Living with the Linux console. Only.

Message

anthony · #21 Post by **anthony** » 2008-03-23 16:52

I have really learned a lot about the way debian works just by using xmonad as a window manager. It is a great environment for those who love cli and I have learned more about my system in the past 2 weeks than I have for the year I have been using debian. Also, a mouse Is completly optional.

Hevoos · #22 Post by **Hevoos** » 2008-03-23 19:05

anthony wrote:I have really learned a lot about the way debian works just by using xmonad as a window manager. It is a great environment for those who love cli and I have learned more about my system in the past 2 weeks than I have for the year I have been using debian. Also, a mouse Is completly optional.

What is the difference between xmonad and Ion3 or Ratpoison? I've been looking at tiling WMs so it would be great to know the differences between some of them.

anthony · #23 Post by **anthony** » 2008-03-23 23:51

Out of my experience I would say that they are all quite similar but the reason I went with xmonad is because of the vast library of extentions it has and
because of the extensive amount of hacking/configuring that can be done. I have never tried ratpoison but the whole no mouse idea seems similar. The only thing about xmonad is that there is a lot that goes into it thus you have to install a lot of stuff (i.e. haskell) but its not a problem if you have a fair amount of space. All of the stuff you need is in sid BTW.

Bro.Tiag · #24 Post by **Bro.Tiag** » 2008-03-24 01:26

Well I tryed, and was doing good, with just a cli install of Sid. I installed on Thursday, ran right through to Saturday till I ran insto deans e17 LiveCD.

Anyhow, once I finish playing with dean's e17 LiveCD I'll go back to it. I do have one question, for anyone who uses Mutt as their e-mail client. How can I get it to leave my messages on the server, yet not download every single one again when I check for new mail?

Cheers

qubodup · #25 Post by **qubodup** » 2008-03-24 15:13

Wow, I spent quite some time looking for window managers, never found out about xmonad or ion3. There's also stumpwm.

Bro.Tiag: I red a bit about mutt yesterday. Seems to be an exclusive club.

saltmiser · #26 Post by **saltmiser** » 2008-03-26 03:07

garrincha · #27 Post by **garrincha** » 2008-03-26 15:46

Extremely light WMs:

EvilWM
Ion
Ratpoison
PWM
LarsWM

Marginally light WMs:
FVWM
Blackbox
Fluxbox
Windowmaker
IceWM

roadnottaken · #28 Post by **roadnottaken** » 2008-03-27 04:09

garrincha wrote:Fuxbox

That's fluxbox! Get it right!

garrincha · #29 Post by **garrincha** » 2008-03-27 18:41

roadnottaken wrote:
garrincha wrote:Fuxbox
That's fluxbox! Get it right!

Arrg, already corrected it...no need to be nit-picking. Obviously a typo and a bit of ageing eyesight.

edbarx · #30 Post by **edbarx** » 2008-03-28 07:50

Although I fully acknowledge that the console is a very powerful interface mainly due to its simplicity, I don't think I can survive only with it. I need a graphical interface to use a computer efficiently. The problem with consoles/terminals is that one must know the commands. A GUI gets rid of that restriction.

Once, I had an idea of making consoles/terminals accessible to any computer user....

Bro.Tiag · #31 Post by **Bro.Tiag** » 2008-03-28 11:27

edbarx wrote:Although I fully acknowledge that the console is a very powerful interface mainly due to its simplicity, I don't think I can survive only with it. I need a graphical interface to use a computer efficiently. The problem with consoles/terminals is that one must know the commands. A GUI gets rid of that restriction.

Once, I had an idea of making consoles/terminals accessible to any computer user....

Having now played with my cli-only install for a week, I have found that the one limiting factor for me, is the internet. Aye, sure there are some fine console web browsers, but I'm just so used to the gui browsers that it has been a very hard transition. I also can not seem to get mutt to function the way I want.

Anything else I needed/wanted to do was of no difficulty, fun and a good learning experience.. I think I shall keep it installed, although I might just add x.org & iceweasel for when I need to do something with the internet.

Cheers

industrialpunk · #32 Post by **industrialpunk** » 2008-03-28 17:15

I would just install a really light window manager like one of the *boxes (fluxbox, openbox, blackbox) You have super quick access to a cli from any terminal emulator and you can pop open iceweasel when you need to. Or - shock - view non-ascii images!

Hevoos · #33 Post by **Hevoos** » 2008-03-28 20:14

edbarx wrote:Although I fully acknowledge that the console is a very powerful interface mainly due to its simplicity, I don't think I can survive only with it. I need a graphical interface to use a computer efficiently. The problem with consoles/terminals is that one must know the commands. A GUI gets rid of that restriction.

Once, I had an idea of making consoles/terminals accessible to any computer user....

That's why bash scripts were invented. Just write a script to do a specific task so that you don't have to remember it.

Bro.Tiag · #34 Post by **Bro.Tiag** » 2008-03-28 21:54

industrialpunk wrote:I would just install a really light window manager like one of the *boxes (fluxbox, openbox, blackbox) You have super quick access to a cli from any terminal emulator and you can pop open iceweasel when you need to. Or - shock - view non-ascii images!

Don't even need a window manager, x will run iceweasel by itself, when needed.

Cheers

DjBones · #35 Post by **DjBones** » 2008-03-29 08:40

well, if your living in the console,
you can't live without the greatest game:
moon-buggy ;]

Hevoos · #36 Post by **Hevoos** » 2008-04-11 07:23

Is there anyone who got the textmode quake/quakeII working? If so, how did you do it?