this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2026
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

First off, I'm really glad to see posts from personal websites and blogs! Way to keep the indie web alive!

Sadly I got a Cloudflare error trying to open the page. But, I think on this subject, GUIs can be great tools, but they're the most commonly designed with exploitative dark patterns and "our users are drooling simpletons" in mind.

Terminals are also super cool. It's definitely easier to automate terminal programs than GUIs!

Also TUI? Man, opening BTOP is always a treat .

It just kinda depends on the tool for the job, right? Blender is a great example of a streamlined necessary graphical interface that asks for a terminal-like familiarity from the user. (And GUI-only folks kinda rage at it at first hehe)

Running as much as possible in terminal is definitely easier on the resources though, and I want to get a lot better at that. (As sexy as KDE is!)

[–] somegeek@programming.dev 1 points 5 hours ago

Thank you! Sorry for the cloud error, the server's origin website is hosted in my country Iran, which is currently in a semi-blackout and very bad internet distruptions. Very sad.

You might see the blog if you try a couple times more, I can see it with most VPNs.

I completely agree with your points. I'm stating the same sentiment in the blog.

I prefer GUIs for two things:

  1. Things that are inherently graphical (gimp, blender, etc)
  2. Things that I don't use very often, and the GUI is too simple to be bothered with a cli.
[–] detonational_VuSE@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 day ago (3 children)

"That's why I always have 10GB of free ram on my laptop with 16GB of ram" lol, good job sport I wonder if they browse the web on command line? lynx and curl can be rough. I take the position that sometimes gui is good, sometimes tui, sometimes cli. ncurses is a headache to write for.

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 3 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

lynx can be rough

i guess it's pretty usable if you are stuck in a desert island with a 35 year old computer, a modern ish debian disc and perfect wired access to the internet.

[–] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 1 points 7 hours ago

I would totally love to browse a simpler "layer" of the Internet that could be navigated with Lynx! The biggest downside would be lack of images. (Maybe Lynx can do images?)

But I could see an indie web of little blogs and human created artifacts that would be surfed kinda like logging into a MUD. :D

[–] somegeek@programming.dev 3 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

Yeah browsers are the main GUI I use. w3m is great for reading blogs and those types of things but like you say, not the best experience for most things. And we can't really blame it on them, the modern web is horribly written most of the time.

[–] pineapple@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

For sure, Cli browser is just not the way to go.

[–] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 31 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

CLI designers: "Here are the commands and arguments in a txt file, they'll only change when absolutely necessary and we'll be sure to inform you both in the docs and as a warning in the CLI itself."

GUI designers: "go fuck yourself and re-learn where we hid all the buttons this time, after waiting for our two second fly-in animation for every submenu of course. Don't worry though, here's a condescending popup tour that only shows you the most basic features you could already see with your eyes. If you're still confused, here's an AI chatbot that will just repeat the contents of the popup tour and then act like you're an idiot. Hey, HEY! STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING THIS INSTANT AND READ ABOUT OUR NEW BUZZWORD FEATURE YOU NEVER ASKED FOR! TRY IT RIGHT NOW OR ELSE! Also we're keylogging you and recording your mouse movements as "analytics" for """improving""" our UI (even though it's only getting worse with each new version), you understand. "

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 3 points 13 hours ago

dark patterns go brr

[–] bestelbus22@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago (3 children)

CLI: Here's a txt file, now memorize it you peasant

Good GUI: Welcome back my friend, straight the thing again? Btw on the right you can see some relevant info and links.

[–] ferric_carcinization@lemmy.ml 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I see that you don't use a shell with completions.

[–] bestelbus22@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

I do actually and I also prefer CLI, just wanted add a bit of nuance to the discussion.

[–] cole@lemdro.id 7 points 1 day ago

yeah good GUIs are really important for people who use a lot of programs lol.

I can't remember everything at once, I've got better things to do

[–] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

CLI: Welcome back my friend, forgot a command or argument? Just type --help and read the super terse and bullshit free txt file in less time it takes for the GUI startup animations to finish. Too long? Type | grep to directly search for it in less time than it takes for the search button to expand and let you start typing! Realize you keep doing the same few steps? Just write a script instead of memorizing what specific sequence of buttons to click or hope that the GUI remembers where you left off! Need to tell a team member how to do something? Just send them the commands or a full script in chat instead of jumping on a video call and walking them through which of these abstract, indescribable icons they need to click which they'll definitely get wrong and open some weird submenu you then have to tell them how to leave!

