Because of that diversity it is much easier for support personnel to tell someone to type something on the command line of a terminal window than to walk them through a maze of menus that they may or may not be familiar with, or even exist on the enduser's machine. The main reason the command line is used so much in Linux support is because it is simple and consistent across Linux's plethora of different desktop options. If your neighbor's machine was set up why would he need to be fumbling around with the configuration of it? Or did he buy a basket case of half converted crap? I rarely venture to the command line in Linux, not much more than I use the command prompt in Windows. My neighbor still hasn't made a single thing with his mill, he would have been far a head on a Windows machine, simply because he wouldn't be fumbling around. There are plenty of benefits to having a Windows machine, just as there with Linux machines, it's finding the right combination of benefits for the user. But that doesn't make it better for the average joe. I get it, Linux is reliable, resource easy, free, largely without the demands and idiosyncrasies of Windows. We calibrated the steps per unit, had to edit the ini file, his mind was blown.

He's an older fella, mid 70's, but he's used computers for 30 years. He's had it two months and I've been over there multiple times trying to get him going in Linux. My neighbor just bought a converted Grizzly mill that came with LinuxCNC. By and large, you can get by in windows without ever looking at CMD or Powershell.

I listen to IT nerds try to tell people they should be running Linux all the time, it's almost plausible until a normal person has to do something in terminal, at that point it's all over for Linux.

I use Linux every day, I am the head of IT at medium size construction company.

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