Do You Prefer the Command Line or a GUI When Administering Your Linux Desktop?
 

Based on feedback in this thread, the official LQ polls continue. Next up, Do You Prefer The Command Line Or A GUI When Administering Your Linux Desktop?

Note that we'll likely have a follow-up poll along the line of "Do You Prefer the Command Line or a GUI When Working in a Linux Desktop?", but I'd be interested in getting feedback on whether or not the distinction is large enough.

--jeremy

Some things CLI is better, somethings the GUI is easier.

I prefer:
Command line for server setup and initial config of linux on a desktop.

Gui for all subsequent configuration so that the user can do it themselves.

I answered Gui to the question because I believe that most configuration after initial setup is done that way. However, I prefer command line otherwise.

CLI for server management, GUI for desktop management.

Guess it depends on what your definition of administration is, but anyway I will always choose CLI over a GUI

CLI.

If it has to be done on multiple boxes then CLI (so it can be scripted whenever possible)

good point. when administering (http server, ssh server, scp, ...) i'd prefer to script it...

when working on actual stuff (email, video-conferencing, web browsing) i prefer gui.

Thanks for the feedback. At this time it seems likely we'll have an additional poll.

--jeremy

While I didn't see that before I posted this poll, it's always possible there will be some overlap between official polls and member posted polls.

--jeremy

No preference. I do what I need to do under the medium I can best access things.

Desktop to me means just a general use system, not a server.

If I have a display environment and my distro provides widgets to view and control something like speaker volume, or WIFI choice, then I just use the UI widgets that are there.

If I need to do something like edit my bash_profile or change my user group configuration, then I use the command line.

I work with older hardware and limited resources.
 

While I prefer a GUI interface, I generally use lightweight desktops, like icewm, lxde or openbox, and find myself using the command line when I can't find the appropriate GUI.

Both!
 

GUI for most things, CLI for trouble-shooting & repair? I guess that's it...

Prefer the Command line
 

I prefer the command line to sysadmin tasks, scripts etc.
Gui is nice - but often I find I want to do something the GUI does not support and I find the command line is easier to troubleshoot and is more flexible.

I find the command line to be the best for me. I'm kind of old and started back with Unix, some Sun stuff, and then tried Linux when it was new. I was then a Windows user for a while, I even owned a Mac - still do, I guess. For me the command line is better because I understand it better and it usually means I've either learned something or am learning something. I like to see what I'm doing and how it's interacting with the system. If I'm not breaking something then I'm not trying hard enough.

Anyhow, I've recently reverted to using Linux exclusively. I just got tired of the Windows games, sure you can be secure (relatively) but do you really want to have to go through all that effort? I actually resigned from the MVP program quite some time ago. These days, Linux just works. I like the command line because it lets me work with it and I don't always know what the GUI is doing - I like to know. I like to tinker. I enjoy breaking stuff. I've changed my distro more times in a day than I've eaten - just for fun.

So, yeah... My answer to your next poll will be the same. I do as much as I can through the command line - even things I can do with the GUI and know how to do with the GUI. I'll always look for a command line method, save it to a text file (it's kind of bloated and sloppy) and learn from it. I've only been back on Linux for a couple of years and only exclusively back on Linux for six months or so. As it is, I jump from distro to distro - sometimes not even bothering to install but just to run it from a Live USB (everything gets saved on the network here and RAM is cheap).

I guess I include the extra information to kind of explain it. I doubt I'm unique in these regards. I was "late" to computers. I didn't start until the early 1980s. ;) You'll pry my TRS-80 from my cold dead hands! Or from my wheelbarrow, it's heavy and I am lazy.

Edit: I think the TRS-80 was the first PC I owned, now that I think about it. I think I had to buy memory to give me the ability to type lowercase characters. This was quite a while ago. The first computer I touched was just a dumb terminal, however.

That's my take also. Use Gui most of the time but command line for trouble-shooting and repair. Sometimes also to install new stuff.

I use either, depending on the situation, but, when I'm using Fluxbox, it's CLI all the way. When I'm using Enlightenment, I use Enlightenment's GUI tools for Enlightenment stuff.

I prefer CLI for everything but browsin' the web, watchin' videos, editing documents & some misc. tasks like managing torrents & IM. If it's possible, I always configure things via CLI just because it's scriptable & you know where the config is so you can easily deploy it to any number of machines.

note that preference dose not imply what one do regularly. i use the cli more often, but prefer the gui if it is easy enough. e.g. i never manage networkmanager through cli (in my desktop at least), it is much easier through gui. and i think all desktop applications should have a gui, after the cli of course, cause life is nothing without cli in linux.

I use cli except for when I use gui which is about 50% of the time. No option for this so no vote :-(

Without a doubt, GUI
 

I am not a geek, so I hate CLI. Use it only when it is strictly necessary.

Command Line
 

You mean there's a GUI?

.. all these great minds thinking alike - I prefer gui for desktop work and cli for headless (of course) or server and remote access. Sometimes you get both depending on the application / software availabale.

Why am I not allowed to answer this poll?

I received an email that it existed, so I followed the link in the email.

Why would you send one if I can't answer it?

- Leigh

CLI AND GUI - not CLI OR GUI
 

I use both regularly. In Fedora 16 links on the task bar above make it easy to open a new app, but alt-tab works for switching already opened apps.
I use lots of aliases and commands in the CLI. GUI is good for menus when you don't know what your options are - provided all options are listed.
I'd hate to have to choose between them - I want both.
Thanks.

I prefer the command line for almost everything configuration-wise though I will use the GUI tools to configure the GUI as that makes sense. Using the command line for updating and installing applications and changing configuration means I can work on my desktop from my laptop easily too.

CLI is all I have
 

As a Slackware user I would say CLI is the obvious choice at my end

I am now most of the time on Debian where I use aptitude. It is kind-of a GUI in the CLI. Still, for everything else, I strictly use the CLI and am completely lost when it is not an option. I actually see that mostly as a limitation on my side, however. Still, I barely touch the mouse in a day. I guess that I could mostly live without X if the console had more colours... although I do not administrate servers.

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

GUI or Command line?
 

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 am a lazy admin
 

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.

Making CLI impossible is a flaw that should not exist
 

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

this poll is too open ended.
 

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

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

Preference for GUI or cli
 

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.

CLI or 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

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

Whats a gui:))

Frequently the options available in the GUI are limited. And when the desired option is available sometimes the changes don't "take". So most of the time I go straight to the CLI to do administer my systems.

My servers run without GUI, so the question is moot ....

What problem are you having attempting to vote?

--jeremy

As others have mentioned, a GUI for everyday stuff, CLI for troubleshooting. And with more and more applications becoming web-based and not dependent on proprietary Microsoft protocols and formats, there is a growing opportunity for Linux desktop systems to become more adopted by mainstream users. But that means a well thought-out GUI, preferably one not drastically different from distro to distro.

I use the CLI. But my boxes do not run a desktop. There could have been an option for that