A Realization that GUI Dependence can be Harmful

After an arduous three days without my laptop, I finally have it back in my possession. I managed to get by using an old Thinkpad running Linux, a Windows XP desktop, and a spare G4 Mac Mini running OS X (all three of which saw very, very little use while I had my MacBook Pro). Every bit of my email is stored server-side (IMAP) and any important files were accessible on a backup drive, so it was really only the computing environment that changed.

Despite only the environment changing however, I observed something interesting: I felt a lot less creative and even mentally (and perhaps even emotionally) handicapped without my laptop. It's the first time I can remember feeling that way from something as simple as a piece of electronic machinery. I'm convinced it was the graphical user interface (GUI) I became attached to and, being someone who hates feeling attached or in any way dependent, the experience has encouraged me to continue moving towards console-based solutions for my daily computing needs.

Maintaining things on a remote console means the environment will stay the same regardless of the computer I'm using to connect. The "computing environment" essentially becomes the console window itself. Advantages to using console-based programs are numerous, that is once you get past the learning curve. But the same way a one-finger typist isn't very productive until he learns to type, console-based apps won't allow you to be productive until you become familiar and comfortable with the environment.

For all real-time communication (IRC, AIM, and Jabber) I've switched to using screen + irssi + BitlBee. Previously, I was using irssi for IRC and Adium for instant messaging. For email, I've been meaning to set up mutt for quite some time, but both the complexity and my daily reliance on email have caused me to procrastinate.

But I realized my console-migration doesn't need to end with IRC, IM, and email. For example, when my coworker mentioned the idea of an IRC Twitter interface, I looked for one and discovered tircd, an IRC proxy to the Twitter API. This made me realize that even things like posting to my blog could be done through IRC with the right proxy (similar to the way I'm currently blogging from the command line). And if a particular IRC proxy does not exist, I can just as easily write one myself and share it with the community!