I’m not sure how I accidently deleted the stuff, I was moving my config files from being stored in Subversion to git, using this method. I must have accidently rm -rf them somehow. This is my problem, it’s incredibly easy to shoot yourself in the foot from the command-line.

I’ve always used a combination of the GUI and shell, my first proper computer was an Amiga 500+ which, while it had an amazing modern GUI while Windows was still stuck with 3.1, also had a pretty good shell interface. Not quite up to unix standards, but much better than DOS. So I’ve always used both, depending on what was easiest for the task.

When I switched to Windows (after my last Amiga died on me), I started using the GUI much more heavily since DOS is so underpowered. When a short time later I switched to Linux though that got reversed since the Linux GUI at the time wasn’t so hot and the shell was incredibly powerful. So I currently default to using the shell, which makes me nice and productive but also means I’m working without a safety net.

If recent experience is anything to go by, I either need to start relying on the GUI much more or I need to find myself an idiot-proof shell. Since I don’t think the latter is possible it looks like I’ll be GUI-focused from now on. This is going to be a hard transition for me, much like giving up a narcotic, but I think it is necessary.

I’m going to start this transition at the same time as I install KDE 4, which is looking excellent in my tests on my EeePC by the way. I could almost transition now, there are just a couple of things (that are in the works) that I need before I can convert. A Network-Manager controlling plasmoid being the main one.

That way I only have to relearn how to do things in one GUI, rather than learning how to do it in KDE 3.5 and then a new way in 4. I’m not going to give up the shell completely mind, just change my balance so it is 80/20 in favour of the GUI instead of the other way round.

Wish me luck.