i dont feel comfortable using high level gui programs.

buttons here, buttons there, rows of tabs! then clicking on a tab reveals options, then having to read through all the options, most of which i wont use.

it makes my head spin and seems such a waste of my effort. its probably got alot to do with GUI design too, but whatever it is, i dont like it much, particularly for those types of programs that really dont justify being anything other than a commandline. the big desktop environments both scare and confuse me.

for all the extra reading thats involved, id much rather work on the commandline.

You,re comments is for me back to history . I started using Linux let say 20 years ago .At that time my oldest son was studying for its PhD he me catch at 23.30 hours using the Mid night commander and then he says to me working with Linux using the the Mid night commander so should give commands
Me answer was my boy it is nearly mid night so I have the rights to use the mid night commander.So you,re feelings are just as old as linux was there.
But I do understand knowing the basic commands of linux is very use full because not every cane be done using gui

all the best

There is actually an even bigger issue with GUI. Lemme try to explain what is my biggest problem with it...

To summarize it: The illusion that you know something of what you are doing when using a GUI. And yet the feeling persists in the back of your mind, a doubt that you do not know what you are doing at all, and that you don't understand what all the options mean or do.

So, this is a problem I've had with GUIs for some time, yet I still use many GUI programs. When I use a command line program I am forced to do look at the man page for that command and figure out how it works, and understand what the command does in a more exact manner. No so with a GUI. Usually there are some little question marks '?' or a 'Help' tab to supposedly help you out, but these are not like a man page, mostly because the GUI is more complicated than a CLI program would be, and they have to explain how to get to options 'File -> New -> Project -> etc.' that would be in the Help tab, for the '?' marks you get a vague summary of what it does which has NEVER helped me understand what the option is about, dunno about you. This extra complexity increases the about of documentation necessary for understand even basic concepts by a whole lot. Compare the length of documentation of a GUI vs CLI program and the amount of info and power you get out of it. Call it the documentation/competence ratio: the amount of documentation you need in order to be competent in using that program and maybe even do advanced things with it, which I might add is almost never possible with GUI programs. The more complicated a task gets the more complicated the GUI gets by orders of magnitude !

Now, GUI is useful, I think only in a few cases ... those in which visualization helps you to better understand and navigate a system or program. For example, I like GUI file managers, otherwise it would be more tedious to move around on the CLI. Lots of clicking compared to lots of typing. In the case of file managers, I prefer clicking and visualization over typing and a less visual aspect (a black screen with colored text).

H TeXMeX H in your fourth paragraph you forgot to mention photo editing and management. I can not visualize doing it from the command line.

Have a Unix Koan:
http://catb.org/~esr/writings/unix-k...rogrammer.html

Dave

Well, actually you can using different methods, but yes I prefer GUI for that too

What I mean is when I start using linux the midnight commander was all why have.
Using commands means that you have to understand the meanings of the commands and not only learning it by head it without knowing the meaning.
That is what I do not like in a OS that has only a gui in that case all you know is clicking on a icon to start a program.
That is why I have the bad habit even all the 3 distro I use has a packet manager I sometimes use the command line to install
programs , if it goes wrong I try to figure it out why , in my opinion that is the only way to get familiar with a OS


all the best

I'm pretty comfortable using either the CLI or GUI, but prefer the CLI. Makes me feel like a real hacker.

I mostly use a filer to naivgate to where I need to be then choose 'xterm here' and do what I'm doing that way. On the other hand, I use a version of ROX-filer and take much advantage from the drag-n-drop capabilities. I have quite a few small wrapper-type AppDirs that perform common actions when files/dirs are dropped on them. I use old hardware so this gives me great features without a lot of bloat -and since I write the apps myself I certainly know what they are doing.

The only thing i dislike about the CLI is that some of the commands can get long and obscure, which takes longer than a GUI in some cases. However with that aside i prefer the CLI because i can type everything i need out in 1 shot rather than click through many screens. I have no real preference except when it comes to programs that have loads of data that is easily represented in a GUI otherwise throw me a CLI program and i am happy.

Hi,

That's why you have aliases. That way you can have a easier time with the cli. Script tool boxes keep growing, pretty soon you need a index.

I like to mix my work with the cli & GUI. Somethings are just natural with the cli. But a GUI can enhance your work.

No doubt CLI is more powerful and usually less buggy. As said before, GUIs can encourage learning by random pointing and clicking, and this can be a very bad thing.

However, for many (simple) programs, the options are obvious or random clicking on options is a really quick way to learn everything a program can do. This saves the user from having to memorize lots of command line options. GUI's are also good for avoiding the keyboard (why someone would want to do that, I don't know) and devoting all your attention to the mouse, distracting you with its moving tail. Throwing up cryptic error messages is also a good way to distract users.

Hi,

I prefer no tail mice.

Wonders of wireless.

Wireless FTMFW! It's great that I don't have to play "tug of war" with my mouse anymore.

Also, there are many times I like using the CLI over the GUI, especially when it comes to batch copying and renaming. Even Microsoft decided to implement an exclusive CLI mode in their Windows Server 2008 -- that is "Windows without the windows" .

Not to mention their upcoming minWin and modularized Windows 7 - just rewriting their own version of Linux if you ask me. Look out for patent infringements Linus!