... On the other hand I realise that I have a second screen with Firefox, etc. so GUI only but no administration is done there.

beginner to Linux and GUI fan. Have done a little command line, and hope to do more, but lazy is such an easy learning curve.

I have been told many times over the years that all good admins are lazy. If I have to do something more than once I will try to script it. as a result I will usually try to do it once to see how it works, once to get the code right and once to run the code with monitoring. (OK instead of "once" read "as many times as I need to in order to get it right"). As a result I had to vote CLI.

Using a GUI to make things is nice. But GUIs involve many things that are not always available.

Over the years, I have been very frustrated, many times, with things that are:

"easy to do with GUI, but a current problem makes it impossible to use the GUI, and the CLI steps to do are hard".

Most of those times, the steps for doing it in the "text mode command line" were much much harder than they could be. But the design is not eventually made to consider it more than a "last resort always work" thing - which is one of the worst decision I have seen in more "modern" (or just recent) distros or WM.

CLI does not mean hard. CLI does not mean unintuitive. CLI does not mean slow. CLI does not mean experts only. When it means that, it usually also means that something is not as good as it can be.

... that should say most of what I thought... I was interrupted a few times while writing this, using a no CLI interface, so no guarantee it makes sense... xD

My choice was "no preference" because it all depends on what it is you're trying to do. If it's a repetitive job or setting up multiple units, cli. But if it's just tweaking your own box and there is a widget there for that purpose, the answer is "duh!", the widget, of course!
You need to design a better poll for this question.

Definitely CLI.

GUIs, even simple ones, make too many assumptions that get in the way of doing my job.

- Leigh

suffering migraines and actually having memory loss after a migraine , i need the GUI .
Sucks as once i knew CLI for dos and now that is long gone forgotten !
Wish i could have learned Linux as it is now back then and continued using it ,practice makes perfect and re-enforces memory !
But i agree with the above comment who stated a lot of problems being addressed are problems with the original code/program and sucks when u have to go in and do anything to get a system to work smoothly !

but will edit by line to get it to work

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Like @Chuk said "Some things CLI is better, somethings the GUI is easier.", ... and I totally concur. Working on admin-tasks in GUI mode is quick and easy for a lot of things that need little tweaks here and there. Much of the CLI stuff I do is usually for program compilation, installation from Apt, [like when Synaptic is having a hissy-fit and refuses to finish getting the update-lists, etc, or an update stalls in mid-flight...], or debugging scripts, etc. But for general day to day stuff... GUI is preferred.

L-R

GUI if that has the necessary and efficient means to accomplish my task otherwise the cli. It should go without saying (so here goes) one does not execute custom scripts from a GUI.

I use the CLI for most things. Often need to use output of a command and pipe to a grep filter or even an awk filter to see the data I'm interested in. Also make good use of the history feature in bash.

CLI

I like things in ncurses, like mc, aptitude, vlc -I ncurses *.mp3, etc. It combines flexibility with easy usability.

I love MATE as a DE, and use it for most daily operations. I use the command line every day, if only to run htop and perform upgrades. Apt-cache search is also near the top of my list, and nano gets used once-twice a week.

In other words, both.

This question fails to address the level of ability the user has.

Those who have higher skills in Linux, I can see the CLI being a more productive way of doing things.
Those who have less skills and knowledge of linux, I can see the GUI being a more productive way of doing things.


My Skills are minuscule compared to most linux operators out there. I can do some command line stuff, but that knowledge
can fit on the head of a pin compared to most of you. I still try, and enjoy learning, but sometimes it is much easier for
me to use some kind of GUI.

So my answer will be the use of GUI with stuff I do not know, and mixture of CLI and GUI for the stuff that I do know.
Unfortunately, for my ability, it is GUI the wins out most of the time.

What would be nice, is a Txt file or PDF file of the correct ways to use a CLI to accomplish what you need to do. I read
many many threads on here, trying to find what I need to do, but if there was some kind of PDF or TXT file that has a load of
Stuff that you can look through to accomplish something with CLI, that would be wonderful.

For example, I have to look up every time, how to install VMware on my linux system. It would be nice to be able to find it
in a text file, convert the bundle to an executable, and then know you can run it from a CLI with full root access. I would be
willing to help out with forming such a Text file too. Not only would it benefit me, as a very neophyte user, but it know it
will benefit others LIKE me. The file does not have to be complicated. It only needs to be explanatory on the procedures. I
have a similar file for C/C++ programming. This file may be large, but a quick search is all it takes. And the procedures are
procedures I rarely do, and always seem to forget after a few years of never seeing them, or using them.

Dwayne

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As others have posted GUI for the simple things CLI for the rest