this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2026
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What shits me with Linux commands is they don't make sense.
Copy, diskpart, dir and so on make sense.
But Linux. Bah.
Cp, lsblk (sudo fdisk -l) and ls.
I know it's an a old dog thing but having used dos and windows command line for over 50 years it just makes me so frustrated to see Linux commands and their switches, syntax and parameters so obtusely obscure, purposeful, unnecessarily filled with complex jargon.
I write sql and python so I'm not unused to this sort of world but everytime I use Linux I find the command line, the supposedly masterful feature of the OS, just painfully, unnecessarily, poorly designed.
Yes exactly the only way to obtain the help is via weird forums where you waste hours reading posts from people trying to do basic shit. Half the time it's for the wrong distro, version or whatever bullshit problem you've got.
Like godforbid you want to mount a drive that won't mount in the GUI version of whatever kernal distro ver you end up getting.
You end up writing ridiculously long commands to do shit I can do in a handful of words that make sense in plain English.
Just shits me that MS is hellbent on enshitificating windows, forcing us to find alt.
What choice do we have anymore
I understand your issue with the terminal. I think that it could be fixed with Oh-my-zsh for a personal computer. I have mine setup so I don't have to remember the entire command, just the first letter and it shows me all matches. I was proficient with both batch and powershell, but bash scripting is even easier.
Yeah, I had given up Linux for over a decade, but Windows 11 has brought it back out... And tbh I like it better as an adult. Now I run Windows in a docker container only.
I mean, diskpart and dir don't make especially any more sense than lsblk/parted and ls. A fair point can be made for 'copy' being more intuitive, but 'diskpart' means you had to learn what disks and partitioning were, and lsblk means you need to learn what 'block' devices rae, and of course 'parted' references partitions. 'dir' means you wanted to 'show the directory' which means you had to learn of it as a directory, but then learn that the shortname of directory is the way to see the contents of a directory. ls means you learned you want to 'list' contents and that unix had this laziness of just the first and third letters of a word. Both involve learning, neither is 'intuitive'.
I assume this is the likes of dbus-send and crap, and I agree with you if that's the case. Dbus is a complication I could do without and have to confess that powershell cmdlets generally do a better job of instrumenting the system than a system that increasingly has no specific help and only long dbus-send commands to tackle certain things. dconf has issues too, but I think does a better job than the Windows registry at analagous function.
I'm the same, but with windows.
People just don't like changing their ways.
Also you'll find out that linux is mostly much more logical than windows ever was.
Though I personally have the feeling in exactly the opposite way, having used unix-likes for most of my adult life, I won't argue with you on the principle of the idea (for obtuse syntax e.g.
ddthe disk destroyer or the infamoustarcommand come to mind).At the same time⦠I really don't think you chose your examples super well here.
cpand it'smvcompanion don't seem more 'obtuse' thancopywritten out in your example.lsfollowing the same two-letter logic for 'list' also does not seem out-of-this-world crazy syntax. In fact, I always wondered more aboutdirto list things, especially in a world where the things it lists are technically called folders not directories.This same logic once again extends to
lsblkto 'list' what? 'block devices' which describes all sorts of storage media in unix-land. Sure, it's different, but in these specific examples I definitely don't see an objective better/worse option. I mean, similar examples for obtuseness could be made e.g. for why the primary drive starts with a C: on windows, or why we have magical drive letters at the beginning at all if you come from the opposite paradigm.And lastly your disk example is equally written as
fdisk --listwhich once again just describes its own operation.Dunno, I think both systems have their idiosyncrasies which you just find weird if you're used to the other.
Its called learning. I know both sets of commands because I have chosen to.
The point is here is one of these two command line utilities are objectively easier to learn......
Yeah linux is simple and modern. Msdos is nearly 50 years out of date. I use powershell in windows.
Doesn't make those commands any more readable.
If you can't discern the use of the command by reading the command, it is a bad command.
It should be obvious what it does without the need to translate it.
I know when I need to fix or alter a disk I prefer linux. If I don't understand a command I can simply type man and there it all is. Whereas in windows you have to look through slop and incomplete answers.
Yeah, but without learning Microsoft, how would you know that 'dir' just makes sense? Or that you might want to look at 'diskpart' to look at your drives?
Its not. Diskpart is the stupidest way to set up a partition. Simple fdisk is way more intuitive. cfdisk is extremely simple.