I rarely touch my terminal and do so only because I am already familiar with it. I should use it more. I don’t think its any more necessary to use the terminal in linux than it is in windows for a computer user. I consider zorin the most user friendly and mainly because its out of the box (when its installed it has software already on that fits for most things people want to do with a computer.)

It depends.

A 2-5 year-old laptop, you want to web browse, maybe watch some videos, use google docs or open office, you probably never need a terminal

If it’s a really new laptop or you want to get the most out of video drivers and push it harder, you’ll probably need to be ready for some light terminal crap. Gets a little janky if you have a dual-video-card setup. Nothing hard to handle, but if you’re not looking to have to handle anything…

I think the numnber of available packages is better on the Debian side. Mint or Kubuntu run newer hotter stuff, debian runs older more stable stuff.

I’d say 90% of usage can be done without the terminal especially if you just use Linux to browse the web or check email or other things that are mundane.

Anything past that, there is a good chance you’ll have to use the terminal. That said, I think its easier than ever with lots of people making the switch and asking questions on Lemmy or other forums.

I’ve been using Bazzite for a year without ever touching the terminal. I came from Windows.

I use Fedora Workstation. I do use the terminal, each morning I install my updates by typing “sudo dnf upgrade” and enter the password. When that is done I type “syncthing” to start that service. The rest of the day I don’t touch the terminal.

I could install the updates through the “software store” but terminal is faster and no reboot is required, afaik.

Once in a while I do update an app which is almost as easy. Download the rpm file (typically there is a link in the app that needs updating) open terminal, cd Downloads, ls, sudo dnf install “package name”, password, exit.

For context, I started on Linux last April. Previous “laptop” was an android tablet with a physical keyboard and mouse. I did buy a used Thinkpad and install Fedora myself which was very easy.

My 75 year old father, who isn’t a techie, can handle this. Your Window buds should be able to as well.

I know at least two people who have been using Ubuntu as a daily driver for years and have never (as in, ever) touched the terminal.

My gf and I are on Kubuntu. The only CLI she needs is to start her G13 kb, otherwise she is GUI only, even when I set up her machine it was all through GUI. Myself, I do CLI stuff cause it is often easier for me, lsblk/lsusb/mount broken ntfs drives(Ok this one I need after the occasional reboot til I get a new media drive), but I don’t NEED to use it except for my G13 kb and the broken ntfs drive for now. ymmv.

Nope. Every Linux distribution I’ve used has needed access to command line at some point. If anything goes awry people will always give you steps how to fix it from command line.

Now I’m not saying all this couldn’t be done graphically, but you very rarely find steps that way.

I’m torn on this discussion. Full disclosure, I don’t really understand GUIs and get confused with icons and such. I’m a command-line person and have been for decades. I’ll use image editors and IDEs and so on but they often leave me frustrated.

That said, I totally get that other people are not the same, and that’s completely valid. If a regular task can only be done from the command line then there’s an opportunity to fill in the missing piece, the GUI. It’s not a waste of time, even if the GUI is “less efficient” - it’s what a lot of people find comfortable.

Where I fall on the other side is the rise of ChatGPT and its friends. People are overwhelmingly positive about typing their problems into a text box, but when the response is “paste this into a terminal window and press enter” they bail out. They’re happier to go through a dozen screenshots showing them where to click through menus to get to the option visually, even if they have to try multiple times because the GUI changes with the direction of the wind and the terminal stays consistent.

I kind of ‘force-moved’ my wife to Fedora about 2 years ago, and she had never seen the terminal until last week. I saw she was about to open ‘discover’ to update everything, and I stopped her, opened the terminal and ran a dnf update, one ‘put your password in there’, and she was looking at it as if it was magic. Can you use it without the terminal entirely? Pretty sure you can. Now, should you?

Yes, there are several distros that come with many things prepackaged. See Fedora, CachyOS, and Mint for examples.

Just lie and say they will never need to touch the terminal, then help them out when they need to and eventually they will see its not a big deal

I think Fedora is an excellent choice. It has up to date packages and its integration with KDE Plasma is pretty good.

Not a chance. Someone else can easily, but I wouldn’t be able to resist.

Less needed than on Windows.