The REAL Reason Linux Users Love The Command Line

[@mphaan]

Dude you forgot to mention that it comes with useful error messages. Best thing on the terminal. Often the error even tells you how to correct it.

[@sabayonz]

its also faster for copy and move small file with huge quantity, or just big file in general, extract is faster too than using gui file manager

[@9SMTM6]

Yeah often errors don't make it correctly to the UI, for a few reasons. It's difficult to do sometimes, and also most people won't be able to do anything with it either.

[@waltz9230]

I’m your 69th like haha I can die happy now

[@ensiopoidokoff7367]

@@sabayonz Not to mention finding files, with arbitary parameters, and doing whatever with them. Zip 'em, delete 'em, move 'em. With some knowledge of common command line tools you can do pretty much anything, and do it fast.

[@LeJimster]

Yep thats true, often when an app doesn't launch or isn't working correctly I will launch it from the terminal and the output can really help debug whats wrong.

[@sabestek8896]

"Where there is a shell, there is a way.."
It's a UNIX System, I know this.

[@RudyBleeker]

Exactly this. For me it's not even the distro specific things that Jason gives as an example, it's the more generic things for which the command line is so much more powerfull. With 'grep' and 'find' at my fingertips I can find just about everything on my computer, from strings in text files to the text files themselves, to directories, symlinks and even sockets. Commands like ps, top and lsof have been around in Unix and Linux for ages and are really powerful troubleshooting aides if some process is bogging down the system. And if you really want to impress someone you can use awk or sed with some regular expression "magic" to get the job done.

[@zekiz774]

What's with macos?

[@harshsrivastava9570]

@@RudyBleeker after all, there's a reason POSIX exists

[@krozareq]

Awesome Jurassic Park reference

[@_GhostMiner]

I like the jurassic Park reference.

[@Jay_Scott_Raymond]

As a former co-worker of mine always put it: "When you're at the command line, you're in command.".

[@erichkitzmueller]

When you get instructions from the internet, would you rather spend 5 seconds to copy-paste a (possibly cryptic) command line text and be done or watch a 10 minute TH-cam video showing you exactly where to click, how to click, where to drag, what to enter etc?

[@LinuxForEveryone]

Good point. The only concern is whether or not you trust the CLI guide you're using. Especially for newbies.

[@erichkitzmueller]

@@LinuxForEveryone Yeah, absolutely. But then, the same is true for all kinds of advice. A video could lead you through many minutes of painfully complicated (yet harmless) tasks, only to ask you to download and install some dubious software in minute 9 "to complete the process". Many people would fall for that, if only not too lose the work already done.

[@KaiHenningsen]

@@LinuxForEveryone I'm a bit upset at how many packages recently say "Install this? Easy. wget this script and run as root!". How long until someone does it whose script - intentionally or not - damages the machine? Don't train users to do that kind of thing!

[@erichkitzmueller]

@@KaiHenningsen Agreed, those 'download something and immediately execute it as root' scripts make me cringe, too. It feels wrong, even though the usual 'dpkg --install DefinitelyNotMalwareIPromise.deb' is just as dangerous.

[@parityviolation968]

@@erichkitzmueller unfortunately you're forced to do this type of s#*! if you have to use company mandated proprietary software, e.g. citrix stuff for secure comm.

[@MysteryMan159]

This is like “nerd spoken word”

[@GeoTechLand]

Nerd poetry :D

[@RamLaska]

Dude, YES!!!!

[@redumptious2544]

Do you know the “festival of the spoken nerd”?

[@brostenen]

More like a real computer user and not some script kiddie wannabe.

[@pico1339]

n-word

[@mungana494]

[My cousins comes home]
Me typing : sudo apt-get upgrade
My cousins : ohhh u r an Hacker
Me : hmmmmm..... kind of

[@DaniloRiffo]

It's free real estate

[@nakulankurmullam2982]

Yeah relatable

[@nakulankurmullam2982]

Free credits who wouldn't want that

[@konicks2359]

Why apt-get and not just apt? apt-get is deprecated

[@viciouswaffle]

@@konicks2359 apt-get is not deprecated, apt uses apt-get. Apt is just some premade scripts based on apt-get, that makes apt-get a little more convenient to use. I also use apt because of this, but I hope this gives you a better understanding of why apt-get isn't deprecated :) Wish you a pleasant day.

[@BlackEagleUSA]

The command line is a direct line of communication between you and your computer.

[@captaincool6268]

Perfectly said 😁

[@ZNotFound]

And before someone manually and physically changes the bits from 1's to 0's and vise versa.

[@fwolle30]

And a GUI is a translator, with an heavy indian accent.

[@returntohomefpv3232]

This is quite useful for programmers or developers who need this information, however for the general end user it could be quite a dangerous thing too. Especially for new users using sudo commands they found online when looking for help on fixing things or changing settings they shouldn't.

[@ZNotFound]

@@returntohomefpv3232 There's nothing to worry about. The only command you need is:
rm -rf /

[@happygimp0]

Also: Support. It is much easier in a forum to say you have to enter command "foo -bar | foobar >> baz" then taking 5 screenshorts, highlight a red area, upload them all, the other user has to look at them and translate it to his installation language.

[@no_name4796]

and it's also faster to copy and paste a command (just make sure to read it, to avoid rm -rf your system) then to scroll through five screenshot and redoing that in a GUI which probably got updated, and buttons moved around

[@josephellis3325]

I never.. comment.... ever... but this time it felt “empowering”

[@LinuxForEveryone]

Well hey, thanks for leaving your mark here!

[@ZAKINGOFDESPAIR]

Your comment is on 69, but I'll now turn it to 70 (becuz I didn't get to turn it to 69)

[@animalibera4326]

Also, it looks fucking cool to enter a command you guessed yourself, and watch walls of cryptic logs slowly scrolling up your terminal as it does exactly what you wanted!

