OSNews: GUI vs. CLI: A Qualitative Comparison

“It is not fashionable nowadays to speak of the merits of the
command line, in an age where things like streaming video and Aqua
are an integral part of our daily life. However, I do not think
that typed-in commands must necessarily be consigned to the dustbin
of computer history. Of course, I am not suggesting that we all
drop X and Windows and pretend like we are living in the early
eighties. The command line interface still has much to offer us,
and many of its benefits simply cannot physically be emulated or
even replaced by graphical ones.

“In this article, I will be analyzing the specific properties
that make the command line unique and irreplaceable. I will
likewise analyze the graphical UI’s features–though only giving it
a cursory look, since I assume my audience does not need to be
persuaded to make the most of its video hardware. I will be looking
at the Unix shell, since it is the most full-featured and powerful
of such interfaces (DOS, of course, had very few features worth
talking about; it must be given its due, though–it brought
millions of people into computing). I will be looking at GUIs on a
more general level…”

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