Comments for Minimalistic life in text-mode http://archerbase.wordpress.com Just another WordPress.com weblog Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:58:22 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 Comment on Using Linux Command line applications by 42gems http://archerbase.wordpress.com/2008/08/18/using-linux-command-line-applications/#comment-7 42gems Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:58:22 +0000 http://archerbase.wordpress.com/?p=25#comment-7 too true. i have a ibm t31 with 256mb of ram and a pentium 3, that my uncle gave me about a month ago, and i haven't installed a windows manager on it because i can do fine without it. too true. i have a ibm t31 with 256mb of ram and a pentium 3, that my uncle gave me about a month ago, and i haven’t installed a windows manager on it because i can do fine without it.

]]> Comment on Why I ditched the GUI by ahjot http://archerbase.wordpress.com/2008/08/08/why-i-ditched-the-gui/#comment-5 ahjot Tue, 12 Aug 2008 17:36:28 +0000 http://archerbase.wordpress.com/2008/08/08/why-i-ditched-the-gui/#comment-5 you're saying what i've been thinking about for years. back to the basics, back to what really matters. you’re saying what i’ve been thinking about for years. back to the basics, back to what really matters.

]]> Comment on Why I ditched the GUI by shuggie http://archerbase.wordpress.com/2008/08/08/why-i-ditched-the-gui/#comment-4 shuggie Fri, 08 Aug 2008 12:32:48 +0000 http://archerbase.wordpress.com/2008/08/08/why-i-ditched-the-gui/#comment-4 I understand where you're coming from and I have a lot of sympathy with you but I think it's important to note that simplicity is not the only, nor always the highest value. And as you feely admit simplicity comes at a cost. Now lest you misundertand, I do like console text-only apps, a lot. See my ode to (g)vim here - http://shuggie.wordpress.com/2007/11/28/gvim-and-vigour/ But it's a question of what's right for a particular application. So I use gvim for writing and tin for usenet because those are essentially text-base tasks. I use Firefox for web browsing because like it or not, the web is a very visual medium. It has pictures, even videos. And whilst I may find a lot of web pages have far too much eye-candy that's not really adding anything, that's not always the case. And there are some youtube videos that are amusing, interesting or useful to me. I think what I really hate, is not GUIs per se, and definitely not console apps - I'm happy with either - what I really don't like doing is having to reach for the mouse when I'm doing something that's overwise keyboard intensive (like writing), or having to use the keyboard for something that's quicker with a mouse (like hitting tab 17-hundred times in elinks where a simple mouse move and click would do it in a GUI-browser) Ultimately of course, to each his or her own and never under-estimate the value in using something you prefer however clunky someone else finds it. Cheers Shuggie I understand where you’re coming from and I have a lot of sympathy with you but I think it’s important to note that simplicity is not the only, nor always the highest value. And as you feely admit simplicity comes at a cost.

Now lest you misundertand, I do like console text-only apps, a lot. See my ode to (g)vim here – http://shuggie.wordpress.com/2007/11/28/gvim-and-vigour/

But it’s a question of what’s right for a particular application. So I use gvim for writing and tin for usenet because those are essentially text-base tasks. I use Firefox for web browsing because like it or not, the web is a very visual medium. It has pictures, even videos. And whilst I may find a lot of web pages have far too much eye-candy that’s not really adding anything, that’s not always the case. And there are some youtube videos that are amusing, interesting or useful to me.

I think what I really hate, is not GUIs per se, and definitely not console apps – I’m happy with either – what I really don’t like doing is having to reach for the mouse when I’m doing something that’s overwise keyboard intensive (like writing), or having to use the keyboard for something that’s quicker with a mouse (like hitting tab 17-hundred times in elinks where a simple mouse move and click would do it in a GUI-browser)

Ultimately of course, to each his or her own and never under-estimate the value in using something you prefer however clunky someone else finds it.

Cheers
Shuggie

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