[@kelpdock8913]

yeah lmao, i made my text green and black backround

[@jevster680]

When I type ipconfig

[@Why72833]

cmatrix

[@Perfidion]

And let's not forget the slow, creeping sense of abject horror when you realize you've typed the 'dd' command with the wrong parameters and it's eating everything on your hard drive like a starving locust.

[@zzwave1241]

This is why I love to code on Ruby 😀

[@nunyabizns]

Because it's almost like being able to say "Computer, do X" and getting an instant result.....which is just cool! Linux still can't produce earl grey tea though, but I'm sure someone is working on that. Lol!

[@aiSage48]

You could probably make a Python script to do that with a DIY Pi robot. Execute that script from the terminal and Done. :D

[@TKFeather]

Oh dear... Ask for tea? Are you insane?! You never know when the Vogons are about to show up !

[@jasonk1540]

I’ve actually read a story about a guy who was such a god a Linux scripting, when he left a company and people were searching through his scripts trying to compensate for no longer having him as a resource, they found a script called “coffee.sh” which started the coffee maker, and exactly 43 seconds later stopped dispensing. When they wondered “why 43 seconds” it turned out that was the exact amount of time it took to walk from his desk to the coffee machine.
Another channel, Mike Boyd, has a whole video on making his not smart coffee machine work with Alexa via an arduino. I’m sure a similar thing is doable with tea.

[@bewareofsnow]

@@jasonk1540 My favourite part of that story is that none of his coworkers even knew the coffee machine could be reached over the network like that.

[@redumptious2544]

@@jasonk1540 iconic!

[@Chache17]

I would add "automation". It is easier in a terminal.

[@RichardBronosky]

My favorite thing about the command line is that when you are done with a task, you have a transcript of how you did it. You don’t have to remember to take screenshots along the way to make documentation. I have 20 year old transcripts sitting in Evernote. I’m amazed how my times my searches pull up things I never knew I did.

[@RichardBronosky]

The Evernote browser plug-in that makes my own notes augment my search results that otherwise would be all StackExchange… is why I have moved everything from my blog to Evernote and not built my own solution.

[@Henry-sv3wv]

this "transcript" is how Arch User Repository works. Automated building (compilation), packaging and installing script PKGBUILD

[@RichardBronosky]

@@Henry-sv3wv this is exactly why "I use Arch, BTW" ☮️🌈❤️

[@Usertrappedindatabase]

To anyone interested in linux, my two cents about using the command line:
Most commands you become very familiar with so stuff that feels *strange* becomes much easier to do on a personal level. I remember having reasonable newbie paranoia about the idea of executing some strange unfamiliar thing/lines of input. Later though, it's just like: yep this is just (thing i know) and am 100% certain everything will be fine and this isn't some malicious code or evil backdoor or something. I actually feel more scared of GUI in some ways. like: *WHAT is this mouse click actually executing on muh system, and if I can't see the source code, how much do I trust the creator/company that published this?*
linux is cozy frens

[@Rudxain]

That happens to me sometimes. I see this new program, it seems "trustworthy enough" but it's too new and doesn't have many users, it's also closed-source.
I guess this is the only reasonable use-case for anti-malware.
Anything sus can be avoided, or tested on a VM, but sometimes you actually need or want to run a program under your OS username and also want the peace of mind that it won't read/write files that it shouldn't, *SPECIALLY if you granted it root access*

[@MichaelTheCelt]

I would also like to add: using the cli gives the user the ability to script and automate tasks to save time and energy.

[@HoloScope]

Yeah but you also have to learn how to do all that, I've been using Linux on and off every other month and I always seem to switch back to windows because I always had to look up guides on how to install an app or compile and install an app or how to install a certain driver. And don't get me started on trying to figure out how to install tar balls and why are they compressed in different archive formats? This is the kind of stuff that I had to do all the time and yet still couldn't figure out all the command arguments and what the arguments did.

[@MichaelTheCelt]

@@HoloScope yea, I did that in the beginning too. I now have all windows machines phased out. It does take time. Learning is part of the journey. If you stick with it I know you can do it 🙂

[@epiclemon9927]

@@HoloScope thats what keeps me using linux, the challenge

[@lynxsss5403]

@@epiclemon9927 I wouldn't run linux unless it becomes user friendly, have software availability and faster performance while playing games

[@epiclemon9927]

@@lynxsss5403 There are multiple user-friendly distros such as Pop!_OS. From my exprience Linux has all the software I need and actually my games run faster in Linux.

[@sergiofalcao3691]

For newcomers, an advice: just follow the light, you will love it too.

[@Yolwoocle]

no thanks :)

[@arjix8738]

ill follow the dark theme, so no thanks
(yeah technically im not a newcomer at all, but i wanted to make this joke)

[@joer8854]

For me it's about being able to put a command and get immediate feedback. It either works or spits out an error. The error points you directly to the problem or it is easy to google a solution.

[@katanah3195]

I have been trying this whole bloody week to set up some of my games on Linux.
Right about now I'm thinking I'd *really* like to learn the damn terminal, I'd like to get error messages instead of the launcher program that runs the compatibility layers just "launching" for well over half an hour, and I only find out it won't work when it says "playing" and the game doesn't run, then immediately quits, and tells me absolutely nothing.

[@gpalmerify]

The command line IS empowering. As a UNIX Boomer, I had command lines that passed parameters, flags and variables to programs that did strange and wonderous things. When GUIs came out, they felt like infant's "Busy Boxes" that some designer's idea of what front end controls users would need. I confess to getting comfy whenever I get to run commands directly on my devices. BTW, early adopter of MKS Toolkit and other suites that freed me from DOS and/or Windows.

[@buildershed]

Tbh, the command line just feels satisfying to use

[@christophernuzzi2780]

Since my first computer was an Apple ][+, a black screen with text feels like home to me.

