I’d rather have one with no window manager than one with no terminal.
this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2024
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Ive actually tried it some time ago, its not that bad. If you fing some way to switch tty inside cage (app for starting GUI apps without Window manager) it could be a pretty competent alternative to them
Not even Microsoft has a Windows distro without a terminal.
Yeah, Windows has at least 3 seperate ones that are incompatible with each other (probably more):
CMD, Powershell <7 and Powershell 7+
Unsure if you're being serious or not. Or if this is just bait. So I apologize in case I just got whooshed.
There's a decent amount of distros that don't require you to ever operate a terminal. Updates either
- happen automatically in the background
- Or, you're prompted for an update and can choose to run it
- Or, within settings or a dedicated app, you can press a button to initiate the process of updating
Furthermore, most distros that are recommended for beginners don't need regular updates anyways.
Updating isn't the only part that has been taken care of by this set of distros. Linux has become pretty smooth sailing overall.
Notable exceptions to the above are mostly tied to some janky/troublesome hardware setup. Or, if you'd like to run software that isn't easily accessible. In those cases, while a GUI-only solution may exist, it's simply a lot easier for all involved parties if a terminal solution is offered instead:
- it works on most distros; irrespective of version, DE, base distro or whatsoever. So, the one providing a solution doesn't have to create over a dozen of distinct solutions to cover all bases
- these methods tend to change a lot less frequently. Sometimes solutions are tied to DEs, and these may change how they organize stuff over time. So, terminal solutions have better longevity
- instead of moving through dozens of menus/toolbars/buttons or whatsoever, you literally copy and paste a couple of commands and you're done. I would prefer the terminal any day
OP, you did get me curious, though. Which distro do you use?
xubuntu and while i know that xubuntu from time to time will tell you to update without opening the terminal it still forces you to learn how to use it!! and yes i know that desktop environments do most of the work for example gnome is really good at being for beginners and for everyone xfce too
Thanks for answering!
xubuntu
I've only started to use Linux after Snaps were introduced to Ubuntu. As the community has been pretty vocal in their disdain, I lost any inclinations to test out Ubuntu or any of its flavors from the get-go.
Though, I have used Zorin lite; which is Ubuntu LTS with Xfce by the Zorin OS team. Which is probably the closest I'll get to Xubuntu. From what I recall, it was pretty neat. I did use the terminal, but it was more out of convention. Therefore I don't really recognize myself in the following sentiment:
it still forces you to learn how to use it!
Would you mind elaborating?
On your next distro hop try OpenSUSE with Gnome. Gnome will prompt when the system has updates for you and you just hit the update button. If you want to add remove software use the Yast2 Software GUI tool. You search a software, check the package you want and hit finish. All the system admin can be Done with YAST2 GTK GUI. No need for terminal
no flatpak
Erm, no? There are many GUI Software managers with Flatpaks Integration, for example GNOME software or KDE discover
which would just tell you when no update
About every major non diy distro does that
that would be fun and easy to use
For me at least it wouldnt be. If you dont want the terminal, just use something like mint, it has a GUI for everything you need
Also, why have no terminal? Its always a good backup for if you GUI stops working, and if you want GUIs for everything, that dosent mean the terminal has not to be there
You literally use Mint without ever opening the terminal if you’re just a regular/casual user. The update manager notifies you of new updates and you can use the gui.
I feel like you think the terminal is just for installing updates...
The linux terminal is why I use linux.
vim, diff, cat, grep, sed, awk, and sort are so freaking powerful and useful.
Thanks to image-based distros like Fedora Atomic, I skipped the asking to update step. They download and apply updates in the background, and then the new image gets selected on next boot.
Given Fedora doesn't do major changes in point releases, nothing breaks (until I do a manual upgrade to a new (half-)yearly major release).
Not having a terminal does not make sense (unless in a business context). For some people (my mum) it's as if it doesn't exist anyway, so why remove it.
then I would install one
Fedora Silverblue does have a terminal, but you don't need it.
It updates by pushing the update button in the software center.
Your programs are installed as Flatpak (no idea where you get the idea that that isn't possible without terminal). You search for them in the software center and click install.
It's actually pretty limiting because you can't use the terminal the way you're used to.
Anyway, it exists. And it is a good distro, if that's what you're looking for.
Get Ubuntu, uninstall the terminal emulator, disable vt switching, there you go.
I wouldn't like that, no sir, I wouldn't like that at all!
Too many useful tools on the terminal.
No flatpak? Who uses flatpak in the terminal?
Also pretty much every distro has some sort of GUI update manager.
i do! it's a much lighter way of downloading stuff from flatpak
Are you high?
Or how we say in germany: bischte deppert?
I don't care much about Neofetch and flatpak, but how would I run my scripts without a shell?
I reckon that would make me switch back to Mac exclusively ;)
I think most people wouldn't recognize it as a real Linux distro just like android and chromeos.
What does that even mean? But yes lots of us run Linux on servers. Just ssh in. Or even just wipe the VM and launch a new one if you want to upgrade.
You mean you want to create a graphical init that starts no VTE as fallback?