[HLUG] Command Line Witchcraft? -- was: Re: Ubuntu Manual Learning event Monday and Tuesday!

[Sarah Chard]

Richard

I think mainly it is fear of the unknown - and also fear that if you do
use the command line you will somehow damage your system because as
George says it's often a case of a blind cut and paste.
Also if you make a mistake it doesn't tell you or points you to man
pages - you have to work out what you have done wrong, which if you are
uncertain about what/why you are doing something in the first place can
be confusing. 
ie. - if you don't know it's going to happen the simple fact that you
put your password in without anything showing on the screen can be very
baffling

When I first started using linux/Ubuntu 2006/7 I was very worried about
using the command line but I had real problems getting internet
connections to work.

I hate doing things when I don't understand the reason why I am doing it
so I struggled with the command line for a while  - then found a handy
ref sheet on Fosswire similar to this one -
http://fosswire.com/post/2007/8/unixlinux-command-cheat-sheet/
which helped.
I find it interesting to learn and quite enjoy the struggle - most
people don't- I agree with George in that I prefer to use a gui if one
is available.
If I am introducing people to Ubuntu I don't mention the command line at
all as it will frighten them - hopefully they will not have to use it as
the gui's have improved so much!

Sarah  



On Sun, 2010-02-21 at 20:20 +0000, Richard Smedley wrote:
> Interesting you should look at it this way. I'm in
> the middle of writing introductory command-line tutorials
> for LinuxUser & Developer magazine, and would like to
> here more about what makes the command line forbidding to
> GUI users.
>