Ask HN: Should I invest time into learning a terminal-based workflow?

2 points by 0xb100db1ade 6 years ago | 1 comment

I currently run Linux and do most things on the command line, except web browsing (Firefox), chat, email (Thunderbird), and text editing (vscode).

I've seen some people do everything in the terminal. Should I learn vim or emacs? Use a TUI email client? Uuse TUI chat clients? Why?

It will probably be a long time till I'll have another opportunity to invest time into something like this.

tomcam 6 years ago |

The main reason I use vim is because I sometimes find myself working remotely on a foreign system. I know vim will always be available, that I am infinitely more productive with it, that it works with ssh, and that it requires modest resources.

If you don’t find yourself in the situation from time to time, the only reason I can imagine you might prefer to learn vim is the insane productivity boost. Being able to do a vast amount of work from home row is a big deal to me.

Is it your impression that your working life is somehow less effective than it would be if you used these tools? If not then you simply don’t need to pick up that particular skill.