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.
@@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.
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.
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.
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 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.
@@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!
@@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.
@@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.
@@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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
@@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 🙂
@@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.
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!
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.
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
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*
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.
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?
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.
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.
History... The command history... Thats why I prefer a terminal over GUI in most cases! Things I do not on a daily/weekly basis, I often forget. But I remember, that I have done this thing before... The command history is my personal hero, he know everything I have done in the past (years). And thanks to a beautiful shell like "fish" the history appears while typing. And tutorials are so much nicer to write/read with commandlines instead of screenshots to show click-paths...
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.
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,...
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
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
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. ))
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
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.
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.
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.)
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.
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.
Command line is going back to my roots whether it's Commodore 64's LOAD "*" (using cassette drive since 1985) or LOAD "*",8,1 (using 5.25" floppy disk drive since about 1988), or in the PC world doing most things in DOS when Windows 3.11 sucked all memory available in my 486DX2-66... :D Once in early 2000s I talked with an IT support person and I asked if something should be in the path and he asked "What's a path?". He had no idea that Windows 95 and later versions still used system wide variables just like MS-DOS did. I used 4DOS/4NT prompts until I switched to the penguin camp so command lines aren't new to me. :D
I wish it took less than years to get from the point where you can copy-paste answers from online into the terminal to figuring out what they're trying to do and how to go about fixing them when they break.
Sometimes when you are trying to manipulate video and sound files, you either can't find a GUI that does what you need or you would have to use three or four different GUI programs to do what you can do with ffmpeg from the command line. There is definitely a learning curve, however.
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.
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.
pipes and a large library of commands designed to use them it was fascinating watching an old, maybe circa 80s video describing the power of Unix being piping commands because that's still very true
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.
It's only bad when you forget the command and have no internet connection. Sometimes a setting being in a gui can be lifesaver, because you can always search up a gui but not be able to remember where a config file was.
I love how if something goes wrong, it shows in terminal everything, meanwhile on Windows i'm struggling to fix error 0x0000007B (INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE) BSoD at boot because i don't have any logs... or at least more useful messages...
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
it does feel great using the command line!. like connecting to wifi using the command line feels much more easier than dragging the mouse, few clicks and wait for it to load it could be more easier using nmcli and stuff.
The problem I have with terminals is that you need to learn all those commands, while with a GUI there is at least a chance for you to figure it out on your own instead of having to Google every step of the way.
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.
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.
It just feels good to *understand*, it feels good to skip abstraction levels and know exactly what's going on. Intimidating and off-putting at first but once we get a taste of it, we can't go back.
For me it's because of windowitis. I tend to leave waaay too many windows open and too much mess paralyzes me, both virtual mess and real mess. Opening command line is clean. Just one window (with maybe few tabs), just text, zero clutter.
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.
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!
the first time i was forced to use the cli in a virtual machine, it was like a drug, at that time and even still today, i feel like Hackerman when using it, it is extraordinarily empowering, and i love it :D
i have carpal tunnel syndrome and hate using the trackpad and the click buttons on my wireless keyboard. i'd much rather do stuff in terminal! and it's usually FASTER! and way less pain
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.
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.
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.
I just wish that Linux had a built in CLI tutorial, like how vim and emacs do, along with a "help" program that talks about basic stuff like directory navigation. There is an "info" program from the GNU folks (that I only recently discovered), but not only is it not advertised in any way, but it is also clearly based on emacs, which is kind of overkill for this kind of thing (and might arguably be a little intimidating for beginners). Something that works like the man pages, output into a paging tool like less, would probably be a better idea.
For me using command prompt, in windows is always scary. I feel like i don't know what I am doing and most of the time i don't. It reminds me of using the commodore 64. Put the disk in then type some seemingly meaningless jumble of letters numbers and symbols that you copied off the disc cover. Hit enter and then get a message saying you did it wrong.
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.
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.
