WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.920 Many of you probably aren't old enough to remember when most of us did our computing 00:00:03.920 --> 00:00:08.000 through a command line, you know, where you type commands into a black screen instead 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:12.560 of using modern niceties like Windows, icons, and mouse cursors. 00:00:12.560 --> 00:00:17.440 But despite the fact that graphical user interfaces, or GUIs, are a much easier way 00:00:17.440 --> 00:00:23.560 to interact with our phones and PCs, the command line is still alive and kicking. 00:00:23.560 --> 00:00:28.360 Somehow. If you're a Windows user, it's easy to find both the command prompt and power shell in 00:00:28.360 --> 00:00:33.720 the start menu. And if you use Linux instead, you're probably familiar with Bash, which also uses a command 00:00:33.720 --> 00:00:40.000 line. But in 2021, why exactly are these things still around? 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:44.040 So if you're a bit older and you've ever used a DOS machine, you probably know that 00:00:44.040 --> 00:00:48.960 even though computers back when DOS ruled the world were way, way slower than what we 00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:53.600 have today, command lines still tended to respond very quickly. 00:00:53.600 --> 00:00:59.120 You typed in a command to perform some kind of file operation and it just worked. 00:00:59.120 --> 00:01:05.600 This is part of their modern appeal. Their lightweight text interface makes them extremely easy to run on even low end machines. 00:01:05.600 --> 00:01:10.020 So if you need to get something accomplished, the command line can be a very reliable way 00:01:10.020 --> 00:01:16.080 to do it, especially as fancy GUIs are a lot more prone to errors or crashes, as anyone 00:01:16.080 --> 00:01:22.320 has ever used Windows ME can attest to. Man, even that makes you old. 00:01:22.320 --> 00:01:26.060 But command lines can make things very quick for other reasons as well. 00:01:26.060 --> 00:01:31.200 This might sound counterintuitive as it seems like you have to type out long drawn out commands 00:01:31.200 --> 00:01:37.560 for everything you need to do. But the upside to this approach is that if you want to perform a complicated or repetitive 00:01:37.560 --> 00:01:41.080 task, a command line can make things much faster. 00:01:41.080 --> 00:01:45.920 For example, if you have to move lots of files around or manipulate large datasets, it might 00:01:45.920 --> 00:01:50.080 require lots of repetitive mouse clicks or copying and pasting within a GUI like File 00:01:50.080 --> 00:01:56.800 Explorer or a spreadsheet program. But with a command line, you can easily automate these tasks, especially as you can keep tacking 00:01:56.800 --> 00:02:00.480 on different arguments and switches onto the end of the line in order to perform these 00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:05.200 tasks with precision. Assuming, of course, you're typing them correctly. 00:02:05.200 --> 00:02:09.560 That is, yeah. Command lines also enable consistency across platforms. 00:02:09.560 --> 00:02:17.520 This is especially true in Linux. Because Linux is open source, it has many different distributions created by many different 00:02:17.520 --> 00:02:24.940 developers. But the Bash Shell, born again Shell Shell, is supported by a huge number of Linux distros 00:02:24.940 --> 00:02:30.140 and even by macOS, until recently when they replaced it with Fish or XSH? 00:02:30.140 --> 00:02:35.500 Things ZSH. Yeah, that's the one. Anyway, even if the GUIs have differences, you more or less know what you're getting 00:02:35.500 --> 00:02:40.060 with the command line. There are also many ways in which the command line is more powerful. 00:02:40.060 --> 00:02:47.140 This might not seem so obvious. So many of us are used to finding ways of getting things done with a GUI. 00:02:47.140 --> 00:02:51.780 But when you use a GUI, you're limited to only the options the developer could fit on 00:02:51.780 --> 00:02:57.740 the screen or chose to give you. However, there are a lot of tricks you can accomplish through a command line that you 00:02:57.740 --> 00:03:01.060 might never know you could do if you only use a GUI. 00:03:01.060 --> 00:03:05.540 For example, in Windows, you can do things like view a saved Wi-Fi password, set a timer 00:03:05.540 --> 00:03:10.540 to shut down your PC once it's done downloading a large program or file, or even batch rename 00:03:10.540 --> 00:03:13.700 files with far more flexibility than you can get in Windows Explorer. 00:03:13.700 --> 00:03:17.980 And this isn't even considering the myriad ways third-party programs support custom features 00:03:17.980 --> 00:03:23.460 through the command line. In fact, there's so much flexibility with the command line, once you learn how to use 00:03:23.460 --> 00:03:28.980 it at least, that during the Windows XP era, Microsoft introduced PowerShell, a souped 00:03:28.980 --> 00:03:32.820 up command line interface that supports much more advanced features. 00:03:32.820 --> 00:03:37.780 Keep in mind, this was way after most people stopped using command lines for everyday computing. 00:03:37.780 --> 00:03:42.260 But the idea was to make Windows more useful for sysadmins, programmers, and anyone else 00:03:42.260 --> 00:03:51.260 that simply wanted to get more out of their computer. So bottom line, while a command line might seem more tedious, it could be worth learning 00:03:51.260 --> 00:03:54.380 if you want to take your PC experience to the next level. 00:03:54.380 --> 00:04:00.700 And hey, it comes to the built-in dark mode. Thanks for watching guys, like, dislike, check out one of our other videos like this one 00:04:00.700 --> 00:04:03.980 on Who Owns Linux. It's pretty good. 00:04:03.980 --> 00:04:07.420 Comment with video suggestions you might have and don't forget to subscribe and follow.