For the average joe computer user, if you ask them to "open a console" on their computer they'll stare at you dumbly. For the uninitiated the "console" is the Linux equivalent (loosly) of the "command prompt" or "dos prompt".

So, I just don't understand why it is that a lot of Linux sites and magazines (yes, I'm talking to you, Linux Journal!) insist on forcing the console on everyone for tasks that are just as easy to do without it. Yes, it's nice to know how, and there certainly needs to be a way to find out more about the console, but I firmly believe the console should be reserved for power users and not try to force it on everyone.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not really dissing on Linux Journal. It's a great magazine and it's really targeted more towards the power users like me who will use the console on a daily basis even if you show us a GUI (Graphical User Interface - something everyone has been using since before 1995) that is 10x faster for most people. It's just that the Linux Journal articles recently got me thinking about Linux broadscale desktop adoption.

Perspective

I have a unique perspective on Linux desktop use. I have a 99% Linux only shop at work, including Linux desktops. I can take someone who has never used a computer before except to check email, set them in front of a Linux desktop and with 5 minutes of basic instruction send them on their way with no follow up support questions required. However, if I tried to tell them to use a command console every time they needed to create a compressed folder I'd be just... dumb.

Certainly when managing Linux servers the GUI tools are just not there for a lot of things you might need to do. In fact that's become a side project of mine - I've been slowly developing a Python GUI for managing our servers. It allows us to perform common operations that were previously complicated console commands, such as creating mailboxes for users in our email system.

So I'm going to try to select a few articles around the web that explain how to do something in a command console and I'll show the GUI equivalent in Ubuntu so that you don't have to be a geek to run Linux.

Archives / Zips / TAR / ETC sans command line

Archive files like ZIP files are essential when sending content over the Internet. That document you created might be 3 Megabytes, which would be about 3x larger than a lot of email systems will accept. If you compress the file first into a ZIP or GZip file it will be much smaller and easier to email. Zip and .tar.gz files are also great ways to package up a lot of little files for sending over the Internet.

To create a new compressed file, first you want to open the Archive Manager located in the Applications - Accessories menu:

From here, to create a new compressed "zip", "tar" or other file, just click "New" from the menu. It will ask you where you want to save your compressed file and what type you want it to be. Here is where Linux gives a lot more choices that Windows. There are differences in different types of compressed files but here's a good rule of thumb. If you are sending the file to a friend running Windows, use "zip". If you are using it yourself or sending it to someone with Linux, the most common is "TAR compressed with GZip." There are other options, but those are really the two that the average user needs to be aware of.


Drag N Drop!

Once you've named your file and clicked "Create" you are ready to add things to the compressed file. Just drag and drop them... it's not hard!


After you've added all the files to the archive, just close the Archive Manager window and your file is ready to email, store, upload or stick on a USB drive. To get files back out of the compressed archive, just double click the archive file. This will open the "Archive Manager" back up. You can then either drag individual files back out of it, or click "Extract" to get everything back out.

See, and it was all done without a "Console", "Command Line" or other confusing thing.