You’re tired. You’ve been on the JavaScript framework treadmill for years, and every time you master one, it’s obsolete in six months. The browser is a bloated, resource-hungry monster that demands a new version of itself every few weeks. And then someone, with all the hubris of a Medium article, tells you to stop making TUIs. Really? They’re missing the point entirely.
Let me be clear: TUIs are not a step backward; they are a strategic moat against forced obsolescence. The argument that we should abandon text-based interfaces because they’re ‘old’ or ‘ugly’ ignores the very real war being waged against developers by the GUI framework industrial complex. Every year, a new React, a new Angular, a new Flutter, a new whatever—and each one requires you to rewrite your entire codebase, learn a new mental model, and hope your users don’t notice the crash. TUIs stand firm against that insanity.
You’ve probably noticed this yourself: you built a TUI tool in 2010, and it still runs flawlessly on any terminal today. Meanwhile, the Electron app you shipped in 2018 already needs three major upgrades just to launch. The browser-based UI you dependency-helled into existence is now a 500MB memory hog that crashes on a 4K monitor. That’s not progress—that’s a trap. And the people who benefit from that trap are the ones selling you the next framework.
I’ve seen it firsthand. A team I worked with spent two years building a complex GUI on a popular framework. The framework’s corporate sponsor pivoted, deprecated the entire API, and left them with a broken app and no migration path. Meanwhile, my colleague’s TUI-based system monitor, written in 2009, still works on every platform from a Raspberry Pi to a mainframe. The console is the last truly cross-platform sanctuary. It’s not a limitation—it’s a liberation.
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: the ‘Stop Making TUIs’ crowd argues that TUIs are inaccessible, hard to use, and unappealing. But that’s a straw man. The best TUIs are not terminal vomit—they’re carefully designed, keyboard-driven, low-latency interfaces that serve a specific purpose. They don’t try to be a full web browser; they try to be a tool that works. And for developers, sysadmins, power users, and anyone who values efficiency over eye candy, they are a godsend. Accessibility is not a function of color depth—it’s a function of intent. A well-crafted TUI can be more accessible than a bloated web app because it’s predictable, fast, and doesn’t change every six months.
This is the irony: the very people who demand we stop making TUIs are often the same ones who complain about the enshittification of everything. They want durable software, but they refuse to embrace the interface that delivers it. TUIs are a self-defense mechanism against the unsustainable churn of modern web and GUI frameworks. They are a rational choice for anyone who wants to build something that lasts. Neutrality in this debate is death—either you’re building for the long haul, or you’re feeding the obsolescence machine.
So here’s my take: make more TUIs, not fewer. Stop apologizing for using the terminal. The next time someone tells you to abandon your TUI project, ask them how many of their tools from five years ago still work. Then fire up your terminal, run your TUI, and smile. The console is the last frontier of durable software, and it’s time we defended it.
FAQ
Q: What's wrong with the argument that TUIs are inaccessible or ugly?
A: That's a straw man. Many TUIs are carefully designed, keyboard-driven, and more accessible than bloated web apps because they're predictable, fast, and don't change every six months. Accessibility is about intent, not color depth.
Q: How does this justify building TUIs instead of modern web UIs?
A: If you need to build a tool that works reliably across platforms without constant maintenance, TUIs are the pragmatic choice. They avoid the treadmill of framework churn, use minimal resources, and last for decades. Not every UI needs to be a browser app.
Q: Isn't this just nostalgia for old tech?
A: No. It's a practical response to an industry that profits from planned obsolescence. The 'nostalgia' label is used to dismiss a valid engineering strategy. TUIs are not retro—they're rational.