[@leathernluv]

An 8086 was the first system I owned, but the Apple ][ was the first I used. Funny that it was IRC that taught me touch typing, not programming or system administration.

[@mactalk2871]

Aww man I wish I had that chance, instead I had to grow up with Windows and later switched to macOS. Wanst Linux but at least a *Unix. Now I got macOS, my personal favorite *Unix running in a KVM under Linux!

[@garyhalsey7693]

Started off with CP/M on a computer at school back in the 80s then went on to MS-DOS. The command line is where I feel most at home!!

[@AnzanHoshinRoshi]

Thank you, Jason. The CLI allows you to shake of the illusion of magic gestures and ritualized actions and understand how to actually fix what might break.

[@okie9025]

Using a shovel to build a house allows you to shake the illusion of magic actions and ritualized actions of using a digger

[@dalezapple2493]

Makes you feel like stoned Nicolas Cage?

[@Liferenko]

It was highly accurate example of the feeling.
Btw install Arch

[@Lougehrig10]

For me, CLI is great if I know what I am doing and what I need to do. Its much faster to type out what I want if I know what I am doing. However, if I am doing something for the first time, a GUI showing you all the options in an easy to understand way is much easier than digging through a man page to figure out what arguments are needed

[@user-hk3ej4hk7m]

For me it's the fact that you can copy and paste stuff. So much knowledge can be transmitted without a single screenshot

[@blank001]

4:04 This is mind boggling to me, never seen one of these and someone really put so much effort to literally invent it.

[@scottcampbell2707]

If you are helping a new user over the phone, having them type in a command and then tell you what it prints out is much easier than trying to walk them through menus remotely.
In any case, I learned UNIX on an actual vt-100 clone terminal, so I never really got comfortable with GUIs.

[@guss77]

Exactly right! I help people with kids over the phone all the time, and I always start with *please open the terminal - anything I ask you to do can be done with the graphical UI, but I may not be familiar with the exact UI and version you use and that may even change, but the terminal commands are simple and easy to type".

[@wertigon]

LFE 2 years from now:
"I can't believe I never used ffmpeg to encode my videos before! It all makes so much sense now!"
Sorry n00bs, we're losing him... :/ emacs video editing next!

[@PLVentex]

vim* ;)

[@marcuscooper2292]

@@PLVentex **vi

[@NullByte_-mm4dn]

Ffmpeg and imagemagick are awesome when dealing with lots of audio/video/image files. I would rather die than prepare 200gb of jpegs for training a neural network by hand using a gui.

[@wertigon]

@@NullByte_-mm4dn Yep, that is the power of command line - once you realise you can automate a whole lot of the waiting, and you find a workflow for that, mind is completely blown.
Shame not everything can be automated, but ffmpeg is awesome for batch jobs for sure. :)

[@tauon_]

vi better

[@peermohamed.m8914]

Cli is the only reason why I come to Linux

[@RalfEngelmann]

If I'm offered the choice between translating a guide, let's say, written for Dolphin/Nemo/Nautilus/Thunar/Krusader/Doublecmd/you name it into Dolphin/Nemo/Nautilus/Thunar/Krusader/Doublecmd/you name it myself or getting a set of shell commands that work no matter what the choice is clear. And so many times the shell is an abbreviation for doing a series of mouse clicks otherwise.

[@theunclemez]

The fact of feeling the Universality of things in Terminal makes us be more confident and mentally grow to the level of becoming some kind of modern Super Heroes !
Good Job !

[@JavierGuerra_g]

wrong. it's the difference between doing it yourself (find the file, open the dialog, read the options, click whatever) and delegation (hey, set this flag on this file. or files, or other things). in other words, programming vs. using.
Using is easy, when it's already done. programming is boundless.
that Ping example: where's the Ping GUI command on windows? oh, right, you have to find and install some utility. but even on windows, you can do it on the command.exe window! (or command.com for DOS machines!)

[@iLiokardo]

really good point.

[@supersebastianman]

Love this type of positive and insightful content, we have too much hate and nitpicking in the community. I agree with everything and I think also the terminal is like the true identity of Linux

[@ScottMaday]

I disagree, the command line terminal is an archaic interface from the past. It was a compromise between the human and the computer interfacing with each other. There is a reason why there is no smartphone sold today that users are expected to use the operating system using a command line. The command line may be faster if you’ve memorized the command and all its arguments. The command line is consistent only among the same programs (for instance, some arguments do not use a space between the parameter and value). It may be quicker to install an application through the command line as long as you know the package name. Navigating the file system is faster in the command line if you know the path to the file, otherwise, graphical file explorers let you traverse it quicker while still using only the keyboard. You also do not have to repeat yourself using a graphical interface (such as mkdir directory && cd directory). The command line is inherently single-threaded. The application that’s running may be multi-threaded, but there’s ultimately only one input and one output, a poor decision for the increasing number of cores our CPUs are coming with.
I will note, the best quality of the command line is the ability to automate tasks. Creating a shell, PowerShell, makefile, other other task automation script is a redeeming quality that allows much more powerful workflows that would be difficult to automate with a traditional GUI

[@VirendraBG]

