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The Linux distillery Linux on the line: musings on the CLI / GUI flip-flop
The Linux distillery Linux on the line: musings on the CLI / GUI flip-flop | Linux on the line: musings on the CLI / GUI flip-flop |
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| by David M Williams | |
| Wednesday, 21 November 2007 | |
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Page 3 of 3 With nary a blink, the hacker mystique of Linux was eroded; it turned into a system that was a doddle to use. Fire up a live CD, make sure it works on your hardware. Install it, and follow the bouncing ball through the setup process. Fire up your apps or control panels from the on-screen menus and icons. Sure, terminal windows were there, but you didn’t need it.Featured Whitepaper
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But then a funny thing happened. The trend reversed. A new generation of Linux users who grew up in the world of Windows discovered the power of the command line. “This is so cool,” they gaped. “You can pipe commands together. And look how quickly my sed script transforms this text.” By remarkable turnaround, a demand arose for meaty technical content. Sure, anyone could make a new login via a system tool that prompted for all the details. But what was really going on under the hood? My recent article “UID and GID: the basics of Linux user admin” met with much positive feedback and, the web site hits show at least one University has linked to it from a computer science course page. Suddenly, the new breed of Linuxphile was hungry to know how the system worked and were enthused by the unbridled control the command line gave them. But here’s something even more unexpected: Microsoft, making a mockery of their original TCO argument, have now reverted back to the command-line. Microsoft dallied in the past with MS-DOS and later hoped Visual Basic Script (VBS) would catch on. Well, it certainly did – with virus writers and script kiddies, making VBS almost universally blocked by mail clients and systems admins worldwide. They’re back on the command-line and scripting bandwagon with PowerShell. PowerShell is touted as a really expressive, really formidable command-line shell environment for the power user and admin alike. It’s downloadable for Windows Server 2003 but really saw the light of day in Exchange 2007. Anyone who’s used the latest incarnation of Exchange will know that PowerShell is the real control mechanism for Exchange; the Exchange console is just a facade. It doesn’t offer full functionality and what it does do translates into PowerShell commands. Microsoft aren’t hiding it: you add a user, it says “Ok, I’m going to execute this PowerShell command to do it.” PowerShell is going to come faster and faster. SQL Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 are both due out soon. They’ll both be PowerShell-powered. Rumour even has it that Windows Server will fire up PowerShell then prompt you to drive the installation via the command-line. Given how few people in the world would be solidly experienced PowerShell experts, the TCO argument now swings strongly in favour of Linux. But that aside, ask any Microsoftie what the inspiration for PowerShell was. It’s a blatant bash derivative. Even the help screens are obvious Linux man pages. They'll tell you straight up. I bet those “I hate keyboards” Windows admins wish they’d spent more time with Linux now; the Microsoft roadmap involves a strong learning curve for anyone who can’t punch their way out of a command-line. And even in the Linux camp, the power of the CLI is coming back in vogue. Such is the way of the CLI/GUI circle of life. Thus endeth the lesson. |
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