this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2026
133 points (97.8% liked)
Linux
61401 readers
1115 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I almost asked this exact question today. I installed Ubuntu (Studio) for the first time and almost immediately needed to do some CLI shit because there's no GUI option to enable jumbo frames. I don't want to learn CLI. I just want to escape Windows.
But...like, why? It is less effort than it was to type out the entirety of your post. I will never understand.
It's not, though. Tying a command doesn't take a lot of time, but learning what commands are useful in a specific situation does. Even "ls -la" is an achievement you need experience for. And it doesn't help that if you get stuck and ask (around here or in other enlightened circles) the answer you receive is usually some variant of "Have you read the 40-screen man page?"
That's why --help exists
Again, though...why is that bad? Did you know how everything in Windows worked the first time you used it? Of course not. Why is this different? There are going to be growing pains to learning anything new. What's wrong with reading the manual if you don't know how something works? Isn't that what they're for?
Just for the record, these are not the same questions you asked in your first post. But to answer them: nothing is different about this. But at some people don't want to keep learning how to use stuff, they want to start using it. And there's a difference between "learn how to use a new vacuum cleaner" (to give a particularly obvious example) and "learn how to use a completely new paradigm that is different from everything you have used before and doesn't have a clear starting point". (And before you say that the first steps are easy, let me rename all commands in your CLI and see how quickly you find out how to read a man page.)
Mind you, I'm not talking about myself, having used CLIs since the 80s, but just because I know how to do something doesn't mean it should be a fun activity for everyone.
That is impossible, then. I don't know what else to say to it. You can't use something without first learning how to use it. Life is learning new things, forever. We don't know how to do anything without learning first, and in the age of the web learning something has never been easier.
If I wanted to do something, then I'd figure it out. I do this all the time in my work. I don't know how every tool works, I don't know how every environment fits together. I still don't see how this is an argument for "I do not want to learn."
Because this is just one thing that you clearly know how to do and probably enjoy.
I don't know how many of the following things you are good at and enjoy, but the same argument applies to all of them: cooking, knitting, repairing a car, welding, growing crops. All of these are desirable and apply to things that most of us use regularly. But you just cannot expect everyone to learn them all in order to enjoy the products they could create or enhance by them. It is not problematic to say you just want to use something and not learn everything that is necessary to create or master it.
If you cannot see that this is true of a CLI, then I have run out of ways to try to explain it to you.