OT: Windows, a command-line OS (Was: Re: Not for me.)

[Alois Mahdal <Alois.Mahdal.1-ndmail@zxcvb.cz>]

On Mon, 4 Mar 2013 22:59:33 +0100
""Morel Bérenger"" <berenger.morel@neutralite.org> wrote:

> Le Lun 4 mars 2013 22:26, Joe a écrit :
> > On Mon, 04 Mar 2013 14:54:50 -0600
> > Yaro Kasear <yaro@marupa.net> wrote:
> > Mark is wrong, Windows is also a command-line OS.
> 
> Hum... for windows 9x (and Me, and 3.x) ok, since they are
> based on MSDOS, but for NT family, there is no way to run it
> without graphical layer. In that family, the commandline is
> an option, unlike graphical modes, and unlike linux
> distributions, where the graphical stuff is optional.

I agree.

I have done quite a bit of AV software testing, which in some
cases involved a little bit of "OS-breaking".  I have never seen
NT-like Windows without GUI.  About the closest I could get was:

*   a "desktop" (read: single-colored background) with cmd.exe
    window, which IIRC you can achieve via one of Safe Mode
    options (torture F8 when booting)

    Yes, window just as you know it.  So maybe explorer.exe
    is not running, but the window manager is.

*   visually, BSOD or bootup scandisk session is in text mode,
    maybe the latter could be interrupted somehow (?)


> Well, I might be wrong, I'm not an admin... but if one here
> knows how to remove, say, explorer.exe, I would be very happy
> to learn how to [...]

Maybe a good start:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_shell_replacement



<div class="tl;dr">

> [...] since it would mean I could replace the
> buggy (I stopped at windows XP, it may explain my harsh
> words... or not.) graphical stuff with something more stable.

Maybe I'm wearing pink glasses, maybe bugs are afraid of me,
maybe it's kind of like Stockholm syndrome or maybe I'm just a
lucky bastard.  But I don't remember having real problems with
explorer.exe in past like three years. (Win 7 but formerly XP
at work...)

(Or maybe my memory does a good editing job for
me--Except for occasional gaming I have managed to avoid Win
for almost three months now.)


Also, about the CLI: I have also written quite bunch of cmd.exe
scripts, and my experience is that basically what worked in
2000, worked the same all the way up to Win 8.

For Windows CLI syntax, there has been some "evolution"
(command.com => cmd.exe) which happened to turn the mess into a
big mess. It was positive, though:  with command.com, it was
only spaghetti. With cmd.exe, it was like spaghetti ON STEROIDS.
(Read: stronger than you and agressive to your brain.)

</div>


Thanks,
aL.

-- 
Alois Mahdal