First off, I’m really glad to see posts from personal websites and blogs! Way to keep the indie web alive!
Sadly I got a Cloudflare error trying to open the page. But, I think on this subject, GUIs can be great tools, but they’re the most commonly designed with exploitative dark patterns and “our users are drooling simpletons” in mind.
Terminals are also super cool. It’s definitely easier to automate terminal programs than GUIs!
Also TUI? Man, opening BTOP is always a treat .
It just kinda depends on the tool for the job, right? Blender is a great example of a streamlined necessary graphical interface that asks for a terminal-like familiarity from the user. (And GUI-only folks kinda rage at it at first hehe)
Running as much as possible in terminal is definitely easier on the resources though, and I want to get a lot better at that. (As sexy as KDE is!)
Thank you! Sorry for the cloud error, the server’s origin website is hosted in my country Iran, which is currently in a semi-blackout and very bad internet distruptions. Very sad.
You might see the blog if you try a couple times more, I can see it with most VPNs.
I completely agree with your points. I’m stating the same sentiment in the blog.
I prefer GUIs for two things:
- Things that are inherently graphical (gimp, blender, etc)
- Things that I don’t use very often, and the GUI is too simple to be bothered with a cli.
CLI designers: “Here are the commands and arguments in a txt file, they’ll only change when absolutely necessary and we’ll be sure to inform you both in the docs and as a warning in the CLI itself.”
GUI designers: “go fuck yourself and re-learn where we hid all the buttons this time, after waiting for our two second fly-in animation for every submenu of course. Don’t worry though, here’s a condescending popup tour that only shows you the most basic features you could already see with your eyes. If you’re still confused, here’s an AI chatbot that will just repeat the contents of the popup tour and then act like you’re an idiot. Hey, HEY! STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING THIS INSTANT AND READ ABOUT OUR NEW BUZZWORD FEATURE YOU NEVER ASKED FOR! TRY IT RIGHT NOW OR ELSE! Also we’re keylogging you and recording your mouse movements as “analytics” for “”“improving””" our UI (even though it’s only getting worse with each new version), you understand. "
CLI: Here’s a txt file, now memorize it you peasant
Good GUI: Welcome back my friend, straight the thing again? Btw on the right you can see some relevant info and links.
well, actually nobody gives a shit, use whatever you fit best for the task.
For me to be able to use whatever I want, it needs to exist. Therefore it is a relevant discussion to have, since it might influence a developer to consider TUI instead of just going for GUI as the default.
Waiting for others to do something for you is the wrong approach. Get off your ass and be the developer. Creating an interface for a tool is no rocket science.
And they say we are no longer toxic
