If colored "ls" had been standard from the early days, I'd bet that people would be praising how useful it is, and wondering how can you live without it. But many *nixes still don't have it and people that made a life using them get into this "get off my lawn" attitude.
I can read the output of "ls" just fine without color. I use systems without colored "ls" daily. But... I find color in "ls" invaluable.
Color conveys information in a very unobtrusive way (if it isn't excessive). Much better to see blue text and knowing immediately that it's a directory, than looking at the permissions column or warts ("ls -F").
Actually, colorless "ls" makes the system feel old. It's the feeling I get every day when using AIX, for example. I just feel like changing the color scheme to green-on-black or amber-on-black just to feel like the old days.
I can read the output of "ls" just fine without color. I use systems without colored "ls" daily. But... I find color in "ls" invaluable.
Color conveys information in a very unobtrusive way (if it isn't excessive). Much better to see blue text and knowing immediately that it's a directory, than looking at the permissions column or warts ("ls -F").
Actually, colorless "ls" makes the system feel old. It's the feeling I get every day when using AIX, for example. I just feel like changing the color scheme to green-on-black or amber-on-black just to feel like the old days.