Another Newbie Question

[Chris Zwilling]

Hello!

This is not silly at all.  I regularly use text utils to do things rather
than X/GUI stuff.  I find that I am more productive using vi (text
editor), pine (e-mail), lynx (web browser), and screen (terminal
multiplexer)

vi is the text editor that I use because it is fairly lightweight.  It
also has quite a learning curve.  There are other editors such as pico and
emacs that are easier to use.  Pico is the PIne COmoposer - it comes with
the pine mail package.  There are several others but my suggestion is to
try out a few to see which one suits.

I use lynx when I want to access web sites without downloading all the
graphics and advoid things like forced-redirects, java script, and
active-x controls.  And since lynx is text only, it runs fast even over a
dial-up connection.  I'm not sure if there are any graphical web browsers
for text mode (maybe based on svgalib?)

I use pine for my email for many of the reasons that I use lynx for my web
browser.  It doesn't support java, HTML popus or any of that jazz.  I can
read me email quickly, easily and without noise.

'screen' is nice in text mode because it allows multiple "screens" on a
single terminal.  Using CTRL-A sequences, new windows can be created, I
can jump to a different window, even force close a window.  The really
killer feature of screen is disconnecting a windows without closing it.
I can start a large FTP that may take several hours, hit CTRL-A d and it
will continue to run in the background while I log out and go do something
else.

I hope this helps!

> This may seem silly, but here goes:
>
> In my mind, a linux install can work 2 ways. Either I buy a "modern" machine
> and install a GUI, or I recycle and older machine and install linux without
> the GUI (ie, KDE, Gnome, etc). If I've installed a GUI, then I can use the
> machine instead of a Windows or MacOS machine, with access to open source
> office apps, graphics apps, communications apps, etc. Or, if I've installed
> a GUI-less system, I can run server apps, like httpd, ftpd, telnetd, etc.
>
> In other words, in my experience, a GUI-less Linux install leads to a
> server, not a workstation.
>
> Now, my financial situation precludes me installing a GUI; I'm using free
> hardware and none of it can support one. So, for example, at home, I've got
> an old Mac clone running Yellow Dog Linux and it's a web server.
>
> But, what I really want is a workstation. Now, I could take old hardware and
> create a DOS workstation, and have access to word processors, email apps,
> etc. But I don't know how to do that with my Linux installs.
>
> So, can anyone recommend any useful applications that will run on my
> text-only Linux boxes?
>
> Thanks!
>
> -SD
>
>
>
>

;--------------------------------;
; The problem with reality is    ;  chris at nukequarters.com
;  that there isn't a coherent   ;  http://www.nukequarters.com
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