Linux Without the GUI

[mooreted]

I started my computer use with a Tandy TRS-80. It ran on BASIC so I had to write my own programs and store them on an audio cassette. Then I graduated to DOS. I loved DOS because I could do things really fast. Then Windows came out and I griped about having to use it at school. Somewhere down the line I got lazy and after 15 years or more of using Windows I tend to think in terms of; "Where do I click to open...." I keep hearing mention of people who use the command line for everything. They claim the GUI is cumbersome and buggy. So I would like opinions and guidence about using Linux with no GUI at all. How do you surf, burn CD's, watch movies, listen to music and all the fun things computers can do when you are not doing serious work. I mean, I have to play sometimes. Is it really faster to burn a CD from the command line by typing cdrecord -this -that %this% -that and on and on. If the command line really is easier and faster you gurus must be using all kinds of cool shortcuts I haven't learned yet, but I'm dying to know how you do all this from the command line. Where can I learn more.

Thanks,
Ted.

[oubipaws]

lynx... web browser... It works well on somesites and doesn't work well on others. What can you expect out of a text browser

mpg123 (i think thats it)... mp3 player... I used it a while back when I was learning linux and forcing myself not to use a GUI.

[ven0m]

I only have my server as a command line only machine, but I use the command line in my GUI on my other machines.
How do you surf
Lynx http://freshmeat.net/projects/lynx/?topic_id=91
burn CD's
cdrecord http://freshmeat.net/projects/cdrecord/?topic_id=257%2C19%2C845%2C118%2C139
watch movies
:confused: You can't
listen to music
Depends on what your looking for... cd player, mp3 player, ogg player... There's lots out there try a G4L search.

[oubipaws]

you can watch movies :p
somewhere out there is a version of Star Wars in text for telnet (a joke, not the real movie)

[Pierre Lambion]

You can run mplayer on the framebuffer for video. You need FBDirect.

You can also compile links with a graphic mode to browse internet with pictures without X installed.

mpg321 (or mpg123 or ogg123 or workbench) can play your music. There are jukebox frontends to those.

zgv allows image viewing and thumbnailing.

Used in combination with screen those are nice.

FBDirect can also run gtk applications if you have occasional needs of Gimp or any other GTK/gnome app.

P.

[sharth]

mplayer -vo svga <blah.mpg> : that will play a movie in a console.

Personally, I would suggest keeping X, since in my opinion, lynx, links, and w3m, are alot less pretty then mozilla firebird, epiphany, or nautilus (etc). However, you can do just about everything that you can do in X, on a console. I burn cds on a console, use a console for a file manager, edit files, and do configuration with a console.
I keep X running though because it looks better :) and theres often alot of better looking programs in X, then in console, just because of limitations between the two.

I haven't looked into screen yet though...

[oubipaws]

why don't you just keep X and just use something like WindowMaker or Fluxbox so that you only need to use the apps you need in the background?

[mooreted]

I guess I am just not geeky enough for the pure command line stuff. Some people make it sound like they never use the GUI. My career choice is Cisco networking not programming. It sounds like I should just stick to using the command line to get administrative things done quickly and the GUI when I want to play. I haven't tried Blackbox yet, but I will. I like IceWm though I need to spend more time with it. I like KDE but it's just like Windows and I hate Windows.

Thanks for all the help. As I get more proficient with the command line I will use it more and more. I am finding that the GUI can be a real pain in the butt for some things. As far as burning CDs, I really like K3b. It's sweet!

As for keeping X and using another desktop, I wasn't planning on losing X. I like GUIs for most things because I tend to be lazy. You wouldn't think that of someone who works his butt off every day, but I work smart not hard. Mostly I just want to learn everything I can about Linux. I love it. That's something I have never been able to say about an operating system before.

Have a great day!

Ted.

[redhat81]

Can't you watch movies on a console using the asciilib plugin on xine?

[hop-frog]

You might give Ratpoison (http://ratpoison.sourceforge.net/) a try.

Do a search for 'curses' at Freshmeat. You will find lots of keyboard controlled programs that run in the console or in a X terminal.

[mooreted]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try that out. It would be kinda cool to run Linux without a GUI running just to see if I can.

Have a good one,
Ted.