March 17, 2006: The Command Line - The Best Newbie Interface? describes one computer instructor's experience teaching a group of people completely new to computers a Command Line UI. The author suggests the preferability of the CLI to the GUIs we're all used to and I think it's an interesting thing to point out, though limited. It made me think of the way domestic life has been changed by "labor-saving" technologies like the vacuum cleaner and dishwasher: The promise was that your work would get easier, but what really happened is that you could get more done. The command line is straightforward (you do one thing at a time, there's only one point of interaction, etc.), but to do anything comparably complex to, say, retouching a photo would be near impossible. So, don't start pining for the "good old days" of the VAX just yet.