Anton Graham wrote:
>
> Problem is newbies are the ones most likely to trash their
> installations
> and need a rescue disk without a clearly defined plan of action. For
> these individuals, vi is the only editor guaranteed to be running on
> the
> system. the others are all in the /usr tree and/or linked to some
> library in the /usr/lib heirarchy.
So put a big RED sticker on the disk with "WARNING: You may need to go
buy a book to learn how to use the overboard, overdesigned, lots of
features editor on this disk called "vi". It uses strange key sequences
since the programmer lived on another planet when he wrote it. We could
have put a simple editor like pico on this disk, but why bother? We are
geeks and know all this stuff so you should too. It's too bad if you
don't like it, but we like all this old stuff we started with when we
were in high school and can't let go of it."
That sounds like a clearly defined plan. Just like pressing ESC to get
into another mode so you can exit.
This whole thread shows how the geeks won't let go of this stuff and
thus Linux won't make it against winDOS or Mac. I can see Bill G.
laughing all the way to the bank.
People shouldn't need to know ANYTHING about computers to use one, or
read all sorts of documentation to get something done on one. The next
generation of OS that makes it will the one that is programmed to
interface with a human without a learning curve. Geeks will hate it.
