Hint: :q!
Sister communities:
Community rules (click to expand)
1. Follow the site-wide rules
sudo in Windows.Please report posts and comments that break these rules!
Important: never execute code or follow advice that you don't understand or can't verify, especially here. The word of the day is credibility. This is a meme community -- even the most helpful comments might just be shitposts that can damage your system. Be aware, be smart, don't remove France.
Let the apologists have a field day in the comments.
What people expect:
β Fix my box
βFuck my shit up
What we would get: System Kernel Interface
π³ Regex Recursion
π³ Kernel Language (Internal) [Dropdown: en-us, Dvorak, binary, Klingon, non-binary (Borg analog), Esperanto]
π³ Ignore LPT on fire
π³ Memory hole on sysctl
π³ Mansplain man(8)
This could be paraphrased as "GUI for the GUI settings, non-GUI for the non-GUI settings." It's not surprising to me that parts of Linux that run on systems that don't have GUIs do not have GUI settings. I understand the frustration, but building those is more work, and more things that can break, go out of date, etc..
What if Linux presented its config files in an app like regedit? Would that be easier? I doubt it. But with complicated data structures, making a first-class app just to edit a specific text file or set of files on disk is a very low ROI for engineering hours.
Then at least give users the ability to edit said text files with a text editorβ¦ but the community fights that as well. π The only distro I ever saw that enabled users to open a file browser and, through that, a text editor as root to edit system files was Mint. KDE had it for a short while before they patched it out again as far as I know (last time I checked Dolphin outright refused to start with root privileges).
It's not like there weren't ways to make it easier with little investment. Some elitists just managed to suppress even those efforts for decades.
Kde allows you to edit files with elevated permissions; use Kate for that. Open any system file in Kate and it will ask you for your password when you'll try to save it.
It's why I'm so furious about Linux in general and how every god damn intent to change almost any setting begins with "open Terminal...". I don't want to use the damn Terminal. It's 2025 now, put the god damn basic ass settings into control panel so I can click it without first spending half an hour to find a long noodle of commands for Terminal that I don't even understand, paste it in and hope for the best.
Like, I had issues with Bluetooth module in my laptop and I wanted it disabled so my BT USB dongle is main. In Windows I'd just go to Device manager and disable that device. Done. On Linux I spent hours diging on how to disable BT module and weed out all the bullshit on how to disable the function itself because I need it, just not from the fauly module. Then I spent asking on Reddit where someone finally posted a working Terminal command that I had to save into config file using Terminal because file manager is to stupid to save it into system area by just asking me if I want it there or not. I now have a folder with config file and instructions on what stupid ass copy command for Terminal I need to use to copy the config file where it needs to be.
Just so much unnecessary bullshit for something that could be done in literal 5 clicks at worst if the damn option was in GUI to disable single device on the system. Also fun fact, Linux has a "wireless devices" tool, command line one and it uses device ID to apply it and the fucking ID changes every time for the device so you can't make a permanent setting. I kid you not. I've never seen anything more idiotic.
How ungrateful! Do it yourself? It only takes learning how to program. Thats like... a 45 minutes search. 80 if you want to learn how to program an OS from scratch.
You don't need to "learn how to program", whatever the fuck you mean by that, to interface with texting terminal. We're interfacing via text right now and you seem to do it just fine, you don't seem to need a selection of colourful boxes to understand what I am saying
You're asking average people to learn a new language so they can install software (thats not on the stores) or to do some beyond basic configs. Why should they bother learning bash when they could just use windows and learn somethint else with that time?
How many times did i find a post telling me to create a weirdly named txt just to change my touchpad settings? Its not trustworthy for noobs. How is a noob suposed to know if a command on a tutorial is safe or not if many linux distros let you destroy them via rm -fr? Are they supposed to search each and every command before they use them? Im sure lots of people rightfully reject using the terminal (and therefore linux) for this reason.
How a noob supposed to know anything? By learning. You pretend that learning how to click through 5 confusing sumbenues is easy as fuck, but learning how to read basic ass words is an esoteric knowledge that only wisards can learn.
You pretend that nobody can comprehend that apt-get install steam will install steam, but searching through the website, downloading an installer, looking through your system for a file, executing it, and following through twelve steps of a wisard is suddenly magically a knowledge that everyone just grasps.
You pretend that "find this file, find WhateverBullshit=1 and change 1 to 0" is incomprehensible and requires a whole new language to understand, but "click this menu, open this submenu, scroll untill you find this subsection of subsection, look for the menu that opens a window of menus and then look for a tickbox that they actually moved three versions ago" is so simple you don't actually need to even think about.
But as an experienced system administrator, I can tell you from an experience, if the person doesn't want to learn, or can't, they will not, and it's not because they're intimidated by the concept of letters, but because the whole idea of learning a skill is confusing or intimidating. When people aren't in the mood they will look at the window telling them to press the only button on the screen, and they will call for help.
And if they want to know their instrument, they will learn whatever they need, and since reading is one of the fundamental skills we have in the modern society, they will learn how to read configs and write commands without the problems you envision.