Two MDK 10 PCs connected via crossover. Have spent close to a week learning to setup ethernet and to ping. Spent another month trying to setup file sharing NFS, Samba. I have all the NFS and SAMBA PDFtutorial "manuals/bibles" referred to me by well meaning gurus on my desktop. Still......... no luck...........until someone told me to enter "sftp:// 192.168.0.1" in my Konqueror GUI URL window. I still don't know how to do NFS or SAMBA, but at least I can now view files on the other PC.

This got me to thinking. I just spent over a month trying to solve a problem with hundreds of text entries in the CLI that was solved with 1 line of text in a GUI based application in 20 seconds. I have to admit, I am really concerned about the fanatical obsession of some users with finding a solution anyway possible as long as it isn't with the GUI. The GUI cannot 'harm' or 'damage' or 'ruin' or 'dumb down' the operating system that Linus Torvalds invented. It is just a different way to access it.

While it is true that CLI may be more flexible than GUI, it could be due to the fact that no one has written a script in the GUI for that specific task, not because clicking icons is inferior to text. Even though it SOUNDS good in an argument, there is NO evidence whether scientific, anecdotal or otherwise, that text entry is intellectually superior to accessing the EXACT SAME process by clicking on an icon. It's not better or worse......... just different.

I am still interested in linux and will pursue it, but have become more disappointed in the philosophy of some (NOT ALL) linux users who are completely and totally intolerant of any solutions that even appear to be GUI based. There are probably thousands of PC users every month, wishing to migrate to linux, but run into this brick wall, where they can't get basic functions to work because the help being given is so narrow and restrictive as to exclude a GUI solution, when, in some situations, it just may be the most EFFICIENT solution, even if not the intellectually preferred method.

Well......... I'm on to learning how to share files with NFS and/or SAMBA.

I wish I had a more positive post, but this experience has not given me much to be thrilled about......sorry!

Ummm ... if you had typed sftp 192.168.0.1 in a shell you
would have had the same result? I'm not quite sure why
you throw in using ssh in a GUI tool to testify that it's easier
to use than setting up Samba or NFS, but congratulations
on that discovery anyway.

I'll say it loud ... ssh is easier to set-up than
Samba or NFS!



Cheers,
Tink

Believe it or not, you're the first to indicate that it could be done that way!

I know this is not going to make sense, but, if I got it done by following a convoluted, circular route thru the the GUI and it was done in 20 seconds as opposed to 1 month,...then, that makes my point exactly. I'm NOT knocking the CL. I just think that the ability to communicate effectively with noobs such as myself suffers when the need to enter pounds and pounds of text overshadows the need to get a simple task done.

It's not the CL that's at fault. I just think that the need to show me how to use CL to share files overshadowed the fact that I just needed to "see" files on the other PC as quickly and easily as possible. People had me entering TONS of ifup and route commands and checking iptables and host mapping ..............etc.,etc,etc.

Thanks for the tip