this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2023
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[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago (14 children)

Wouldn't it be nice to not have an adversarial, abusive relationship with your OS?

The whole point of computers, as far as I can tell, is to be that abusive relationship we never could perfect with humans. Linux is no exception, it's just more passive-aggressive and better with gaslighting.

"You see, if only you'd installed this dependency, which I showed you so clearly in the error logs all along - and I categorised them so nicely - but you never like to look there, do you? - I mean, I understand, and that's why I mentioned it - not too strongly, because I didn't want to upset you more - in the terminal output..."

[–] [email protected] 38 points 11 months ago (8 children)

Most Linux developers don't include anti-features on purpose, but Windows developers do.

I think dependencies have gotten simpler on Linux with flatpak. The fact that the command-line is still sometimes needed on Linux is just a fact of life. Nobody is forcing users to use it out of any sort of passive-aggressive distain for users, but just that it takes less time out of volunteer developers' schedules to buold command-line tools.

I think one thing to note in the CLI-GUI debate though is that Windows pushed hard against CLI interfaces from day 1. Even starting with Windows 3, there were a lot of things you couldn't do with CLI easily, while Unix has always had full CLI support. Users being unfamiliar with CLI interfaces is a symptom of Windows dominance.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (5 children)

Or Windows dominance is a symptom of the average computer user struggling with a cli

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I mean it's so logical, I have real troubles figuring out why so many people don't get it.

You can't immediately see what options you have in a command line.

In a UI, you see the "menu" button right there.

If you have no idea about anything, in a UI, you can still click on the menu button, and are presented with more options.

In a command line, if you have absolutely no clue, what do you need to do? Honestly, you have to ask someone who knows (be it a friend, a manual, or web search). You can randomly start typing or press keys, but the chance to get to something useful is very low.

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