I'm a no bullsh!t person
I'm the type of person I dislike bullsh!t; and when it comes to my
dev setup there's no exceptions. Why did I quit using mac, let alone go
gui-less?
Well, it's simple...To be frank, it was very distracting; with all the
eye candy--everywhere you go. Maybe it's me, if not let me know in the comments;
but with todays user applications and desktop enviroments it's really hard to
stay focused with all the dazzle of beautifully designed gui's and well crafted ux.
Yet, there's one big problem: many modern systems aren't designed with the mindfulness
of the end user.
Seriously, I thought UX was about helping the user get the most out of their system.
This is no disrespect to designers and ux experts; I just think we can all take
a different route when it comes to desiging desktop enviroments and user applications
that help the user instead of distracting them.
This isn't to stay they aren't designers and ux experts who are doing a killer job
and creating mindful systems that cater to help the end-user; I'm just think the big
household names can do better by hopping into too.
Of all the linux distros I've tried; it's been a love and hate relationship. Although
for the most part I would say my all time favourite that didn't disappoint was,
[Elementary OS]: https://elementary.io . I think the name does it's self justice. Not
to go all fan boy here; I personally think Elementary Os distro does a great job at
focusing on the elements of elementary computing.
Therefore, because I got tired of looking for the best linux distro with a
minimal user interface; I found it best to stick to a headless linux kernel
emulated with tmux. I haven't looked back since...
Mindfulness is everything
Wihout getting into details, we all know what 2020 brought on us. From
being to forced to change your entire routine, to how you see life
all the way to how you conduct personal business; if there's anything
that's been ever more important it is mindfulness. We are reaching an
age where our abilities and talents will either help us for the better
or turn us all into slaves to our own digital myopia of what it means
to create mindful spaces for the end-user.
It's not an easy task, but can be done.
Part of why I got tired of using GUI's is the lack of a consistent ecosystem a
cross the devices that I use. More importantly, when I'm using my laptop I prefer
to use it strictly for producticity only. I still watch movies here and there, but
very minimal. If anything, when I want to stream media I use my iPad.
Should you do the same?
Short answer: no.
Long answer:
You have to think of how comfortable you are learning a whole new way of computing. Now adays,
the average developer isn't a CLI savvy as compored to developers of the 70's. So to recomend you going
head fight into the abyss of unknown would devloper-suicide. Not unless you are up for the challange or
trying to compile your own drivers and fixing broken packages if things go south. I've been lucky to say:
the kernel I use has alsomost everything working out of the box for my SurfaceBook laptop. Although be warned;
if you follow suit you'd have to install wifi drivers seperately if you planning on using arch linux headless with
no gui.
I've been familiar with BASH and debian based systems for at least 5 years,
even if I now use arch linux. From experience I personally think you can get around
faster with a shell than with a mouse and keyboard (so much for being a turtle right?). The reason being
that, once you know the basics of using liunux from the CLI and learn a little bit of BASH, you are officially
armed and dangerous.
Who knew the turtle was faster than a mouse and keyboard?
All jokes aside, I think if you willing to put the initial time in and work a way to get things
done it's very doable. For front-end desigining; I host a local jekyll server on my raspbery-pi
with live-reload enabled so my changes show up in real-time. As for my test desvices; I use the iPad
and iPhone as a device reference when working with responsive design.
NOTE: Pardon the spelling errors, this was written all in nano.
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