From 3da6d2a730b11196acc674f873065ce09ecb8715 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: nathan <nathansmith@disroot.org>
Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2025 21:30:29 -0600
Subject: The command line reactionary

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+<article>
+  <p>
+    Modern GUI fucking suck. Very little customization, mobile first design,
+    <i>GNOMEism</i>, electron... A lot of things to dislike indeed which will
+    of course lead to people disliking. Some even lump all of this into one
+    thing and blame GUI in general. Those are people I call command line
+    reactionaries.
+  </p>
+
+  <h2>Why command line is wonderful</h2>
+  <p>
+    When I write things people (often willingly) misunderstand what I
+    say. <b>No, I am not saying command line programs are bad.</b> In fact here
+    is a list of why they are wonderful:
+  </p>
+  <ul>
+    <li>Simple to write, test, and maintain.</li>
+    <li>Easily automated and used from other programs.</li>
+    <li>Doesn't have themeing and integration issues when used in some desktop
+    environments and window managers.</li>
+    <li>Screen reader friendly unless you really fuck it up.</li>
+    <li>Can be used over ssh or telnet.</li>
+    <li>Slightly more dummy prove from shitty developers.</li>
+    <li>Heavily keyboard focused.</li>
+    <li>Can be used in the tty.</li>
+  </ul>
+
+  <h2><i>Why do I write this if command line good</i></h2>
+  <p>
+    There is this generally held belief with some unix users GUI programs can't
+    be good. They will make command line versions of programs purely as a
+    reaction to the GUI version sucking. Quickly this turns to just making a
+    command line version for everything once the black and white "GUI
+    inherently bad" mindset kicks in. File manager? Ranger (even though ls,
+    touch, rm... exist). Email? Mutt. These programs existence is a net
+    positive but did anyone ever stop to think "what if we made and use GUI
+    programs that don't suck?". Some tasks are just plain annoying to do from
+    the command line yet the command line versions get more development and the
+    GUI implementations are left up to beginner python programmers who can't
+    get the most out of python yet alone use a better language. Those kinds of
+    programmers I speak of also fall for bad software design philosophy the
+    most. TUI programs are also kind of stuppa. They cross out a few of the
+    things on the command line is wonderful list without getting that much
+    closer to the advantages of GUI programs.
+  </p>
+
+  <h2>What to do about it</h2>
+  <p>
+    We need GUI programs that don't use libraries programmed with one desktop
+    environment in mind. Use pure gtk and qt instead. GUI programs should work
+    in both wayland and X11 not one or the other. No more annoying popups and
+    treating the user like they don't know what they are doing. We need config
+    files and customization even if its possible for the user to <i>break
+    it</i>. GUI programs shouldn't be the dummy option, they should be the
+    graphical option.
+  </p>
+</article>
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