3 ms·

Recently I broke my terminal emulator's config while I didn't have an internet connection so I had to use a virtual terminal to fix it. It made me wonder, does

Recently I broke my terminal emulator's config while I didn't have an internet connection so I had to use a virtual terminal to fix it. It made me wonder, does anybody use virtual terminals as their daily drivers?

JasonFruit 7y ago
I did for about six months, and then decided it was more trouble than the experiment had fun potential. I ran GNU screen, emacs with eww and every other special get-stuff-done mode, FBI, fbgs, and a few other tools like that, and while I got it working okay, it was never a pleasure to use.
jolmg 7y ago
As in not starting an X server? No. As in most of the time the window focus is on a terminal? Yes. In my computer, 90% of the time there are only 2 types of windows open. 1 is the web browser, and the other is the terminal. Sometimes I open up Emacs to read my mail or write some notes in org-mode, but my text editor of choice is vim in a terminal, not even gvim.
- kurtisc 7y ago
  Not that (which is similar to my setup), I mean tty[0-6] which come up when you press ctrl-alt-F[1-6]
  - jolmg 7y ago
    For a daily driver... it's hard to imagine the conditions where that would be better than using X. Maybe if one's stuck with a machine so old (like 90's old) where even light window managers lag, then maybe. You normally wouldn't install X on servers or raspberry-pi's or other purpose built machines like routers, but you also wouldn't use them as a daily driver. I imagine even people that need to work on those extensively would rather log-in via ssh from their real daily-driver.
Izkata 7y ago
"A Day Without X" [0] may interest you. [0] http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2007/05/21/a-day-without-x/ http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2007/05/21/a-day-w...
ozzyman700 7y ago
I did from about 6th-9th grade. I pretty much just used ttys except for the odd google doc I would need to use a laptop for. I would just use my rpi model a for everything. tmux was pretty much required for any work. I would use irc, w3m for internet browsing, mutt for email, and vim for programming. I thought if I only used the terminal I would become very good at it, kind of true but I have never had the ability to use linux at work yet. I learned a lot more by breaking and fixing X once I got a machine faster than an RPI model A. I don't recommend doing this, it was not worth it.
snazz 7y ago
If you’re intersted in this, I recommend Emacs or tmux (as a multiplexer and/or your “everything” editor), netsurf (web browser with frame buffer display mode for graphical interaction), and fbi (framebuffer image viewer).
dfox 7y ago
I used to do that on laptops as a way to compensate for lack of an mouse. I dont do that anymore that much, because I mostly write things with web interfaces and because TrackPoint is actually better pointing device than mouse.
megous 7y ago
I did, 14-13 years ago. I would just run mc/mcedit in VT and switch virtual terminals with Alt+F#. I did most of my programming there with mcedit, but switched to X for web browsing. I was writing distro build scripts and networking libraries in C, so I didn't need the browser that often. I grew up on MS-DOS, so it was not really such a long stretch, to work this way.

JasonFruit 7y ago

I did for about six months, and then decided it was more trouble than the experiment had fun potential. I ran GNU screen, emacs with eww and every other special get-stuff-done mode, FBI, fbgs, and a few other tools like that, and while I got it working okay, it was never a pleasure to use.

jolmg 7y ago

As in not starting an X server? No. As in most of the time the window focus is on a terminal? Yes. In my computer, 90% of the time there are only 2 types of windows open. 1 is the web browser, and the other is the terminal. Sometimes I open up Emacs to read my mail or write some notes in org-mode, but my text editor of choice is vim in a terminal, not even gvim.

kurtisc 7y ago
Not that (which is similar to my setup), I mean tty[0-6] which come up when you press ctrl-alt-F[1-6]
- jolmg 7y ago
  For a daily driver... it's hard to imagine the conditions where that would be better than using X. Maybe if one's stuck with a machine so old (like 90's old) where even light window managers lag, then maybe. You normally wouldn't install X on servers or raspberry-pi's or other purpose built machines like routers, but you also wouldn't use them as a daily driver. I imagine even people that need to work on those extensively would rather log-in via ssh from their real daily-driver.

Izkata 7y ago

"A Day Without X" [0] may interest you. [0] http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2007/05/21/a-day-without-x/ http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2007/05/21/a-day-w...

ozzyman700 7y ago

I did from about 6th-9th grade. I pretty much just used ttys except for the odd google doc I would need to use a laptop for. I would just use my rpi model a for everything. tmux was pretty much required for any work. I would use irc, w3m for internet browsing, mutt for email, and vim for programming. I thought if I only used the terminal I would become very good at it, kind of true but I have never had the ability to use linux at work yet. I learned a lot more by breaking and fixing X once I got a machine faster than an RPI model A. I don't recommend doing this, it was not worth it.

snazz 7y ago

If you’re intersted in this, I recommend Emacs or tmux (as a multiplexer and/or your “everything” editor), netsurf (web browser with frame buffer display mode for graphical interaction), and fbi (framebuffer image viewer).

dfox 7y ago

I used to do that on laptops as a way to compensate for lack of an mouse. I dont do that anymore that much, because I mostly write things with web interfaces and because TrackPoint is actually better pointing device than mouse.

megous 7y ago

I did, 14-13 years ago. I would just run mc/mcedit in VT and switch virtual terminals with Alt+F#. I did most of my programming there with mcedit, but switched to X for web browsing. I was writing distro build scripts and networking libraries in C, so I didn't need the browser that often. I grew up on MS-DOS, so it was not really such a long stretch, to work this way.