This is why I think of the N900 as a phone and not a computer. I want my computer to be able to boot from a flash drive or optical drive, to be able to install an operating system from that drive, and to be able to back up every bit of data to that drive.

Until I can do that, I tend to lump terminal and root with the old Red Pill mode. Given the choice between limited capabilities and a working phone versus extended capabilities I can't get to because my phone is frozen, rebooting, displaying random characters, smoking, etc. - I know which I'll choose.

Backup allows you to save most of your data, plus an rsync would take care of the rest. After that, reflashing the device is far from being complicated, thus you can reinstall from scratch whenever you or an application you test bricks it. Overall, there are no limited capabilities really, again, root doesn't kill your device when used properly, and Red Pill will soon be gone, and doesn't provide anything useful anyway, so even advanced users would have no use in activating it.

If the GUI only gives the user 30% of the power of the system, then its not designed correctly.

Nope. It is however, incomplete.

In a distro like maemo, most of the underlying functionality should never need to be fiddled with by the end users.

The things that will hose your phone will brick your phone whether you do them in the GUI or in the shell. By not providing means to do those things in the GUI, the propensity of noobs/lamers to brick their phone is reduced.

Leet hackers don't need a GUI. There are those who like gestures, those who like regex, and never the twain shall meet. Probly.

Edit: switched "brick" for "hose" as that's really what I meant.

GUI should not be intrepreted as end-user; it should be intrepreted as a primary visual means the user or administrator uses to interface with the underlying system.

To that end, if the GUI isn't designed completely or well, then it doesn't matter if the person is a casual user, power user, or super user - if they can only get to 30% of the system's abilities, then its not done correctly - unless correct design follows some (general) assumption that seems to follow a lot of cultures

In my opinion: A well designed UI (Graphical, Virtual, Textual, or mix of all) does the process of enabling the user to complete simple actions efficiently, and endears those who want to learn more about the system a safe and accessible means of doing so (for example, Symbian - despite its dearth of menus, PalmOS - despite its programming and usage paridigm roots, or iPhone - despite its utter disregard for user-flow-paradigms outside of S. Job's.).

Absolutely. Windoze has GUI programs for all sorts of functions which will allow you to brick your computer. The advantage of them is that they will warn you that you probably don't want to do certain things, they will provide help functions to explain what can and should be done, the will edit input to help avoid fat finger syndrome, and the better ones will allow you to preview or review and undo changes.

After all, you can do things like word processing without a GUI. But would you want to?

Hi

I agree with the original poster, users shouldn't be afraid of giving the terminal a go if they *want to* try it.

For me the beauty of Linux is that you can use a gui or command line, and that choice of control and power is transferred to mobile computing with Maemo. Nobody is forced to use a gui or terminal, but Maemo gives you both, you can choose, and if you would like to try the terminal I've made a start writing a wiki page covering some basic commands for new users to get started.

http://wiki.maemo.org/Terminal

I've literally just done this in 30 mins, so I'll do some more editing of the page tomorrow to make it easier to read and then set up the wiki links. I'd recommend holding off following my instructions until I've properly finished it. I'll also need some help from someone with an N900 to make sure what works on my N810 applies to the N900.

BTW, there are some comments in this thread that have different views on a gui v terminal, on this subject I say each to their own. However views that are scaremongering like you will brick your device are a bit melodramatic. If you are that risk averse, then you probably shouldn't have a phone in the first place, as I reckon you are more likely to lose data from dropping the phone or having it stolen than giving the terminal a try. In any event, before trying the terminal, or using the gui, it is best to back up your data to cover for any mishaps.

Rich

Thanks Rich. I wish this had existed when I got my N810.

As a Linux n00b, I've shied away from threads which mention Terminal. A page like this helps me to get a handle on it and better understand what is being discusses.

Now why didn't i think of that? It's a grrrrrrreat idea! I made some edits to it, though i think it needs an overhaul, because it's simply not noob-friendly

Thanks for editing. Yeah I'll do some more to it tomorrow and make it easier to follow.

Rich