GUI v CLI

I had a conversation a few weeks ago about frustrations that current OSs, or at least their documentation/presentation, overly obfuscate the ability of users to have a command-line interface as wll as a graphical one, reflecting an invalid, in my opinion, assumption that only hard-core power users would ever want a command-line interface. Over at Lifehacker, there is a really nice analysis of the current incarnation of the command-line embedded in our GUIs. Intuitively, this model of the merging of the two approaches to interaction feels right to me. A trivial example of my own habits is that I always call up the Windows built in calculator by hitting the Windows key, up arrow twice to Run…, and type “calc”. It’s faster than puttiing an icon shortcut, and I also don’t want another icon floating around my toolbar. Especially for the calculator, which is something that I only use occassionally, but when I do use it I want quick access. It would be nice if the GUI defaults made it clearer to the average user that these capabilities are available to them.