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Finally, command line apps are easier if you've been using them for 10 years. You know why? They haven't changed. Of course in their defense they haven't needed to but this is why everything "feels easy" from cli, because you've done it for so long. Give someone who is unfamiliar with cli input and they'll be scratching their head just like the early adopters of Windows 8 are.
I'll concede the fact that there's some amount of experience, but the factor that also aids in this learning is the consistency. 99% of command line apps follow the Program Name, Option(s), Argument(s) style. You learn it in one app, it'll work in others, and just refer to the man page to see the options/arguments. Its also simple because there's probably no better way to do things in CLI. Vim and Emacs are similar in the respect that everything is either a Ctrl or Meta key combination, followed by an argument.
In GUI things are not as simple, hence the need for tight guidelines as to what elements should be placed where, and what should be the general workflow for each app have to be defined clearly. Here's what I think about the MS approach to UI with its newer offerings. At a glance it is pretty mixed up:
-- A phone UI (Phone 8) that works on phones, but won't run Windows apps, only mobile apps ( MS Office included)
-- A lesser Windows (RT) that mixes the phone UI with traditional desktop, runs on tablets, but won't run any Windows apps either (only MS Office, desktop version). Maybe some phone apps will work in Metro mode, the rest maybe in desktop mode.
-- A full featured Windows (Pro), still mixing the phone UI with traditional desktop, and runs Windows apps as well as mobile apps.
It may be an ambitious goal set by MS, but not very practical IMO, and it demonstrates a clear lack of vision, and a lack of confidence in their offering maybe due to commercial pressure or otherwise (Put in as many things as possible, create a different version for every user segment out there). Its hard to grasp, even for the technically inclined.
A particularly good example IMO, of a phone and desktop OS that is very cross compliant is the Ubuntu Mobile OS, recently announced. Although the phone and desktop versions look different, the UI elements are similar in the respect that the phone UI follows the Unity interface in terms of overall feel, and the apps that can work on desktop will work on the phone as well, and vice versa. Of course the mobile apps would be simpler, but it removes developer headache to learn new programming toolkits.
I'm not a big fan of Unity, but when I looked at the phone UI, I could get an idea of how the two fit in Canonical's design approach.
Google is trying to do it with their Chrome OS that follows the Chrome browser. However, the Android UI is totally detached (Speaking as an Android user).
MS seems to have gone the other way round. Design the phone first, then push it on to desktop.
I'm not biased against Windows or MS. I'm a Windows 7 user, and was one of the early adopters to jump on it from XP/Vista. I like it because it improved on the workflow, made things easier.
Ironically, Win 8 may work for new users, but I just don't get it as an existing user. Maybe its just an experiment, as every alternate MS OS is.
Alternatively, its also possible we're already past the peak of the computing revolution, so there's not much headroom for improvement.