this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2023
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Linux

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago (3 children)

The article just describes the how, but gives no reasons for a why.

So, why would anyone move away from the de-facto standard bash, except for some rare circumstances like having a small system and using busybox?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You probably never used fish shell.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Yeah, and I suspect most reading the article haven't either, so the above guy's question stands - what's wrong with Bash in comparison to the others?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Nothing wrong with it, it's just boring. Fish shell has some new features that make it nice to use. So does zsh. Tab completions, history navigation, plugins and such.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Why does something have to be wrong with Bash for Fish to be better?

[–] pastermil 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Because bash is an industry-wide defacto standard?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] pastermil 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

A lot of people use it for work and they couldn't have the slightest risk of their setup broken since their living depend on it?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

What does that have to do with the question?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Because you're bored. It says so right in the title.

Personally I don't see the point of changing the shell either. Bash is more than good enough for my use and any other shell is going to have the disadvantage of not being the ubiquitous standard so it is always going to have an uphill battle to dislodge bash.

That said, if people want to play around with a new shell just for the sake of it, why not? I like to play around with exotic window managers myself, not because my regular plasma desktop doesn't suffice, but because I like to try something different every now and then.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Fish is actually user friendly and easy to learn. The interactive completions are better than any other shell and are something I don't want to live without.

It differs from bash in some esoteric ways, but any issues you might encounter as a result are easily worked around by putting shebangs in your scrips, which you should be doing anyway, and bash -c 'your command'.

Honorable mention for nushell, but that one differs from bash a little too much to pick up quickly. However, having an object-oriented shell is pretty sick.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Bored with driving your car with a wheel and pedals? Change the default handling device in your vehicle

[–] pastermil 2 points 11 months ago

Change your steering wheel into a tuktuk-style handlebar!

[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago
[–] Dr_Willis 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

tip: don't install fish or whatever, change your default shell, THEN uninstall fish because you don't like it.

Change your default shell back first.

I have seen way too many support posts where people paint their self I to a corner doing that.

or just don't change the default shell.

run fish as needed, then exit back to bash when done.

I have

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Add it to your .bashrc so it autolaunches, but fails back to bash.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Honestly I prefer https://ohmyposh.dev it's damn nice. Not that it's a different shell, but makes any shell look nice

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

It looks pretty, but IMO one of the selling points of zsh is that it allows async updating of the prompt, allowing you to use slow commands like "git status" without adding a delay every time the prompt needs to be printed.

E.g. the default prompt from prezto is quite light and responsive, but when inside a git repo adds the info on the right side (shows when you have commits ahead/behind the remote branch, stashes, modified/deleted/added/staged files, etc) when that becomes available.

Image

Didn't look like any of the example themes on ohmyposh.dev had the $RPROMPT stuff, which I guess would be difficult support for a cross-shell theming engine.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Nice. But I want to change the default terminal in gnome but gnome-files doesn't respect my choice. ...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

This might be right up your alley.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago