1. Command prompt for most things, but occasionally I use the konqueror in filemanager mode - it depends on what I need to do. konqueror is nice for drilling around and browsing through stuff, visualizing your data. But if you know what you want to do, it's usually faster to do it in the command line.

If you know how to program your shell and set variables, aliases, and keyboard shortcuts, it is possible to reduce the amount of hand-waving by using the keyboard more and the mouse less. I find my arms get really tired when I switch to the mouse all the time, so I try to use the keyboard for navigability through programs like konqueror too. I really like that about KDE.

2. I use jedit with the project manager plugin. It helps me manage groups of files under a single IDE-like project. It can edit files with all sorts of highlighting and completion with many languages. I played around a bit with eclipse and kdevelop but they both have serious keyboard configurability issues, and kdevelop was crashing a lot on me.

3. I learned vi, but then after that I learned jove, which is a watered down version of emacs. This was in ... uh... 1988. It pops up fast just like vi, but it has emacs-like feel to it. Now I can't use any non-emacs like editor, and I can also do a lot of things without arrow keys OR the mouse, just keeping my fingers smack in the middle of the keyboard.

I think vi is a very non-intuitive interface, and I like flexible keyboard configurability in my editors.

If you want to use arrow keys and have a minimal adjustment from notepad or ms-word, and you want a text-only editor, I'm sure something like jed, or pico would do the job.

CLI all the way but when you're too lazy to kick those keys in order to watch a movie in a decent condition I prefer the GUI. KDE rulez (IMHO). I do not trust those nicely designed package installers, but rather I'll do it manually in bash using the tty or at least konsole. Everybody with his likes and dislikes. CLI is a VERY good thing to know how to handle.

1. i use FreeBSD and the command-line is my best friend. pretty much the only reason i don't use the command-line is for web-browsing and using AIM.

3. i use emacs for pretty much everything, but i haven't really given vi/vim a chance.

1. I use the CLI for everything but web browsing, for that, I use X Windowse and Mozilla.
2. I use vim to do my coding.
3. I use nothing BUT Vi/m.

I use the command line for most everything on my server machines. I don't even have X installed on them. My desktop box (laptop) has X and I use kde, but as several people above, I always use a terminal even to start the X applications.

Since I use the bash shell, I have tab completion to help with moving/copying those long file names.
All my code is done using vim. I played with emacs, but why start a nuclear power plant just to edit a dang text file?

VI rules. Are there any other editors? Even my windoze box (Kid's machine) has vi installed on it. MY kids have never seen notepad before I removed it. They do use w*rd for big projects etc, but that is being replaced with openoffice next week. VI is everywhere, so once you learn it, why waste the time with others just for simple text files?

I use vi as my prefered editor for all text files, because it's the best editor in my opinion.

Normally the way I use the long paths would be to use shortcuts something like this..


vi /etc/s*/*/*th0


or maybe like this


vi `locate ifcfg-eth0`



When I say vi I mean whatever my distro has usually which is vi, vim, elvis. whatever.

1. I use both, depending on the situation. For example, if I am working on the terminal, its obviously the CLI, which is usually a code in tab1 of gnome-terminal, the second tab to compile, and tab 3 with gnuplot.

But otherwise I think I would prefer the graphical file manager . I use xfce, and have dumped gnome after finding xfce much easier to use, and so much faster (although that isnt an issue now, now that I have 384 MB RAM), especially the workspace switching with the mouse wheeel. Also, xffm is something I cant live without these days. Its much quicker -not the speed, which I said doesnt count much anymore, the convienience-, its got lots of features like the root window with fstab , a command line if reqiured, remembering file associations, and opening a new xffm to copy files etc.

2. Never used a grapical editor. Gnome opened in gedit which takes much longer to load than xfce's default gvim (actually a stupid thing to say, but anyway), and is much more functional. Syntax highlighting is best in vim.


3. Always used vi, though I dont feel I 'enjoy' it -I dont discover new stuff these days. It did seem though that vi is painful pressing the escape key all the time after hjkl, which is quite true. On one of those days I got so irked by this that I spent some time trying out the alternative, and it worked out as CTRL-C , and I later found that CTRL-[ works too (look at the vim help-it has a hyper link (or whatever that thing is) for ESC.

