The Command Line - Best Newbie Interface?

An anonymous reader writes "This essay describes the surprising results of a brief trial with a group of new computer users about the relative ease of the command line interface versus the GUIs now omnipresent in computer interfaces. It comes from practical experience I have of teaching computing to complete beginners or newbies as computer power-users often term them."

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[Pan T. Hose]

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[Overly Critical Guy]

Only on Slashdot is an entire article posted about the command line being the "best newbie interface." The rest of the modern, non-UNIX-obsessed computing world laughs in response. Riiiight...the command-line is the best interface for newbies...

This article was only posted to make Linux users feel better about the fact that 80% of setting up and using Linux still requires using arcane commands. So we get articles claiming "in my experience, the command line is better for newbies than a visual interface." That way, when people bring up the overly complicated command line routines, Linux people can say, "But the command line is better for newbies anyway!" And it gives assholes more of a reason to answer every single newbie question with "read the man pages."

It's groupthink holding things back. Look, there's nothing wrong with just admitting that things aren't quite there yet for newbies when it comes to Linux. We're getting there, but this silly let's-justify-20-year-old-UNIX-philosophy is holding it back.