My first computer experience was with a Commodore. I would like to have Linux computer work similar to that. I was wondering if it was possible to have something similar using Linux.
What I would like to see is when I boot my machine into the command-line, and not into a GUI but have graphical resources available. So when I type say: Firefox, the program, and its graphical interface be made available. When I exit Firefox it returns to the command-line. If I need to browse the file system say I typed: XFE or whatever manager is being used and it come up and allow me to browse the folder, and when I exit then it return to the command-line again. So the ability to run, manage and use programs without having to use a GUI but have graphics available.
It would be nice to have all this geared toward programming. So at the BASH command-line, have the ability to call up a compiler environment IDE and just start writing programs without being distracted by a desktop environment.
And if more than one graphical program is running then have a tabbed window manager I guess. Is this feasible or am I dreaming?
Best Answer
I think you can get what you want using a Tiling Window Manager, like i3 or xmonad. There are other minimalistic window managers with similar functionality. i3 and xmonad are both in Ubuntu repositories, so they are easy to install, and then you can select them in your login screen.