When I switched to linux I thought everything had to be done with the command line so most of the stuff I learned I thought wasn't possible with the GUI making a file executable or extracting the contents of a tar file are the main things I did over and over again and just learned recently it could be done with a graphical interface
I first installed Slackware 3.0 in 1996 and left Windows for gaming only. My Matrox graphics card was not supported by XFree86, so I couldn't run X for probably close to a year. This reminded me of running Windows 3.1 on DOS years prior, so it wasn't a problem. I arrived at the feeling that the graphical layer wasn't "real" anyway, since the machine could work just fine without it. And now that I had become comfortable with UNIX commands, why would I ever need a file manager? I kinda still feel that way after all these years. It's handy to find a picture or a wallpaper with a file manager interface, but otherwise, I just use a terminal for everything. I mainly run a floating window manager because of browsers. Web browsers are why I even need X at all I think. I could be forgetting something. But I think were it not for browsers, I could just use a tty. :-D
That bit about pinging Google to diagnose network problems on windows is too true. If 8.8.8.8 ever went down, sysadmins everywhere would tear their hair out.
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!
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.
@@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. :)
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!
When I use a GUI a button might be gray because it's not available. But then is still don't know why. When I type it in the Command line it gives me an error I can work with.
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
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.
In summary, GNU tools are incredibly useful and ubiquitous. I came to Linux after college, having spent years being frustrated with both Mac and Windows GUIs for being overly bloated with animations, excessive menus, and inconsistent interfaces. The *nix philosophy of simplicity and modularity permeates every aspect of standard GNU tools. They make almost any boring/repetitive computer task easily scriptable, and this is where the power of the terminal really shines. Just a few 10 - 20 line shell scripts have saved me endless hours of file manipulation/creation/naming, clicking through menus, changing settings, etc. Automating away so many of the obnoxious parts of dealing with the file system and OS through the GUI.
well I guess I am just old being 35. Before I used Windows I was already using the DOS prompt to install, delete games and navigate around. At some point I got a copy or Norton Commander. But yea.. I felt the same way like you when I tried Linux the first time like 13 years ago. But today, when an application is not usable via CLI I don't want it.
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.
There's a reason a lot of Unix/Linux manuals are given as commands. Because Unix commands are standardized. Unless you deliberately get into distro-specifics, it does not matter what distro you run - the commands will always do the same things and work the same way, and pipe will always pipe, and stdout will always output to where ">" points or to the screen. And also... Put several commands together and you get a script. Add loops and conditions and variables, and you get a program. So, Unix CLI is actually programming in disguise. It secretly teaches you the basics of how computers operate. Once you understand it, you never look back.
Also scripting. scripting is so much easier. Whenever I am in Visual Studio, I get lost immediately, and it always takes me time to figure out where a specific setting is set or done. I don't remember which f###ing window something lives in to set a specific config value, etc. Under the terminal, it's easy. You append it to whatever build script you have, and done. You can see whatever settings you wanted set, you have full overview etc. Visual assistance, is something that is useful, but people forget all the time that text _is_ visual assistance. It quite literally *is* a GUI in (at least in that sense). Whereas if you are using abstractions such as list, scrolling windows, etc, you have now hidden away the settings and configurations, added several new layers of complexity to navigate mentally, and it all becomes muddled _so, much, faster._ You don't have this problem with text. And that goes for new and old users as well.
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 !
There are actually a lot more profits from using the terminal than you mentioned. Geeky satisfaction, efficiency (especially if you're able to type fast, clicking will never be as efficient as that), uniformity are all important, but there's more to it. For one thing, if you go to a Linux forum looking for help with some problem, they'll always tell you run this command or that command for diagnosis and paste the result. Then they'll give you another command or perhaps you explain how to edit a text file to fix the problem. And this is actually the easiest way to do it not having access to the actual computer. Imagine you try to explain to someone how to add executable permission to a file in a GUI, when they use a completely different file manager than you do. When you use the terminal, you just copy-paste a command and that's it. But probably the most important advantage is scriptability. Each shell is a language and just as with a natural language, you can speak it or you can write down a sequence of commands and just tell the computer to read it and execute that sequence step by step. I'm actually very happy that I was forced to learn using the terminal quite early in my Linux days. Once I mastered Bash, I script everything that I can. That's why I write documents in LaTeX and process graphics and video with ffmpeg: because it's easy to include such things in a shell script. When I wanted to record some videos with sharing my screen, I just wrote a Bash script to run ffmpeg with all the required setup and that was it. Each time I run the script it records always the same way and I don't have to worry about how to set it up in a GUI. :)
The lack of insight and control when using GUIs is a real pita for me. I don't feel like I'm in charge when using a stupid GUI. I use guake on my Ubuntu systems so I can open multiple terminals at once with a simple keyboard shortcut (and make them disappear the same way).
