You call youselves IT professionals?

But I do make a reasonable living at it.
Personally, I like the availability of both, although I tend to use the command line most of the time in *nix and in Windows usually only when I can do something faster than with the GUI.

I still think Linux is less complicated and more intuitive than Windows under the hood, but then again, people do think I'm "different", so it's probably not to smart to include me in an OS market study....

"Professional" is a term that is misused heavily the world over today. At its core, it really doesn't mean a skill level - believe it or not, though that's the intrinsic value most attach to the word.
Professional only really means "that you do itas a profession".

If you ever gotten poor customer service, ate bad food at a restaurant or show a live play that was terrible...well, those people are "professionals" - in customer service, cooking (chef) and acting but they may not be any good.

But besides the semantics, your point is well taken and I mostly agree with you. I'll be honest, from being so busy most of the time I succumb to just doing most things GUI when it comes to the OS. Sometimes I'll remember to do tasks via commandline. On the other hand, I have somewhat of an excuse - since all my routers and switches are nothing but command lines (good old IOS).

Basically, some times you just take the easy way - even if its longer because you don't have to think and you are back against deadlines to just get the stuff done.

The term 'IT Professional' can be used to describe a very wide range of people.

Some of these people are just interested in using IT to efficiently and effectively do their job. If a GUI works best for them, that doesn't mean that they aren't ITprofessionals.

Of course, there are those of us who grew up with the command line and have drifted over to the GUI because it is more convenient. Does that drift mean that we are no longer IT professionals?

From a marketing standpoint, Linux/Unix needs to add more GUI for all of those who favor that style. That would help shoot down the argument that Linux/Unix is too difficult for the average PC user.

Of course, when you get down to it, the average PC user could be considered a low level IT professional. This is especially true if their organization doesn't have an official IT staff.