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MUCKYFINGERS

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 7, 2005
769
15
CA
with the beauty and simplicity of the aqua interface, why would anyone bother using unix?
 

Kobushi

macrumors 6502a
Jun 7, 2005
540
0
Right behind you.
I use terminal for programming and SSH into the school server for Web site updates all the time.

Some folks that are really good with a command-line interface, can totally smoke us GUI users in speed.

Plus there's alot of cool things you can do with Unix that you just can't do in a GUI.
 

MUCKYFINGERS

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 7, 2005
769
15
CA
oh yeah, i always ssh to check my work e-mail all the time. but other than that, i dont have any other use for terminal.
 

balamw

Moderator emeritus
Aug 16, 2005
19,366
979
New England
MUCKYFINGERS said:
oh yeah, i always ssh to check my work e-mail all the time. but other than that, i dont have any other use for terminal.
I have a number of utilities that come from linux that I use regularly, and a custom app from work that I ported over that runs in Terminal. I've also found running smblient from the command line to get me out of some Mac <-> XP network file sharing issues.

B
 

radiantm3

macrumors 65816
Oct 16, 2005
1,022
0
San Jose, CA
MUCKYFINGERS said:
with the beauty and simplicity of the aqua interface, why would anyone bother using unix?
Because there are a bunch of applications and services in OS X that are more accessible through the command-line. And believe it or not, there are a lot of coders out there much faster with the command-line than by moving the mouse around.
 

Poeben

macrumors 6502
Jul 29, 2004
346
0
1. Cron scripts
2. copying/moving files between users home folders
3. editing .conf and .ini files (apache)
4. ssh, occasionally ftp
5. network testing (ping, ifconfig, host, etc)

Those are my top five, in that order. I love terminal.
 

mad jew

Moderator emeritus
Apr 3, 2004
32,191
9
Adelaide, Australia
Just for maintenance scripts every so often (okay, just once :p ). Most things in Terminal have had a GUI-based app developed for them. I love the Mac developer base, they're truly amazing. :)
 

iMeowbot

macrumors G3
Aug 30, 2003
8,634
0
Sometimes a GUI gets in the way of the beauty and simplicity of the command line :)
 

mad jew

Moderator emeritus
Apr 3, 2004
32,191
9
Adelaide, Australia
iMeowbot said:
Sometimes a GUI gets in the way of the beauty and simplicity of the command line :)


Agreed. But there's arguably less room for error with a GUI simply because it is less simple. In other words, it's slower which is a bad thing and a good thing because it also makes you think harder about what you're doing. Well, that's what I find anyway. :)
 

Whyren

macrumors 6502a
I use terminal quite a bit actually, mainly top and ssh, but occasionally for other things. Oh, and compiling and running Java (so much faster than using XCode).

mad jew said:
Agreed. But there's arguably less room for error with a GUI simply because it is less simple. In other words, it's slower which is a bad thing and a good thing because it also makes you think harder about what you're doing. Well, that's what I find anyway. :)

Error? What, just cause you can ruin your computer in a few keystrokes? ;)
 

commonpeople

macrumors regular
Nov 9, 2004
198
0
Being a computational scientist I never not have the terminal open. I'm ssh'ing to supercomputers all over America checking on my code. Also writing and modifying code using Emacs. Believe it or not- text based interfaces are still the most powerful tools for many problems. I love OS X because I get the power of unix with the simplicity and beauty of the Aqua interface.
 

arf

macrumors member
Mar 2, 2004
55
0
UK
All the time!

I use the terminal, well actually X11 to run professional astronomy software e.g. IRAF - there's no other way to run it, unless someone wants to write me a GUI?!:rolleyes:
 

oingoboingo

macrumors 6502a
Jul 31, 2003
988
0
Sydney, Australia
MUCKYFINGERS said:
with the beauty and simplicity of the aqua interface, why would anyone bother using unix?

MySQL commands. Testing and executing Perl scripts. Traditional UNIX utilities. All the things I used Linux for before switching!
 

risc

macrumors 68030
Jul 23, 2004
2,756
0
Melbourne, Australia
MUCKYFINGERS said:
with the beauty and simplicity of the aqua interface, why would anyone bother using unix?

The fact OS X is a UNIX like OS is the reason I use it, if it wasn't I wouldn't use the OS at all.
 

fayans

macrumors 6502a
Sep 19, 2005
648
0
MacRumors: Forums
I don't use Terminal though I know how useful it is to those you know the code. I can't help but always having this phobia that I could enter the wrong code and mess it up. Is that possible? :eek:
 

mad jew

Moderator emeritus
Apr 3, 2004
32,191
9
Adelaide, Australia
fayans said:
Is that possible? :eek:


Yes. :(

That's exactly what kept me away from it for years (well, months really). I was horrified by it but then I bought a second Mac and decided that I could use the first one for testing. Whilst the initial intimidation is justified (it's a very powerful tool), it can be very fun playing around with it all the same. With practice comes perfection... :p
 

jerry333

macrumors regular
Nov 4, 2005
137
28
anyone actually use terminal/unix for anything?

I use the command line all the time. In fact, my biggest complaint is that there is only a limited number of terminal windows that can be used--even at the maximum settings. I would really like to have about 200 terminal windows open, but somewhere around 50 they stop working.

I would also like a lot more user processes. The current ~2K/system and ~512/user is way too low. I can't even log on as myself remotely because of the ridiculously low limits so I have to set up a second ID for remote access. The limits should be something reasonable like 20K/system 10K/user and a few hundred psudo terminals.

The GUI is good for many applications, but the command line is just as important.
 

uaaerospace

macrumors 6502
Feb 15, 2005
396
0
Alabama
I use it for SSH and for X11 apps on the college of engineering's UNIX machine. Also, just general tinkering is always fun in the terminal. ~josh
 

crazzyeddie

macrumors 68030
Dec 7, 2002
2,792
1
Florida, USA
jerry333 said:
I use the command line all the time. In fact, my biggest complaint is that there is only a limited number of terminal windows that can be used--even at the maximum settings. I would really like to have about 200 terminal windows open, but somewhere around 50 they stop working.

I would also like a lot more user processes. The current ~2K/system and ~512/user is way too low. I can't even log on as myself remotely because of the ridiculously low limits so I have to set up a second ID for remote access. The limits should be something reasonable like 20K/system 10K/user and a few hundred psudo terminals.

?! :eek:
 

ScruffyTheMac

macrumors regular
May 21, 2005
116
0
Massachusetts
uaaerospace said:
I use it for SSH and for X11 apps on the college of engineering's UNIX machine. Also, just general tinkering is always fun in the terminal. ~josh

Same here - when I work from home, I have a secure tunnel to my corporate network; ssh to my UNIX machines there. I'm usually more productive vs. working in the office on my Dell - it's hard to get anything done between SMS patch installations. :)
 
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