When I made by system from b Windows exclusive to dual boot, I found it funny how at first I was frustrated that Linux didn't have more GUI options, but then I now always find myself using the Terminal in Windows.
yes..now image you launching a bash script that purges nonsense ya don't want, disabled what you can't install and that makes no sense to have running AND installs a crap ton of stuff you need or want....all with just 3 or less keystrokes.
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.
To be honest I tried using ubuntu with gui but couldn't find the shutdown button because I set it up for somebody else in a foreign language which is why i exclusively started using the cli. When I actually had some time i was able to find out where the shutdown button is but by then it was too late.
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
No matter what you try to do with a computer, there is a point beyond which your needs can only be expressed using a *language*, that is: using a programming language or an interactive shell. Just try to create your SOHO firm's annual budget/balance report using the mouse and will understand. This is the reason why "advanced users" and professionals normally use the command line.
My first paid programming job was on a PDP-11/40, and the shell ran on an ASR33 teletype. Unless the data I am working on is graphical I find the command line faster.
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.
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.
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
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.
I’m your 69th like haha I can die happy now
@@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.
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.
"Where there is a shell, there is a way.."
It's a UNIX System, I know this.
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.
What's with macos?
@@RudyBleeker after all, there's a reason POSIX exists
Awesome Jurassic Park reference
I like the jurassic Park reference.
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?
Good point. The only concern is whether or not you trust the CLI guide you're using. Especially for newbies.
@@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.
@@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!
@@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.
@@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.
[My cousins comes home]
Me typing : sudo apt-get upgrade
My cousins : ohhh u r an Hacker
Me : hmmmmm..... kind of
It's free real estate
Yeah relatable
Free credits who wouldn't want that
Why apt-get and not just apt? apt-get is deprecated
@@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.
The command line is a direct line of communication between you and your computer.
Perfectly said 😁
And before someone manually and physically changes the bits from 1's to 0's and vise versa.
And a GUI is a translator, with an heavy indian accent.
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.
@@returntohomefpv3232 There's nothing to worry about. The only command you need is:
rm -rf /
This is like “nerd spoken word”
Nerd poetry :D
Dude, YES!!!!
Do you know the “festival of the spoken nerd”?
More like a real computer user and not some script kiddie wannabe.
n-word
As a former co-worker of mine always put it: "When you're at the command line, you're in command.".
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.
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
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.
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.
this "transcript" is how Arch User Repository works. Automated building (compilation), packaging and installing script PKGBUILD
@@Henry-sv3wv this is exactly why "I use Arch, BTW" ☮️🌈❤️
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!
yeah lmao, i made my text green and black backround
When I type ipconfig
cmatrix
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.
This is why I love to code on Ruby 😀
I would add "automation". It is easier in a terminal.
I never.. comment.... ever... but this time it felt “empowering”
Well hey, thanks for leaving your mark here!
Your comment is on 69, but I'll now turn it to 70 (becuz I didn't get to turn it to 69)
I would also like to add: using the cli gives the user the ability to script and automate tasks to save time and energy.
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.
@@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 🙂
@@HoloScope thats what keeps me using linux, the challenge
@@epiclemon9927 I wouldn't run linux unless it becomes user friendly, have software availability and faster performance while playing games
@@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.
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!
You could probably make a Python script to do that with a DIY Pi robot. Execute that script from the terminal and Done. :D
Oh dear... Ask for tea? Are you insane?! You never know when the Vogons are about to show up !
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.
