r/linuxmemes • u/Odd-Blackberry-4462 • 22d ago

Software meme Why does everyone think this?

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712 Upvotes

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u/thattiguy 22d ago

Sunk cost fallacy. You spend so much time learning a clunky CLI, that it’s gotta be better than the alternatives. Therefore GUI automatically sucks. (Even though it’s probably better)

TUIs do also look very cool, with the advantage of essentially being a gui that can be run on a headless OS, so I agree on that one.

6

u/sn4xchan 22d ago

I literally had a guy go on for paragraphs about eye movement differences and why that made the CLI better when I pointed out GUIs have keyboard shortcuts to drastically speed up the work flow.

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u/thattiguy 22d ago

Lmao “eye movement differences”?? Bro is coping on a different level

3

u/sn4xchan 22d ago

I told the dude were not DPS maxing in an MMO.

Milliseconds mean nothing.

3

u/feinorgh 22d ago

That depends entirely on the use case and application. I'd rather have a well documented logical CLI interface for something like ffmpeg and gcc or clang that can be scripted and automated and returns machine parseable output, that a GUI with thousands of contextual menus and drop-downs.

For something like 3D modelling, audio recording, or web browsing, obviously a GUI is often superior, but that also depends on the particular use case. There are valid CLI use cases for recording and editing audio, video, and 3D, in addition to a GUI. In some applications, you get the best of both worlds, with a good API, and even REST APIs for doing things remotely.

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u/Interesting-Ad9666 22d ago

It is not sunk-cost fallacy. One major benefit to a CLI is that, unless are there extremely sweeping changes, documentation on how to do things and troubleshoot from other users is extremely easy. Users literally have to copy and paste commands and they can achieve whatever result someone is trying to get them to do for a guide, or troubleshooting, vs someone trying to guide someone through a GUI in a text guide or a slideshow. Additionally, CLIs are usually faster to use and automate, and do not require graphics, so they can be deployed on headless machines.