[NTLUG:Discuss] Linux Distro

[Greg Edwards]

kbrannen at gte.net wrote:
> Wayne Dahl wrote:
> ...
> 
>> I have a lot of questions about doing things using a GUI.  I don't get
>> many answers from the guys on this list because most of the guys on this
>> list live on the CLI.  At least, that's what someone from the list
>> posted to me one day in response to some question I had that I never got
>> a response to.  That could be taken as rude (i.e., no response), but it
>> could also mean that just no one has an answer.
> 
> 
> Yes, most of us "old timers" :-) probably do live in the CLI; I do.  
> Others have posted valid reasons why, I'll add one more:  I can type so 
> much faster than I can reach over and grab the mouse to point & click; 
> but that's just me.
> 



> HTH,
> Kevin

I do both GUI and CLI.  As Kevin points out most of us grew up on the 
command line.  I think I'm one of the few that has been trying to learn 
and even embrace the GUI approach.  As a long time CLI user trying to 
become GUI oriented has been interesting to say the least.

Probably the most useful GUI (type) admin tool I've found so far is 
Webmin.  I've even gone so far in the last 6 months as to always try the 
Webmin way first and then CLI if I have to.  Sometimes I still give up 
on Webmin pretty quick and go to vim.  Heck it's taken a real effort 
just to move from vi to vim!  Another set of tools that I've come to 
like is the Mandrake Control Center.

I won't touch printcaps, sendmail.cf, /etc/sysconfig/network, or hand 
setup init links ever again :)  But I still can't get any of the GUI 
tools to make me happy with samba and named still needs a tweak or two 
before Webmin gets a shot at it.

I think, as Kevin mentioned, that while there is some GUI help here 
it'll be limited to just a few apps in general.  And if a question goes 
unanswered I'd say it's a polite way of saying that we just don't have 
an answer.  I guess if people would like we could do it the Newsgroup 
way and BS our way through a topic we really don't know ;)

One other factor that I think is somewhat unique to this list is that 
we've got allot of engineers here, not users.  As I use to tell people, 
I build software, I don't use software.  Heck I don't even play Quake, 
never even loaded it once.  I use word processors out of need not want 
and I dislike spreadsheets.  So for many general apps there just aren't 
a ton of users here to pass along information from experience.

-- 
Greg Edwards
New Age Software, Inc. - http://www.nas-inet.com
======================================================
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