9 ms·

It's not easy because it's an command line. Not a single family member would touch this here. It's sad but understandable.

by aluhut 11y ago

cheshire_cat 11y ago
If you are looking for something to give your family members, almost everyone I know uses the open-source tool jdownloader [0] to download youtube videos. It's a ponderous java monster but it works great and comes with a huge plugin collection for numerous sites. The fact that it has a gui makes it really accessibly to non-technical people. There seems to be talk about AdWare in the installer but I personally never had that problem and you can get around that by downloading the executable .jar. [0] http://jdownloader.org/home/index?s=lng_en http://jdownloader.org/home/index?s=lng_en
- aluhut 11y ago
  I know jdownloader. Have been using it in it's early days for 1-click hosters on a separate machine. Don't trust it at all ;)
  - cheshire_cat 11y ago
    I don't trust it that much either, but in the end jdownloader gets developed by a company registered in Germany. [0] If they ever did something really sinister they would be quickly out of business. [0] http://www.wemakeyourappwork.com http://www.wemakeyourappwork.com http://www.wemakeyourappwork.com/#contact http://www.wemakeyourappwork.com/#contact
  - Jordrok 11y ago
    Another jdownloader user here. I have similar misgivings about its trustworthiness, but so far I haven't found any concrete reasons to distrust it other than that vague sense of unease. It's just so damn useful though!
CalRobert 11y ago
Depends on the family. My mom taught me DOS.
- giancarlostoro 11y ago
  This is true, while my mom never taught me too much she still did plenty in DOS. My dad on the other hand... He has an iPhone but would be happy with a flip phone, he uses the exact same amount of functionality that both phones carry, only difference being he has to touch his screen.
  - kccqzy 11y ago
    Off topic but just want to say, Apple knows there are many people like this, and the 16GB models are designed for them. I tire of seeing whines about 16GB being not enough. We the tech people are siloed in our own bubble and we often can't comprehend the existence of such people, unless they are our family members/close friends.
    - giancarlostoro 11y ago
      Well I don't mind him having a modernized phone, at least he gets a GPS. Not sure if he's ever used it, he probably could, he just likes to be simple I guess. As for the 16GB my only peeve against Apple (I'm an Android user though) is no availability to add in an SD card, even if it can't be used as "permanent" storage SD cards hold their value for being portable and transferable. It wont affect me as much though since I'm an Android user. I'm inclined to agree with you though, except hard drive space is a lot cheaper these days, for about $10 I can have a 32 GB USB 3.0 thumb drive. Eventually the cheaper iPhone options should just carry a minimal 32GB if they decide to stop overcharging for more space. Videos and images are only going to increase in file size over the years to account for 4K adaptability, granted that might take quite a while.
- kqr 11y ago
  Well... My mom did teach me DOS, and programming, and a lot of other things – but these days she doesn't have that kind of patience anymore. If things don't work right away, out the window they go. For a lot of people the patience with technology decreases as they age.
ekianjo 11y ago
I prefer cli 1000 times over an overly badly designed gui anytime
- broodbucket 11y ago
  Sure, but that's not the point, the point is most people are intimidated by a command line and don't want to have to learn it to accomplish the thing they're trying to do
  - aluhut 11y ago
    Especially if you don't use it elsewhere or the task does not justify learning it. Like here.
chriswarbo 11y ago
> It's not easy because it's an command line. > Not a single family member would touch this here. > It's sad but understandable. I can understand why many people will avoid using commandlines. The part I don't understand is how they're quite comfortable when those commandlines are surrounded by "Forward", "Back", "Stop" and "Reload" buttons; or when they have an "I'm feeling lucky" button underneath. In the case of this discussion, the typical user flow would be something like: - Double click browser - Enter special string of text "youtube.com" in URL box and hit enter - Enter strings of text into YouTube search box to find videos - Copy special string "https://youtube.com/watch?v=abcdefg" https://youtube.com/watch?v=abcdefg" from URL box - Enter another special string "google.com" in URL box and hit enter - Enter strings of text into Google search box and hit enter - Click SuperDuperVideoDownload link - Paste special string "https://youtube.com/watch?v=abcdefg" https://youtube.com/watch?v=abcdefg" into SuperDuperVideoDownload box and hit enter Present this user with a CLI like youtube-dl, and they'll complain that they don't like the idea of copy/pasting special strings into boxes. youtube-dl actually has quite sane defaults too; e.g. "youtube-dl https://......" https://......" will Just Work (TM). Switches are only needed for fancier stuff (e.g. "Download highest quality Free format and extract the audio track")
- rawTruthHurts 11y ago
  > I can understand why many people will avoid using commandlines. The part I don't understand is how they're quite comfortable when those commandlines are surrounded by "Forward", "Back", "Stop" and "Reload" buttons; or when they have an "I'm feeling lucky" button underneath. Are you sure you apprehend the differences between the look and feel of a browser and that of a command line?
  - trentlott 11y ago
    So then someone should create a dynamic hybrid console-browser. Take, Chrome, flip it such that the input bar is on the bottom, and allow it to display console output as HTML. Or, hell, keep it the way it is and just run the console HTML downward; why maintain the current terminal layout at all...
- 11y ago
jefurii 11y ago
Can't find the link now but I remember a computer educator in the UK describing how he taught the command-line to a bunch of seniors. They had been complaining about how difficult it was to follow all the crazy windows popping up everywhere and never knowing which button to click. This is actually a problem for many seniors. One day he installed Linux on a PC, booted into the console, and told them that this was "story mode". He gave them a list of commands along with mnemonics, and talked about how in "story mode" you always had a list of all the commands you typed so you always knew what you'd been doing.
- aluhut 11y ago
  An adblocker fixed that for my seniors. Still need to uninstall Chrome from time to time though. Thanks Avast Update.
arprocter 11y ago
I threw this together for the less savvy #!/bin/bash clear youtube-dl -U echo " " echo "YouTube Downloader Script" echo "A video file will be created in the folder where this script is located" echo " " echo "Please paste a URL and hit [ENTER]:" read URL youtube-dl $URL Edit: youtube-dl -U only works if it was manually installed, so leave that out if you installed from apt or whatever
- soared 11y ago
  Equally as meaningless to every average user. People on HN/github/etc generally just don't understand what it means to be a non-technical user.
  - arprocter 11y ago
    You can mark it execute on click. Granted you still need to know how to cut and paste

