this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2023
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[–] [email protected] 38 points 7 months ago (3 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 7 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Why do people always assume GNU+Linux relies on a command line these days!? That's like saying Windows does... I.e. it's not true. Maybe if you go back to the Win9x and DOS days.

I swear, if you're going to complain about possibly the only OS that fully respects users and their freedom, how about you actually use it first and understand it's GUI mechanisms before spouting nonsense.

Windows is dominant because of extreme anti-competitive and other nasty practices in the past. The reason it's still dominant is because it has locked itself into it's dominant position since people are used to it (they still do many nasty practices today, as well)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

That's like saying Windows does... I.e. it's not true. Maybe if you go back to the Win9x and DOS days.

I don't think you've seen the number of power user articles these days that give you two options :

  • Wade through 27 levels of keys and subkeys in regedit, create this dword, then stop and start this inscrutably-named service, or
  • Run this one line command in PowerShell.
[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Lmao I forgot about the registry. I was never a Windows power user.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

It's was definitely one of those "seemed like a good idea at the time" kinda things, but now they've realised they've created a monster.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

I use command line by choice on Linux, but find myself forced to use PowerShell to make a windows installation that is somewhat bearable.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago

any sort of passive-aggressive distain for users,

Yeah, I don't mean from the devs - though part of the community can be a bit like that sometimes. But the computer itself...

I may have been anthropomorphizing, with a touch of experience-induced poetic imagination.