The glories of the CLI

As a wild guess, I’d say that fewer than 10% of the computing populace regularly uses a command line interface (DOS prompt for Windows folk). It’s now possible to do basically everything needed in normal day-to-day ops, using Linux, without ever once firing up the console.

For migratory Windows birds, this is a good thing. However, for people who are wanting just a bit more out of their computer, and are willing to learn a few simple commands, it’s actually easier to use the CLI in several instances than it is to use the GUI equivalent. I’ll give three easy examples:

1. Adding or deleting a new user.
   In KDE, this requires that you fire up the KDE User Manager, enter the root password (assuming you’re not in root…and if you are, why?) then start pointing and clicking.
   Using the console, you simply type “sudo adduser [username]” and enter, then re-enter their password at the prompt. You’re also given the option of filling in personal info such as name, etc., or can bypass those by hitting enter a few times. Deleting a user via KDE’s User Manager is similar to adding one, and the same’s true with the CLI: type “sudo deluser [username]” and you’re done.
2. Restarting an interrupted download.
   It never fails…you find the program (or distro) of your dreams, hit the old download button and 2k from the end, you get knocked offline, the power goes out, or something else happens to disrupt the download. This is why download managers were invented…but you don’t need a fancy d-load manager with Linux. Open the console, type “wget [url path to file]” and off you go (this assumes you’re online). If your download should be interrupted for any reason, simply type “wget -c [url path to file]” and wget will pick up where it left off. While this isn’t as much an issue (probably) to broadband users, us folk who live in the boonies and can only get dialup find this a godsend.
3. Kicking Nero’s butt
   Everywhere I go, Windows types sing the praises of Nero, a CD burner for Windows. K3b and others have dedicated followings in Linux, and I was initially one of them, until I discovered the CLI command “cdrecord.” I use it exclusively for burning isos now. Instead of all the pointing and clicking required in the various GUI roasters, simply type “cdrecord -scanbus” and note which bus your CDRW drive is on. Usually, it’ll be bus 0,0,0.
   Then type “cdrecord dev=0,0,0 [path to directory containing the file(s) you want to burn to cd]” and hit enter. You can modify the cd burn in various fashions–setting the speed, etc., via other command options (available via “cdrecord –help”), but with a 48 or 52x burner, these are usually not necessary. That’s it.

Regardless of how polished a GUI is, there is always a good reason for a CLI, and good reason to learn a few CLI commands. These are just three more-or-less random examples.