Post #1263826

2026-04-11 11:45 UTC

For admin tools, would you rather have a: GUI (web/app based, point-and-click) or TUI (run from a terminal session interactively but not a command line tool)?

Replies (4)

@amin@polymaths.social 2026-04-11 11:56

@linux_mclinuxface I usually prefer a CLI to either in sysadmin contexts, to be honest. You have to be a lot more specific and draft everything out at once, which for me at least helps reduce catastrophic errors. I don't know if I use a TUI for anything on my server other than displaying statistics or system resources or whatever.

Open ##2152421
@andrenascentes@fosstodon.org 2026-04-11 11:59

@linux_mclinuxface for me it depends on how familiar with the technology I am. For things that I don't master, I prefer a GUI. For those I know well, a TUI or CLI is quicker.

Open ##2152424
@jkoan@fosstodon.org 2026-04-11 12:06

@linux_mclinuxface My ranking: 1) something declarative (Talos Linux) 2) command line tool 3) GUI In specific circumstances the ranking can shift however, like a NAS where a GUI might be higher to increase normal users ability to configure things. So in other words it depends on the target audience. But me personally I don't like TUI they are (for me) worse than Web based GUIs as those have URLs which can be directly navigated to. The only TUI I remember liking is actually raspi-config

Open ##2152425
@sszuecs@hachyderm.io 2026-04-11 15:35

@linux_mclinuxface why do you need that? I mean I am mostly happy with a debug endpoint like in Go http/pprof and a /metrics Prometheus metrics endpoint.

Open ##2152427