Hello everyone.

As the title says, I’m considering to ditch my graphical environment, because I find it very distracting, especially because I can think about playing video games or browsing the web mindlessly when I should be studying. And when I’m studying, those thoughts wander inside my head, and it sucks.

So, moving to a TTY environment, and using terminal programs, is the only way I find to avoid those intrusive thoughts and any other distraction. But I’m afraid that I’ll be very limited somehow, because there aren’t enough programs to fulfill my needs, or because those programs cannot perform as many tasks as their graphical counterparts.

I know some programs that I can use, like Links, Vim/Emacs, mpd, Ranger, and tmux, as well as some rogue-like games, like DCSS, Angband and NetHack. I also heard about framebuffer, but I don’t know how it works.

Did any of you experimented with TTY? How long did you last inside it?

  • aes @beehaw.orgEnglish
    7·
    1 year ago

    A very interesting and crazy proposition, but I think you’re asking the wrong question. There are definitely ways of removing distractions from your environment without resorting to something so drastic.

    E.g. have you considered creating a user with restricted access to certain programs (example) and set up add-ons for web browsers that restrict access to certain websites?

    • Ignacio [he/him]@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I’ve never created other users besides the one that is created during installation. And I don’t know how restriction can be done.

      I used browser plug-ins to restrict access to certain sites, but only for main domains, not for subdomains.

      • aes @beehaw.orgEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        I’m a huge proponent of the command line, but you often spend more time learning tools and configuring your environment than getting work done.

        I’d instead recommend you start with learning basic system administration for Linux. User management and permissions on https://linuxjourney.com/ or TLCL would be a good place to start. Of course there’s a good chance your desktop environment has ways of configuring users and permissions, too.

        Ublock origin has a very powerful URL filtering system, e.g. https://beehaw.org/c/gaming$document blocks you from accessing the gaming community on beehaw, but doesn’t stop you from accessing https://beehaw.org or other communities on the site.

        • livendie@beehaw.orgEnglish
          3·
          1 year ago

          I’m a huge proponent of the command line, but you often spend more time learning tools and configuring your environment than getting work done.

          I agree with this. I remember spending soo much of my time learning and configuring my environment, the time just seemed to fly by.
          These days I prefer to just log into xfce and get some work done. I still use my sweet setup of bspwm from time to time tho, will not forget it.