I’m a Windows user of all life. But I love Linux. And these last two years after so many time I started learning it in deep . But one thing is bugging me is that I am those persons that has bad times remembering names, words… imagine commands… Even after using it so much I remember some basics but I’m struggling a lot and I have to go back to notes constantly to do some basic operations. Even worst after trying multiple distro from from different upstreams that commands are … Different. What would be your recommendations to help me. Are there tools to help this issue ? My guess is that A LOT of people happens the same. And it’s one of the reasons Linux has such a slow adption . Because is excellent and full of capabilities.

  • utopiah
    6·
    3 days ago

    because it’s faster if you can type fast and remember everything.

    No. That’s just wrong. You only need to type ONCE and you don’t have to remember it all, that’s why reverse-i-search (aka Ctrl-r) is so powerful. It allows you to search within your command history so you only need to remember few letters of the command (which you can annotate, e.g. commandname parameter #it does this) and can even edit after, e.g. changing parameters.

    But, more fundamentally, that is NOT the point of the command line!

    The whole point of the command line is… to be able to repeat things, namely to script actions that can be customizes and combined to YOUR unique needs. So it’s absolutely not about typing speed or memory. In fact, once I do have a good command, what do I do? I save it as a script precisely so that I do NOT have to type it again. Think of commands as Lego bricks that can be combined to together, build on top of. That is basically impractical with GUIs. Sure there are some tools to automate the click on GUIs but it’s unreliable, nor can it be easily shared.

    PS: I’m not saying anyone should use the command line over GUIs. I’m not being prescriptive. I’m only trying to clarify what the point of the CLI is.

    TL;DR: command line is about combining tools to your unique needs, repetitively and reliably.

    • Azzu@lemm.ee
      1·
      2 days ago

      True of course. If you look at my comment though, I haven’t said that speed is the point of the command line. Just that Linux users are obsessed with it. For most users most of the time, the repetition/automation is not the point and ability to write scripts is not the most important thing. And you can combine tools with GUIs as well, it’s just slower. Same with reliability, GUIs don’t have to be and usually aren’t unreliable, so command line only has the automation and speed going for it.

      you only need to remember few letters of the command

      I believe that is exactly the problem in this thread. The command history only works if you remember in the first place.

      • utopiah
        1·
        2 days ago

        For most users most of the time, the repetition/automation is not the point and ability to write scripts is not the most important thing.

        Well if that’s the case then it’d be like somebody buying a bike, removing the wheels, and complaining that truly it’s not as fast as a car or as convenient as walking. Sure, it’s true but… if one is missing the point of a tool then they can’t really complain about how “bad” it is.

        Honestly I do not know how the CLI is most popularly used. I do have usage data for that (and I’m not sure who might, maybe Ubuntu?) but again, if people are using it to “type fast” then they are wrong.

        Regarding memorizing and the problem of this thread, yes it IS a problem but that’s precisely why I also commented https://lemmy.ml/post/24395107/15908795 before, namely that someone learning the CLI (namely … ALL of us, even people like me who have been using it for decade, at home and professionally) should actually admit they are learning and thus rely on tools as they otherwise normally would.