too complicated

[Alan Pope]

2009/1/7 Richard Tattersall <tatter_sall at msn.com>:
> CLI is also useful for support/guides, because rather than lots of "click here, then here, then here" all you need is to copy and paste commands in a terminal.
>

I suspect this is where many of our new users are introduced to the
command line. We have had a fair number of new people turn up for
support on IRC recently (yay, by the way), and many have come in
because they're part way through a guide online which dives directly
into the command line.

> Im curious as to what you were trying to do in a terminal and what you found hard about it?  I bet there was probably a simpler/GUI way of doing it.

There may well have been, but the majority of wiki pages (and forum
posts) in my experience detail solutions by means of a block of
commands rather than screenshots or descriptions of menu paths.

"sudo apt-get install cowsay"

is easier and faster to type than

"System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager -> Enter
'cowsay' in the search field -> Click on it then choose 'Install' ->
Click 'Apply'."

Although these days:-

"Click this:- apt://cowsay"

Is _even_ easier.

> Perhaps this suggests a problem with how ubuntu is documented for new users?
>

It is. Maybe we should go through the wiki doing a global replace of
"apt-get install" with "click apt://" :)  (note for the humour
impaired, this is not a serious suggestion, but you get the idea).

Cheers,
Al.