It is unquestionably the case that only a small percentage of Linux users would be truly satisfied not having access to a graphical user interface. The graphical desktop environment has become so ingrained in almost everyone’s computer activities. Nevertheless, even in 2012 there are many reasons why console based applications have an important part to play.
So what does the command-line offer users. There is a wide range of console based software which provide the same or similar functionality to their graphical equivalents. In the field of system administration, Linux is blessed with a good range of graphical file managers. However, some users are in their comfort zone managing files from the shell, finding it the fastest way to navigate the file system and perform file operations. This is in part because console based file managers are more keyboard friendly, enabling users to perform file operations without using a mouse, and make it quicker to navigate the file system and issue commands in the console at the same time.