Kuraiken wrote:
>
> > I'm sick and tired of people posting to this mailing list who've seen a
> > mention of Linux somewhere, bought a distribution, installed it, and now
> <snipped>
> > WITHOUT the "threats" to give up Linux. You'll get alot further.
> >
> > --
> > Steve Philp
>
> Well said, Steve. I could not have waxed as lyrical-ly myself.
>
> I dare say there is a large number of newbies coming to Linux everyday. Whether
> they stay on depends much on whether they can or have the time or are lucky
> enough (like me) to be able to find the docs "in the nick of time". Or maybe I'm
> just too dumb to know when quit. ;-)
I didn't mean to sound like I've always had a golden Unix spoon in my
mouth when I wrote the stuff above. It's just not true. I've BEEN
there. When I first installed Slackware about 4 or 5 years ago the
install went fine, but after that my CDROM didn't work, I couldn't get X
configured, and I had NO CLUE what to do with the system.
I finally figured out that the kernel that you install with isn't the
kernel that's installed on the system and that's why the CDROM didn't
work. I didn't get X to work for over a YEAR after installing the stuff
-- I had a non-standard video card and a non-standard monitor and
despite reading the docs, I just couldn't get it working. As for not
knowing what to do with the system, a couple of Linux books helped me
out greatly in finding out how to use the system -- "The Linux Bible" (a
printed collection of the HOWTO's really), and a book that (if I
remember correctly, authored by SuSE) described various Linux
applications.
I still wonder why I never gave up on Linux in those days, but I think
it's probably got something to do with me really wanting to figure this
whole thing out. I'm not a programmer, but I could probably whip up
some Tcl/Tk code or maybe Perl (and I'm currently playing with PHP --
witness the MUST website) if it came down to it.
All in all, Linux has been pretty good for me. I _know_ I wouldn't have
learned as much about the Internet, providing services, server security,
or user administration without using Linux. And all of those things are
exactly what landed me my new job.
--
Steve Philp
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
