Less than thirty minutes and a suggestion...
 

Decided that I needed to wipe Windows XP off my Dell laptop and install linux. My desktop has been running Ubuntu for a while now, so I decided on that...

Downloaded the live CD as a I backed up data. Booted off the live CD and was up and running in less than 30 minutes. Connected to my wifi ap with wep...no problems...still need to figure out how to play DVDs, but I'm in no rush for that.

Then decided to set up pptp so I could connect to my work MS VPN. The client app installed fine, but the GUI frontend just wouldn't install because of some dependencies...spent almost an hour trying to figure out a way around it...no luck...checked the Ubuntu forums and noticed lots of people complaining about the lack of packages to deal with it.

Decided to look at the manual instructions...basically required 4 text files to be created with all the options. Took all of 15 minutes to get up and running.

So I know many folks aren't comfortable with the command-line, but it can definitely make your life easier. The GUI would have been easier the first time, but editing bunch of text files is not that hard, plus its now in a script that I can use anytime. So if you think linux is good now, you'll get a lot more out of it using the command-line.

Yeah - there are a few of us that still have that thinking too (A lot of Arch, Gentoo, and Slackware users - as well as "power users"), but the realization is pretty eye opening huh? Command line tends to make some things MUCH easier, but there are certainly some things that the GUI makes easier too.

Without a doubt, knowing the command line and being comfortable on it pays off way more than the effort invested. This is especially true if you ever plan on setting up something on a machine with very limited hardware or over a serial connection... but it also holds true on the desktop.

I live on the command line. It's where most of my work really gets done.