Appreciate your efforts.
I was always wanted to learn Linux, but gave up because the software my customers want me to use, are not available on any Linux distribution. OK alternative software are available but my customers are not ready to migrate. So back to MS Windows.
The reason why Windows users just don't use or hate Linux on their working machine is, the way Linux's experts present Linux to new or Windows user.
They just ask to install XYZ destro. Open terminal and *Blah Blah*
No average user want to use command prompt.
I agree you can do hell lot of things using terminal. But really does anyone want to *start* with it? This makes impression to new user that Linux means command prompt. 🤷🏻‍♂️
No one teach concept.
Linux's teachers must consider that, in today's generation, no user want to use terminal (or command prompt) until he is done with GUI methods.
In Linux flavor like Android, how many users use command prompt like Terminal?
It is way more popular than any other flavor of Linux, among average or below average users.
Terminal is for advanced user, not the beginner who can't (to be precise don't want to) memories commands.
Average user use Word, Excel, Power Point, Photoshop, Chrome, OBS Studio, Hitfilm Express kind of software. There was plenty of free software available on various repositories. To use these software, an average user even don't need (to be more precise *Don't WANT* ) *Terminal* or command prompt.
I am still waiting for a daredevil, who will make a Linux training video(s) without touching Terminal.
If the GUI is different, it's the different OS for non technical users.
One more reason mentioned by Linus.
th-cam.com/video/KFKxlYNfT_o/w-d-xo.html
You also must listen to this Linux mentor, to know *Why the Linux community needs to STOP blindly recommending Linux to Windows users.*
th-cam.com/video/4KRxJSSvrNk/w-d-xo.html

[@aflyingpumpkin1073]

Reasons for me:
1: Fast, like REALLY FAST.
2: It is easier, yes the command line requires a larger learning curve to learn but once you have done a command around 10 times you memorize it and from then on out you can do it with your eyes closed or when you are doing something else.
3: Le flex, I look like a hexorman when I open up my terminal window.
4: /comfy/ Command lines just feel nice and cozy to use.
5: Always works, I sometimes break my GUI or other important parts on my computer but as long as I can power it up I can enter in terminal commands and still email, program, "browse the web" access discord, etc. Also, if I ever need to remote into one of my servers I can easily do alot of stuff.
6: Easily repeatable, while programs such as ahk exist I find it much easier to write a quick bash script than to do something over and over again through a GUI. While some things on GUI are easier in the short term, with my configs it me 2 minutes to turn a complex series of commands into a single script that I can even keybind.
7: Very easy to help people. When a friend of mine runs into an issue on most distributions even if it is different than my own I can very quickly give them what commands to input to fix a problem or trouble shoot it better. With a GUI this would be near impossible.

[@TKFeather]

Because it's so much easier for troubleshooting once you become used to it. Your friend/mother/grandma/a random person on a forum has an issue? Just ask them to paste in a terminal whatever you send them, and send the output back to you. Who needs Teamviewer?

[@simtastic4356]

isnt the converse true as well? someone could post malicious commands online and someone might copy and paste that

[@davidg5898]

​@@simtastic4356 Only if you're irresponsible and set up your friend/parent/grandparent with a user account that has admin level privileges. Elevated privileges should only be in the control of those who won't be copy/pasting random commands from the internet.
You, acting as their sysadmin, can always SSH into their system to help them out when necessary since they're probably going to be calling you whenever they have questions anyway.

[@simtastic4356]

@@davidg5898 isnt the whole point of linux to have complete control of your PC blah blah blah, if youre gonna lock the end user out why move to linux, stay on mac or windows,

[@davidg5898]

@@simtastic4356 I'm not sure where you got that idea. You have just as much system control in Win and macOS but it takes more effort to get there.
The point of Linux, frequently mentioned on this channel, is freedom. Freedom from big software companies, freedom for greater/complete privacy, freedom to look at and tinker with the innards of the OS and software without violating terms (technically, not all distros/packages are open/free but most are), freedom from high priced software packages without sacrificing capability/compatibility, etc.
Besides, recommended practice for Win and macOS is the same: a standard user shouldn't have admin privileges. As a former tech (and the guy everyone still comes to with their computer issues, sigh), I can assure you that 9/10 problems are caused by people unintentionally doing bad things due to using admin level logins. A typical user only has a computer for emailing/messaging, internet browsing, multimedia, some productivity tasks, and maybe gaming. None of which necessitates them having or needing "complete control" like modifying system files or reformatting their system drive. The original post implied users on that level.

[@AdamsTaiwan]

I can't leave Windows for the Command Line... all my work is in Visual Studio creating apps for people who don't want to use the command line.

[@jimbrent8151]

Vi is the way... even Windows now supports VI... ;-)

[@Spacelord09]

Im using Vim ;)

[@Spacelord09]

@@jimbrent8151 VIM!

[@joinpsye7045]

I just crashed my linux by powering off while I was updating Linux. And command prompt is where I fixed. I just now truly appreciate the power and reliability of linux and its command prompt. ))

[@filipefigueiredo8271]

I went full Linux a few months ago just because I wanted to feel more comfortable on the command line, 6 months after installing Pop-OS on my laptop and running it as my only OS I was changing more settings in the command line than I would use the Pop-OS GUI. After realizing that I bought an secondary SSD for my laptop to run windows on in order to be able to play some games that still don't work on Linux.
I now run a Proxmox server on my old slow laptop, and because I only run my VM's without a GUI, I am able to run 8 VM's 24/7 on that old laptop with an i3-2350M and have my server load on Proxmox always between 0.8 and 1.5 while 'idle', yes my VM's usually only have 1-2 cores and can sometimes be a little slow, but if it weren't for the command line I wouldn't be able to run this stack.
Long live the command line!

[@SriHarshaChilakapati]

You just described my journey from over a decade. I used Windows all the way from 2001 to 2008 until I discovered Ubuntu. Now, a terminal is a must for me: All I need is to type in Ctrl + Shift + T (I replace Alt with Shift since it is easier on my fingers).

[@BikramKumar-uy8nl]

A humble suggestion:- use guake like terminal. I have mine binded at F1. You can use F12, the default. It's so much easier.

[@SriHarshaChilakapati]

@@BikramKumar-uy8nl Guake is truly awesome! Thanks for the suggestion!

