When I first started using Linux over Windows, I was looking for a flexible working environment that also respected privacy and celebrated open source software and community. Most people I run into who use Linux (which isn’t a whole lot) seem to start for similar reasons.
Like most beginners, I avoided the terminal as much as possible for fear of messing things up to an unrecoverable state. I was I was interested in keeping my workflow closer to a drop-in replacement for Windows.
However, the longer I use Linux the more I find that the GUI interfaces are obtrusive, stealing valuable screen real estate from my laptop screen. I decided to start migrating heavier unecessary GUI based apps with terminal based ones and share the journey.
I’m calling this #TerminalTuesday. Every Tuesday I’ll talk about an application that I’ve moved over from a GUI equivalent I was using previously.
Why haven’t I done this sooner?
For me, moving to a more terminal based workflow means that I already know what I want to do. GUI applications are a great entry point to figure out what I’m doing, and ultimately, may be the best way to solve my workflow.
Once I have a good idea of what I’m trying to do, instead of trying a different GUI application and going through a bunch of configurations that it may or may not do, I am experiementing with a terminal equivalent. My focus is content, not interface.
Some general setup
I mentioned a few setup tweaks I made in my Fedora post, but here’s a few more that I’ve used to navigate around the desktop:
| Action | Keyboard Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Navigating Workspaces | Super + PgUp or PgDown |
| Moving Apps to Workspaces | Shift + Super + PgUp or PgDown |
| Splitting App to Left or Right of Screen | Super + Left or Right |
| Opening a New Terminal Tab | Ctrl + Shift + T |
| Navigating Terminals | Ctrl + PgUp or PgDown, or Alt + Num |
These are for Fedora, but I usually these shortcuts are pretty universal. Looking forward to sharing more!
#TerminalTuesday
Day 11 of #100DaysToOffload