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Ask HN: Is it still possible to live in a terminal?

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Re: Ask HN: Is it still possible to live in a terminal?

#81

Post by mikkergp »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #30

It doesn't work for business at all because if you want to do business you have to meet people where they are. You can't email a client and say, sorry, can you please send me that contract in a text file, I only have a terminal. Or, sorry, I can't use your web portal to access the data because it uses JavaScript. If you're not doing business, using the terminal works fine. Up until you have to deal with health insura…

> Unfortunately the world now revolves around [gui] web browsers. We brought this technologically retarded hellscape on ourselves and we deserve it.

This seems like rose colored glasses, maybe there was a very small period of time where there was a wide variety of things you could do in a terminal, but for business purposes it was mostly native GUI’s which suffer from the same problems as the web if not worse (maybe only better because they were harder to make so there were a lot less of them)

Re: Ask HN: Is it still possible to live in a terminal?

#82

Post by tracker1 »

ghaff wrote: post #67
usednet wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Censorship, mandatory KYC and ID verification, mass surveillance, ridiculous amounts of ads, everything is a subscription service and my god damn oven needs a login and ethernet connection…

That seems to be a complaint, at least in part, about a terminal-based world which only the "right" people had the ability to access vs. a commercialized Eternal September where all the plebes (and scammers/grifters) have access. I'm pretty sure that a terminal line world that somehow had the same access and usage as today's GUIs/Web would find other ways of introducing the same problems.

Rel: Usenet spam

Re: Ask HN: Is it still possible to live in a terminal?

#83

Post by chatterhead »

univacky wrote: post #45
slowhand09 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was thinking The Lawnmower Man https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LNvXjb44-U

I was thinking The Terminal Man https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Terminal_Man_(film)

I was thinking The Omega Man https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067525/

Re: Ask HN: Is it still possible to live in a terminal?

#84

Post by dopidopHN »

Melatonic wrote: post #66
zh3 wrote: post #34

I keep a 'perfect terminal' in the office, basically a system with an nvidia 7600 in it because that's the fastest 2D text thing I've found to date (yes, modern cards are so slow in text mode it's not even funny). Configured for 24 VT's, a bunch of them autoconnect to remote systems/run specific applications etc at boot - so if I want the calculator, for example, it's Alt-F12. For local graphics programs, that also p…

What do you mean by fast or slow in text mode? Like the 7600 is literally writing text to the screen faster than modern cards or?

No idea if op refers to that. I don’t think so, but modern stack can be ineffective.

My work mbp M1 was having a delay writing text in external monitor

While all the rest, including vidéo, was display without delay.

I had to tweak some driver settings ( of the base , not my graphic card )

Re: Ask HN: Is it still possible to live in a terminal?

#85

Post by nine_k »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #30

It doesn't work for business at all because if you want to do business you have to meet people where they are. You can't email a client and say, sorry, can you please send me that contract in a text file, I only have a terminal. Or, sorry, I can't use your web portal to access the data because it uses JavaScript. If you're not doing business, using the terminal works fine. Up until you have to deal with health insura…

There are reasonable terminal viewers for many formats.

Web sites that require JS to function (and there are many) is a bigger deal.

Same with pictures.

It's much more realistic to run a graphical environment and use a regular browser. Just disable JS by default and put a reasonable ad blocker. Then whitelist sites where you really need JS to work, like your Jenkins host :)

A reasonable PDF viewer is also not such a resource hog, same with picture viewers when you need to display pictures. Say, Firefox does a reasonable job of being both if you don't want to install dedicated software.

You can make a graphical environment which is snappy, low-distraction, and very usable. (That was definitely already possible 20 years ago, when my Linux desktop was my main working machine, and ran quite adequately on a tiny fraction of today's laptop resources.)

Re: Ask HN: Is it still possible to live in a terminal?

#86

Post by tracker1 »

plasticchris wrote: post #65
nico_h wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must have a very good ad blocker.

