I wonder if the perception, that using Linux requires heavy terminal use, comes from people hearing Linux enthusiast talking about how much they use the terminal, and how much quicker the terminal is than using a GUI. See, just typing a command into a terminal is actually often—but not always—quicker, than using a GUI app— but on most modern Linux systems1 you do have GUI apps for basically anything you wanna do2. Heck, I’d consider myself pretty tech literate and I’ve been using PCs since I was little, and I often go weeks without opening a terminal.
I wonder, if Linux enthusiasts never bring up the terminal, and instead were always talking about how much quicker they can use their PC with keyboard shortcuts, would people say: “Yeah, Linux sounds cool and all, but I don’t wanna learn a million keyboard shortcuts just to use my PC.”
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at least on the ones I’ve used.
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The only thing that I can think of, that you can’t do graphically in Linux Mint (the one I use, and one that advertises itself as beginner friendly), is seeing a list of connected USB devices (you need to run the lsusb command).

































