Arch Linux

js7319

Member

Registered: 2008-04-21

Posts: 12

Newby question about command line interface

Arch is my first linux distro and havnt used others yet.

Just wondering, does Command Line Interface looks and functions all same on other distros?

Because, if u can chose desktop environment like KDE, GNOME and Xfce with other Linux distros as well, then what is difference between others.

Linux is still quite hard for me and just wanted to know if there is "special" stuff that arch can do.
To me, they all looks same with same desktop environment...

thanks

bangkok_manouel

Member

From: indicates a starting point

Registered: 2005-02-07

Posts: 1,556

Re: Newby question about command line interface

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_vs_Others

fuscia

Member

Registered: 2008-04-21

Posts: 398

Re: Newby question about command line interface

Just wondering, does Command Line Interface looks and functions all same on other distros?

if i understand your question correctly, the shell is the user interface for typing and executing commands and seeing the results. the shell is text based (it's my understanding that bash is the most common shell, by a lot). when you're in a gui environment, in x, in something like KDE, gnome, or xfce, and you open a 'terminal', you're opening an emulator of the shell. i think i'm right in saying that, no matter which distro you're using, if it uses bash, then bash is bash.

jbromley

Member

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2007-02-04

Posts: 268

Re: Newby question about command line interface

When you mention the "command line interface" (CLI) there are a few things involved: a terminal emulator, a shell, and the programs you have installed. That said, as far as running programs goes

The terminal emulator is the application that hosts/shows your shell. In KDE it's (by default) Konsole, GNOME uses gnome-terminal, others might use xterm, aterm, rxvt, rxvt-unicode or one of many others. Different emulators provide some extra features (e.g. tabs) and they all differ in memory usage, speed, and integration (or not) into a given desktop environment. That said, they all pretty much work the same for launching programs and operating in a shell: you type commands and press enter.

The shell is what runs your commands and also provides some scripting capabilities. Generally, bash seems to be the most used as a default shell. You can change your shell if you wish, as some shells provide extra features like programmable command completion. Other shells are lighter or more POSIX-compliant. For a starting user, you're well enough off just using the default (probably bash) until you find a reason for which you must have a different shell.

Finally, the programs installed will affect what you can run in a terminal. Different distros will have different quantities of programs installed by default. (Arch's base install is very minimal.)

Now, with regards to Linux, at the end of the day all distros are Linux with some desktop environment (DE) and some Linux apps. The DEs and applications are taken from the same source, but some distros provide patches for extra capabilities or configuation. However, if you see something you like in openSUSE, say, you can download the software, patch it, and configure your Arch to work like openSUSE. Each distro, though, has its own focus and philosophy which affects:
* how many and what applications are installed by default
* amount of configuration required after install
* stable vs. bleeding edge
You can read more about this in the wiki reference above.

So having said all that, Arch gives you a simple, minimal base install which you can then easily customize by app installation and configuration. It is reasonably bleeding edge, meaning application updates usually make it to Arch fairly quickly. With time and knowledge you can make Arch do near anything that another distro can do, but that's not really the idea behind Arch in my opinion.

Hope that helps,
j