It was certainly an eye opener when I went to help a friend with their computer and saw the web without ad blockers for the first time in years. I had no idea.

Worse, if they have been infested with malware that may inject additional ads into sites like Amazon... Actually made me a fan of chromebooks for anyone that doesn't actually need more than that.

Re: Ask HN: Is it still possible to live in a terminal?

#87

Post by brbrodude »

As long as coding stuff can be done through SSH, TMUX, VIM and terminal I'm fine. I've got a netbook-like tablet(s3 active with keyboard cover) and working on it is real nice(I hope to start going a bit more nomad soon), I have to switch apps to Slack & browser but the OS handles this so why bother.. My 2013 notebook also holding up well since what I need besides the term is just the browser... I don't think it's going away, but for this kinda of port to be maintained it needs to fit in with what workflow the termnerds and geeklords are doing, I guess.

In my mind I like to entertain the thought though that this bare way of working computers is discovered by more people & younger generations, that maybe they pick it up and do more cool stuff etc because it's something I only grow to like more and more over time. Btw I was never was like the hardcore linux wizard or anything, more like 'touch typing + this is kinda like playing a fighter'. I've got 2 trainees who are trying to pick up Vim right now and I guess a lot of ppl notice it since they never saw someone coding like I do, like doing typing combos and working mostly at the CLI. It's also funny because my colleague at the company is a very respectable senior and about my age but its 2 totally different styles, he's using vscode & autopilot.

I have some RSI though and it sucks when it starts popping, nowadays that mostly when Im working more remotely since then I use normal keyboard & key setup. On my work computer I have a typematrix with some key customizations that have helped A LOT.

Re: Ask HN: Is it still possible to live in a terminal?

#88

Post by spac »

ehutch79 wrote: post #78
throwaway09223 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The modern web is primarily distinguished by its custom ui/media, as opposed to the old school web which put textual information first and allowed clients more control over presentation. The problems this creates are: * Accessibility - I can't change presentation to make things easier for me to consume * Inspectability - I can't search, index, etc. Information is hidden behind js driven interfaces that only present b…

You don't get out much do you? Not if you consider that a hellscape.

I find this comment absolutely inappropriate for this forum.

Re: Ask HN: Is it still possible to live in a terminal?

#89

Post by tracker1 »

Melatonic wrote: post #66
zh3 wrote: post #34

I keep a 'perfect terminal' in the office, basically a system with an nvidia 7600 in it because that's the fastest 2D text thing I've found to date (yes, modern cards are so slow in text mode it's not even funny). Configured for 24 VT's, a bunch of them autoconnect to remote systems/run specific applications etc at boot - so if I want the calculator, for example, it's Alt-F12. For local graphics programs, that also p…

What do you mean by fast or slow in text mode? Like the 7600 is literally writing text to the screen faster than modern cards or?

Yeah... modern graphics cards have really limited text mode implementations and even worse, often broken ones that don't display the correct colors even (can find many complaints of those running "classic" games etc). There are/were a LOT of basic text modes that were supported up until they were largely deprecated and only very basic implementations exist now... and often are slow to render walls of text. It's kind of wild.

Re: Ask HN: Is it still possible to live in a terminal?

#90

Post by thewebcount »

ghaff wrote: post #67
usednet wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Censorship, mandatory KYC and ID verification, mass surveillance, ridiculous amounts of ads, everything is a subscription service and my god damn oven needs a login and ethernet connection…

That seems to be a complaint, at least in part, about a terminal-based world which only the "right" people had the ability to access vs. a commercialized Eternal September where all the plebes (and scammers/grifters) have access. I'm pretty sure that a terminal line world that somehow had the same access and usage as today's GUIs/Web would find other ways of introducing the same problems.

Yeah, this is the same thinking that calls Unix with it’s incomprehensible set of pun-filled commands with thousands of conflicting flags “the bazaar” and the relatively-easy-to-use and discoverable GUIs of the world “the cathedral”. It’s elitism at its worst.
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