One of the most important parts about an undergraduate degree is that it's a foundation for knowledge, not narrowly focused on one particular topic. That's why

One of the most important parts about an undergraduate degree is that it's a foundation for knowledge, not narrowly focused on one particular topic. That's why gen-eds exist. Anyway, had I received this question on a test, I would have started with a discussion of the command line and how powerful it is (i.e. the "ugly") and compare/contrast it with UIs (i.e. the "beautiful"; start with Win 95 and continue on to Win 7/8, Mac OSX, etc). I'd throw in references to Spolsky's famous adage about "all abstractions are leaky" - i.e. you could discuss how UIs are beautiful, yet the command line (ugly) is where the power exists. There's at least 2-3 pages of content in that alone. I'd end with how UIs brought the power of computing to the common man - learning to use the command line is difficult (esp for the elderly, the young, the mentally-challenged), but pasting a UI on top allows even the most computer-illiterate to work. Add in some discussion on the desktop metaphor and you're done.