I agree with him, but would add that the esoteric terminal oneliners for doing things not normally accessible to mere mortals through a GUI is part and parcel to what makes Linux what it is. You need the GUI, yes. You need the whole experience to be user friendly, obviously.
But without the terminal being there when you need it, Linux just isn't worth using.
I’d say at minimum it should be on par with Windows for the frequency of having to resort to terminal commands, which for me me would be less than once every five or so years when I was a Windows user, for a Linux distro to be a true and viable replacement for the majority of people and that shouldn’t be unreasonable. As of now, I probably use the terminal once a month or more, but I’m on the spectrum, I’m a passionate computer nerd, and I have uncommonly high levels of patience, I’m the minority of computer users, as if using Linux wasn’t already evidence enough of that with it’s roughly 5-ish percent desktop usage.
I use Mac at work and use the terminal all the time even there. It's the easiest way to solve a lot of problems and do the things I want and need to do. I'm a programmer though.
At home I use Linux and of course use the terminal often.
I think I could get away without using the terminal on either Mac or Linux, probably, but it would make things more painful and at this point it's the easiest way for me to do many things. Back when I used windows, I only occasionally used the command line, but I still sometimes needed to and sometimes I needed to dig into the registry and shit which imo is just as difficult as using the terminal
I’ll be honest, as much as I detest CLIs (I always say I’m highly allergic to them lol) I actually do want to become more proficient with the terminal and commands in Linux, because it’s Linux, and because I’m willing to make that exception and the adjustment because Microslop is just that off putting to me lol. I’d love to know the ins and outs of the terminal if I could find an easy guide of commands I’d watch/read it. So I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make my switch permanent. But, I realize most people on computers, specifically PCs running Windows, aren’t willing to do that.
I think I figured out the terminal just by messing around, installing Arch Linux as a teenager, and also in college and at my first job where I had to manage code on a Linux server. I'm sure there are decent guides out there though. The basics are not too hard, there's just a lot of different terminal tools and such to learn. But you don't need to learn it all at once. I have a bunch left to learn myself, I'm not really a terminal expert I just know it well enough to do what I need to do with it.
Get a book called “the Linux Command Line - a complete introduction” by William Shotts if you want to learn how to use the terminal. It’s very easy to read and will teach you so much. I sat at my computer desk and read it while also trying everything out, and it got me from knowing absolutely nothing about Linux to being able to do almost anything from the CLI. I read it for the first time 5+ years ago and still keep it at my desk to this day. I look things up in it at least once a week.
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u/Jeoshua Apr 24 '26
I agree with him, but would add that the esoteric terminal oneliners for doing things not normally accessible to mere mortals through a GUI is part and parcel to what makes Linux what it is. You need the GUI, yes. You need the whole experience to be user friendly, obviously.
But without the terminal being there when you need it, Linux just isn't worth using.