i used to use the command line for everything but recently
switched to using guis.
switched mainly because gui applications seem nicer to me for completing common desktop tasks, for example listening to music, i can just click the rhythmbox applet and select a song as opposed to something like "mplayer ~/Music/some\ artist/some\ album/*" or manipulating files, it seems a lot nicer to me to be able to pull a file onto my desktop than type out (even with tab-complete) "mv foo ~/Desktop". ofcourse, there are exceptions when using a shell is much easier, for instance if i want to copy a large number of files whose filenames have some similar pattern.
it's also very nice to be able to install some new program and just use it, why should i have to read long poorly written man pages?
at the same time i still use a shell everyday, but as a programming/administration tool.
out of curiousity, does MPD/ncmpcpp make use of the shell? if it doesn't then i can't see how it'd be advantageous over a gui music player like rhythmbox
Same for me. For example, I like using git gui or tortoisehg when doing complex commits as those tools enable me to find, inspect and select all necessary files faster than typing a command for each file/task. For examining recent log entries or switching branches, pushing etc., I prefer the cli. For complex file tasks I use mc, which is a nice hybrid solution between a gui and a bare cli.
i used to use the command line for everything but recently switched to using guis.
switched mainly because gui applications seem nicer to me for completing common desktop tasks, for example listening to music, i can just click the rhythmbox applet and select a song as opposed to something like "mplayer ~/Music/some\ artist/some\ album/*" or manipulating files, it seems a lot nicer to me to be able to pull a file onto my desktop than type out (even with tab-complete) "mv foo ~/Desktop". ofcourse, there are exceptions when using a shell is much easier, for instance if i want to copy a large number of files whose filenames have some similar pattern.
it's also very nice to be able to install some new program and just use it, why should i have to read long poorly written man pages?
at the same time i still use a shell everyday, but as a programming/administration tool.