Re: Debian: A noob query
On Fri, 25 Nov 2011 05:09:08 -0500
Sam Vagni <sam.vagni@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> What in fact is 'midnight commander', is it distro specific or
> application or software...? Didn't get this point....Is it a file
> manager like Nautilus or Dolpin (I heard of them...)?
>
It's an application for any Linux distribution. It is mainly a file
manager and simple text editor, with a few other admin-type bells and
whistles. The name comes from the days of DOS, thirty-ish years ago,
when Peter Norton's Norton Commander was very popular. The mc looks
quite like NC did.
It's important because it is a text-mode program, and is probably the
most popular file manager for servers, which generally do not have a
GUI installed. There was at one time an X-based version, but I believe
there currently is not one.
As the previous poster said, it is easy to run as root, using sudo in a
terminal. That's pretty much how you need to run X-based file managers
as root, but 'sudo mc' is quick and easy to remember. The terminal will
still accept most commands while mc stays open, so chown and chmod
commands can be entered either as text or through the mc menus.
The bottom line is that it is the most GUI-like of the text file
managers and editors, and a basic familiarity with it is extremely
useful when (not if) you one day have problems getting X to start. I
use Nautilus almost all the time when actually using a Linux computer,
but mc for all admin work.
--
Joe
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