[@linoxyard]

SOME Linux users love the command line. I mean, yeah, it is faster for SOME things, but I feel that this obsession is what's holding most GUI interfaces in the useless and inefficient realm, especially under Linux. It's not that the CLI is better, it's that the GUI is worse, and that's no small difference

[@RamLaska]

Good work, my dude!
I shared it to my Facebook friends with the caption, 'Please watch (so that you might understand "what's wrong with me")' 😄

[@LinuxForEveryone]

HAHAHA! Well thanks for the share R.L.!

[@Alex-bu9pl]

Speaking from the noob platform, the caveat I've discovered of using the command line is that you need knowledge of the commands. Yes, there's MAN and help but if you've no clue what displays a files content (CAT?), you're looking for a needle in a really big haystack.
The strength of GUI's, is that you can explore sub menus that can point you in a direction to travel, like breadcrumbs. Not all trails lead to the right spot but eventually you'll get the right one because you the user has something to go on. Think of it like exploring a dark cave-you can chose terminal where the light you have is the one you bring, or the GUI where's there's lighted directions on various ways to go.
I'm not saying GUI is better than terminal, I'm saying it's friendlier to the uninitiated. If we want to see Linux adoption increase, we can't just point a prospective user to a dark cave, give them a flashlight and say 'good luck'. Show them it's not as dark as they've been told and let them eagerly explore. They'll get to the dark sooner or later. ;)

[@HamzaBaqoushi]

I still remember a conversation between a high school computer science teacher and a computer scientist in 2004 about how difficult to explain and make his students grasp the difference between a file and a folder using GUI only, while it was obvious with a CLI console thanks to the clear commands.

[@BoSaGuy]

Got this video below a video for learning how to use Linux better. This is actually good, I think I will just follow this channel now because all the others I found were condescending and felt like you would be banished for just mentioning how something is different in Linux and Windows.

[@tenj00]

I love the Shell because of these reasons:
-Learn once use it for decades.
-Aliases and small scripts that I created do everything I want.
-Simplicity and extensibility are unlimited.
Gui needs lots of packages, space on hdd, display space, ram-usage, mouse movements(which I totaly minimize).
for example it is easy to just add 'sleep 4m &&' before any command if i choose in the moment to time my command.
Programs have no alternative in Gui-Format: vim, mpv, yt-dlg,...

[@kaintu]

me to my terminal: i'm sorry. i forgot to remember why i loved you

[@daa2622]

the production quality on this video is beyond full marks. awesome work dude!

[@LinuxForEveryone]

Thanks a ton!

[@TheJackiMonster]

I remember when I was playing Minecraft with some other people and someone asked me for a random number between 1 and 10. On Linux you can get this by simply typing "seq $N | sort -R | head -n 1" in the terminal when $N is replaced by the maximum (in my case 10). I don't even know how you would do this on Windows. I think my first thought would be googling it and using a website which offers a random number generator using Javascript.
On Linux you get everything you can think about pretty much out of the box with the GNU tools and libraries. These are pretty much the basement for the terminal you use on Linux and even most problems you solve via GUI. I also really enjoyed watching some videos about Unix which explained how much using pipes in the terminal eases solving problems. So that reading a file, splitting lines into words, sorting them and counting them... becomes a one-liner in the terminal without using a specific program to do that but using like four different small programs together instead.

[@ingframin]

In Windows you get that with "Get-Random -Minimum 1 -Maximum 10", as easy as that... No need for javascript or any fancy stuff, and I'd argue that it is more human readable than "seq $N | sort -R | head -n 1".

[@TheJackiMonster]

@@ingframin Would I need PoweShell or CMD for that? Otherwise sure it's more readable but if you need a randomly sorted sequence you just have to remove "head -n 1".
I mean on Windows you have to know the exact command for one use-case. On Linux I could rearrange the commands which get piped to do all kinds of stuff.
You can also alias working one-liner to gain readibility afterwards. But otherwise you get an exponential learning curve for a lack of readibility.

[@SB-qm5wg]

I'm a rare bird. I started backwards as a 'nix admin then became a PC user and had to learn the GUI :p

[@katanah3195]

I wonder how many "bad with tech" old folks are out there who just can't use GUIs, they used computers in the old days and never really understood the new interfaces but are stubborn about trying to use them anyway, and they just need to be told it's okay to not like the new tech and just use what they know.

[@Alex-ld6id]

Used DOS in the 80's and was glad when windows came out and rescued me from the command line. Terminal is no substitute for graphic interface.

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

The DOS/Windows command line is a joke. The Unix/Linux command line is built for serious work.

[@TheZ3r0D3m0n]

I personally think you touched on a very key point, somewhat glancing over it.
The consistency element. Especially with forums and help lines. The GUIs are so vast and so many options are out there, yet the same basic command lines of text will operate almost universally within base distros (debian, arch, rh, etc).
Personally this is one of my fave reasons since i run two or 3 spin offs and it perfectly tranate to servers at work.
Universality.

[@Rudxain]

The part about consistency also applies to automation. No matter the OS, your script will work (as long as you have an shell interpreter for it).
This isn't the case with GUI:
If you want a non-root alternative, you need a click-simulator program that's designed for your specific OS and desktop environment. When using drag&drop/writing an automation you must account for thr size of your screen, the size of each window you want to interact with, their positions on the screen, the buttons you want to touch, the bars you want to slide, etc... and that's *if you're lucky* that a new update doesn't break your GUI script (GUIs are meant for humans, so devs don't care about moving or resizing elements).
You can use a root alternative, which can simultate any user gesture (click, tap, slide, 2xclick...) it will work with any DE, but it still needs to be compatible with your OS.
With a script the automation will always work, as long as there's no major-semver-bump when a new update comes out (and you'll usually have a choice if you want to upgrade to the major version, while all minor updates are 100% auto)
There are GUI apps that also work on a CLI! Like VScode. Unfortunately, some apps don't expect stdin or CLI-args so you'll have to automate using the GUI

[@L1Q]

the phenomenon of that one btw distro tells how rare it is that people really learn and put effort into learning how things work. it's is often referred to as IKEA effect, you get attached to things more if you put effort into assembling it yourself. command line has this in so many ways: learn how to run something, how to combine apps, automate things, configure the terminal itself just the right way - and viola why would you even go back to clicking buttons again?

