Ars Asks: Share your shell and show us your tricked-out terminals!

Ars Technica just put out a call for readers to share their terminal configurations, and it's sparked an interesting conversation about why we're all still typing commands in 2026.

The piece points out something counterintuitive: despite predictions in the early '90s that graphical interfaces would kill the command line, terminals are more relevant than ever. MS-DOS was supposed to be a relic, replaced by Windows and other GUI systems.

But here's the thing. A mouse-driven interface essentially reduces you to pointing and grunting "DO THAT!" at your computer. Right-click menus add "MORE THINGS!" but that's about it. The command line, by contrast, lets you tell your computer exactly what you want using precise language.

For anyone working with AI tools, this matters more than you might think. Most serious AI development, deployment, and automation happens in the terminal. Whether you're running local models, managing cloud instances, or building workflows, you need command line fluency.

The gap between pointing at buttons and writing precise instructions mirrors the gap between using AI tools casually and using them effectively. Both require learning a more expressive language to get better results.

If you've been avoiding the terminal, now might be the time to reconsider. The tools you're using, especially in AI, are increasingly designed with command line power users in mind.