[clue-tech] Using a terminal/console for the desktop

[Jed S. Baer]

On Fri, 11 Jan 2008 11:39:03 -0500
Angelo Bertolli wrote:

> Does anyone know of a package or way that I can turn the default 
> "desktop" (i.e. that thing that has a background and displays the 
> ~/Desktop folder) into just a console/terminal application?  I wasn't 
> able to find anything that does this on search.

Depending on what you really mean by this, the answer is yes or no.

You can run a Linux box with a serial console. That means you'll just get
the login prompt, and you can run CLI programs. I do this for my Oracle
server box. On my main machine, I run minicom in an xterm to connect to a
serial port, which is connected by null-modem cable to a serial port on
the server. I don't do much in that terminal session. Since the server is
on the network, I use X forwarding over SSH to run some things, or VNC to
bring up a desktop from it on my main box.

As far as displaying the "Desktop" folder, that's an application-specific
activity. What functionality are you looking for here? You can, for
example, display the contents of the ~/Desktop directory in GNU's
Midnight Commander, and perform file operations. Or just cd ~/Desktop and
then do ls, cat, vi, and other command from the command line.

jed