The thing is, though, that command line instructions work on most flavours of whatever distro you have running. If you have an xfce problem it's fair game to tell you where to click, but if your issue is not related to your desktop environment, giving a solution that works on most, if not all, systems that may have the same issue, is actually a good idea. No?
this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2025
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And many folks have headless setups
raspberry pis, home servers, VPSs, etc. It's kinda overkill to install a desktop environment on a headless box if the only reason you need it is so you can VNC into it for a simple task that could be done over ssh.
Yes! Command line instructions are often universal instructions. This is imho a huge boon for Linux.
I use xfce and i like it so far, though it would be good if i could increase the minimize/maximize/tray toolbar's size
As long as I'm mocking help forums, I might have a stupid solution for your window decorations, which you can follow at your own risk. I saw your comment and, just out of curiosity, started playing around in a VM with imagemagick, a program I've never used before, but that might be useful for you. Here's what I did:
1.) I copied a theme I liked, in this case "Sassandra", from /usr/share/themes into ~/.themes.
2.) I renamed Sassandra (in ~/.themes) to Sassandra2 and switched themes to Sassandra2.
3.) I opened up some of the images in ~/.themes/Sassandra2/xfwm4/ and made note of the geometry of the buttons. In this case, they were 24x17.
4.) I opened a terminal in ~/.themes/Sassandra2/xfwm4/ and ran a command I got from an AI chatbot and fiddled with it blindly like an idiot until it ran:
find . -type f -exec magick {} -scale 12x17 {} ;
In this case, I wanted to use magick to shrink the icons from 24x17 to 12x17 (though you could just as easily replace "12x17" with an increased size instead), and I wanted to do all the files at once, using the find command as suggested by my robot overlord. It didn't work as I intended. I never bothered to read any docs. I'm not even sure I put the "{}" in the right spot. But it did shrink the images, preserving the aspect ratio. It also threw up a couple errors because I forgot about the readme and themerc files in that directory. Speaking of which, you can fiddle with the themerc file to make any minor adjustments, like offsetting text.
Edit: In retrospect, the original image files were actually all different sizes and now Sassandra2 looks like crap, but you can always run magick on files individually.
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*Advice
No wonder OP is afraid of the terminal, you can't misspell left-click.
I'm dyslexic and the terminal can be a challenge some days
Now that's a better reason for looking for a GUI solution than the OP had. I hadn't really considered how dyslexia would affect CLI usage.
It's not a universal effect. Some dyslexics or people with related challenges like dysgraphia will find the CLI easier.
That's interesting. I've often wondered what it must be like programing or using the CLI if you aren't familiar with the English language, but I hadn't considered the dyslexia/graphia type issues.
Just to give you some extra impressions:
My brain mixes up all letters with the same/similar form (regardless of rotation or flip) - so I often mix up [d, b, p, q] or [a, e] or [u, n] when typing. And then I read the command 20 times over until I find which letter got mixed up, because my brain autocorrects to the right command when reading.
It helped to use the Dyslexie font in the terminal, because it makes those shapes more unique distinct. (not to be confused with open dyslexic which did not help me at all).
Also asking an AI to correct the command is huge, but takes time.
But man GUI has none of the hassle, it says what the button will do when you click it, so you click it and it does that. How wonderful is that, ay?
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I just have really bad memory from a combo of ADHD and weed. Remembering where in the GUI to fix something is a lot easier than remembering commands. Especially when if I fuck up said command I could make the problem worse or make a whole new problem. GUI gives me visual landmarks that stick in my memory, and thats something the terminal doesn't. Like navigating a city via landmarks vs via street signs. Tell me directions via streets I am lost, but tell me to go left after the walgreens on the river and now I know.
Me too. Just use tab and complete commands that way. Fish or zsh with oh-my-zsh is your friend.
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What are these "solutions" you speak of? All help forum posts must follow this format:
"I want to do x."
"Why would you want to do x? Don't do x.".
I want to shoot myself in the foot
Why would you want to do that? Don't do that?
