Command Line Basics

Advantages of CLI

If you install a typical Linux distribution you can use it completely with your GUI. Of course you can also do this in your server or on the raspberry-pi that you use in your weather station but for servers and small devices it is much better to use the command-line-interface (CLI).

Here is a list of advantages of the CLI on a terminal over graphical user interfaces (GUI), most of which are specially relevant on servers that sit in a server room at the other end of town:

• Less bandwidth: You can use terminal connection on slow and lines
• You do not need to install GUI components so the size of your OS images is drastically reduced.
• Typing commands is faster and more expressive then clicking around
• Stable for a longer time. While the fashion of GUIs changes you would still feel comfortable on a modern Linux with the knowledge of using Unix some 40 years ago.
• Easy to document. While it is hard to describe which button in which tab you need to click and often you need screenshots for that, it is easy to write documentation on which command you need to enter.