Desktop-Linux + CLI?

"If there's one thing surrounding Linux usage that bothers me more than anything else, it's when the detractors say you cannot work with Linux without knowing the command line. This is a bit of FUD — fear, uncertainty, and doubt — that keeps new users from giving the open source platform a try. I'm here, right now, to dispel that myth."

Ubuntu Desktop

Linux Mint (MATE edition)

With personal experience, I can attest to this statement. The days when you HAD to deal with the Command Line even on desktop-Linux distros are past. Only server-distros demand this nowadays.


https://www.techrepublic.com/article/yes-you-can-use-linux-without-knowing-the-command-line/

Social Desktops

With EasyPeasy for NetBooks and Google Chromium OS hitting the desktop-markets these days, does everyone actually know what a "Social Desktop" is?

You could read about it on wikipedia.org, but I thought I would do my readers a favour and explain it in really simple terms.

A desktop is just what you see on your computer-screen when you've logged in to your system.

A 'Social Desktop' is an interface on top of a desktop that integrates social web-services (like: facebook, myspace, twitter, last.fm, live rss-feeds, etc.) into one unified interface, so you won't have to open a browser with a dozen tabs open to log in to your favourite web-services.

It is also a technique to design GUIs, to make things more accessible and easy to use (much like ergonomics in work environments to ease physical strain).

P.S. - it is worth noting that neither Google nor EasyPeasy have released any fully working 'Social Desktop' environments yet, but they're in the making.

As easy as Ubuntu

Ok, I'll have to admit.., I refused for quite some time to take Ubuntu Linux for a serious test-drive due to bad experiences with the distro while it was in it's alfa and beta-stages. But since then, Ubuntu has come a looooooong way. So, I decided I'd take Ubuntu 9.04 for a spin.

It's still kind of bleeding edge with regards to compositing and visual effects, but they do work out-of-the-box. And hey, if things work...why fix them? On compositing and the like, I consider compiz as an extraordinary piece of rendering-code, but I also think it's too unstable for everyday production-use.

Ubuntu's UI has undergone major modifications to better suit it's userbase requirements, and I like it :)

Ubuntu's updating and upgrading facilities have also been much improved, with the addition of a scanning-tool to determine if you have hardware-components that has alternative proprietary drivers available, and lets you activate them with simple mouseclicks.

Easy Peasy v1.5 (formerly Ubuntu Netbook Remix) is a distribution developed with netbooks and net-tops in mind.

Focused on low-power consumption and simple apps for simple tasks, it's actually a rather comprehensive collection of software compared to many other netbook-flavours.

Lightning fast and with an intuitive and stylish interface, it does what it sets out to do, and more!

My Asus Eee 900 netbook had Xandros installed by default, but this distro did not let me do the things I usually do on a Linux-workstation, like: programming, compiling, scripting, etc.

In addition to be very restrictive, it was also heavily modified from it's Debian codebase, and was thus very hard to customize and proved a challenge in adding new and unusual software to.