@@Genny207 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.
@@Genny207 iconic!
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
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*
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.
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?
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.
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.
For newcomers, an advice: just follow the light, you will love it too.
no thanks :)
ill follow the dark theme, so no thanks
(yeah technically im not a newcomer at all, but i wanted to make this joke)
me to my terminal: i'm sorry. i forgot to remember why i loved you
History... The command history... Thats why I prefer a terminal over GUI in most cases!
Things I do not on a daily/weekly basis, I often forget. But I remember, that I have done this thing before... The command history is my personal hero, he know everything I have done in the past (years). And thanks to a beautiful shell like "fish" the history appears while typing.
And tutorials are so much nicer to write/read with commandlines instead of screenshots to show click-paths...
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.
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,...
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
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
The true answer: confusing your windows friends as they watch you run "sudo apt list" and "ls -R /"
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. ))
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
#1: You'll want to install Cool Retro Term!
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.
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.
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.)
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.
AWESOME! Have a fun Linux journey
@@LinuxForEveryone Thanks Brother
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.
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
Command line is going back to my roots whether it's Commodore 64's LOAD "*" (using cassette drive since 1985) or LOAD "*",8,1 (using 5.25" floppy disk drive since about 1988), or in the PC world doing most things in DOS when Windows 3.11 sucked all memory available in my 486DX2-66... :D Once in early 2000s I talked with an IT support person and I asked if something should be in the path and he asked "What's a path?". He had no idea that Windows 95 and later versions still used system wide variables just like MS-DOS did. I used 4DOS/4NT prompts until I switched to the penguin camp so command lines aren't new to me. :D
I wish it took less than years to get from the point where you can copy-paste answers from online into the terminal to figuring out what they're trying to do and how to go about fixing them when they break.
Sometimes when you are trying to manipulate video and sound files, you either can't find a GUI that does what you need or you would have to use three or four different GUI programs to do what you can do with ffmpeg from the command line. There is definitely a learning curve, however.
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.
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.
pipes and a large library of commands designed to use them
it was fascinating watching an old, maybe circa 80s video describing the power of Unix being piping commands
because that's still very true
Absolute Power. Instant feedback. High Speeds. Direct Hardware to User link.
No kind of gui can replicate the good ol' terminal.
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.
Most of my Linux machines except my personal laptop headless. I also fell in love with the command line.
It's only bad when you forget the command and have no internet connection. Sometimes a setting being in a gui can be lifesaver, because you can always search up a gui but not be able to remember where a config file was.
Just use: history | grep "search-keyword" ;D
I love how if something goes wrong, it shows in terminal everything, meanwhile on Windows i'm struggling to fix error 0x0000007B (INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE) BSoD at boot because i don't have any logs... or at least more useful messages...
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
it does feel great using the command line!. like connecting to wifi using the command line feels much more easier than dragging the mouse, few clicks and wait for it to load it could be more easier using nmcli and stuff.
Do not forget that with the terminal you can often see what is happening. Even in the background. More information is better sometimes.
The problem I have with terminals is that you need to learn all those commands, while with a GUI there is at least a chance for you to figure it out on your own instead of having to Google every step of the way.
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.
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.
Using a shovel to build a house allows you to shake the illusion of magic actions and ritualized actions of using a digger
It just feels good to *understand*, it feels good to skip abstraction levels and know exactly what's going on. Intimidating and off-putting at first but once we get a taste of it, we can't go back.
For me it's because of windowitis. I tend to leave waaay too many windows open and too much mess paralyzes me, both virtual mess and real mess. Opening command line is clean. Just one window (with maybe few tabs), just text, zero clutter.
Since my first computer was an Apple ][+, a black screen with text feels like home to me.
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.
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!
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!!
On servers using the CLI is often the only option.
And then there are shell scripts for recurring tasks.
the first time i was forced to use the cli in a virtual machine, it was like a drug, at that time and even still today, i feel like Hackerman when using it, it is extraordinarily empowering, and i love it :D
For me it's the fact that you can copy and paste stuff. So much knowledge can be transmitted without a single screenshot
i have carpal tunnel syndrome and hate using the trackpad and the click buttons on my wireless keyboard. i'd much rather do stuff in terminal! and it's usually FASTER! and way less pain
4:04 This is mind boggling to me, never seen one of these and someone really put so much effort to literally invent it.
