RSS feedFlawed article on OS News concludes that:
All users, after an initial bootstrapping phase, preferred the CLI “discussion” method for interacting. All reported that they felt more in control and better able to find things out. This probably was due to the higher amount of interface consistency and more task-based interface that the CLI tends to encourage
Ignores the biased task based examples being taught, focussing on command line strengths but not GUI strengths. Also, no mention was made of which GUI was used, so I assume it was one of those inconsistent and unintuitive Linux GUIs.
I would ideally like to extend my little trial into a full newbie computing course where I teach the command line first before moving up into GUIs. I feel that my experiences here show that the CLI provides a far better environment for first-time computer users to find their feet.
Pity, because the GUI desktop is a flawed metaphor anyway, and it would have been good to see a proposal for something better.
Perhaps these things could be combined into a new shell. One that also had a more unified method of job control, perhaps introducing ‘inbg’ as a built in function.