this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2026
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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What is a TUI? I haven't heard that term before.
ncurses and similar. Think 1980s word processor, emacs, vi, Slackware installer, etc.
Slackware was my first linux back in the day. :)
Emacs is actually a regular full GUI application. It has font sizes, variable width fonts, image display, etc. and with the pGTK backend even native wayland support. It also has a rendering backend for the terminal, and some people have their reasons for using it, but the default and general advice is to use Emacs in GUI mode.
TUI: ~~Terminal~~ Text User Interface, something like htop in example. CLI: Command Line Interface, something like grep in example.
Edit: "Text" is probably the correct word, not "Terminal".
Isn't the T for "text"? (ie. "Text User Interface")
I mean, in the context of Unix systems it's most likely gonna be within a terminal emulator, but in theory you can have a TUI inside an SDL window rendering the text there (specially when they are ports from other systems where they might be using different character sets than whats available in terminals.. or if they want to force a specific font).
The only example that comes to my head right now is ZZT, but I believe there are many games on Steam that use a TUI rendered within their own program, not a terminal.
Text makes sense. I mostly read it as "Terminal" and do not know what the original meaning is with a certainty. Looking at Wikipedia, the source of truth, it's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text-based_user_interface . You probably right about it.
thanks. I was going to ask but figured someone else might and thanks @thingsiplay@lemmy.ml as the top example makes it I think clear I think. if im right then vi would be tui as well.
It's a UI that sits in the terminal (thus TUI). Think htop, or btop; They are often ran from CLI, but offer more of a UI.
Thanks! I guess something like vim would count as a TUI then.
Yes. Think of any terminal application with an interactive user interface, that mimics a GUI. Something that is not just controlled by commandline options like grep and sed in example.
I’d say vi is in a fuzzy grey area below a tui. It’s more than a cli but shares a lot with cli programs; it pretty much has its own command line built in. At the same time it has nothing like dialog box or menus like normal tui programs.
Personally, I feel that if it uses control characters to update the screen in previous positions, altering the scroll buffer, moving beyond where the cursor is and redrawing the screen, then it's a TUI.
CLI programs only output plain text in a stream, using just control characters for coloring and formatting, and if they do any re-drawing it's only for the current line (eg. progressbars and so).
So.. even something like
lessis a TUI program.. but things likemoreorsedwould be CLI programs.Fair enough. I’d never consider less to be a TUI program.
TUI