Graphical

In addition to the purely text-based inxi version, some Debian derivatives have a graphical version. This version brings together the most frequently used functions in a very simple menu. When called, it branches to a terminal, in which the results are displayed just as in the text version (Figure  3).

Figure 3: The graphical version lags behind the command-line version in terms of the wealth of information provided.

The graphical version does not offer nearly as many options for filtering the query as the terminal version; however, it does save users the trouble of reading the help page to familiarize themselves with the options. The GUI inxi is therefore particularly suitable for quickly discovering basic data about the hardware, the kernel, and its environment. Thanks to minimal resource requirements, it works well on computers with low power.

Conclusions

Inxi proves useful in practical use, mainly because of the wealth of information that it quickly and reliably outputs. The little tool is less of a rival to the conventional graphical tools and more of a sys admin tool for troubleshooting. The variety of available options does mean that you need to be prepared for a steep learning curve.