I have used Arch for >13 years (btw) and use the terminal every single session. I also work with Linux servers daily, so I tried the other families with DEs (Debian/Ubuntu, RHEL/CentOS/AlmaLinux/Fedora).
I’m comfortable (and prefer) doing everything with CLI tools. For me, it’s a bit difficult to convert my Windows friends, as they all see me as some kind of hackerman.
What’s the landscape like nowadays, in terms of terminal requirements?
Bonus question: Which distribution is the most user-friendly while still updated packages? Does anything provide a similar experience to Arch’s amazing AUR?
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Rep to bonus question: Fedora, or any Ubuntu-based distro.
Definetely yes for years now. However, CLI is still preferred.
If you are just doing word processing, browsing the web, and playing video games then absolutely. Yes.
There have been gui tools available to install packages, configure networking/wifi, and manipulate files. For a long time now. Especially with the integration of Flatpak and snaps into gui-based package managers (like pop shop) it has become quite simple for any “regular”, non-technical user to manage the basics and even the intermediates of any system (depending on the distro).
Where things will likely fall short is with troubleshooting. But to solve that we would need to build something like the windows troubleshooter. But with so applications owned by so many different groups it would be difficult/near impossible to write a troubleshooter to integrate them together.
Though I am also a bit of a hackerman so I probably also don’t realize how much I use the terminal for normal things.
Any you recommend for gaming? Ive had an issue getting steam games to launch, and I have heard cod will be a no-go, but that’s not a big deal to me.
I play emulators mostly because I miss when buying stuff meant owning it.
Even debian will let you download a Deb, double-click it in the file browser, and install it.
Generally you can use use the GUI with things like Nobara Linux.
But most software install instructions are all “copy and paste these commands”.
As a Linux Mint user who has only used Linux Mint, Yes, I’ve hardly used the Terminal, I’ve really only used it to download & run specific Software which is really just optional most of the time.
Windows refugee here. I installed Debian 13 with KDE Plasma on my main machine four months ago and I am still ironing out issues. Eg CUPS was asking me to login all the time and didn’t accept my credentials. After some days researching I discovered I had to log in as root. Then, I discovered I didn’t have root credentials for some reason. I had to create them and then add my local user to a group! Just to be able to use my home printer.
Or suddenly my clock was 62 minutes off. I discovered the NTP service was never set up properly and I had to install chrony.
I don’t see how I could have avoided using the terminal. These are only a couple of examples. No deal-breakers and on this occasion I had the time and determination to resolve them. I could have easily given up.
Just a heads up, you should just need the group set up
That is crazy that you weren’t added to it by default, though.
I was also surprised - you used to be able to modify a user’s group membership through the System Settings GUI. That’s a huge missing piece that you can’t do that anymore
I installed Linux for my mother 15 years ago and she has never used the terminal once.
I update the Ubuntu from time to time and that’s it. Everything works and she can browse the internet, read email and listen to music.
Just as much as you can use Windows without the command line/powershell.
The vast majority of tasks do not require it but some will and some tasks will be easier via the terminal if you take the time to read 2-3 pages of documentation.
Don’t be scared of the terminal
I don’t know why you would want to use linux without the terminal? I mean, you can… but you’ll be limited if you want to do something special or fix a problem. It’s not like you have to know how to code or anything. Often you can copy the commands right into it… It’s really no problem.
People who have been using Windows their entire lives simply get intimidated
I really do think that’s their problem, and software shouldn’t cater to people who are afraid of checks notes typing. There can be real accessibility reasons why some users may require graphical tools due to various disabilities, but I don’t think it’s reasonable to feed into irrational fears of terminals when they can just copy paste in commands. It’s not programming, it’s very simple to understand the syntax of any command the average user might have to use (ie they’re not doing scripting or anything like that).
I think a lot of people are just scared because the terminal is so much more powerful than the gui. The gui won’t let you delete the system but the terminal is happy to let you. People shouldn’t be so scared but they are and I think the use of phones over PCs will exaggerate the problem.
Can confirm, I helped a friend put Fedora on their old laptop to give it life again. Even though I wrote them instructions, once it came time for the terminal stuff, they video called me, lol. They love using that laptop now, though! They were in their early 20s for reference.
I was using Mint for a while with my 10 year old PC build that was crashing all the time then I upgraded my system and Mint didn’t have support for my newer video card so I moved to Nobara.
I haven’t had to use the terminal at all since. I run the update system program every few days but I’m sure it could be automated without needing a password but I like seeing what is being updated so I keep it manual.
It has much more support for games than Mint seems to have had. I could use the terminal if I wanted to but it hasn’t been needed which is how I want it, available but unnecessary.
Yes.
After god knows how many years now of being on Linux exclusively, I tend to look at the terminal (commands in general) as a convenience more than a necessity. Meaning that in a lot of cases, knowing a command and quickly typing it to start an update (for example) is just faster and easier than pulling up the GUI every time.
As a Rust dev, you can use your terminal entirely without GUI with a multiplexer like tmux, Neovim as your editor, a shit ton of anime CLIs that you can use, and so on.
Bonus question: […] Does anything provide a similar experience to Arch’s amazing AUR?
Nixpkgs and Homebrew are the first ones that come from my head.
With Linux Mint you don’t need the terminal 99% of the time. The rest distros are close to 95% of the time. I always suggest Mint to new users.
Last time I set up Mint the only thing I needed the terminal for was to disable a setting on Java 8 that prevented it from launching on Xfce.
I didn’t need to use the terminal to do that, though. It just didn’t feel right editing a system config file with a GUI text editor.
Can I? Yes. Will I? No.
Some things are just faster to do via terminal so I learned to use it over GUI for some scenarios.
I cannot vouch for every distro and every use case out there, but for me, yes you can daily drive without having anything to do with terminal. Some distros have worked a lot ensuring this.
I would recommend to start with Linux Mint.
I agree. In my opinion Mint is one of the few distros that actually manage to make everything doable without the terminal.