I have been trying emacs and xemacs (I said I dont 'enjoy' vim) , but for some reason, which is mostly that I am much more used to vim, and that I think emacs is ugly, I keep going back to vim.

I really want to use elvis- its syntax highlighting is nice and it can render html, but I cant find the equivalent of CTRL-P, CTRL-N for word completion and cant get the mapping done.

So it shall remain vim for the coding and latexing, which is most of what I do.

Depends on what I am doing, I use Linux mainly for desktop use, so obviously I use either KDE or GNOME. When I am doing sysadmin taks, I prefer using emacs (or vi/vim if someone is holding a gun to my head ) in the command line. As dor developemnt, I am not much of a developer and prefer to use GUI tools when I am messing about with some code.

lol, when I first posted in this thread (a while ago) I was going through my "I'll give emacs an honest try for program development" phase. Clearly that didn't last. I mean... emacs is all right with me and all. But I'll just use vi thanks.

See... there I am, flip flopping on the religious issues again.

1. outside X i use command line or midnight commander and lynx/links
inside X, midnight commander or xfe, or nautilus/kde if i happen to use a fast pc.

I stay in that dark console when i don't need X or on very slow/old machines, sometimes you don't need it...
boot-->login-->quick edit-->logout-->shutdown

2. Code editing is done with vim outside X and vim inside X. When i am on a big project usually with java i use eclipse.

3. yes, vim all the way most of the time.

not a guru but...

most of my boxes are servers, so I dont even have a gui installed. Therefore I rely heavily on the command line.

I use vi whenever i need to <b>edit</b> anything, doesn't take me any longer than it would to boot into a gui and open file manager and then open the document in an editor. Plus, it keeps the load on the server down.

For new projects and/or coding I use a GUI, usually windows or Kate.

I have 8 machines of my own at home.. all Linux.. only two are desktops with a GUI and the others don't have X installed w/remote access to them.

At work, over hundred servers with none of them with X installed.. command line is your friend, learn it, use it.. live by it..

Well... I have a sorta strong opinion on things... take in mind I am running a server box only, I do not use linux as my main. Someday as I am getting my office online at home. Hopefully to be well, lets just say multi terminal.

k soo. here we go.

1. xWin/kde/gnome... don't they just make the most wonderfull screen savers... (also for use with instructions online, or someones help files, you are "FORCED" to use xwin if there instructions are explained that way. So X is usefull, as I said, it looks pretty, and someone else mentioned.. to impress people. other than that... 'ultra command line junkie' hate the x. command line everything ../ cd rf -Fr ./

2. coding... to many lines and numbers, however 90% of linux is in code.. every file setting etc. no hard code here, no c or c+, fortran etc.

3. JOE it's the only way to go, true editing in a wordprocessor type environment, quickly moving up and down the doc with pageup and pagedown, easy editing, line markers, and so much more. Very very nice editor, used vi, tossed it in moments, due to it's floppy nature, went to pico, and now it's only a backup editor.

peace out all, now if only I could solve my sql problem. hope this helps some in their journey.

I use the Command line for all installation purposes (rpm or source), for all my editing, and also for moving files, etc. The tab function is cool, though, I have had great difficulty in getting my friends to get used to TAB completion. Poor fellows still type things out.

On a secondary note, those who want to work on vi/vim but are afraid of the Command line - theres some excellent news for you. Try GVIM

I was so impressed with the power of the CLI that when I first used linux in 1996, I couldn't get myself to use the GUI for moving files and stuff. It gelt so much more cool to be doing it from the command line. And I've been at it ever since.

I dont consider myself a guru, but i couldnt resist joinig this thread:

My choices depends on what I am doing.
On servers, its CLI (There is no X on them anyway)
On the desktop its X. But I always seem to find myself with an X-term on the X Screen, covering all of these icons i can click on!

Moving files usually from CLI (old habits die hard), but image editing is so much easier with X

Programming usually in VI, with syntax highlighting of course!