What is the purpose of a GUI?

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sparkysdad

What is the purpose of a GUI?

Post by sparkysdad »

What is the purpose of having a GUI, if every solution to a problem or bug involves the command line? I am running Petra Cinnamon 64-bit.
When I right click the icon for a connected USB flash drive, a drop down menu has an "eject" option (like the Mac). When I do the same thing for an external hard drive, I get a "safely remove drive " option that doesn't work. How come?
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clfarron4

Re: What is the purpose of a GUI?

Post by clfarron4 »

sparkysdad wrote:What is the purpose of having a GUI, if every solution to a problem or bug involves the command line? I am running Petra Cinnamon 64-bit.
When I right click the icon for a connected USB flash drive, a drop down menu has an "eject" option (like the Mac). When I do the same thing for an external hard drive, I get a "safely remove drive " option that doesn't work. How come?
Let me ask you this: Have you tried doing you're day-to-day stuff like web-surfing, using social media and writing office documents for work in the terminal?
gtsfer

Re: What is the purpose of a GUI?

Post by gtsfer »

sparkysdad wrote:When I right click the icon for a connected USB flash drive, a drop down menu has an "eject" option (like the Mac). When I do the same thing for an external hard drive, I get a "safely remove drive " option that doesn't work. How come?
It may also depend on how that particular drive is formatted. The "safely remove drive" option more or less makes sure any write processes are done and then unmounts it. If it's an external USB hard drive for instance, you'll notice the light on it will start blinking after a few seconds. It also disappears from your file manager.
gold_finger

Re: What is the purpose of a GUI?

Post by gold_finger »

sparkysdad wrote:What is the purpose of having a GUI, if every solution to a problem or bug involves the command line?
I understand that may be frustrating but I'll explain the most likely (primary) reason "why" commands are used when answering people on the forum. It's much, much quicker to fix things with commands v.s. trying to guide people through a convoluted description of "open this program, look to the left and click this, then right-click that, .... Now open that other thing and click, ......" Something that can be fixed directly with a one-line command could easily take 2-3 paragraphs of explaination to accomplish the same thing using GUI methods. So the people answering will do that to save themselves the time and frustration of typing all of that out. Also, if the description accidentally omits one click in the directions along the way, the person they are trying to help may get hopelessly lost in the file system or do damage by changing the wrong thing because they ended up in the wrong place.

As to your other question -- I have to admit, I was never very clear on the differences myself -- so just did a search and found a good explaination here: http://askubuntu.com/questions/5845/wha ... ve-and-the
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Pilosopong Tasyo
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Re: What is the purpose of a GUI?

Post by Pilosopong Tasyo »

gold_finger wrote:
sparkysdad wrote:What is the purpose of having a GUI, if every solution to a problem or bug involves the command line?
I understand that may be frustrating but I'll explain the most likely (primary) reason "why" commands are used when answering people on the forum. It's much, much quicker to fix things with commands v.s. trying to guide people through a convoluted description of "open this program, look to the left and click this, then right-click that, .... Now open that other thing and click, ......" Something that can be fixed directly with a one-line command could easily take 2-3 paragraphs of explaination to accomplish the same thing using GUI methods. So the people answering will do that to save themselves the time and frustration of typing all of that out. Also, if the description accidentally omits one click in the directions along the way, the person they are trying to help may get hopelessly lost in the file system or do damage by changing the wrong thing because they ended up in the wrong place.
In addition to what was explained above, solving certain issues via CLI tends to be DE- and distro- agnostic. It doesn't matter if you're using Cinnamon, MATE, KDE, Unity, GNOME, Mint, Ubuntu, et al. The same CLI instructions applies to all of them.

Now imagine if a GUI solution was given all the time, it may only apply to those using Cinnamon, for example. MATE users may have to follow a different set of GUI instructions. The same goes for KDE users, GNOME, Unity and what not.

Those coming from Windows most likely don't appreciate why Linux still have and uses the CLI. Well, the reasoning is pretty simple: Windows users never had the "pleasure" of experiencing other DEs in Windows. All they had from the get-go was the Windows Desktop. That's it. No KDE for Windows. No Windows Unity. No XFCE/LXDE/MATE/GNOME/etc. Naturally, when problems arise in Windows, the solutions tend to be point-and-click. These solutions don't have to account for differences in other DEs, simply because there are no other DEs that exist.

