CLIs vs. GUIs
13 June 2007Recently, I’ve passed the CCNA Certification Exam, that basically gives you the ground understanding of Networks for the Cisco point of view. I had been attending to the CCNA courses here in EVTEK, so I had access to all the material I needed (Cisco routers, switches and so on).
Despite the lectures consist in a big part of theory concepts (that I had already learned in my home university), the most interesting part of it was the hands-on labs: dealing with your rack and designing different networking situations. All that is done through the IOS (Internetwork OS) that is running the big part of the hardware that Cisco has. Of course, IOS is accessed through a “primitive” Command Line Interface (yeah, there is a web interface, but… c’mon: it’s not even complete!). Some could say that the reason is that you don’t want to bloat your router with stuff like that: all that is needed is throughput, but that’s not the only reason.
Ok, we are geeks, so you can tell us your geeky story
I remember when I was doing the lab exam corresponding to the CCNA 3 course. I had finished so I asked my supervisor to check that the set up was working. He did it so, but then he asked a question about a special parameter of the VTP (VLAN Truking Protocol). I had forgotten to check it before (OK, my fault, I didn’t read completely the exam), and now my supervisor was waiting for the answer. The funny thing is, I knew what he was asking, but I didn’t know where to find it. And I did it, and the teacher was pleased to notice I found it using the power of the CLI: just with the built-in help and tab completions.
So… what’s the matter in using a CLI?
You can’t miss it, because there are no hidden options: all the functionality is there, you just type a question mark and all the stuff that the IOS can do is there. And if you need more functionality, it can be added seamlessly. It’s funny to think that, the simplest and fastest interface that you can imagine is the interface that so many people is scared of. Even moving files (drag and drop, one of the big GUI concepts) is faster on a CLI. Try to check some setting in a OS like Windows… of course, you all know how to change an IP on that system, you all know what “Start” means but certainly is way more obscure, and we are already used to the Control Panel thing. And let’s hope that they haven’t changed the Control Panel for Vista or you will have to ask to that dog in the sidebar where to find the IP settings.
Good old terminal!
I don’t mean that CLIs are good for everything, I like to do video editing, and that’s not made for that (completly), not to talk about web-browsing. I just mean that CLIs are good for more stuff than they are actually used nowadays. People (let’s say, non-computer science students, because we are not real people at all) was using DOS a few years before and it had an awful CLI. Microsoft was going towards Windows, and they determined to finish with DOS. That’s one of the reasons because Linux is not getting more users than it is already getting: People still thinks that using a CLI is closer to program software than to use software. Unfortunately, that’s unlikely to change, but I’ll keep saying it :P.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
5 Responses to “CLIs vs. GUIs”
June 13th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
Abans que res: et puc contestar en valencià a la secció anglosaxona? (no em faces escriure en anglès que faig risa…)
Les interfícies gràfiques són un producte de la comercialització a gran escala. Les millonades de diners que es mouen en informàtica no es mourien sense les GUI. Sense aquest acostament de la informàtica al gran públic, els ordinadors personals no s’haurien convertit en una ferrament indispensable.
Si volem comercialitzar la informàtica, haurem de baixar al nivell del consumidor. Si no, podrem mantenir una informàtica de qualitat, o de més qualitat, més elitista o com vulgues dir-li, però hi ha que tenir clar que “no guanyarem un duro”. Què elegim? Uff… No sé…
June 13th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
No et falta raó, jo mateixa no gastaria un SO sense interficie gràfica. Pero tampoc en gastaria un sense CLI (llevat de màquines servidores, clar). Les dos son necessaries, pero hui en dia pareix de bojos gastar un terminal per a qualsevol cosa que no siga hackejar el pentagono :P.
En qualsevol cas, les GUIs donen i han donat millonades, pero no deixaran de guanyarne perque s’usen les CLIs com deu mana.
PD: El comentari (que s’agraix!) el deixe ací i quan traduixca el post (que si, que ho faré algun dia ^^) te canvie el comentari de lloc.
July 6th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
When will you publish more interesting posts? I’ve waited too for new writings! Please, tell us more things.
PD: Jejeje. Alguna errada en el meu anglès? Jo llegir-lo bé, però escriure’l…
July 8th, 2007 at 9:42 am
Hehe, I started working, and I’m not having too much spare time : (. But I haven’t forgotten this site I’ll write something soon ; )
September 3rd, 2007 at 8:35 pm
True, my friend. I agree with you completely. I just don’t feel comfortable anymore with a GUI-only based operating system like windows. I need to have always one or two terminal windows open side by side with all the other GUI programs. There are so many things you can do with a CLI:copy, rename, edit, check… specially when dealing with many files. And once you get used it many tasks can be done faster and in a more flexible way than doing it with GUI equivalents. GUI’s are more intuitive and friendly for first time (or casual) computer users, that is a fact. But people who use the computer a lot and are still scared of the “black and white” terminal just don’t know what they are missing…
Yep, no havia entrat mai a este blog, els articles estan molt ben redactats i son interesants. El diseny es simple y funcional (lleig), pero be.Hmmm.. vaig a subscribirme al rss.