
Ask HN: How feasible is it to “live” on the command line? - snazz
I&#x27;ve been wanting to try going without a GUI for some time now. For those of you who have tried it: how hard is it? Are there any pieces of software, tricks, Emacs packages, etc. that make it easier?
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smt88
I did it a few years ago out of necessity on an underpowered dev laptop. I
didn't have resources to build my app and also run a GUI.

It was awful. I don't know why anyone would choose to do it, unless they're a
hipster dev who thinks "old and difficult" is "better" for some reason.

There are lots of drawbacks and no benefits. If there's some task you like to
do with a command line, just use a terminal emulator when you want.

Honestly, thinking about it now, it's even crazier because most websites are
fairly useless in a terminal-based browser...

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greenyoda
I definitely agree. As someone who has been programming long enough that I
"lived on the command line" in many different operating systems (Unix, DOS,
VMS, IBM mainframe, and more) back when that was the only option, I really
don't want to go back to those days. The Unix shell is a wonderful environment
and I love it, but there are lots of useful GUI programs that make my life
easier, and using them doesn't make me a lesser programmer.

(I also don't want to go back to punched cards or typing in machine code in
hex.)

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gregjor
I live in ssh, vim, Linux command line. I also have Chrome running at the same
time. Much faster and more powerful for me, and I can work from anywhere.
Freelance programmer.

