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Rationale
Have a tutorial obviously available from the command line that hits the highlights of things that you might want to do, especially as a new user. This is for the situation where a new user, familiar only with the GUI, ends up on the command line perhaps because something went wrong. I'd like to see something that users would stumble into, maybe something that comes up if you enter a few invalid commands. You shouldn't have to 'just know' some command to get this option.
The current 'help' command is not a tutorial, and is not very friendly. When you type help from the command line, many of the commands scroll off the top of the screen. Nor are man pages a tutorial - help and man are both references for people who already can get around a bit on the command line.
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Maybe it could also warn about the evil rm all directories as superuser command that I dare not speak in case some unknowing user types it! Also, basics like ls and cd would be helpful...
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zeb
wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 02:37
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I agree this is a good idea - but long term the focus should be on eliminating the need for terminal shells in the first place. Bury the terminal deeper in the menus and improve all other aspects of the OS to gradually reduce the need. If the need for a terminal is never overcome, then the OS will forever be trapped amongst minority geeks.
Besides. Think about it - anything you do at a shell prompt, a program or Form (GUI wrapper) could probably do better and faster if only it had been written yet. :)
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benw
wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 02:40
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A quick google search for 'learn linux command line' reveals this first link, and it's a good one:
www.linuxcommand.org
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benw
wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 02:50
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zeb: the terminal will never go away :-).
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Ansible
wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 03:17
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I for one hope the command line always stays around - there's a power in text interfaces that HMIs haven't been able to deliver yet.
www.linuxcommand.org looks cool. Now we need to get that tutorial into the shell!
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Try also the RUTE tutorial, and the Advanced Bash Scripting Howto.
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I was a new Linux user in November and was thrilled about the command line. I missed using the DOS command prompt when I was kid and think it's a great way to do allot on a computer.
However, I found the "Help" woefully inadequate on this subject and searching Google also brought me to many guides that were not suitable for a new user or to things like complete lists of commands alphabetically. What good is a complete alphabetical directory of commands if you don't know what they do yet?
I eventually learned my way around the command line but it took a remarkable amount of effort and cobbling together info from many sources. I was just very surprised that I was unable to locate even one (never mind several) comprehensive, ground-up guide or reference book (free on the net that is) on this subject.
Great guides are surely out there; maybe it's just me foolishly missing something obvious or having a streak of bad luck.
Such a tool made easily and obviously available in the Help files would be great.
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While not as urgently needed as some of the others, this is my favorite idea on Brainstorm so far! The command line is very powerful and often faster, when one knows how to use it. Programmers don't want the command line to disappear from Ubuntu but it is very intimidating for people raised on the GUinterface of Windows (and aren't these the people we are trying to bring over?). This seems like a great compromise. The attitude should not be, "You are going to have to use the command line in Linux, here's how." The tone should be, "You don't have to use the command line but we think you will discover it can be useful and really help you out in a pinch, here's how."
Personally, one of the (many) reasons I switched to Ubuntu was because I want to learn the command line. While Ubuntu certainly allows that, it doesn't encourage it. Searching the web for a tutorial isn't the same as, say, having a shortcut button that will show you how to do this or that on the CL.
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blablum
wrote on the 3 Mar 08 at 00:18
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This will only make newbees think that thay HAVE to use the terminal, and that is not true if you only want ubuntu for the most simple things, so it might scare new users. I think anyone that wants to learn how to use the terminal can easily find help on the web, so no need for this.
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Ansible
wrote on the 3 Mar 08 at 01:40
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blablum, how are you going to get on the web if all you have is the terminal? If something went wrong and you can't get to the GUI, you're just screwed, unless you have another computer. What if the user hit ctrl-alt-F5 by mistake? If they don't 'just know' the magic shortcut back they'll probably have to reboot.
That's why the tutorial needs to be IN the shell, so that it is there when it is most needed. If you have the GUI (and networking), sure, go to the web.
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blablum
wrote on the 3 Mar 08 at 03:10
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Well if you're new and all you can access is a terminal I'm pretty sure a tutorial will not be enough for you to figure out how to fix things. Also, how's the user supposed to know what to type in the terminal to bring up the tutorial (in the case where you have no GUI)? Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favor of having support, I just don't think new users will think of finding support on the terminal, they'll google or find a friend to help.
I don't feel strongly against the idea, I just think that it would be used very little making it not a priority. Help on the terminal is useful for more advanced users trough the manual pages.
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I agree with Zeb.
New users shouldn't have to learn nothing about the terminal.
Except how to "open a terminal and Copy&Paste a command line in it", but we should gradually reduce the need.
By-the-way, do you think a newby will enjoy Maj+Ctrl+V for Paste in a terminal???
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/4242/
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