Linked by Greg Afinogenov on Wed 3rd Sep 2003 07:19 UTC
It is not fashionable nowadays to speak of the merits of the command line, in an age where things like streaming video and Aqua are an integral part of our daily life. However, I do not think that typed-in commands must necessarily be consigned to the dustbin of computer history. Of course, I am not suggesting that we all drop X and Windows and pretend like we are living in the early eighties. The command line interface still has much to offer us, and many of its benefits simply cannot physically be emulated or even replaced by graphical ones.
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Here is what I have learned over the years....
The most advanced computer people almost always prefer the CLI for many taks.
Those who are not advanced in their computer "skills"(for lack of a better word) are pretty much always going to stick with the GUI.
I have found this true in people who admin Novell, UNIX, and especially Windows these days.
It just seems to be a fact that the real advanced admins use the CLI instead of the GUI... I find it especially facinating to see genuis Windows admins do their magic on the command line compared to the way their peers who use the GUI perform the same tasks.
It all comes down to sheer amounts of knowledge you have packed into your brain... if you know a huge amount about the operating system then the command line is natural, if you dont then the GUI helps because you don't have to know nearly as much due to the fact it will prompt you and you can stuble through most admin tasks.
I think modern OS's need BOTH CLI and GUI admin tools to simply support the 2 types of admins... the highly advanced admins and the normal types...both can be the most productive they can be that way.
AND YES, Microsoft has a goal to make their whole OS admin easily via the CLI just like UNIX. They have a huge number of people working on this right now. They have a desire to take this unique argument in favor of NIX away from the NIX community by being able to also say their system is easy to remote admin via CLI. I was at a major conference in the past year, and attended a late night break out session with Microsoft people discussing this very thing.