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| Thread ID: 126819 | 2012-09-19 10:31:00 | Linux - ease of use ... | Nomad (952) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1302236 | 2012-09-19 10:31:00 | Just out of curiosity. I have used Ubuntu very briefly and Fedora. How user friendly is Linux, from recall Ubuntu was much more right ... I have just taught myself how to clone partitions how you had to mount the partitions etc with a command line. I know that you have software like Firefox, OpenOffice, video players, file managers that you don't have to manually compile them but in terms of system general maintenance does one still need to rely on command lines or are there easy to use distros that offer point and click too? In regards to cloning, partition management, VMWare, creating various boot devices. :thanks: |
Nomad (952) | ||
| 1302237 | 2012-09-19 11:28:00 | Your question is extremely subjective (it's similar to asking "how easy is it to use a cellphone?"). In order to properly answer the question, we need to know: What you're actually trying to ask; What kind of user you're talking about (how technical, how easily they learn etc); What kind of environment they are used to using; What types of tasks they are wanting to accomplish, and to what level; Whether the user is expected to install it, use a live CD, or use a system that has been installed for them; Which distro you are asking about; A whole bunch more questions. If you actually mean "How easy will Linux be for me to use, and can you please recommend me a distro?", then explaining in a bit more detail what you're wanting to do with it would help a lot. If you are asking other forum members how easy *they* find Linux to use, my answer would be 'extremely easy' - but that answer comes from someone who is used to dealing with the guts of Linux systems, in considerable depth, on a semi-constant basis. I'm not sure how well I could answer that question from the perspective of a Windows user who has never touched a Linux system before. |
Erayd (23) | ||
| 1302238 | 2012-09-19 11:56:00 | I can use it well enough. But I don't understand it nearly as well as Windows, if something goes wrong. My most-used solution to my own Linux problems is to reinstall :o Or maybe that's just the fault of Canonical and the fact they change the way everything works in Ubuntu every 5 minutes.... :angry |
Agent_24 (57) | ||
| 1302239 | 2012-09-19 12:31:00 | I know that there are some easy to use distro's like Ubuntu, how you can double click on a software downloaded, it installs and you can do what you can with Windows, it has a decent GUI ie. Firefox and OpenOffice. Not too hard. My question is that things like resizing partitions, creating them, creating image files, restoring, creating boot CD or boot USB sticks etc .. is GUI and mouse driven like Windows or Mac OS? Ie., Norton Ghost, Acronis, Windows Disk Management are menu driven. Or does it rely more with command lines? Can you do those things without going into command lines? Probably not Fedora, but Ubuntu, one of the editions has a lot of software included already with it. Probably for a person that could follow a step by step tutorial ie., maybe like PC World magazines, hence I asked about could you do those things without getting into command lines. Not too indepth. Just create a partition or resize it. Or create an image and to restore it. Question was just that some distro like Ubuntu is not too hard to use, bit like Windows, ie. play a video, write a document. But are some of those stuff I mentioned, are they menu and mouse driven or does it require command lines? It wasn't a question for who is easier. Just that, a common Windows users fires up IE, or Acrobat or MS Office, play a game, pretty much with a mouse and the start button. If they did had to deal with images or partitions it is still menu driven. They don't need to type any commands, I used to type a few dos commands but that's long gone for me and the common Windows user. Command lines may turn away a common Windows user. So rather actually learning the indepth things of Linux, could a person avoid those altogether and rather just use it but still accomplish some DIY system maintenance like partitions and images, boot CDs (like they do with Windows) or is it still quite raw? |
Nomad (952) | ||
| 1302240 | 2012-09-19 21:29:00 | Ubuntu and Mint work similar to windows in that most day to day stuff is graphical and done with a mouse even I can use them. But when you want to to do imaging and stuff then I guess your back to command line I think | gary67 (56) | ||
| 1302241 | 2012-09-19 23:25:00 | My question is that things like resizing partitions, creating them, creating image files, restoring, creating boot CD or boot USB sticks etc .. is GUI and mouse driven like Windows or Mac OS? Ie., Norton Ghost, Acronis, Windows Disk Management are menu driven. Or does it rely more with command lines? Can you do those things without going into command lines? You can use both. A popular one is en.wikipedia.org which is a graphical frontend to a command-line program. So you can use the underlying software without the GUI too. |
Agent_24 (57) | ||
| 1302242 | 2012-09-19 23:35:00 | This runs from a live CD rather than from your installed OS linux.softpedia.com But Clonezilla is as good. http://clonezilla.org/ |
KarameaDave (15222) | ||
| 1302243 | 2012-09-20 00:24:00 | Alright :D Maybe I got the SystemRescueCD which is heavily command lines. The user needs to mount HD partitions manually before the PartImage (imaging software) GUI works. I don't mind it for a bit of fun as a challenge but I don't really do it often enough that I would forget them. |
Nomad (952) | ||
| 1302244 | 2012-09-20 04:30:00 | Maybe I got the SystemRescueCD which is heavily command lines. The user needs to mount HD partitions manually before the PartImage (imaging software) GUI works. SRCD is really intended for people who are already familiar with a Linux CLI environment. Almost all the included tools are CLI ones, and the GUI appears to be largely an afterthought - the impression I get is that it's really only there to support Firefox (because CLI browsers can be annoying). There are a few other GUI tools included (such as GParted), but the overall GUI-based functionality is pretty limited for that distro. Most major distros targeted at the 'everyday desktop user' will have GUI tools to cover some subset of their admin requirements - how extensive and how easy to use these tools are depends on the distro (some admin tools will work on multiple distros, but many won't). SUSE's YaST is an example of a reasonably comprehensive one, although I'm not sure how it compares with competing tools these days - it's been a number of years since I last looked at it. As far as the more advanced tasks go though, the tools are almost exclusively CLI. All competent Linux admins are already comfortable using a shell, and CLI tools have the advantage of being easily remotely accessible via SSH - so in almost all cases the CLI tool is written first, and the GUI tool (if one even exists) will usually be an afterthought, and often won't provide all the capabilities of the CLI one. |
Erayd (23) | ||
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