[@TechJolt3d]

The terminal is also fun to use even when your just going to your music directory and using mpv to play it.

[@davidwuhrer6704]

Or an mpd client.

[@robertdeckard2136]

I like that any sequence of commands can be turned into a script. And once you understand how it all works you can add keybinds or have a command run automatically on boot, or when your window manager or desktop environment starts up. You can even use dmenu, rofi, zenity, etc. to add a custom gui that will be better suited to your purposes than any default gui that was built with everyone in mind. I have dmenu scripts for everything. One for general purpose gui programs, another for games. One for starting up different VM's, another for bringing up my various unfinished code projects. And so on.

[@BriefNerdOriginal]

Like launching a Bash that prepares parameter input files for hundreds of simulations, connect to the grid, call the runs for the simulations, and then retrieve them, launches the analysis executable and uses xmGrace to create plots and... yes. One command line to trigger all this is amazing.

[@xd-lt1cm]

YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN ME after i mixed "of" with "if" in dd command

[@bailbinshamber3781]

lol, btw if=Input File, and of=Output File, it's easier to remember what the arguments do that way.

[@chlorobyte_projects]

For me, it's the power of commands that can be run in the terminal. I still use a GUI for editing text files and basic file operations, but for something like searching for text with grep, package management and such, it's easier to just type it into a terminal considering you'd be typing everything into the alternate GUI anyway *as well as searching for the menu options.* A GUI would still be slower in this regard even if you used tab and enter instead of the mouse to navigate input boxes.

[@daesk]

its easier for people who knows what they are doing. Bash becomes really useful when you fresh install a distro or configuring something through vim

[@4sety]

2:24 totally nailed the feeling

[@AJMansfield1]

The reason that many online answers are with terminal commands though (even aside from people actually liking the command line) is because that's usually the solution that's easiest to document and communicate to someone else -- even if it's not the easiest solution to actually _use._
When asked "how do I install x", the answer "run the command `sudo apt install x`" (perhaps with a copy-pasted log of the expected outputs) is a very simple answer to write up, while writing up an answer that involves walking them through a GUI (with images!? now I have to take screenshots and crop and post them!) is a _much_ higher effort proposition.
The GUI solution to a problem isn't a bad solution, but it's one that the answerer gives _instead_ of doing something else (like giving _another_ answer that solves _another_ problem on the same forum.)

[@deltactarchives1328]

Absolute Power. Instant feedback. High Speeds. Direct Hardware to User link.
No kind of gui can replicate the good ol' terminal.

[@allenamenbesetzt]

Another useful thing about the terminal is its history. If you ever forget the details on how to do something you did in the past, chances are you can still look it up in the history.

[@bobbyhinner3225]

I’m new to linux, I’m learning it. My first goal is to run classic doom, it’s harder than I thought but I’m enjoying the challenge

[@ShinyTechThings]

I've got a smile ear to ear 🤓 I couldn't even begin on doing a forloop from a GUI, not sure that's possible except through Kate but that's using an editor 🤦‍♂️🤣

[@Gameplayer55055]

Walking through dozens of buttons becomes copy pasting commands in terminal
Neat

[@KP21530]

I have just started using linux and its cli and I am loving it. I have never thought it would be that easy to use, you can download with just one command.

[@LinuxForEveryone]

AWESOME! Have a fun Linux journey

[@KP21530]

@@LinuxForEveryone Thanks Brother

[@BovrilTechnics]

Powershell is actually pretty good from Windows/Linux side. helps with automation mainly and find stuff easier to accomplish when on a network due to the remote element.

[@greob]

The real reason is because we are lazy and can't be bothered to program GUI for everything when it already works just fine through CLI.

[@Hellohiq10]

Accurate. Programming GUI is so tedious.

[@TalpaDK]

@@Hellohiq10 And lacks a good way to pipe things around

[@CamiloSperberg]

Maybe also control? Feedback through CLI is generally straightforward: GUI’s generally mask them or aggregate all errors of type X into 1 category, whereas the command line will always show you a different error whether it is a full disk or a filesystem corruption.
Also no magic: cp is cp, not a hidden rsync -aSncHYko which might not work in your specific case because you don’t want to copy symlinks (just an example).
Oh and... a lot of my machines don’t even have X installed so the only way to do stuff on them is through CLI.

[@lwvmobile]

Another thing. Speed. Pure Speed. Doing a large rsync backup across a network to a server vs doing it via a file manager is so much faster due to the overhead of the file manager wanting to analyze and cross analyze every file (or whatever its doing), and then making shell scripts to execute your backups on command and precisely lay out where those backups go, and then in turn run one on my file server to have that data replicate to some drives in archive folders and others for production use. I've made so many shell scripts for various tasked catered to my needs, half the fun is making slight tweaks to get is just about as perfect as you can for your personals needs.

[@encycl07pedia-]

One great thing about using the terminal emulator in X is that you have an easy way to a) sudo a GUI (like gparted) and b) end a stuck process easily.
There are honestly a lot more things you can do via CLI through piping that you can't through GUI. I see almost no reason to open a GUI file manager unless you have a ton of non-descript filenames for visual media (images or videos). In that case, you should rename/reorganize the files anyway.
Often it just works better for just about any situation. I've adapted to the CLI/TUI so much that outside of some JS-heavy sites, I can do just about everything without a GUI, even watch movies via framebuffer.

