Nemo vs Terminal

[piroska]

So have done a few things. When I use a tool it's great. It's so easy, so helpful, so 100%.
Terminal? Ugh.

I go search, how to...and there are a lot of do this.
I find site A) might say do 1, 2, 3, 4
Site B)says do 1. So, ok, more than one way...but shouldn't the easy way be standard? Especially for us terminally thick newbies.

And secondly, why terminal?
Have a friend, he's used it, taught it, wrote bits for 40 odd years. In all sorts of unixs, never mind Linuxs.
He always does this.

he sent me a script it's an rsync thing.
What a pita.
I had no idea how to run it, clicking it showed it. (I'm the worlds most useless coder, means nothing to me)
So finally I figured out click - open. Then my choices were various, run in terminal worked.

But not actually from terminal.
Ok he says I had to put the thing in /usr/local/bin.
Oh god. Why?

I didn't the other way.

So ok, still a pain cause theres a heap of others thngs I need to do first, like make this folder for it.
In the right b***y place of course.

Timeshift however just lets me choose. I choose a second HDD. And made a folder in it first.

So why must everything be the b***y terminal, it's like a hundred steps to do what a utility will do in couple,.

I can follow where I am in Nemo, I even figured out run as root for stuffing things in those folders like /usr/local/bin.
In terminal, I get lost pretty quick.
So then he tells me:

put this in the file ~/.bash_profile

export PS1='$PWD $ '

Oh god.
where is ~

Where is bash_profile. I can't see one.

[Moem]

Sure, the terminal is a very powerful tool and if you don't know how it works it feels like you're helplessly drifting around in a sea of white letters on black. The nice thing about Mint is that there are a whole lot of things that you can do without touching a terminal, ever.
Your friend is trying to help you, I'm sure, but it would help better if his advice was better fitted to your current skill level.

[BenTrabetere]

I go search, how to...and there are a lot of do this.
I find site A) might say do 1, 2, 3, 4
Site B)says do 1. So, ok, more than one way...but shouldn't the easy way be standard? Especially for us terminally thick newbies.

One thing I have learned in the nearly 4 years I have used Linux is most tasks do not have a single, easy or standard solution. For example, I can think of four equally viable ways to acquire the current weather conditions and forecast - three of which are from the terminal.

Yes, having several ways to do the same thing can be confusing, but the benefit is it gives you options.

And secondly, why terminal?

The terminal is fast and flexible. If something goes wrong, the terminal lets you know where and why it failed, and most of the time will offer suggestions to correct the problem.

Most importantly, any given command should work on any Linux distribution. A GUI solution for one desktop environment may not work for or even exist for another DE.

So why must everything be the b***y terminal, it's like a hundred steps to do what a utility will do in couple,.

Many times the command line is the fastest and easiest way to give someone a solution to problem or a way to accomplish a task. A command that works for Linux Mint Cinnamon should also work in another distribution like Salix XFCE.

Also, not every terminal command has an equivalent GUI utility. And where one does exist, using them and explaining how to use them is a more lengthy process than entering commands.

[Hoser Rob]

... I go search, how to...and there are a lot of do this.
I find site A) might say do 1, 2, 3, 4
Site B)says do 1. So, ok, more than one way...but shouldn't the easy way be standard? ....

The way that WORKS is the one that should be standard.

There are a lot of blogs/guides that are absolutely CRAP and make it look easier than it really is. That's how they hook you. Beware of those. Here's a good one:

https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/

Yes, Linux often involves the terminal. That's the price of having an OS that runs in such a small memory spoace. If you're going to use Linux you absolutely have to be willing to look under the hood. If not, you should probably go back to Windows or whatever you were using. You'll never be happy with Linux.

[Moem]

Yes, Linux often involves the terminal. That's the price of having an OS that runs in such a small memory spoace. If you're going to use Linux you absolutely have to be willing to look under the hood. If not, you should probably go back to Windows or whatever you were using.

I can't agree with that, it doesn't match my experience. In Mint, there are very few things that a normal user would want to do that cannot be done outside of the GUI. Many of us don't have to use the terminal much, if at all.