It's not easy because it's an command line. Not a single family member would touch this here. It's sad but understandable.

by aluhut 11y ago

It's not easy because it's an command line. Not a single family member would touch this here. It's sad but understandable.

cheshire_cat 11y ago

If you are looking for something to give your family members, almost everyone I know uses the open-source tool jdownloader [0] to download youtube videos. It's a ponderous java monster but it works great and comes with a huge plugin collection for numerous sites. The fact that it has a gui makes it really accessibly to non-technical people. There seems to be talk about AdWare in the installer but I personally never had that problem and you can get around that by downloading the executable .jar. [0] http://jdownloader.org/home/index?s=lng_en http://jdownloader.org/home/index?s=lng_en

aluhut 11y ago
I know jdownloader. Have been using it in it's early days for 1-click hosters on a separate machine. Don't trust it at all ;)
- cheshire_cat 11y ago
  I don't trust it that much either, but in the end jdownloader gets developed by a company registered in Germany. [0] If they ever did something really sinister they would be quickly out of business. [0] http://www.wemakeyourappwork.com http://www.wemakeyourappwork.com http://www.wemakeyourappwork.com/#contact http://www.wemakeyourappwork.com/#contact
- Jordrok 11y ago
  Another jdownloader user here. I have similar misgivings about its trustworthiness, but so far I haven't found any concrete reasons to distrust it other than that vague sense of unease. It's just so damn useful though!

CalRobert 11y ago

Depends on the family. My mom taught me DOS.