Why are people so rude to me? I asked a question and they won't answer it. The Linux community sucks
Yeah it sucks.
If I wanna shoot myself, let me shoot myself. Maybe I'm into that. Who are you to judge whats good for me?
Why would you want to shoot yourself? Donโt do x.
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I want to make a sandwitch and I know I can do this by shooting myself in the foot, no i don't care this is bad practice just tell me how to make it work.
doesn't tell them how to make it work, does not give enough instructions to make it work the "right" way
installs windows again
The Linux Community does suck...
Closed as Duplicate.
(the post pointed to as the original is a post from 2013 deleted in 2018)
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I have no idea what this mean is even trying to say, but as someone who is trying to make the switch to Linux, it is a steep learning curve, even for the most "user-friendly" distros.
A lot of the information in forums assumes some sort of basic knowledge of code and processes which aren't readily available. I've asked a few noob questions and while there are some helpful people out there, there are also a fuck load of assholes who seem to think they walked out the womb speaking Ubuntu.
So my message to those people is, if you're not gonna be helpful, kindly keep your snide comments to yourself.
Yeah, I can confirm this. I've been using Linux for around two years at this point and having a Linux-using friend made the transition at the start way easier. Now I'm the Linux-using friend for all of my Linux-curious friends and it's great.
If gou have an issue shoot me a message, I can't guarantee anything but i'll try to help
Shoot me a message too. I don't know anything about Linux but I'm lonely.
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If you're getting coding advice, you might be on the wrong forums, which can explain the snark.
You don't need to do code to use Linux. You can use Bash if you want, but it's not a necessity
Too many people expect you to know and understand gnu-utils and all the common config file, filesystem and folder structure paradigms though. Which is the problem.
The problem is that Linux nerds, myself included, are too deep in the knowledge to even think of sth. You might not know. And my way to learn the basics of Linux was breaking 3 installations and running random scripts from stack overflow without really knowing what they do.
I don't want this the way for new people to learn Linux. There must be a better way. But I don't know which one. People who think you can't ask questions because your basics are missing should shut the fuck up and go to 4chan or so.
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You can use Bash if you want, but it's not a necessity
I would argue and say at minimum you should be comfortable with Bash and the file system , otherwise if you spend a year running Linux and encounter some obscure error youโll be totally clueless troubleshooting wise and might end up breaking something else.
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Copypasting a term command vs. 20 pages of "click here, now click there". Which is more efficient?
The one enabling people to understand and use their devices on their own. Once you can use a mouse or touchpad, you can navigate the UI. Good UI/UX conveys function. Checkboxes insert the correct configuration in the background without possibly hazardous typos.
The CLI does nothing of this for the user, to understand it users have to invest tens, if not hundreds of hours before they get a hang of all essential commands, paradigms and tools to help themselves. They have to become IT intermediates just to use their computers.
By providing a single CLI command (which, in the worst case, gets copied by a third user on an incompatible system configuration breaking everything) instead of pointing at the GUI tools most user-friendly distros already provide you do, in many cases, a disservice to the average user who just wants their problem to be fixed. They will not be able to help themselves next time for a similar issue.
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Why does it have to be one or the other?
I, as someone who spends so much time in the terminal that I literally have a dedicated key to open it, would prefer a single CLI command. My grandma, who thinks the monitor is the entire computer, would do better with the "inefficient" GUI option
There can be more than one correct way to do something
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GUIs are just terminal wrappers. Idk what to tell you, man
"easier solutions"
No: pet solutions. Don't let false consensus dictate the wrong labels.
I run into the issue that after using Linux for so long, I forget that the basics of using the system arenโt just common knowledge. Telling someone to cat a file sounds like gibberish to most people and thatโs easy to forget.
There are also a lot of people out there who want to be hand held through every little thing which is the worst way to learn anything. A calm sea never made a skilled sailor, some stuff you gotta just figure out on your own.
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Just give me your rdp access. I promise I will not abuse it.
Gnome and KDE, what's the 3rd logo
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