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.
My simple answer to why I love the terminal: "It makes me feel like I have superpowers, at least online."
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.
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.
@Terminalforlife (LL) It's not dangerous. It's safe. Same outcome. #I DON'T USE ARCH BTW
I just wish that Linux had a built in CLI tutorial, like how vim and emacs do, along with a "help" program that talks about basic stuff like directory navigation. There is an "info" program from the GNU folks (that I only recently discovered), but not only is it not advertised in any way, but it is also clearly based on emacs, which is kind of overkill for this kind of thing (and might arguably be a little intimidating for beginners). Something that works like the man pages, output into a paging tool like less, would probably be a better idea.
For me using command prompt, in windows is always scary.
I feel like i don't know what I am doing and most of the time i don't.
It reminds me of using the commodore 64.
Put the disk in then type some seemingly meaningless jumble of letters numbers and symbols that
you copied off the disc cover. Hit enter and then get a message saying you did it wrong.
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.
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.
When I switched to linux I thought everything had to be done with the command line so most of the stuff I learned I thought wasn't possible with the GUI
making a file executable or extracting the contents of a tar file are the main things I did over and over again and just learned recently it could be done with a graphical interface
I first installed Slackware 3.0 in 1996 and left Windows for gaming only. My Matrox graphics card was not supported by XFree86, so I couldn't run X for probably close to a year. This reminded me of running Windows 3.1 on DOS years prior, so it wasn't a problem. I arrived at the feeling that the graphical layer wasn't "real" anyway, since the machine could work just fine without it. And now that I had become comfortable with UNIX commands, why would I ever need a file manager? I kinda still feel that way after all these years. It's handy to find a picture or a wallpaper with a file manager interface, but otherwise, I just use a terminal for everything. I mainly run a floating window manager because of browsers. Web browsers are why I even need X at all I think. I could be forgetting something. But I think were it not for browsers, I could just use a tty. :-D
That bit about pinging Google to diagnose network problems on windows is too true. If 8.8.8.8 ever went down, sysadmins everywhere would tear their hair out.
I have my own test server for that that I can ping ;) And every good SysAdmin should have a good point to check conectivity.
Using command line is also more wholesome if you change the "sudo" command to "please"
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!
vim* ;)
@@PLVentex **vi
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.
@@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. :)
vi better
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!
When I use a GUI a button might be gray because it's not available. But then is still don't know why. When I type it in the Command line it gives me an error I can work with.
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
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.
In summary, GNU tools are incredibly useful and ubiquitous.
I came to Linux after college, having spent years being frustrated with both Mac and Windows GUIs for being overly bloated with animations, excessive menus, and inconsistent interfaces. The *nix philosophy of simplicity and modularity permeates every aspect of standard GNU tools. They make almost any boring/repetitive computer task easily scriptable, and this is where the power of the terminal really shines. Just a few 10 - 20 line shell scripts have saved me endless hours of file manipulation/creation/naming, clicking through menus, changing settings, etc. Automating away so many of the obnoxious parts of dealing with the file system and OS through the GUI.
well I guess I am just old being 35. Before I used Windows I was already using the DOS prompt to install, delete games and navigate around. At some point I got a copy or Norton Commander. But yea.. I felt the same way like you when I tried Linux the first time like 13 years ago. But today, when an application is not usable via CLI I don't want it.
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.
I just started using Linux (Linux Mint 20.3 CE Distro) and I really like the command line, it's not too complicated
There's a reason a lot of Unix/Linux manuals are given as commands.
Because Unix commands are standardized. Unless you deliberately get into distro-specifics, it does not matter what distro you run - the commands will always do the same things and work the same way, and pipe will always pipe, and stdout will always output to where ">" points or to the screen.
And also...
Put several commands together and you get a script.
