Can, should, and will the console go away?

[amingv]

You can't see telepathy.

Conveniently, you can't see computer data either. This uber-DE must be processed by the brain (that's what I'm not able to get, I've formatted 3 brains in 5 minutes, C++ has pessimal neurone control )

[gsmanners]

Console will go away only if a more efficient user interface is found.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_interface

[mdsmedia]

The terminal can only be replaced by a nice graphical telepathic communication with the kernel. (Which, sadly, it's not under development. I've looked.)

LOL I was thinking much the same thing. The CLI is FAR more powerful than any GUI could be. Telepathy is the only thing that could replace it properly.

[original_jamingrit]

Also, remember that this is Open Source. Easy access to the terminal in a distro means that the nerdier side of the user base will be more interested in developing for that distro.

[the_darkside_986]

Actually, a Unix-like console is one of the selling points of the GNU/Linux platform and is an advantage over other platforms such as Win32 (which has nothing but a lousy attempt at a command prompt). With bash, one can sort and display file and folder information in various useful ways, and one can sort their music collection or even convert all their mp3's to vorbis (or vice versa) automatically with just a script. In Windows, that would take hours to do manually (provided you can even find a real "free" sound converter in Windows that isn't trying to steal your credit card )

In fact, Apple, a company once known for making a n00b-friendly OS with no command prompt, began to recognize the importance and usefulness of a Unix console, so they redesigned their OS to have a full Unix-like shell. Even the Windows team saw the importance of a good character-user-interface, hence their "Windows Powershell" project. But I've tried Powershell and it is missing too many commands so I just always install Cygwin.