On Sun, 2003-11-30 at 06:23, Melissa Reese wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > Hi, > > It's now been eleven days since I installed Mandrake, and I'd like to > share a few thoughts. This may be a bit long, so I apologize in > advance for my sound-byte challenged condition. > > First, I want to thank all of the very helpful and patient people on > this list...you're all great! You've not only helped me with technical > issues, but have also given me an appreciation for the community > effort that is Mandrake in particular, and Linux in general. > > I'm going to keep working on tweaking my Mandrake and associated > programs, but I'm also going to slow down the pace of my Linux > project. You see, I'm a busy person, and I'm realizing that I'm > spending way too much time staring at this silly screen, and not > getting, amongst other things, enough sleep. Do beware though...I'm > not through with you yet! No doubt I'll be back, sooner than you might > hope...to ask more stupid and silly questions. :-) > > In another thread - "leaving linux again" - "Void" was concerned about > not being able to get the television tuner working. Both the original > post and the several replies allowed me to ponder the irony of the > value of spending so much time staring at one type of screen or > another. At the end of the day, how much real difference is there > between watching television and watching a computer screen? I may > happen to agree with many that between the two, spending time with the > computer *can* be more productive than spending the same time looking > at a television, but what about the time taken away by either from the > rest of life? > > Remember the world just on the other side of our windows? No...not the > "Windoze" or "xWindows"...but those transparent glass barriers between > where we are at this moment, and all that fresh air out there! And > what about spending some quality time curled up by the fire with a cup > of tea and good book? > > As I said, my life is busy. I'm a musician, a kayaker, a boat builder, > a chess player, a bicyclist, a reader, a beach bum, and another thing > or two or three. I know the rest of you have lives beyond your > computers as well, so I know you understand. > > I do enjoy keeping in touch with my friends via email, and I use my > computer when I write poetry and prose. I use the computer to research > things I'm interested in, and to play a bit of chess with people all > over the world. It's a wonderful and rather amazing tool. However, it > is the world beyond this keyboard, mouse, and monitor that fascinates > me even more, and I'm feeling like I'm missing too much of it as I sit > here for hours on end typing Klingon phrases into a little black > Konsole (again...who's in charge of spelling around here?! :-)). > > Though tweaking software can be interesting to me - to a degree - I > really only ever do it out of necessity...never because I just like to > tweak. I'm finding that to be a Linux user *is* to tweak and to > tinker, and in reality, I find myself doing more tinkering than > emailing, playing chess, or writing. Worse yet, I'm doing more > tinkering in the glow of this screen this past week than I am paddling > my kayak and walking on the beach, and this I find disturbing. > > I know that after these initial weeks of understandable intensity I > *should* be able to do a bit less tweaking and a bit more of other > things, but I can also see an emerging pattern of increased screen > time devoted just to the machine and OS itself, rather than just doing > what I want with this tool, then moving on to other things. There are, > after all, only 24 hours in each day, and I must balance my life a bit > better than I have these past several days. > > A few thoughts about Windows versus Linux... > > I've come to really appreciate the Linux philosophy, and the community > of users/developers that make all this possible. It really is pretty > amazing. In spite of my general dislike of the "Microsoft way", I > must also acknowledge some of the really sophisticated and refined > programs written for Windows. I'm not talking about MS applications > beyond the OS itself, but about many third party applications that I > truly enjoy using. Sometimes, when we're so passionate about one way > of doing things over another, we can overlook some practical > realities. There are indeed some really wonderful Windows programs > that just don't have truly comparable Linux counterparts...yet. > > The email program I'm writing from at this moment (The Bat!) is one of > those very elegant programs written for Windows, and is not, at this > time, ported to Linux. For the sake of Linux users everywhere, I do > hope someday it will be. I've been told that since it's written in > Delphi, that may make the transition easier. I don't really know what > that means in technical terms, but several people more knowledgeable > than myself have told me this...and I hope it's true. > > With all the corresponding and writing I do, I've always been a bit of > an "email client junkie", and once I found The Bat!, I've never looked > for another default email client. My curiosity keeps me looking at and > playing with others that hold some interest for me (naturally, the > abominations MS calls their "email clients" are *not* amongst the ones > that interest me!), but I've yet to find *any* email client for > Windows or for Linux that really comes close to The Bat!. I'll keep > looking, especially at Linux clients, but I assure you, it takes a lot > to impress me at this point, and I'm not impressed yet. > > It's not at all difficult to find email clients vastly superior to > Outlook and Outlook Express (eek!...sorry for swearing!), but it's > going to take some time for other Windows *and* Linux email clients to > catch up to the power, versatility, and sheer elegance of The Bat! I'm > certainly not saying that one can't find their "perfect" email client > from amongst the other choices (indeed, many do), but until you've > tried this one, you may not know what you're missing. I certainly > didn't know what I was missing before I discovered this client a few > years ago. > > There are some other "Windows only" bits of software that deserve a > great deal of respect from *any* computer user, as I'm sure there are > Linux only programs that can't be matched in the Windows realm > (including perhaps the OS kernel itself). I guess what I'm trying to > say is that it's not always so simple to be all for one way, and all > against the other. Each can learn from the other, and both could be > better for it. I'm certainly rooting for Linux to come out ahead in > the end. > > In a "perfect world" according to me, know I'd be using Linux > exclusively, but considering the current reality of software > development and availability, I know that I'll be dual-booting for > some time to come. Maybe someday I can happily claim to operate a > "100% MS free computer". :-) > > Thanks again to all of you for helping me so much in my first few > clumsy steps with Mandrake/Linux! > > To quote a certain governor..."I'll be back!" :-) > > - -- > Melissa
Melissa: I like the way you think and write. I only have a couple of comments to make, hoping that my english shortcomings don't interfere with what I want to say. First of all, "the world just on the other side of our window" is something that might not be part of a person passion. I love reading history and classical books (Dante, Tolstoy, Cervantes and so on), dinning out and traveling. I love what I work on (trying to change, using information technology, the way my country government interacts with the citizens). I also love math and classical physics. As you can see, kayaking and walking on the beach are not part of my passions. What I am trying to say is that people who feel that their passion is hacking or tweaking software and hardware may feel that they have a richer life than others who don't do it. Do lawyers have a richer life than engineers and physicians? It is not what you do but how you feel about. Is there any difference between staring at the silly screen playing chest and finding a solution to a hardware/software/setup problem? Yes, there is: the way one feels about. What we should hope is that every body would have at least one passion, no matter whether it is filling crosswords, playing chest or tweaking hardware and software. The important thing here is to feel that you have a sense of direction in your life, leaving behind the feelings of hopelessness, emptiness, uselessness. Thanks to those people who are not interested in the other side of the window, the information age is a reality. All those things that make people more productive, leaving them more time to enjoy their passions or pastimes, have to be thanked to hackers and tweakers. In general, I dare to say, our lifestyle is the product of people whose passion was not related at all to the other side of the window. The important thing here is that you deserve to live your life, and hacking and tweaking is not part of it. Maybe for a little while, out of curiosity, just to expand your knowledge base. The other comment is regarding Windows software. I agree with you. There are many applications that don't have a linux counterpart. In my case, Access and AutoCAD (I am a structural engineer and some friends, family and old clients still ask me to do some stuffs for them). Some times I miss a few things from Windows. However, I love the feeling of having my most valuable asset, my data, in a safe place, feeling that I have when I work under GNU/Linux and didn't have when I was a 100% Windows user. Melissa, if there is something in my writing that may sound rude or harsh, blame it on my english. I really didn't mean it. Saludos, Adolfo
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