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

art,
@art@lemmy.world avatar

Some applications take some time to load up visual elements that you don’t need before you can start using it. When you got a lot of work to do sometimes that just slows you down.

A lot of CLI programs do one thing and do it well while also working excellently in custom scripts.

Presi300,
@Presi300@lemmy.world avatar

Makes me feel like a hacker and makes other ppl think that I’m smarter than I am… That and there are certain things that are just more convenient through the terminal

PlasterAnalyst,

I don't use it very often because my memory is for shit so I need gui options to be right in front of me.

lolcatnip,

If you use it often that stops being a problem. You remember command names like they’re your friends.

meyotch,

history | grep *

cbarrick,

I’m a software developer. I think about my interactions with computers as language. And Posix shell is a pretty good programming language.

So interacting with the computer this way just makes sense to my monkey brain.

Tiuku,

I’m a shell user too, but as programming languages I would rate Bash utter garbage. Fine for little piping but for longer scripts I will be reaching for Haskell.

cbarrick,

Shell and Haskell are for different purposes.

Shell is for composing tools that work on text streams.

Haskell is for writing new tools or for programming against other (more structured) data models.

Also, shell programs are small. The interpreter can be tiny. Re-compiling every new tool can add a ton of bloat.

Also also, the key to effective shell programming is to recognize it as a macro language.

Drito, (edited )

I do a bit of programming. Git help is about terminal commands. There are graphical front ends but I have to learn how to use them. I use terminal also for package management for the same reasons.

richieadler,

I’d say is similar with any source control software. It’s the same with me and Fossil. (And, granted, there are less plugins to support Fossil in IDEs; the one in Visual Studio Code/Codium does OK.)

knobbysideup,
@knobbysideup@sh.itjust.works avatar

You can easily pipeline simple things to do more complex things. That’s the point of written language.

lemmyvore,

Tell him you can “talk” directly to the computer that way.

azimir,

One of the other commenter made the analogy of being in a restaurant. With a mouse you can only point and grunt at things to communicate when you want. A terminal let’s you speak out your order and any other requests you might have.

clemdemort,
@clemdemort@lemmy.world avatar

For me it’s because I get a lot of feedback, if anything I do goes wrong I know why. Also it’s usually faster

GustavoM,
@GustavoM@lemmy.world avatar

Why not? It’s simple, lightweight, has a lot of interesting commands that fills its respective niche really well (btop, for instance) and (the best of all) it doesn’t explode my PC everytime I run such commands.

Goun,

Repeatibility (is that a word?) and scriptability. I find CLI tools easier to work with and easier to get information from them.

spader312,

You can use the terminal commands to automate tasks, build cicd etc. Navigating file tree and performing tasks is much quicker once you get the hang of it. Lastly it translates well on all distros and even on Mac, or windows with wsl or cygwin

exocortex,

One could ask in return “why do you use a mouse”. The answer is probably “I’ve always done it this way” and not “after trying out different methods it’s the one that i prefer”.

lightnsfw,

Because my first deep dive into Linux was a server I built that I didn’t install a desktop environment on.

Barbarian,
@Barbarian@sh.itjust.works avatar
superbirra,

a terminal is the ultimate gui for a lot of things especially w/ ncurses mouse support. You can open N terms and easily compose a dashboard which is exactly tailored to what you’re doing at the moment. A simple oneliner often solves a problem for which a gui simply does not exist / isn’t powerful enough. Terminal is the ultimate gui ftw from the space yay!

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