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submitted 1 year ago by seitanic@lemmy.sdf.org to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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[-] bleistift2@feddit.de 33 points 1 year ago

I can’t relate at all to the GUI hate. A GUI you can explore. “What does this button do?” “What changes when I enter a value here?”

How does that compare to a command prompt? How would you even start guessing commands?

[-] TootSweet@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Not to say this is gospel truth or anything. It's just why I virtually always prefer a command line over a GUI. (Within reason.)

  • GUIs almost always hides/obfuscates/abstracts things that are going on under the hood in a way that text doesn't.
  • Anything I can do from a Bash terminal, I can automate pretty trivially. (Or even just press "up" and then "enter" to quickly redo it a second time.)
  • Pointing devices feel awkward and imprecise for a lot of operations. Pretty great for FPSs. Sometimes a necessary evil for image editing. Slow and sucky for setting a boolean value or putting your text cursor between two specific characters in a paragraph of text.
  • It's good to be able to use a terminal when your GUI's broken or frozen. Ctrl+alt+f2 or if even that doesn't work, ssh in from another box (or your phone).
  • It's a lot easier to paste a Bash one-liner into a chat or text file than describe a series of mouse clicks.
  • You learn a lot using Bash that you don't learn using GUIs. And that can come in handy.
[-] oscar@programming.dev -4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
$ command -h
$ command --help
$ man command

I have a lot of tab completions installed, too, so i can also just hit tab to get a list of all possible options, etc.

[-] bleistift2@feddit.de 9 points 1 year ago

You’re already assuming that command is a valid command. That’s an invalid assumption for an unitiated user. On the other hand, a first-time user can click on icons, or hover over them to find the tool tip. (That name in itself suggests that the GUI should be explored rather than taught.)

[-] oscar@programming.dev -2 points 1 year ago

That would be similar to saying you are assuming the user has opened the gui application, not just randomly clicking the desktop.

Of course I'm assuming they already know what application they want to use before exploring its capabilities.

this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2023
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