Magnate wrote:

> IMO the basic issue is that Windows users do not comprehend that Linux
> is configured and maintained using plain text files. The configuration
> and maintenance of Windows is so (deliberately) opaque that they do
> not understand that an OS can be completely transparent and
> user-configurable.

Windows also started with textal configuration files (*.ini), but due to
the lack of a usable system for managing multiple users, a new system
has been invented. An interesting experiment, nowadays we know more ;-)

> Once that understanding dawns, comfort levels with
> the command line soar, since editing text files is no harder than in
> the GUI.

Of course it is harder! Not the process of editing per se, but *what* to
enter, delete or change, and *where*, requires additional knowledge. A
GUI can offer only valid settings for every parameter, or validate user
entries, and can present context sensitive help. Even if explanations
can be put into text files as well, a text editor cannot check or
validate user input.

> The problem is that before that understanding they think that
> the CLI requires some sort of wizardry that they don't/can't possess.

A shell requires wizardry, about the built-in commands, macro
capabilities and more. Not to forget the cryptic names of additional
commands, and their arguments, which the user has to know. Again some
help and documentation can be presented also for shells and commands,
but not in a context sensitive way.


IMO the major difference between using CLI and GUI is the general
approach: a CLI gives the user full freedom, the user must know what he
wants to do, and how to accomplish that. A GUI restricts the freedom of
the user, by offering only a few alternatives, from which the user can
intuitively select the one, which looks most promising to him.

According to my experience, there exist people that prefer to work based
on their precise knowledge, whereas others prefer to work intuitively. I
prefer a GUI, where I can put the icons for most of my activities on my
desktop, positioned and grouped according to my personal needs. I also
cannot remember details precisely, what's a must for CLI users, but I
can e.g. describe the book, approximate page and the page layout, where
I found some remarkable information before. Or I remember an menu entry,
application or the like, as a starting place for what I want to do, from
where I can select the next appropriate sub-item by association or
intuition.

DoDi