GUI: Ooh a GPU and gigabytes of VRAM just for my animations? You shouldn't have! Ooh you mouseovered something for one millisecond while moving it to the actual thing you want? Let me lag the entire window and cover up the thing you wanted with this popup that takes longer to disappear the more irrelevant it is! Also none of the text in mouseover popups is selectable so you can't copy from it even if you did need it (Visual Studio static analysis messages I'm looking at you). Still need help? Well you first have to find where the help button is if there even is one! We're increasingly not including help files because it "should" "just" be intuitive. Or just watch a 10 minute video walking through how to do something that could have been two lines in the terminal, stupid! Want to automate something that takes like ten clicks because we hid everything in nested submenus to "avoid clutter"? Go ahead and install a third party macro suite and record your mouse clicks and movements that will break as soon as the next update drops and slightly shift the margins around!

[–] LunarLoony@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's an excellent description of Microsoft Office after 2007.

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 1 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)
[–] Ferk@lemmy.ml 50 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (5 children)

I generally agree but it depends on the application and the computer purpose / input you will most use.

Like.. it doesn't make much sense to have a CLI/TUI for an image editor.. if you start using things like sixel you are essentially building a GUI that runs in a terminal, not a TUI. The same happens with videogames, video players and related entertainment applications.

But like I said, I do generally agree. I'd even argue that when possible, GUIs should just be frontends that ultimately just call the corresponding CLI programs with the appropriate parameters, avoiding duplication.

[–] somegeek@programming.dev 4 points 19 hours ago

Exactly. I'm on the exact same boat, the blog post is the proof! :D

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[–] KarnaSubarna@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Thumb rule: whichever I feel comfortable with in a given situation, I use.

[–] somegeek@programming.dev 2 points 19 hours ago

Totally agreed!

[–] hobata@lemmy.ml 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

well, actually nobody gives a shit, use whatever you fit best for the task.

[–] fprefect@lemmy.ml 16 points 2 days ago (7 children)

For me to be able to use whatever I want, it needs to exist. Therefore it is a relevant discussion to have, since it might influence a developer to consider TUI instead of just going for GUI as the default.

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[–] Levi@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 days ago (5 children)

What is a TUI? I haven't heard that term before.

[–] thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

TUI: ~~Terminal~~ Text User Interface, something like htop in example. CLI: Command Line Interface, something like grep in example.

Edit: "Text" is probably the correct word, not "Terminal".

[–] Ferk@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Isn't the T for "text"? (ie. "Text User Interface")

I mean, in the context of Unix systems it's most likely gonna be within a terminal emulator, but in theory you can have a TUI inside an SDL window rendering the text there (specially when they are ports from other systems where they might be using different character sets than whats available in terminals.. or if they want to force a specific font).

The only example that comes to my head right now is ZZT, but I believe there are many games on Steam that use a TUI rendered within their own program, not a terminal.

[–] thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 day ago

Text makes sense. I mostly read it as "Terminal" and do not know what the original meaning is with a certainty. Looking at Wikipedia, the source of truth, it's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text-based_user_interface . You probably right about it.

[–] detonational_VuSE@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

ncurses and similar. Think 1980s word processor, emacs, vi, Slackware installer, etc.

[–] Obin@feddit.org 4 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

Emacs is actually a real GUI application. It has font sizes, variable width fonts, image display, etc. and with the pGTK backend even native wayland support. It also has a rendering backend for the terminal, and some people have their reasons for using it, but the default and general advice is to use Emacs in GUI mode.

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 1 points 13 hours ago

til. it never crossed my mind emacs could ever have a gui mode.

[–] Levi@lemmy.ca 1 points 20 hours ago

Slackware was my first linux back in the day. :)

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 4 points 1 day ago

thanks. I was going to ask but figured someone else might and thanks @thingsiplay@lemmy.ml as the top example makes it I think clear I think. if im right then vi would be tui as well.

[–] pnelego@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's a UI that sits in the terminal (thus TUI). Think htop, or btop; They are often ran from CLI, but offer more of a UI.

[–] Levi@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Thanks! I guess something like vim would count as a TUI then.

[–] thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 day ago

Yes. Think of any terminal application with an interactive user interface, that mimics a GUI. Something that is not just controlled by commandline options like grep and sed in example.

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[–] davel@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Pff, you're using one of those newfangled CRTs? I use a mechanical teletype that makes my computing sound like hammering nails.

[–] ZomieChicken@sh.itjust.works 3 points 21 hours ago

mechanical teletype? Pfff. Grow up and learn to read your blinkenlights already. Heck, while you're at it, here are 16 switches and three buttons. That should be more than enough for anything ever.

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