Why do normal users fear command lines?

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I agree with the above.

Now, imagine if Microshaft got a sense of humor and made the command prompt full screen, and with a blue background.

Part of the problem is that the CLI itself doesn't make it easy to learn the syntax. You can simply click on objects on your desktop and navigate your way to where stuff is based on descriptions and labels that are easy to understand, but you have to know the exact command to do something with it. You're expected to go through tutorials, read manual pages, and memorize the exact syntax of a command and its options. I think the CLI should make itself more intuitive and automatic, without having to sacrifice any functionality or speed. Also, there should be more CLI integration in the GUI itself, outside of terminals. For examples of what I mean, look at GNOME Do or Launchy. It's faster than having to go through menus to find something... if you know what you're looking for, anyway.

C:\Documents and Settings\username\SendTo

Hehe, I had something similar happening to me. I had to use Linux on what seemed to be the slowest PC ever and so I used lynx to look something up on the net. The CS teacher suddenly stood behind me and asked 'why is this computer still booting?'. He seemed to have missed the xdm appearing.


You maybe want something like the fish?

No doesn't work. If I set Vista to show all hidden folders and files a shortcut to the SendTo folder appears but clicking it gives an access denied message. Microsoft have gone out of their way to make this folder as obtuse as possible in Vista. As I remember I have to type a command into the doubled up search/run box to make it appear. And of course the Help on Vista doesn't even list SendTo as a topic.

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo


OR:
shell:sendto

OR
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo

That's the one!! ! Thanks.

Okay, I've taken computers to bits, reassembled them, built them from scratch, used DOS a ton, installed some REALLY archaic builds of Linux, tried my hand at coding in several languages, and know MIDI like the back of my hand, but I still HATE command lines. Why? Well, why should I have to read an instruction manual to learn a whole bunch of obscure syntax just to get basic operability out of a system? It's a waste of time. If someone was ingenious enough to come up with a command line syntax that used pure, plain English, then it would be a vast improvement, but for me, graphical environments were invented for a reason. If you have even the most basic knowledge of how a conventional filesystem works, then you can work with pretty-much any graphical OS straight off the bat, without the need for any sort of instruction manual.
It's a bit condescending to say that a 'normal user' would fear it, as it was designed for the 'logical brain'. There are plenty of 'normal' users with very logical brains. They just maybe don't want to go through the hassle of learning a new command language. And how is working a DOS command line or Linux Bash terminal going to be in any way a logical experience for someone whose first language is Arabic, or Japanese? In this way, graphical environments are far better, as visual cues overcome the language barrier.

PS, the fact that on this thread, people are having to ask each-other what various DOS commands were, proves my point.

For most users, there's no need to use a command prompt because everything they want to do can be done by clicking.. But when it comes to server administration, do you really want to run a window system on a machine that is dedicated to serving web pages or managing emails? (processing/RAM/disk is used by a window system, also creates more potential security risks) Most CLI programs give their usage instructions if you run them with a -h or --help , and you can do things that are not usually possible from the GUI (pipes, scripts..) There's definitely an advantage for anyone who is not afraid of a command prompt, it's just not an advantage that everyone wants.

opening a command prompt on a usually graphical machine is like opening the hood on your car. Most poeple bring the car to the mechanic and wait for the bill. I think most poeple would be annoyed by a mechanic who would ask YOU to open the hood and run some diag by yourself....

dont' forget, poeples USES computers as a tool (for mailing, or data entry....). And thier favorite interface to the tool are clickable drawing of simulated buttons. a text screen is seen like "programming", they just don't want to bother with this, in thier mind, it's not thier job, it's exactly to avoid this that they called the help desk first...

Errr, this was about extending the Windows Vista GUI.

That won't quite do it. the command you listed will only wipe files with a . in the middle of them. You are thinking of "rm -r /*"

yeah, rm -r /* ....

*.* is dos/window where the "." means something (it separates the name of the file and the type of file). In Unix/Linux the "." is nothing else than a caracter like all the others, there is no concept of file type.... (well, at least, in the NAME of the file, of course ).

but, try this : dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=2 (if your hard disk is hda)

your machine will continue to work no problem, until you try to reboot it loll....

As for the command line

It has its uses heck I grew up on DOS and I don't mind it. Both on Linux & on DOS so it wasn't a problem. Plus I don't mind googling for information so linux works for me. Now I just have to get Xorg working in Debian Virtual Machine running on Windows XP

Strange people.... in the above scenario, the command you have given does nothing on a Linux machine (except to report an error).

You have to run it as root. On Ubuntu it's [sudo rm -rf /] but don't actually enter that unless you're ok with having to start over on that machine.