GUI VS Terminal

[Mr B]

oh yea, typing one handed comes in real handy sometimes.....

Gentlemen, really!!

[Mr B]

Have you experimented with fonts in GUI mode to see if one is easier on you than another.

Good idea, hadn't thought of that - could be helpful

[Mr B]

But honestly, ppl are different and like dif. approaches to computing. What's the point in labeling ppl? Using GUI progs
makes one a n00b? Formal logic anyone?

There does seem to be a bit of an almost "macho" thing going on at times with the CLI, don't you think?

[Telemachus]

There does seem to be a bit of an almost "macho" thing going on at times with the CLI, don't you think?

Honestly, I don't. The gui is great for lots of things, but it's slow and clumsy for a huge number of tasks. Why use the wrong tool for the job?

[hkoster1]

Though I don't have any empirical results on it, my experience tells me that banging away with 2 or 4 fingers in a terminal session avoids getting RSI. I've spent as much time writing stuff in a terminal (using vi and LaTeX, btw) as any departmental secretary would using M$ Word, yet it's always them getting the RSI complaints, not me and other CLI adepts.

[Ook]

oh yea, typing one handed comes in real handy sometimes.....

Gentlemen, really!!

Leastwise for GUI guys.

[RawMustard]

I've found that people that dislike the terminal are the kinds that have not learned to harness the power of it.

It's what I think gives linux a huge edge over windows and it saddens me that soooooo many want it hidden from new linux users.

I think GUI apps are very important, but to see a lot of new linux apps with no cli interface is concerning, linux is being too dumbed down by the likes of ubuntu and such

An oh, I didn't vote because it was a stupid question, each has its strengths and uses, I use both!

[Issyer]

I didn't vote because it was a stupid question, each has its strengths and uses, I use both!

Sure it is. There's Glade Designer which builds GTK-2 GUI in minutes. I am using it right now because I am sick and tired that there is no nice POV-Ray texture editor in the world. I'll make right.

[MikJP]

Is it just me or are 90% of the answers and steps to linux issues in terminal format rather than GUI?

There has been many times that a large list of code was rolled out that a simple right click / edit with the mouse could have done faster.

This might be true if you happen to have installed the same desktop environment and same GUI tools.

And maybe people in Debian forum are more command line oriented than the people in the Ubuntu forum

[vpsville]

I'm a big fan of Debian and use it on all our servers, but for programming we use MS Visual Studio and publish it via SFTP. Nothing beats MS Studio for programming. You don't even need to use its compiler to benefit from it.

[jtodd]

I'm a big fan of Debian and use it on all our servers, but for programming we use MS Visual Studio and publish it via SFTP. Nothing beats MS Studio for programming. You don't even need to use its compiler to benefit from it.

Both Vim and Emacs beat MS studio for programming.

[danieldk]

I'm a big fan of Debian and use it on all our servers, but for programming we use MS Visual Studio and publish it via SFTP. Nothing beats MS Studio for programming. You don't even need to use its compiler to benefit from it.

And then pay big bucks for every tool you need. I absolutely prefer the latest g++ installments, valgrind (Linux-only), gdb, gprof and others. Besides that Eclipse 3.4 + CDT is a fine environment for doing C/C++ development if you are looking for a Visual Studio work-alike. And if there's a problem with your development libraries, you can actually read the source code to find the problem and solve it.

[Issyer]

And then pay big bucks for every tool you need.

I tried Komodo IDE.
http://www.activestate.com/Products/kom ... ndex.mhtml

Why do they say it's the nicest IDE? I haven't noticed anything significant about it? The editor is very weak. Jedit is much better. It lacks emacs's niceties, though.

[Christmas]

This has been discussed over and over again. I'm not sure if here on the Debian forums though.

Usually the arguments I bring in favor of sending explanations and documentation in CLI are:
- more likely to work on different desktop environments, different distributions (but not all of the time) which come with older or too new versions of applications
- explaining via GUI applications will include screenshots and/or additional explanations like 'press the button below the other one, to the right of the other widget and so on'
e.g. It's easier to say

Code: Select all

apt-get install amarok

as root, rather than 'Open Synaptic which is located there... Oh, wait, you don't have GNOME? What then? KDE? OK.... Than do that...
- less bandwidth (for whom it matters, although this one is not a solid argument)

I found myself in the position that following a tutorial with plenty of screenshots confuses me more than three lines of code. Of course, new users must be careful what they type in their terminal.

As for the question itself, I use both CLI and GUI. I prefer viewing a movie or an image using a GUI rather than aview, of course. I use GUI applications for browsing and music listening too. But sometimes I prefer command-line utilities (or TUI) for tasks like IRC, various audio/video conversions etc. A while ago I wrote an article on my blog regarding how I use CLI and how GUI, although not very comprehensive, it also explains some of the aspects for which I consider CLI more powerful.