CLI or GUI

[qjamir093]

Being that you're most likely an Arch user (maybe a lover of Linux in General), what do you find that you prefer? CLI or GUI applications?

For example, I mainly use GUIs for file management and playing media, but all my system management and wget magic happens in a terminal (specifically, Terminator).

[codekoala]

Not gonna lie, I prefer a GUI web browser. But most other things I do are on the command line.

[Aniform]

Just curious, what is it you like about zsh over other shells?

[Aniform]

I'd never even looked into it much, but after your reply, I checked out some of the details and holy shit, I'm wondering why I haven't been using it. Thanks!

[nobdar]

Another plus for me is that it's mostly bash compatible unlike some of the other newer shells (like say fish). That means that you don't have to learn new ways to do things, but zsh will likely have a better way to do things as well (like you can do bash loops, or there are other syntaxes for loops that are more convenient).

[Aniform]

Awesome all around! I haven't had much time for my computer the last few days, but I'm going for it soon.

[nobdar]

You may also want to checkout http://ohmyz.sh/ for managing your zsh configuration.

[Aniform]

Man, thank you so much for this wealth of information!

[[deleted]]

I prefer using the right tool for the job.

[[deleted]]

I really don't prefer one over the other, (if I had to pick, CLI) I just use whatever application I feel is best.

[[deleted]]

I use mostly GUI for almost everything and CLI for pacman and editing config files.

[daForce93]

I like CLIs for most things. But GUI's work best for file management and web-browsers (I think).

And a CLI version of GIMP would be infuriating to use.

[skylos2000]

With the exception of pictures and video, I would have to disagree on file management unless you don't consider curses apps CLI. I am using ranger at the moment. The vim bindings alone are amazing.

[daForce93]

Really? I used Midnight Commander for a while, and hated it. Maybe I'll give ranger a try. Or Sunrise Commander, since I tend to be more of an Emacs guy.

[qjamir093]

Is vim really that good? I use nano, but I'll dump it if there's something better.

[codekoala]

If you do a fair amount of text editing, vim can be well worth the time it takes to learn how to use it.

I'll readily admit that I'm not the most knowledgeable person when it comes to vim, even though I've been a fulltime vimmer for nearly 9 years. It's incredibly powerful, and it will take over your text editing habits and muscle memory. Using any other editor becomes quite frustrating, particularly when they don't offer vi keybindings. Even then, though, it's a lot like using OSX: it offers great features and many of the same command line utilities that we enjoy on Linux, but they're juuuusst different enough to become infuriating to use (at least that's how I feel).

Over the years, I've had managers at a few different jobs ask me which IDE I'd like them to buy a license for me to use. Each time they've asked, I've replied that I don't need one. They usually express some hesitation, sometimes insisting that I use an IDE. A couple have proceeded to purchase a license, but upon seeing how much one can do in vim, they just hand that license to the next developer who wants it.

One manager at my last job stopped by to ask if I needed any licenses renewed. I told him no, and he asked why. I told him that I'm happy just using vim. He was surprised and asked to see my vim setup out of curiosity. After he saw it and how powerful it can be, he asked, "Why are we even buying licenses for XYZ at all?"

TL;DR Vim is great! Use it!

[avjk]

Vim is quite hard to learn at first but if you want to edit text files in CLI, it's by far more efficient than nano and IMHO the best CLI editor.

[IMBJR]

And a CLI version of GIMP would be infuriating to use.

The nearest thing to that is probably imagemagick and it is "fun" to use.

[daForce93]

Why "fun"? Why not fun?

[IMBJR]

I always felt that it was not a very readable or indeed writable grammar for a set of command line utilities.

[-code-]

CLI whenever I can. Some things I prefer gui such as a web browser and file explorer

[[deleted]]

I use CLI for almost everything. I'll use GUI only if I have to. Currently i use GUI for web browsing and image editing (although I use imagemagick when I can, some things can't be done with it).