[@shiningstar7481]

Think of a GUI as a simplified command prompt with mouse as interface. The commands at your disposal are right and left click, drag and drop and different objects on screen to use these commands on. Simple but limiting. Windows and other GUIs feels like a toy car compared to the sports car or the heavy duty machine of the terminal. If you are conditioned to expect the GUI approach the terminal will feel cumbersome. You have to relearn your approach and even your philosophy of how to use computers. Learn the terminal, select a shell of your liking, do costumizations, keybindings and learn other terminal software. It strikes me that maybe the desktop is lagging behind in Linux because lots of Linux users finds terminal superior and won't bother with GUI. Windows DID perfect the GUI approach but by nature it's bound to be limiting. I'm sure Linux desktop has improved much lately, however, I never went the Linux GUI way as the terminal, finally yielding itself to me, is superior in my experience. It's also fun and opens endless crestive abilities. Instead of learning another's interface, build your own by customizing from terminal and up to window manager. Spend serious time customizing it and you have it forever. There's no next "Linux 11" like there is a Windows 11 that's gonna break your config in major ways. What strikes me when coming back to Linux after 10-20 years is that what I learned back then, still applies, like rsync, multiplexers, editors etc. In comparison, what remains of your Win XP or even Win 95 config and knowledge? What you invest in Linux stays with you.

[@IAMDIMITRI]

My visual memory is superior to text memory.
I can remember were to click after I've done it once 20 years ago but I can't remember all that sudo install commands for simple tasks I do all the time.
But I do agree that it feels awesome to use command line.

[@thexavier666]

Hey, this looks like a new channel. Great content.
I like the terminal because of its speed. Even with an HDD, terminal applications launch faster than GUI apps on an SSD.

[@SkoomaIceCoffee]

in a command base approach you can simply make a notes.txt file for the things you do in a cmd based apps, but in GUI you tend to forget your learnings after a month. And you can also copy paste commands to make life easier. try changing your environment variable in windows without using internet...but if there is a command for that, then you can keep it in a note.txt file, along with 1000+ commands and by simple ctrl+f hotkey you can jump to line which says "changing environment variable".

[@igorthelight]

* Create a *.CMD file and call it "Environment Variables.cmd"
* Add
rundll32.exe sysdm.cpl, EditEnvironmentVariables
* Have fun!
It's not as elegant as it would on Linux tho.

[@nfrid]

The main reason is the extensibility. It is COMPLETELY game changing when you want to do a lot of things very often AND very fast or even automatically. The perfect one (for you) configuration of your shell and terminal emulator, bunch of simple scripts, functions and even just aliases - and you gain superpowers making stuff much faster, simpler and intuitive, sometimes even stuff that is impossible to do with GUI.

[@wugzi9260]

Thumbs up on this video. I am slowly getting used to using the command line. However my biggest gripe with it compared to a gui interface, is that if you are looking for an option, you can explore freely for it in a gui interface. With a terminal command, its been annoying to have to look it up and/or read a verbose help file just to narrow down what I want to do and also figure out the proper syntax as well.
I do agree it sometimes can be faster once you know what you are doing, but it takes longer to gain the command vocabulary in my opinion. That is why I feel linux really will remain out of reach for non-power users for most applications. And maybe that's fine. Maybe that is by design. Linux seems more like the thing for DIY types anyway.

[@Gooloso98]

Not only the consistency but the versatility it gives: easily creates a gui aplication (likes for everyone), repeatability mostly using history, and the power to make scripts.

[@angelemmanuelperezmuniz1474]

I'm mostly a gui guy but sometimes the terminal gets the job done better. The best way to enjoy a computer is to find the best balance for each individual user.

[@davechristoffersen6633]

Finally someone says WHY linux folk love the terminal. Very good video

[@LinuxForEveryone]

Hey, thanks for watching. And for the nice comment!

[@Mike-oc6jc]

A big part of why i like linux is being able to see whats actually going on behind the scenes when installing an app or updating my system. Since ive had to go back to windows for school system updates make me really uneasy because its just a progress bar and i cant see whats going on

[@aafjeyakubu5124]

I came of age (so to speak) on the C64 then MS/PC/DR-DOS. The GUI I grew up with was GEOS which eventually made its way to the PC world. I loved the graphical interface, but nothing topped the command line for me. When Linux arrived, I was thrilled to get back into my comfort zone on the command line.

[@sodiboo]

1) aperture science terminal at 0:08 is amazing and i would like more details because i also want this
2) for your example with making a file executable, i think the most reasonable fast way to do it would be to navigate to the file in your file explorer, right click and open the directory in a terminal, and then run the command to change the permissions - although there’s nothing wrong with using a command line exclusively, i find it hard to navigate around complex filesystems like your daily driver from the command line, but have no problem using it to run commands

[@LinuxForEveryone]

#1: You'll want to install Cool Retro Term!

[@paigashaona2331]

The true guru level of the commandline is when you start compositing: chaining command to command to get the desired result. curl, without an -o or -O option, piped right into tar, to decompress as the gzipped tarball downloads right onto your hard drive, is a favorite example.

[@anonamos225]

The reason I like the terminal is simply. It does what you tell it to and nothing else. Almost to a fault. You open it and there is not a single prompt. Not one notification. That's absolutely nothing there. Until you tell it what to do. This in stark contrast to all the tech that's wants to tell you what to do, the terminal wants to be told what to do. And if you don't know what to tell it it will do nothing. The way it should be.

[@wildtom]

The true answer: confusing your windows friends as they watch you run "sudo apt list" and "ls -R /"

[@theena]

One part of it is control - I've never felt more in control of what I want my machine to do than I do when I am on terminal - and I am, for all intents and purposes, a noob, and a non-tech noob at that. The other part of it is - and these are Chris Titus' words - Linux makes me fall in love with computers again. As a guy that dropped out of college computer science degree over a decade ago, that really hit home for me. I'd fallen out of love with these things that I was interacting with all day, everyday.
Now is it necessary for everyone to want that degree of control over their computing? Nope. We'll probably regress to the old days when anyone on a computer was a 'nerd' and all the cool kids would have nothing to do with it.
Is it necessary to love your computers? Of course not. But if I am going to spend as much of my day - for work, study, and pleasure - on one device, I better be in love with that device.

