mind you. But the learning curve is just to steep, and I have too little time for that. So I use it only if the GUI is insufficient. Most people do use a computer to get things done. Not to spent hours fiddling with it. I think I'm already way more into fiddling then the average user. So if you think it would be nice that one day the average user will be using Linux, just accept that tools will be needed to make the use of a Linux box as easy as the use of a DVD player. GUI tools are in the good direction. Saying that people should learn how an OS works is like saying that you should only get a drivers license if you know how to repair a broken car. People do not want that. People want to be able to get from point A to point B, in a comfortable, if possible even luxureous way. And they certainly do not want to need an automechanics diploma to do so. So yes, I do applaud very much that a tool like YAST might become more wide spread (from what I heard about it, since I've never used it yet). And I'm not at all afraid that Linux will become too uniform. After all, the reason to choose for Linux is just that one always has a choice in the tools to combine. And if YAST becomes GPL, anyone can fork it if there would be a reason. Ciao, Sitor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.