If something is not perfect ,we should strive to make it better not to root it out .
You are asking to remove a GUI app and instead use CLI tools , This would just reaffirm potential new users of Linux that the Linux Community is gatekeeping and Linux is hard because you have to write a command to install VLC , telegram , whatsapp etc
In current phase I think GUI tools just need some more polishing and support .
GUI for those who would like their OS to just work without knowing the details
CLI for thise who want granular control and want to know inner workings
This may be occasionally true, but it is not generally true. In many cases itâs bad advice for Linux, and frankly for life in general. In the context of this discussion, this reads like âif you are trying to screw in a screw with a hammer and itâs not working well, you need to make the hammer better.â
The GUI tools arenât really Garuda tools to begin with. Pamac is developed by Manjaro, and as far as I know it works perfectly fine for them. However Manjaro is on a different release cadence than Garuda and has other weird stuff going on.
Octopi is great, but if it is your introduction to package management it opens the door to bad practices like installing packages when the repos are not syncâd or updating without using the correct tool.
Like I said, people have every right to do whatever they like with their own system, but in the case of a new user they may not even be aware they are taking shortcuts that can break thingsâthe GUI package manager makes it seem like the software store on their phone, where they can haphazardly add or remove apps with no consequences.
This is kind of my pointâGaruda does not currently work well for this type of user.
Some of the baked-in tools, garuda-update for example, require interacting with the terminal. If you update your system another way (in a GUI, or otherwise), you will end up back in the terminal later on when you have to manually fix things because you didnât get package-related hotfixes, your keyrings were not updated, your mirrorlist is not refreshed, et cetera.
I agree with this sentiment. From what can be gleaned from the forum, Garuda tends to present as a distro that requiresâfor better or worseâat least some interaction with the terminal. Probably some 90% of the solutions in the forum are command line fixes for example, not to mention the in-house tools that are bound to the terminal and the wikis/guides we reference or have made.
For me, the most problematic thing about the GUI software centers is just that they come installed in the distro by defaultâalmost like they are getting a Garuda stamp of approval. Then, when someone opens an issue caused by Pamac or similar it gets immediately ushered to the âunsupported softwareâ category and the user is instructed to use the command line instead. It just seems like it must be very confusing for new users, and perhaps even makes for a bad first impression.
One other thing I think should be considered is the natural bias that is created as a frequent reader of the forum. For any distro, only a small portion of the users are actually on the forum. Excluding the regular contributors, many are here because they have a problem. They may not be representative of the Garuda population as a whole.
In other words, all the users who are successful with Garuda because there is a GUI package manager are probably not well represented on the forum. But take away that tool being provided out of the box and suddenly there are lots of confused users.
Are you sure? What percentage of Garudaâs user base fits that criteria? My guess would be a substantial portion. Much more than half. Of course, that is only a guess because there is no way to really know. But, like it or not, Garuda is a distro that is attractive to Linux users who have little interest in learning.
This is the same problem as above, you donât actually know how many of these users are using the system with a high degree of success because on the forum you mostly see the users with problems.
That is an interesting perspective. I would not have estimated quite so many users are successfully using their system without interfacing with the terminal (it seems impossible! ), but I do take your point that the forum is not representative of all users. That is certainly something to bear in mind.
Bullshit. Those of us from the early days worked our asses off so that what we now haveââDesktop Linuxâ-- could be adopted and used by the masses, instead of obscure network management commands used only by SysOps.
And if some of you so-called coders would get off your asses and put in a quarter of the work we did then, Desktop Linux would be even further along than it is now.
Sure, a minimal amount of terminal-centric knowledge can go a long ways in helping beginner accomplish some things a little quicker than a GUId application, but beginners need visual aides in learning Desktop Linux. Some people are lazy, most are not. They just want to be able to use a whole damned GUID Operating System like Garuda.
Else why are you here? To snidely call out beginners for their lack of knowledge?
I think the most fun and engaging way to learn linux cli is bandit on OverTheWire: Wargames
It doesn't really get into package managers, but it's a great way to get comfortable finding stuff, filetypes, complex commands with pipes, and some scripting. That's what i usually share with new people who want to get a running start.
The thing about GUI software centers is that they help new users familiarize themselves with Linux, as in make them comfortable. But sometimes the installed program won't launch, or has incomplete features, and fixing it requires CLI involvement, and (in my opinion) this makes Linux in general look intimidating. although admittedly fixing problems usually boils down to how well one can follow instructions. take it from someone who daily drives Linux for only 2 months
I agree, the CLI can seem intimidating, it doesn't immediately present you with options, which is easily overwhelming.
Octopi is nice because it gives you that graphical attachment to the CLI executing those commands for you, and you can watch it do its thing. It kinda holds your hand a little while not keeping the hood closed. If i had to choose one, i'd say the one i like most is Octopi from what i've seen.
After my recent experience I'll try pacseek, ironically installed with octopi and for updates I've always used topdate which seems cleaner and faster than Garuda Update.
I think gui applications that launch a terminal with the correct commands is a good balance. It shows the user how to update using the terminal which is more powerful but gives them the ease of use of gui. It would be cool if we could also somehow show the user the exact command that was entered, as for example I think octopie runs the installation commands in a terminal but doesn't show you the actual command and its syntax.
This way the user can eventually learn how to update themselves using the terminal or they can keep launching the gui which will do the same thing if there lazy
But I think it's important we show the correct way of updating
this is basically the vibe I been getting from this distro. not quite the beginner distro approach of just giving everything a gui like windows but not the other extreme like arch where users are expected to use the terminal and they are wrong or this distro is not for them if they want a GUI.
So instead of shying away from the terminal or shunning GUI applications maybe we should find more middle ground. Present terminal options in a way that is as easy as gui interfaces. Sometimes with a gui frontend.
sorry for the long rant thought I would give my two cents
A GUI use always to be up-to-date, cause it use the commands from the command line. It's always a mess, cause specially in Arch Distros programmings updating so many times. So it needed to in two points, how to manage software and how to announce popular or new software. There is the point, they cause confusion. Manage Software is for advance user, and they read normally manuals and know how to get information. Linux Beginners always in a state of confusion, cause Linux Distros always speak their one language and Open Software seems to have endless much software package. So they need to be guided for the beginning. So something like Discover seems for advance user to be stupid. But for beginners can be a guiding for beginning. But it needs to by update regularly and normally there are now on how like to this job.
I agree with this sentiment. From what can be gleaned from the forum, Garuda tends to present as a distro that requiresâfor better or worseâat least some interaction with the terminal. Probably some 90% of the solutions in the forum are command line fixes for example, not to mention the in-house tools that are bound to the terminal and the wikis/guides we reference or have made.
), but I do take your point that the forum is not representative of all users. That is certainly something to bear in mind. 
thought I would give my two cents