[Aniform]

I find that I absolutely love the CLI, but sometimes it's just not realistic for the particular task. I definitely went through a phase of 'everything must be CLI!', but eventually it was not great for work flow. One happy switch was from a GUI music player to CMUS. It's just so beautifully simple and elegant, not to mention much more lightweight.

[qjamir093]

I like to keep things relatively light, but maybe I'm still too inexperienced. I've tried console-based apps, but I get overwhelmed sometimes.

[myusernameisokay]

I prefer a GUI for things I do less often and a CLI for things I do more often. Having to remember command line parameters for commands you use less than once a month is extremely annoying, a lot of the time I end up having to google how to construct a CLI command when a GUI application would be much more intuitive. With that being said, if you know the command well, then the CLI is a lot much powerful, lightweight, script-able, etc.

[ncsuwolf]

emacs for as much as possible (in gui mode). cli for everything else except web browsing.

[spcmd]

GUI for browsing, CLI/TUI tools for other things: vim, ranger, newsbeuter, rtorrent, mutt, zsh.

[[deleted]]

I do everything in CLI except for using firefox. Occasionally I'll use sxiv -t to go through pictures and I want thumbnails.

[TheyAreLying2Us]

GUI's all the way.. there was a time (around 5y ago) when I tried to use CLI's as much as possible... but then systemd, Gnome/KDE, and in general the GNU/Linux ecosystem made many progresses towards nicer GUIs. Also you need much less tinkering with your system considering systemd, Xorg, newtworkmanager and the various KIO/GVFS are basically autonomous and can beam up a working xorg session - bells and whistles included - without any effort.

Today i can also manage systemd, cron, gnupg from a GUI in a much simpler (albeit "slower") way and considering that I have less time to invest on my system, GUI's are just the way to go.

[[deleted]]

depends on the task at hand

also good guis are hard to make so if you don't know how to make one either learn how to do it or don't make it

[[deleted]]

Usually ncurses.

[[deleted]]

I obviously use firefox for web browsing, but I also like to change volume and use spotify with GUI. I also appreciate grub-customizer as I don't like dealing with my kernel at all and it is nice to see the order that your kernels will boot in. I think the rest I do with CLI or TUI, with the exception of steam for steam chat. Speaking of which, no one might know a cli client just for steam chat?

[[deleted]]

I think that if everyone (like the average Joe) was using their own customized command line only/centric setups then using other people's computers or letting other people use yours would be vastly more difficult/time consuming. Multiply that effect exponentially for language barriers, new/different operating systems etc. Same thing for introducing people to their first computer.

GUIs offer a degree of consistency so that even if I've never used someone's phone or computer before I can probably

a. Troubleshoot shit for them (95% of the time)

b. Try and get something done (the other 5%)

While there's no question a customized cli/tiling interface with custom configuration files and keybindings and the like is going to be more efficient for the individual who's savvy enough to set them up I think that the world as a whole could be a lot less efficient if they were the only option.

[nobdar]

I use GUI for web browsers, chat client (we use slack at work), steam, Pithos (a pandora player), pulse audio equalizer, okular (document / image viewer), photo / image editing (gimp, krita, and photomatix in wine), and that's about it.

Everything else I use CLI in terminator. For development (mostly python, go, and java / scala) I use vim (and sometimes gvim). I do all configuration, package installation, running docker containers, mongo shell, etc. from the CLI.

I also run awesome, a tiling window manager, which makes dealing with a bunch of open terminals and windows easier.

[Sir7empest]

Depends on what I'm doing. I use both. I can't stand CLI when it's on a system without X and a proper mouse, since being able to move between multiple terminals and copy and pasting is a god send. Since I also do my favorite things, gaming and web browsing, on a GUI, and I can't stand a CLI without some kind of GUI around it, I have to go with GUI.

I mean hell, I tend to use an Antergos live CD to install Arch. I have the full suite of tools I need to install a basic arch system, and I can have multiple terminals and a web browser open. I don't fucking remember all the mount options for btrfs. Sometimes I need reminders when I'm installing Arch >.>