GUIs for the Evernoob

dbvolvox · 2012-09-14 20:39:42

Part of me will be for ever noob! You guys carry huge knowledge in your heads about how to do things and which commands to use but for those of us older users who struggle remembering new commands accurately or others migrating from windows need the prompts and reassurances that can be obtained from a GUI. Especially true for commands that one seldom uses.

Over recent months I have come up against 3 examples where the terminal route has been too complex (rsync) or too scary (dd) and I have sought the use of a GUI to guide and confirm what I am doing, so I know for example that I am writing to USB not obliterating my HD.

Could there be a CB-welcome section on GUI tools or an additional script for non-experts or windows converts? I have three candidates for this but I am sure there should be a few others that forum members could suggest.

imagewriter (more correctly usb-imagewriter) a very friendly gui front end for using dd to write image files to usb.

palimpsest (gnome-disk-utility Format and partition drives, mount/unmount partitions, query S.M.A.R.T. attributes for disk health) a gui that uses uses udisks.

luckybackup a very friendly gui front end for rsync.

shengchieh · 2012-09-15 01:47:22

Personally, I like #! the way it is. #1 is geared to intermediate users. For GUI users, try antiX,
Linux Mint, etc.

Try downloading/printing some cheat lists.

http://shengchieh.50webs.com/tuxslinks.html
-> Documentations
-> Reference

Sheng-Chieh

lcafiero · 2012-09-15 02:08:32

Actually, dbvolvox, there are a lot of GUI solutions that go along with the command line solutions that appear in this forum. I get slammed for it -- good naturedly, I hope -- but I usually bring them up when questions that have a GUI-based solution arise. I like to think that someone took the effort to make a GUI based tool, so to "thank" them it should be used.

I blogged about it earlier this year here:

http://larrythecrunchbangguy.wordpress. … r-another/

However, and you probably knew that was coming, you get a far better understanding of Linux and its inner workings when you start doing stuff by the command line. Just learning what commands do and what you can do with them is pretty important.

So while you'll find a lot of command-line based solutions to questions here, you shouldn't fear them because you won't be a noob forever. Trust me on this one.

dbvolvox · 2012-09-15 14:42:35

shengchieh wrote:

Try downloading/printing some cheat lists.
http://shengchieh.50webs.com/tuxslinks.html
-> Documentations
-> Reference
Sheng-Chieh

Thank you that link looks a great resource that I will be using.

dbvolvox · 2012-09-15 15:01:39

lcafiero wrote:

http://larrythecrunchbangguy.wordpress. … r-another/
However, and you probably knew that was coming, you get a far better understanding of Linux and its inner workings when you start doing stuff by the command line. Just learning what commands do and what you can do with them is pretty important.
So while you'll find a lot of command-line based solutions to questions here, you shouldn't fear them because you won't be a noob forever. Trust me on this one.

Thanks, your blog post put it so much better. Looking ahead, though, it seems to me that as the #! word spreads and it becomes more popular, especially with converts from other OSs and new users there will be more and more people using #! who don't want to invest a lot of effort learning something they will only use occasionally. Then the GUI tool comes to their rescue and their #! experience continues to be a good one.

Neil · 2012-09-15 18:25:48

dbvolvox, your reasoning would be spot on if #! were the only distro available...but it's not. It fills it's niche perfectly as it is. There are plenty of other distrobutions that focus primarily on a Desktop Environment with GUI applications for everything. That's where those new users/Windows refugees will (and usually do) go first. And many like it that way, and just stay with it.

CrunchBang is not, and likely will never be, for everyone. That's just not Phillip's goal.

lcafiero · 2012-09-15 21:36:11

I would agree with Neil. There are something like 320+ active distros out there, many of which are specialized and others which are more generic in nature. I think CrunchBang is a little more specialized than other distros.

I usually make this comparison: When you get your driver's license for the first time, you can drive a car but not much else. If you're going to drive an 18-wheel tractor-trailer, you're going to need some experience. Ubuntu is the car, and CrunchBang (and some of the other, specialized distros) is the 18-wheeler. Fortunately, with this forum and the people behind it, you'll find yourself behind the wheel of the big rig faster than you might think.

And if you don't want to do anything but drive a car, that's OK too.

CrunchBang ranges in the 20s to 40s in Distrowatch.com -- again I'm not a big fan of this metric, but a lot of people use it. This range is one that some other distros would kill for, however as Neil says, being the most popular distro is not what corenominal is after.

VastOne · 2012-09-16 00:18:35

And on the other hand, it is quite easy to install Xfce 4.8 to get everything you use with a right click that may be more like what you are used to ...

And there are several threads that talk about using aliases to help you 'remember' some of the basics. Here is a great thread for aliases

I use several aliases to make my daily work much easier from the command line...

For rsync, there is a great GUI I use called Grsync... You can install it with this:

sudo apt-get install grsync

If you were using one of my aliases it would be

get grsync

Of course you just have to make sure you are connected with whatever machine you are trying to grsync to...

Good luck

hochrappenkopf · 2012-09-18 12:00:35

I suggest further reading:

An excellent online reference: http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-reference/

My own book for reading in Linux: Heike Jurzik, "Debian GNU/Linux" Das umfassende Handbuch. 'Galileo Computing'.

And two important quotes read in the reference:

"This is Unix. It gives you enough rope to hang yourself." --- Miquel van Smoorenburg

"Unix IS user friendly… It's just selective about who its friends are." --- Tollef Fog Heen

cool

Last edited by hochrappenkopf (2012-09-18 13:59:45)

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#1 2012-09-14 20:39:42

GUIs for the Evernoob

#2 2012-09-15 01:47:22

Re: GUIs for the Evernoob

#3 2012-09-15 02:08:32

Re: GUIs for the Evernoob

#4 2012-09-15 14:42:35

Re: GUIs for the Evernoob

#5 2012-09-15 15:01:39

Re: GUIs for the Evernoob

#6 2012-09-15 18:25:48

Re: GUIs for the Evernoob

#7 2012-09-15 21:36:11

Re: GUIs for the Evernoob

#8 2012-09-16 00:18:35

Re: GUIs for the Evernoob

#9 2012-09-18 12:00:35

Re: GUIs for the Evernoob

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