[Flemur]

Ok he says I had to put the thing in /usr/local/bin.
Oh god. Why?

Good question! The answer is: don't to it, it's a bad idea.

So then he tells me:
put this in the file ~/.bash_profile
export PS1='$PWD $ '
Oh god.
where is ~
Where is bash_profile. I can't see one.

You probably don't have that file. I don't have it. I have that PS1 statement in

Code: Select all

~/.bashrc = /home/myusername/.bashrc

"~" is a shortcut for "/home/myusername" = $HOME

But! Note the dot in "~/.bash_profile" .

It's NOT "bash_profile": the dot is part of the name, and "hidden files" start with "." which can sometimes make them hard to find.

In your file browser, go to your home directory and hit "Ctrl+H" and watch the hidden (start with ".") files show up.

Edit: my free advice is to not do the stuff that guy tells you to do.

[Termy]

Code: Select all

export PS1='$PWD $ '

Hi. That bit of code just changes the prompt; the prompt is, as the word suggests, what prompts you to type something in. You shouldn't need to even add that, as, by default, Linux Mint (and just about every other form of Linux) has a PS1 prompt set. (PS1 is just the name, so to speak, of the standard prompt (in bash, a type of shell... in the terminal you're running a shell; this just an interpreter for your commands).

Anywho, I live in terminals. I use terminals just about every day, as has been the same for almost 2 years. I love the terminal. I program in it, listen to music in it, write standard text stuff in it, manage my system in it, manage my files and directories in it, etc. I'm close to being exclusively a terminal user.

The terminal can be by far more efficient than any GUI, but that doesn't mean anyone can instantly go into a terminal and know what they're doing. Driving a car is more efficient than walking, but a non-driver can't just hop into a car and immediately know how to drive; they have to learn it.

They could've just given you a command to download and install the script for you, as I assume they're on something like GitHub. Ah well. For future reference, and this applies to GUI programs too, there's this thing called PATH. This is a list of directories (with a priority system) which get checked for executables, whether they be GUI or terminal-based (CLI).

Very often, this PATH gets checked when you go to run a program, but not always. When you use your menu to load a program, it tends to point to a .desktop file which has some basic information stored within (translations, location of executable, name of file, menu location, etc), so that could and probably usually does bypass PATH.

Anyway, by putting the script your friend sent you in a location within the PATH, it means you'll be able to run it far more easily, such as by the terminal, by entering the script name, or by using something like Alt + F2 to bring up a quick launch feature, if it's available in your installation of Linux. I'm hoping he or she also told you to change the permissions of the file, for security reasons.

Unfortunately, for people like you who don't care for the terminal, a lot of troubleshooting and suggestions online tend to be terminal-focused; I target the same. The reason is because it's often far simpler and quicker, for both involved, to just copy-paste some code (albeit admittedly risky if the source is dodgy and the recipient isn't careful) into a terminal window, rather than describing and instructing the navigation of various windows. I liken using a language in the terminal to us speaking words, constructing sentences as instructions to our computers, rather than the mouse, which I see as us waving our hands around and grunting.

Lastly, as probably mentioned, .bash_profile is probably something applicable to his distribution of choice; in Ubuntu (thus Linux Mint), it's just ~/.profile. The .bash_profile varient is still applicable, I think, but it's ordinarily .profile. Guess it probably doesn't matter much, but if you ran into issues, that might've been why. I think your friend could've done a better job with the task, IMO.

[piroska]

It's not that I don't like terminal.
I had used DOS once and loved it.

It's familiarity...

Anyway he has 40 years experience in Unix, never mind lInux.

Also he told me a different way to change the prompt, edit, profile prefs...
It's so I know where I am, he might, it confused me before, so it helps seeing my home folder at start.

The only thing with my friend, is he isn't used to helpdesk....now he's got the idea, yes I may have lots of PC experience, but that doesn't always translate into Linux....

Some things he was assuming I'd understand, others he assumes I don't but sometimes it's the other way around.

Anyway, sorted now, and he is spelling it out a bit more for me now....until I get my head around it, it's a good thing.