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The future of Linux
(lemmy.sdf.org)
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this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2023
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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In a very real sense I do think that the command line is ever so slightly too maligned as a beginner friendly tool. I definitely agree that it’s intimidating for people and that it’s easy to mistype a command or whatever… but good god is it ever nice to be able to tell somebody to “just copy and run this command” instead of guiding them through a GUI. Of course that has its own problems (ideally you don’t run commands you don’t understand), but it can be a really nice way to quickly help somebody. Macs strike a good balance with this in my opinion. There are GUI options for more or less everything (that seem to be front ends for command line tools), but also command line versions available, giving you the best of both worlds.
The problem with the command line line. Is that people don't understand what they are typing . what command means what. And don't really care to memorize them. I've seen tech illiterate people navigate their way through leading how a mobile OS works because of how user centric they are designed. If you give them a Linux distro with a bunch of command lines to type. They would rather call someone more knowledgeable to do it or give up on it entirely. Unfortunately this is something Linux Devs don't understand
Sometimes I think what we would do differently if we could rebuild the terminal from scratch. Do away with all the recursive acronym naming bullshit and the "You had to be a member of the compsci faculty at Stanford in 1975 to get it" references, use words that mean things to modern computer users.
Thats the reason I hate pacman. pacman -Syu...ok.
APT had (and kinda still has) the opposite problem. "apt-get install" is redundant. And true to Linux fashion, there have been a few implmentations of an "apt install" syntax, which were different enough to be a problem.
Also my OSMC box bitches at me when I run "apt upgrade" because it wants me to type "apt full-upgrade..."
There are some things I'd like to ask the Flatpak developers while holding them 6 inches off the ground by their shirt collar. Like why is it such a bitch to run flatpak update over ssh? It wants you to key in your password 96 times if you do that. It's also really fun to deal with org.whatthefuck.WhatTheFuck too.
I don't think apt is as bad as pacman, I use nala on my debian machine. The best syntax in my book has zypper, but I am biased. Simply running a flatpak from cli is a hassle. :P
Yeah I'll go with that; convention is you run software by evoking its name as a command. apt install vim, then you can run vim by typing "vim." Not with Flatpak, you evoke "flatpak run .org.bullshit.Vim". It's not merely designed to be used through a GUI, it's designed to be not used through a CLI.