A Unix without X (Linux users of course apply as well)

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Today whilst working I remanded myself to my Xless terminal. Something I do when I need to concentrate heavily and with little distraction. I have a code release tomorrow, so this requires my full attention.

Raggle, Elinks, Alpine, Cplay, cVLC with aalib (for video), and my trusty text editor (yes, I use emacs).

The question is, could you do it?

Do you do it already?

Have you ever thought of Trying?

I could. Rolled a few debian based systems and used without X. It has been a while though, Lilo was all there was at the time (should date my experience) grand unified boot loader was new. I ended up with Apple in the end. I do keep a linux box around incase I feel the need to dive into the computer obsession again.

Been there, done that. On an actual vt100 terminal, no less. (Remember "screen"?)

Im an old timer, my sed awk is actually pretty good. Im not sure if younger IT guys even pay attention to it anymore.

But I heard in another IRC discussion people who use Xless terms for their own reasons, and I thought, well geeze, I thought I was the only one who did that.

Of course on my Mac, I keep a tabbed window set open for all the console apps that I need anyway.

Its refreshing to see younger generations of IT people doing the stuff us old timers did back in the day.

Depends on what I want to do...

• Coding: Fine – thanks to Emacs.
• Mail: Might take me some time to set up and get used to a text-based client, but sounds doable.
• Web browsing: No thanks, I use X for that.

• It's helpful for organizing a large hi-res screen.
• Unfortunately, programs like NetworkManager and PulseAudio are tough to control on the command line, and freedesktop.org stuff is taking over everything.
• Things like drag&drop work universally in X.

I can work without X. But I usually have konsole with 10 open tabs and gvim with several files. Also I need some graphic browser, I have some king of debug server with SVG and many times I consult webs like Wolfram|Alpha which I don't think can work with elinks.
However I made myself a vim interface to the mpd music daemon.

I usually prefer to work with a mixture of GUI and command line, so I'm generally in X with at least one terminal window open. I can work X-less, but I usually don't. Working in a graphical environment is obviously convenient when working with graphics or video, but it also has the advantages of having more information in view at a time, and of having visible (or easy to find) reminders of how to do everything -- you can browse the menus to find what you want when you don't remember the keyboard shortcut, etc.

I've setup some X-less servers, and a variety of X-less embedded setups sometimes using the framebuffer device for graphical display. Those were configured and maintained usually over SSH without X. But on the machines I usually work from, I prefer to have a GUI running even if I'm using the terminal most of the time.

I have been known in my past to make regular use of the -box DE's (blackbox, openbox, fluxbox, Ratpoison, Ion, etc).

if i could get openbox to work on my mac, and in relatively the same concept and manner, I would probably do it in a heart beat.

I do so terribly miss my openbox menu pipes.

By the way, I bought a Dorio terminal a couple of years ago on eBay for something like $60. It had been sitting in the unopened box for years when I bought it.

I was pretty surprised when I looked it up on the Internet and found that Dorio terminals were built by DEC.

By the way, don't forget that with the GNU screen program you can run multiple windows on a single text monitor.

I used Linux this way for a couple years while developing diagnostics. I hated it and ended up mostly tty'ing in from a Windows machine. Graphics are too fundamental these days, as is the mouse and the ability to randomly drag around windows on a large display. Without a desktop, something is always not visible that I want to be visible.

That said, I would be happy if X would die and would be replaced by something cleaner. But I feel that way about the Linux kernel as well.

I have used vt terminals extensively, not just vt100. Also a lot of work using Wyse consoles. I have written mainly database applications for mini computers running various strains of Unix. I have always worked in the 'back end', so I know Unix pretty well, including kernal adjustments and rebuilds. I write in C, C++ and have written quite a bit of network stuff and other bits and pieces. I think at this level, you have to use X and console and flip between them, in order to do your job.

I write quite a bit for micro-controllers now, so I am in and out of the console all the time. The only reliable OS for me is OS X, which is as rock solid as the Unix I am used to. I have written a lot of Windows code in C in the past, but for me, Windows is a nightmare of non-cooperation, reboots, driver troubles and unnecessary things to twiddle with, that I just cannot tolerate. I have to use Windows art some point, because many applications I get involved with, are only on that platform. The backwards backslash, no shell or even choice of shells and all the DOS legacy just drives me nuts.

Probably being an Aspie helps me to be less tolerant, but I like things to be logical, work, stay working and to boot up in under an hour. The constant Windows updates, "your computer needs to be re-started..", your disk is x% fragmented and the memory leaks that mean the system cannot be up for more than a few days, just makes me so mad I cannot believe how 'the world' puts up with it.

Oh, I have drifted off the point again as I usually do.. Sorry!

I tend to do it a lot for programming outside of regular windows. Often I would use vim for text editing, then I have terminal running on another desktop which I use for compiling/testing. But I think I have full use of the terminal from within vim so I don't really need that other terminal window. I'm just not very skilled in vim yet, still trying to master the basic commands.

But I do prefer not having to use the mouse, or lessen the use of it as much as possible. When using vim and the command line in this way I never have to use the mouth ( except sometimes I cheat and use it for scrolling )