Where to learn Linux?

[Elazar Leibovich]

Well, it depends.
State on CLI is not necessarily much more availible.
For example, when looking at a vim window, it is not immediately clear
whether you're at: (1) vim edit mode, (2) vim regular mode (3) selecting
something with screen, where your keyboard are now not even sent to the vim
window.
I think it's more a matter of training. I'm a trained vim user, so I can see
immediately through the subltle hints (cursor shape, etc.) which state am I
in. And nevertheless, I find myself many times typing Ctrl+[ to reset the
state, since it's faster for me to reset the state, than to figure out
whether or not I'm in text mode.
OTOH I use at work the windows environment alot. And I found myself
launching programs with launchy (no state needed here! In CLI I need to
remember where would Ctrl+3 lead me, and whether or not I can exit the
programs there. In windows there's no state, all the apps are Alt+Space
away. Always), using the Winkey+Number to navigate between programs (again,
no state in here, Winkey+3 gives the third app you launched, whereever you
are).
Keyboard friendly programs also gives me a similar stateless feel. For
instance, eclipse has the F12 key to bounce me back to the editor from many
states (and all common states), and have Ctrl+3 to search for a specific
command.

My main problem with GUI interfaces is their relative sluggishness/resource
usage.  A similar criticism was directed to emacs when computers were
slower. I hope Moore's law would be able to handle it eventually.

On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 9:39 AM, Dov Grobgeld <dov.grobgeld at gmail.com>wrote:

> I think it there is something more subtle going on, and that is the concept
> of a state. The state is "where you are" and I feel the big difference
> between GUI and command line operation is in the latter, the state is
> available without heavy visual interaction. Once you have used the system
> enough, you "feel" the state, and you build a motoric memory for moving from
> one state to another. With GUI systems you never reach that proficiency and
> you have to do more guess work and more hunt and peck to move from state to
> state. It may be easier the first time to use a GUI, but the second and the
> third time, you'd be better off typing the command, because it is much more
> repeatable.
>
> So the difference between Unix/Linux and Windows in this sense is that in
> Unix/Linux you have full control of the system from the command line where
> you can have this feeling for "where you are".
>
> Anyhow, this is sliding into something that is quite far off from the
> original question.
>
> Regards,
> Dov
>
>
> On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 08:06, Elazar Leibovich <elazarl at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Writing an email without the screen is perfectly doable even within
>> vanilla windows machine, with nothing installed.
>> Say, for XP: Windows key -> down down -> Enter [Now outlook is running] ->
>> Ctrl+n -> write email address -> Tab Tab Tab -> write subject -> Tab ->
>> Write Content -> Ctrl+Enter.
>>
>> Not to mention how easier it is when launchy style programs are installed.
>>
>> And in both systems it is impossible to do that unless you have a fairly
>> good knowledge of the system (which email client is installed? Should you
>> type mutt or pine? etc.)
>>
>> 2010/3/14 Dov Grobgeld <dov.grobgeld at gmail.com>
>>
>> On Sun, Mar 14, 2010 at 14:37, Jonathan Ben Avraham <yba at tkos.co.il>wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Even a guy who just shows up with a Dvorak keyboard, no mouse and does
>>>> everything inside of EMACS gets an offer.
>>>>
>>>
>>> This more or less describes me, so do I get the job? :-) Also reminds me
>>> of the time a number of years ago when I had turned in my monitor for
>>> repair, and then returned home to my computer without a monitor. Just for
>>> the fun of it and to prove I don't know what, I turned the computer on,
>>> logged in, wrote an email of a page and a half, printed it out to see that I
>>> didn't make too many mistakes which I hadn't and then and sent it off. When
>>> I tell that story to Windows users, they don't even understand what I'm
>>> talking about.
>>>
>>>
>>>> Good luck,
>>>>
>>>>  - yba
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Sun, 14 Mar 2010, Dotan Cohen wrote:
>>>>
>>>>  Date: Sun, 14 Mar 2010 13:34:04 +0200
>>>>> From: Dotan Cohen <dotancohen at gmail.com>
>>>>> To: linux-il. <linux-il at cs.huji.ac.il>
>>>>> Subject: Where to learn Linux?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I have been using Linux as an end user for several years, but now I
>>>>> think that I might like to make a career out of *nix administration.
>>>>> Where are some good places to get a certificate from? Is an online
>>>>> certificate as good as an offline course? What online certificates are
>>>>> honourable? What real-world courses in Israel are recommended?
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks!
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> --
>>>>  EE 77 7F 30 4A 64 2E C5  83 5F E7 49 A6 82 29 BA    ~. .~   Tk Open
>>>> Systems
>>>>
>>>> =}------------------------------------------------ooO--U--Ooo------------{=
>>>>     - yba at tkos.co.il - tel: +972.2.679.5364, http://www.tkos.co.il -
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>> Linux-il at cs.huji.ac.il
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>>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>
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