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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?

#91

Post by undoware »

dude, I've been reading posts like this since the nineties (on Slashdot.)

Terminals have been 'going away' for longer than I've been alive, and they will continue to diminish long after I'm gone.

The reason they don't ever get there is that the market as a whole is still increasing in size overall, even as the stock of TUI-natives dwindles. There are simply so many more people working on e.g. neovim, kakaoune, and himalaya (an email client) that the fact that there are even _more_ more people using GUIs simply doesn't matter as much.

Put another way: the increase in absolute numbers of TUI/CLI users is the statistic to watch, not the relative percentage of users.

Finally, terminal chops are a nerd status symbol -- a form of conspicuous consumption of time and muscle memory. Humans tend to drop status symbols _last_.

I don't brag about my use of VSCode, but I sure talk up my neovim config in interviews ;D

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

#92

Post by treeman79 »

ghaff wrote: post #47
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…

>[gui] web browsers You largely can restrict yourself to phone calls and postal mail. Aside from ordering from Amazon, my dad largely does. (Albeit in part because my brother and I will do various things for him he can't figure out how to do with just a phone call or letter.) But it's increasingly difficult for a lot of things and is, at a minimum, less convenient. And, as you say, in business you generally don't rea…

Saw an elderly lady freaking out at Walmart because they no longer could pay capital one credit card in person with a physical check.

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

#96

Post by pb7 »

tracker1 wrote: post #86
plasticchris wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Are you sure those aren't just Amazon ads? They generated $31B in ad revenue last year.

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

#97

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#98

Post by tracker1 »

pb7 wrote: post #96
tracker1 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Are you sure those aren't just Amazon ads? They generated $31B in ad revenue last year.

In this case of memory, it was definitely malware... though I couldn't really speak to Amazon today if ublock/privacy-guard/pihole catch them.

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

#99

Post by chameco »

valeyard wrote: post #48
chameco wrote: post #38

I lived without X11/Wayland for several years. (These days, I live in GUI Emacs with EXWM instead, which has a similar feeling.) Some tools I had luck with: - mpv is your friend - it can play audio, video, and display images directly to the framebuffer without X11. It also makes a pretty decent PDF reader combined with ghostscript to render each page to a PNG. - The Emacs ecosystem is very useful - there are many pac…

Which IRC client did you use in these years?

First irssi, then WeeChat, then cerce in Emacs.

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

#100

Post by ghaff »

treeman79 wrote: post #92
ghaff wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>[gui] web browsers You largely can restrict yourself to phone calls and postal mail. Aside from ordering from Amazon, my dad largely does. (Albeit in part because my brother and I will do various things for him he can't figure out how to do with just a phone call or letter.) But it's increasingly difficult for a lot of things and is, at a minimum, less convenient. And, as you say, in business you generally don't rea…

Saw an elderly lady freaking out at Walmart because they no longer could pay capital one credit card in person with a physical check.

In fairness, paying post-paid bills by check through the mail is still an option for most things. I get most stuff handled automatically and pay most of the rest online through my bank but I still write a fair number of checks either in person or mailed.
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