O'Reilly Network: Why Use a Command Line Instead of Windows?

"Years ago, I took a class on computer user-interface design. Some of my professor's words have stayed with me since then. One characteristic of a user-friendly system, he told us, is that it does what the user wants. In other words, the most user-friendly system isn't necessarily the simplest one.

If you'd never seen a BMW (or a pick-your-favorite-car), you might think that a horse is the best way to get where you're going: it's easy to use, simple to maintain, and you might see some nice scenery as you (slowly) reach your destination. So why would you want a sophisticated automobile?"

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• MLUG: The Linux Terminal - A Beginners' Bash(Nov 14, 2001)
• LinuxFocus.org: Shell Programming (Sep 30, 2001)
• IBM developerWorks: Transitioning from Windows to Linux (Jul 25, 2001)
• IBM developerWorks: Using Bash shell scripts for function testing(Apr 01, 2001)