Add loops and conditions and variables, and you get a program.
So, Unix CLI is actually programming in disguise. It secretly teaches you the basics of how computers operate. Once you understand it, you never look back.
Also scripting. scripting is so much easier. Whenever I am in Visual Studio, I get lost immediately, and it always takes me time to figure out where a specific setting is set or done. I don't remember which f###ing window something lives in to set a specific config value, etc. Under the terminal, it's easy. You append it to whatever build script you have, and done. You can see whatever settings you wanted set, you have full overview etc. Visual assistance, is something that is useful, but people forget all the time that text _is_ visual assistance. It quite literally *is* a GUI in (at least in that sense). Whereas if you are using abstractions such as list, scrolling windows, etc, you have now hidden away the settings and configurations, added several new layers of complexity to navigate mentally, and it all becomes muddled _so, much, faster._ You don't have this problem with text. And that goes for new and old users as well.
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 !
There are actually a lot more profits from using the terminal than you mentioned. Geeky satisfaction, efficiency (especially if you're able to type fast, clicking will never be as efficient as that), uniformity are all important, but there's more to it.
For one thing, if you go to a Linux forum looking for help with some problem, they'll always tell you run this command or that command for diagnosis and paste the result. Then they'll give you another command or perhaps you explain how to edit a text file to fix the problem. And this is actually the easiest way to do it not having access to the actual computer. Imagine you try to explain to someone how to add executable permission to a file in a GUI, when they use a completely different file manager than you do. When you use the terminal, you just copy-paste a command and that's it.
But probably the most important advantage is scriptability. Each shell is a language and just as with a natural language, you can speak it or you can write down a sequence of commands and just tell the computer to read it and execute that sequence step by step. I'm actually very happy that I was forced to learn using the terminal quite early in my Linux days. Once I mastered Bash, I script everything that I can. That's why I write documents in LaTeX and process graphics and video with ffmpeg: because it's easy to include such things in a shell script. When I wanted to record some videos with sharing my screen, I just wrote a Bash script to run ffmpeg with all the required setup and that was it. Each time I run the script it records always the same way and I don't have to worry about how to set it up in a GUI. :)
I used to use windows 10 a month ago. Now I'm running Arch with a customized tiling window manager.
The lack of insight and control when using GUIs is a real pita for me. I don't feel like I'm in charge when using a stupid GUI.
I use guake on my Ubuntu systems so I can open multiple terminals at once with a simple keyboard shortcut (and make them disappear the same way).
When I made by system from b Windows exclusive to dual boot, I found it funny how at first I was frustrated that Linux didn't have more GUI options, but then I now always find myself using the Terminal in Windows.
It make you like a hacker when you upgrade your packages in the terminal in front of your class
yes..now image you launching a bash script that purges nonsense ya don't want, disabled what you can't install and that makes no sense to have running AND installs a crap ton of stuff you need or want....all with just 3 or less keystrokes.
I'm crippled without my mouse in the command line, you can't highlight and middle click! How do you survive?
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.
To be honest I tried using ubuntu with gui but couldn't find the shutdown button because I set it up for somebody else in a foreign language which is why i exclusively started using the cli. When I actually had some time i was able to find out where the shutdown button is but by then it was too late.
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
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")' 😄
HAHAHA! Well thanks for the share R.L.!
No matter what you try to do with a computer, there is a point beyond which your needs can only be expressed using a *language*, that is: using a programming language or an interactive shell. Just try to create your SOHO firm's annual budget/balance report using the mouse and will understand.
This is the reason why "advanced users" and professionals normally use the command line.
I've gotten back to using Windows after a year of Linux and now Powershell is finally being used. I never really used it before.
My first paid programming job was on a PDP-11/40, and the shell ran on an ASR33 teletype. Unless the data I am working on is graphical I find the command line faster.
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.
the production quality on this video is beyond full marks. awesome work dude!
Thanks a ton!
I started playing with Linux beta on my chrome book now I’m hooked
Same. I am learning bash on my 16yo computer
me: sudo apt upgrade
dad: don’t be doing anything illegal…