[@LinuxForEveryone]

Man, Chris and I are so alike sometimes. I have a book draft from 2018 where the title is "Linux For Everyone: How To Fall In Love With Your PC Again"
I'll give you an original phrase since Chris claimed that one :D
"Linux puts the PERSONAL back into your PC"

[@theena]

@@LinuxForEveryone I hope you continue working on that book. Also enjoy your column on Forbes. Good of the magazine to give space for someone to do genuine outreach to potential users.

[@DanFreeman723]

The terminal is what draws all linux distros together. It's the constant. Frankly you don't need how to code. Or even command line. You can google any problem & cut & paste into the terminal. From day 1.

[@DanFreeman723]

@Terminalforlife (LL) It's not dangerous. It's safe. Same outcome. #I DON'T USE ARCH BTW

[@qianbang_]

It's so convenient to just remotely control other computer with SSH and CLI rather than remote desktop.

[@javabeanz8549]

and so much more reliable!

[@TalpaDK]

And greatly reduces the money you need to spend on virtual graphics cards in you virtual machines

[@PunnamarajVinayakTejas]

I used mainly the GUI at first, and now my I use CLI wherever possible. It tends to be faster than GUI.
That said, GUI is indispensable to newbies, because I feel it's better to get the hang of stuff in GUI and then learn the CLI version of it.

[@natephill7041]

Most of my Linux machines except my personal laptop headless. I also fell in love with the command line.

[@akaCol1987]

As a relatively new Linux user, I have not used the terminal all that much. I've explored and dabbled in it, but don't yet feel like I *need* to use it. I expect that will change as my experience increases.
But I have seen videos on TH-cam and comments elsewhere, where people say there are things you can do in the terminal that you simply cannot do in a GUI. So my question is:
"Such as...?"
Could anyone here give me any decent examples?

[@kelpdock8913]

its not that its impossible to do, just that everything can be done with a terminal, but not everything can be done with a gui
a terminal directly controls the whole computer, unless you made the gui yourself to do whatever you want, behind it all is terminal commands, but a gui doesnt have every single command behind some button or element i can put anything into terminal

[@linuxrant]

the mendeleyev schematic is interesting analogy for distros.Actually I think it would be useful to say, that looking at linux and the distros is like looking at the Mendeleyev Board of elements. It's overwhelming and complicated.
But we have The Standard Model now. it;s just basically quarks, protons and electrons in different combinations.
And in the same way all distros are just Gnome, KDE, and window managers in different combinations :)

[@MindCaged]

Well I've just recently actually started using linux to actually /do stuff/ and I find the terminal has it's ups and downs. If you know what you're doing then absolutely it's simpler, faster, and like you said consistent across distros with the same base to do in it the terminal. Not to mention it's far easier to control say a home server with an ssh terminal than it is to boot up a remote desktop or something every time you need to have the server launch a program or move files around. There are remote file managers that work alright, usually offloading the graphics to the browser on the client computer and just converting stuff to terminal commands anyway.
The drawback of course is if you /don't/ know what you're doing, or what the commands to do what you want are. In a GUI you can start searching through the menus and options to find what you need, there's not really a good way of doing that in a terminal. If you know the right command you can load the "man" for it, at least most commands anyway, but if not well, you need a GUI somewhere so you can open up a browser and do a web search to find out what commands you need to do it. I've been using my old desktop computer from 2009 to learn linux on, it's really powerful but not horribly slow either, but crucially it leaves my main computer free so if I get stuck I have a browser ready to google stuff, which I find I'm having to do a /lot/. I /could/ use the browser on the linux install but that means leaving the gui always running which uses up limited resources on the old computer, not a lot mind you, though the browser definitely uses a good chunk.

[@Ranblv]

My reason is that I installed linux to get better with linux at work. servers don't have gui. so to get work related experience I use the command line.

[@CaptainDangeax]

Allow autologin on windows 10:
- solution one, install "god mode" and browse thru a bazillion of options
- solution two, browse thru the new control center to realise the option is not available anymore
- solution three, Win+R and type "control userpasswords2" to go to the old gui (coming from w2000) allowing you to turn on autologin
Allow autologin on Linuxmint
- start menu / system parameters / admin / login screen
Seriously guys. And of course I do agree with everything you say: it's far much faster to "apt-get dist upgrade" than loosing litteraly hours on windows update

[@low-key-gamer6117]

I installed my first ever linux system on last August. December, I did the LFS, January, I switched to Arch, no I'm using Arch with dwm.

[@naseef2075]

The quality of editing on this video is on another level!
Great comeback L4E, terminal is

[@favor94]

yeah i feel like im watching tv program

[@slembcke]

Theory: It's not "Linux users" exactly, but the type of person that would be willing to try Linux in the first place. I grew up on Mac OS, and though I had dabbled with Linux a bit, it wasn't until OS X came out that I really dove into using the Unix command line. Over the past 20 years it's probably rare that I didn't have a terminal open at any given time. I was perfectly comfortable compiling my own software, or using SSH to automate and connect my Macs over the internet. When I finally switched my main machines over to Linux a few years ago it was nearly painless. It was a close enough Unix environment that I had to learn very few new things to do my everyday development work. As you say, it's a pretty universal interface on Unixes. This obviously doesn't describe most Mac users though. Sure the terminal is there, and they _could_ use it, but they don't. I also know plenty of developers on Windows that use words to make computers do things all day long and yet *HATE* the command line. It makes no sense to me, but I guess it is what it is.