-----

BTW, I just noticed now that the OP had another thread open regarding his other issue. That thread can be found here: can't safely remove USB HDD by Desktop Menu

I advice those who are going to reply to the OP regarding the issue mentioned in the previous paragraph to continue in the other thread.

Thread moved to Chat about Linux.
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gtsfer

Re: What is the purpose of a GUI?

Post by gtsfer »

Pilosopong Tasyo wrote: Those coming from Windows most likely don't appreciate why Linux still have and uses the CLI. Well, the reasoning is pretty simple: Windows users never had the "pleasure" of experiencing other DEs in Windows. All they had from the get-go was the Windows Desktop. That's it. No KDE for Windows. No Windows Unity. No XFCE/LXDE/MATE/GNOME/etc. Naturally, when problems arise in Windows, the solutions tend to be point-and-click. These solutions don't have to account for differences in other DEs, simply because there are no other DEs that exist.
I think that's an excellent description of "why". Plus, it takes a while to even start to make the adjustment from M$ to Linux and realize that the command line gives you a lot more options and power vs the GUI method. For example I'm almost a year into running LMDE at home now and just beginning to appreciate how much easier it is to use apt-get vs Synaptic Package Manager. There's a ton of things you can do with a command line that you just can't do in a GUI sometimes or there's a lot more steps involved.
Habitual

Re: What is the purpose of a GUI?

Post by Habitual »

The GUI is just lipstick on a pig.
fraxinus_63

Re: What is the purpose of a GUI?

Post by fraxinus_63 »

Let's hear it for GUIs.
  • They do a lot to make routine system maintenance, file- and package-management completely feasible for non-technical users who would be completely fazed by the command line. It is not that they are lazy - they will probably never have seen anything like it before in their lives, and it DOES look very intimidating to people who have never seen it before.
  • Using the GUI, you don't need to type/copy and paste so accurately. Seriously, how many times have you typed a command into the terminal and it hasn't worked, until you realise that you have added an extra space, missed a slash or missed an upper case character?
The command line IS fantastic - yes, it can do more than any GUI - but graphical interfaces have their merits too.

I think this thread title is a bit misleading. What the OP is drawing attention to is an inconsistency in one particular graphical menu he or she has encountered. There is no real reason why this needs to be extended to wider scepticism about GUIs as a whole.
zombiedisco

Re: What is the purpose of a GUI?

Post by zombiedisco »

clfarron4 wrote:
sparkysdad wrote:What is the purpose of having a GUI, if every solution to a problem or bug involves the command line? I am running Petra Cinnamon 64-bit.
When I right click the icon for a connected USB flash drive, a drop down menu has an "eject" option (like the Mac). When I do the same thing for an external hard drive, I get a "safely remove drive " option that doesn't work. How come?
Let me ask you this: Have you tried doing you're day-to-day stuff like web-surfing, using social media and writing office documents for work in the terminal?
A: Yes. In the terminal the cat videos on YouTube load much faster, and everyone on Omegle can be a "sudo" person.
Previous1

Re: What is the purpose of a GUI?

Post by Previous1 »

The GUI is just lipstick on a pig.
That (Though I suppose KDE and OpenSUSE make an effort). Too bad the lipstick attracts all the bugs...
InkKnife
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Re: What is the purpose of a GUI?

Post by InkKnife »

The purpose of a GUI is to make computers accessible to more than the 1% of the population that is comfortable in a command line.
i7 3770, 12GB of ram, 256GB SSD, 64GB SSD, 750GB HDD, 1TB HDD, Cinnamon.
DrHu

Re: What is the purpose of a GUI?

Post by DrHu »

People probably resond better to visuals rather than strings of text, the oft quited a picture is worth a thousand words, provided the picture is clear and unambiguous, not a very easy thing to do
  • All you have to do is look at all the traffic signs, airport or any other symbols and without any text try and guess what the heck does it mean!..
Now after 20yrs of providing GUI based OS, we have all gotten used to it, and find it absolutely normal
--the next change will be voice activation, brain-machine interaction through various devices and methods and the GUI will die the same death that a text based OS has (such as CP/M or DOS)
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/03 ... 1981-2009/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WIMP_(computing)


As to using the command line (shell, in a terminal)
--it is often faster, quicker to provide a result, and can be more descriptive..
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