Why do you use the terminal?

Hi, everybody Recently, a guy noticed that I was using it and asked why? For me it because in Linux many things are done through the terminal because Linux has many different desktop environments

He also compared terminal commands with cheat codes in GTA and other games, he understands what benefits you take from them, but not from terminal commands

nomecks,

Because when you’re screwing with important systems it’s generally better to write scripts.

normalexit,
  1. Scripting is easier. Apps and commands can be composed together in simple repeatable scripts.
  2. looks cool.
  3. Remotely administer machines with the same interface and little lag.
M500,

It is quick. it does not need to load a bunch of things and in certain tasks, I can do multiple things at once.

I also find it easier to navigate and edit files with tab to complete.

helenslunch,
@helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

Because I have no other choice?

onlinepersona,

Because GUIs on linux don’t do everything that the CLI can. I use my computer for more than just browsing and editing documents, so the GUIs that do just that, don’t cut it.

Also, I’m on NixOS. There’s simply no way around the terminal - sadly.

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

mutter9355,

Mentioning you’re using NixOS is slowly becoming the new “I use arch btw”, isn’t it?

mcepl,
@mcepl@lemmy.world avatar

Yup, and “I use Gentoo” before that.

onlinepersona,

I’m not saying it as a source of pride. It’s incredibly annoying to me that I need to edit a file in order to manage my system instead of having a GUI like KDE’s to manage all the settings. On NixOS, there’s just no way around that at the moment.
Unfortunately, I don’t know another somewhat sane declarative distro. Do you? (No, not GUIX. That’s just NixOS with a ton more brackets and less packages).

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

iiGxC, (edited )

If I don’t know how to do something in gui: maybe click around or google it, it takes a while

If I don’t know how to do something in cli: command --help or man command 90% of the time I find what I need right away

amoroso,
@amoroso@lemmy.ml avatar

Because it’s the most effective and powerful tool for putting the Unix philosophy into practice.

BoringHusband,

Sometimes you’re not sitting at the machine you’re working on.

possiblylinux127,

Because its better

krellor,

I use a terminal whenever I'm doing work that I want to automate, is the only way to do something such as certain parameters being cli only, or when using a GUI would require additional software I don't otherwise want.

I play games and generally do rec time in a GUI, but I do all my git and docker work from the cli.

manito_manopla,
@manito_manopla@lemmy.ml avatar

Because it’s fun

Merulox,
@Merulox@lemmy.world avatar

This and work are the only real answers

princessnorah,
@princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Hardly. I self-host a bunch of VMs on a home server. It would be a waste of resources having window managers running them just so I can click around once in a while. Also, it takes way more time to set up a container in Docker Desktop compared to just copying across a command to the terminal from a setup guide.

technologicalcaveman,

It's an one in all tool. I like that I can do almost everything through one program.

Venat0r,

Because its easy to make a script that can chain together a bunch of commands for tasks i do frequently, so its only one manual step to do it.

Kjatten,

It’s easier than going through 10 menus (that are different depending on DE), because its universal on Linux systems

hperrin,

My server doesn’t have a GUI, so the terminal is what’s there. As for my desktop, terminal is just easier for some things. And for my own stuff, it’s easier and faster than building a GUI for all the things I’m doing.

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