Believe me, tech support is actual work. Without it, all those writers and accountants wouldn't get much done.
The CUA interface is perfectly efficient and works very well. It doesn't need a mouse, although you can use one if it's there.
As I said: I was a skilled user of a bunch of the leading pre-CUA DOS apps, and I can navigate a CUA interface using hotkeys very quickly and efficiently without a pointing device. Occasionally, over the years, astounded onlookers have asked how it's possible that I can operate Windows so quickly. The answer is that I don't use the mouse much, and the reason is that in my first job, my employers didn't own a PC mouse. They sold Macs; if you wanted to do graphical pointy-clicky stuff, you bought a Mac.
I decided that Windows looked like it was useful and could be big one day, so I installed Windows 2.01 and learned to use it... without a mouse. The same keystrokes mostly still work today, from obvious ones like Ctrl+S to save, Ctrl+X/C/V for Cut/Copy/Paste, to less-known ones like Ctrl-W for Close Window and Alt-F4 for Close Program. Alt-Space for the window control menu, then X to maXimise, etc.
It's a common but spurious argument to claim that because one knows one particular program well and can operate it very quickly, that this fact in some way indicates that the program's UI is particularly efficient or well-designed or something. It isn't. It just means that that individual knows it well.
The basic concepts of the desktop GUI were nicknamed WIMP: Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointer. Well, each of those works fine in isolation. Icons are a useful abstraction all on their own; for instance, iOS and Android make very extensive use of the "I" part without the "W," "M" or "P".
By the same token, the W and M parts -- windows and menus -- work very well without a GUI. It's very handy that the same keystrokes that let me drive Geany or Mousepad or Notepad also work fine in Tilde or MS-DOS Edit.
They're no less efficient. Ctrl+S Ctrl-W to Save then Close is just as quick as ^KS ^KD, or !wq, or C-s C-x, or Shift+F3, Ctrl+F4.
But what's a huge boon to my or anyone's efficiency is that once I've learned Ctrl+S, say, it works in thousands of programs on multiple OSes. C-s C-x or Shift-F3 don't work in anything except the one particular app they were designed for.
I used poor wording. Support is definitely work. I just mean that MOST people doing day-to-day work USING tools (vs supporting them) only deal with one at a time.
A UI's utility isn't determined by whether or not it's shared with other tools. It's determined by *how well users can get work done with it* which is why a host of non-CUA interfaces persist today.
Text-mode CUA was and remains horribly ugly and clunky. If you want that, go use a GUI.
What I am saying is that in this case, I put it to you that this is more than simply a matter of opinion and personal preference.
There are demonstrable, measurable advantages to this approach. Knowledgeable users can work on unfamiliar programs immediately by using standard keystrokes and via prior knowledge of how the menus will work.
Unskilled users, so long as the machine has a mouse configured, can simply use the console/terminal app in the same way as they're used to, by point-and-click.
I get that you hate it. What I am trying to tell you is that I _really_ like it. It is a _strong_ preference of mine, I find it asthetically pleasing as well as convenient, and I hate and refuse to fight with non-compliant apps that don't use it. Including _both_ of the xNix world's favourite editors, Vim and Emacs -- I hate both -- *and* all the alternatives people recommend: Joe, Pico, Nano, etc.
I get that you have a preference. That is your choice. But you are trying to make out that it's a universal truth, that your opinion is an objective fact, and it's not.
Whether you, or anyone, likes it is neither here nor there. It helps. It works. It's useful. It makes life easier.
And if the price of that is that some people's aesthetic sensibilities are offended, well... sorry dude, tough.
The CUA interface is perfectly efficient and works very well. It doesn't need a mouse, although you can use one if it's there.
As I said: I was a skilled user of a bunch of the leading pre-CUA DOS apps, and I can navigate a CUA interface using hotkeys very quickly and efficiently without a pointing device. Occasionally, over the years, astounded onlookers have asked how it's possible that I can operate Windows so quickly. The answer is that I don't use the mouse much, and the reason is that in my first job, my employers didn't own a PC mouse. They sold Macs; if you wanted to do graphical pointy-clicky stuff, you bought a Mac.
I decided that Windows looked like it was useful and could be big one day, so I installed Windows 2.01 and learned to use it... without a mouse. The same keystrokes mostly still work today, from obvious ones like Ctrl+S to save, Ctrl+X/C/V for Cut/Copy/Paste, to less-known ones like Ctrl-W for Close Window and Alt-F4 for Close Program. Alt-Space for the window control menu, then X to maXimise, etc.
It's a common but spurious argument to claim that because one knows one particular program well and can operate it very quickly, that this fact in some way indicates that the program's UI is particularly efficient or well-designed or something. It isn't. It just means that that individual knows it well.
The basic concepts of the desktop GUI were nicknamed WIMP: Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointer. Well, each of those works fine in isolation. Icons are a useful abstraction all on their own; for instance, iOS and Android make very extensive use of the "I" part without the "W," "M" or "P".
By the same token, the W and M parts -- windows and menus -- work very well without a GUI. It's very handy that the same keystrokes that let me drive Geany or Mousepad or Notepad also work fine in Tilde or MS-DOS Edit.
They're no less efficient. Ctrl+S Ctrl-W to Save then Close is just as quick as ^KS ^KD, or !wq, or C-s C-x, or Shift+F3, Ctrl+F4.
But what's a huge boon to my or anyone's efficiency is that once I've learned Ctrl+S, say, it works in thousands of programs on multiple OSes. C-s C-x or Shift-F3 don't work in anything except the one particular app they were designed for.
This is not a difficult or obscure principle.
Proprietary UI = bad. Open shared UI = good. :-)