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I setup and use Linux on my home PC for the last 12 years, as a non IT person. I don't use the command line or any IT tools. It has to be user friendly. 99.9% of the time, me, and many others, enjoy a very good, modern experience. I'm happy with the Linux apps for home use. Installation, partitioning, app store and updates are all graphical. There might be the occasional glitch. Where you need online help. Ignore those who say the command line is the only way to solve it. They know nothing about GUI solutions. Nearly all issues are solvable. If you are unlucky, at worst, a reinstall is quick, and GUI based. Your learning can be confined to discovering the easy tools and GUI alternatives. I find Kubuntu good, because it allows me to solve things due to its flexibility.

This question just shows how messed up, and broken much of IT is.

Not at all.They are 2 ways do the same thing. The GUI can tell you what options are available. The CLI needs you to memorise them, or go somewhere else to look them up.

Mount a network share permanently on Kubuntu. Non IT people need to do backups too. And Plasma apps can't access network shares unless they are mounted.

"The command line is the natural way of interacting with a computer."

It's not natural at all for many people. Far from it.

It's not always *fear *of the CLI. I am not interested in memorising a whole load of unnecessary stuff I'd need, to start using a CLI, that I can already do productively with the GUIs. I'm not in IT. I know my way around GUI applications quite well. So it's more worthwhile extending my knowledge there.

Gimp isn't perfect. But neither is Photoshop. In fact Lightroom users grizzle that Photoshop is so much harder to use than Lightroom. It's a different animal.

I use Pinta or Paint.Net when I want a quick edit. But Gimp has the tools for serious editing. More tools, more hard to use.

Some Gimp things, yes! should be improved. And other things are being improved as we speak. And some things can be done on a photo much easier in Inkscape.

I hope the whiners donated to Gimp development? No? Then just please step back, and think for a bit. If thinking is too hard, then just take a deep breath.

Terrible usability will be the right term, if someone suggests applying one type of UI to an inappropriate situation/user/task. Such suggestions sadly seem to happen a lot in the Linux space. And saying CLI is easier is a sweeping proclamation. Whereas I've avoided making sweeping proclamations, repeatedly describing the many cases where CLI is poor. Usability analysis needs to know about the user and the situation. It's not one size fits all.

I've used various command line systems a lot in the past.

I'm saying it's more productive for many to invest in extending learning their home environment than learning a completely unfamiliar and inappropriate environment.

I launch favourite commands with 2 clicks. Once on the App launcher button, and once on the App itself. My hand is on the mouse anyway. So it's fast. Way faster than typing a whole bunch of characters. For less used apps It's 3 clicks as I'd open a category like "Media" or "Games". And doing that, I get to see what I have in there. This builds up a picture in the users head for future use. Learning "Add to favourites" is time well spent. It can even be called "Pin to Start" or "Bookmark on Launcher" it doesn't matter. You don't need to memorise that exactly like the CLI. And right-clicking things is already second nature to huge numbers of users.

So I have no incentive to use text commands. It's not faster. My hand is on the mouse for my apps anyway. And the CLI has terrible usability, via poor learnability, zero tolerance, and poor visual feedback. And completely useless for most things I do, like working with 3D models, images or drawings. I'm not a "text-worker" like IT tend to be. Plus, I want more non-IT people to use Linux, so discovering the easy ways to do things can help spread the word to them.

For me it would be like stepping off a high-speed train and walking over uneven ground instead.

Memorising does not need to be precise with a GUI, as you are given visual cues and can see the next step to click. You don't need to remember precisely every letter or it fails. You don't even need to remember the name of an application. The desktop app launcher shows you which apps you have installed. I often pin apps to favourites as a reminder. Some Appimage apps don't appear in the launcher. I forget I have them installed and they don't get used.

Differences between Desktop Environments are easily found when you change. As GUIs are in many users comfort zone. We use them all the time. People know their home environment, and differences need only just that discovering. Not a whole new environment.

For many people it's not quicker or easier. If they've not used CLI before, they'd need to learn multiple new things. Going to a Web browser for help every time, before doing something is not quick. Memorising precise command strings that mean nothing to the user, is not easy for many either. For them it's bad usability.

It's better to learn how to do it in your own environment, than having to learn a whole new strange environment. Especially one that is not user friendly, with poor visual feedback, intolerant of any mistype, and requiring memorising.