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this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2026
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In a lot of cases, providing instructions to run a specific command in the terminal is the least ambiguous way to do something. Like if you want to give somebody instructions on how to add a line to the end of a configuration file, you need to consider that they might be using one of a number of desktop environments, file browsers, and text editors, and that maybe the file browser doesn't display hidden files, or maybe the user has a different locale / language activated and the menu options are named differently. Or you can tell them to run
echo "fluffy_cat_mode=on" >> ~/.config/some_app.confwhich will work regardless of all these possibilities.Obviously there are tasks which can only be accomplished in the terminal, but there are also many tasks which are trivial to do through some settings menu or application which are still given as terminal commands for the sake of specificity.
I understand what you're saying, and I much prefer when people offering help provide terminal commands like this over when they provide vague directions (like "just add "fluffy_cat_mode_on" to the end of your config file for the program, that'll fix your issue", which I could eventually figure out, but telling me where the file is and supplying a command to do it automatically rather than finding the file in my file browser and opening it in a text editor is really handy) or attempt to provide directions that work with the specific graphical tools they're using, which might not be the same ones I've got.
Good lord do I ever hate trying to fix a Windows issue and being given graphical instructions that lead to menus and buttons that don't exist on the system I'm trying to fix. Just give me the bloody terminal command so I can see if it's a UI glitch/update or a deeper bug. I still won't know how to fix it if the terminal spits an error at me, but then I can look up the underlying error instead of sifting through pages of dead ends with pics of the nonexistent option I'm supposed to click just looking up "xxx button/menu missing". I do not like the CLI, on any operating system, but being told in Linux forums and software documentation to use specific terminal commands to fix things is significantly less frustrating than what appears to be SOP for Winblows troubleshooting. Which I suppose is the result of everyone using the same DE and core graphical tools.