giancarlostoro 11y ago
This is true, while my mom never taught me too much she still did plenty in DOS. My dad on the other hand... He has an iPhone but would be happy with a flip phone, he uses the exact same amount of functionality that both phones carry, only difference being he has to touch his screen.
- kccqzy 11y ago
  Off topic but just want to say, Apple knows there are many people like this, and the 16GB models are designed for them. I tire of seeing whines about 16GB being not enough. We the tech people are siloed in our own bubble and we often can't comprehend the existence of such people, unless they are our family members/close friends.
  - giancarlostoro 11y ago
    Well I don't mind him having a modernized phone, at least he gets a GPS. Not sure if he's ever used it, he probably could, he just likes to be simple I guess. As for the 16GB my only peeve against Apple (I'm an Android user though) is no availability to add in an SD card, even if it can't be used as "permanent" storage SD cards hold their value for being portable and transferable. It wont affect me as much though since I'm an Android user. I'm inclined to agree with you though, except hard drive space is a lot cheaper these days, for about $10 I can have a 32 GB USB 3.0 thumb drive. Eventually the cheaper iPhone options should just carry a minimal 32GB if they decide to stop overcharging for more space. Videos and images are only going to increase in file size over the years to account for 4K adaptability, granted that might take quite a while.
kqr 11y ago
Well... My mom did teach me DOS, and programming, and a lot of other things – but these days she doesn't have that kind of patience anymore. If things don't work right away, out the window they go. For a lot of people the patience with technology decreases as they age.

ekianjo 11y ago

I prefer cli 1000 times over an overly badly designed gui anytime

broodbucket 11y ago
Sure, but that's not the point, the point is most people are intimidated by a command line and don't want to have to learn it to accomplish the thing they're trying to do
- aluhut 11y ago
  Especially if you don't use it elsewhere or the task does not justify learning it. Like here.

chriswarbo 11y ago

> It's not easy because it's an command line. > Not a single family member would touch this here. > It's sad but understandable. I can understand why many people will avoid using commandlines. The part I don't understand is how they're quite comfortable when those commandlines are surrounded by "Forward", "Back", "Stop" and "Reload" buttons; or when they have an "I'm feeling lucky" button underneath. In the case of this discussion, the typical user flow would be something like: - Double click browser - Enter special string of text "youtube.com" in URL box and hit enter - Enter strings of text into YouTube search box to find videos - Copy special string "https://youtube.com/watch?v=abcdefg" https://youtube.com/watch?v=abcdefg" from URL box - Enter another special string "google.com" in URL box and hit enter - Enter strings of text into Google search box and hit enter - Click SuperDuperVideoDownload link - Paste special string "https://youtube.com/watch?v=abcdefg" https://youtube.com/watch?v=abcdefg" into SuperDuperVideoDownload box and hit enter Present this user with a CLI like youtube-dl, and they'll complain that they don't like the idea of copy/pasting special strings into boxes. youtube-dl actually has quite sane defaults too; e.g. "youtube-dl https://......" https://......" will Just Work (TM). Switches are only needed for fancier stuff (e.g. "Download highest quality Free format and extract the audio track")

rawTruthHurts 11y ago
> I can understand why many people will avoid using commandlines. The part I don't understand is how they're quite comfortable when those commandlines are surrounded by "Forward", "Back", "Stop" and "Reload" buttons; or when they have an "I'm feeling lucky" button underneath. Are you sure you apprehend the differences between the look and feel of a browser and that of a command line?
- trentlott 11y ago
  So then someone should create a dynamic hybrid console-browser. Take, Chrome, flip it such that the input bar is on the bottom, and allow it to display console output as HTML. Or, hell, keep it the way it is and just run the console HTML downward; why maintain the current terminal layout at all...
11y ago

jefurii 11y ago

Can't find the link now but I remember a computer educator in the UK describing how he taught the command-line to a bunch of seniors. They had been complaining about how difficult it was to follow all the crazy windows popping up everywhere and never knowing which button to click. This is actually a problem for many seniors. One day he installed Linux on a PC, booted into the console, and told them that this was "story mode". He gave them a list of commands along with mnemonics, and talked about how in "story mode" you always had a list of all the commands you typed so you always knew what you'd been doing.

aluhut 11y ago
An adblocker fixed that for my seniors. Still need to uninstall Chrome from time to time though. Thanks Avast Update.

arprocter 11y ago

I threw this together for the less savvy #!/bin/bash clear youtube-dl -U echo " " echo "YouTube Downloader Script" echo "A video file will be created in the folder where this script is located" echo " " echo "Please paste a URL and hit [ENTER]:" read URL youtube-dl $URL Edit: youtube-dl -U only works if it was manually installed, so leave that out if you installed from apt or whatever

soared 11y ago
Equally as meaningless to every average user. People on HN/github/etc generally just don't understand what it means to be a non-technical user.
- arprocter 11y ago
  You can mark it execute on click. Granted you still need to know how to cut and paste