On Mon, 23 Feb 2004 07:30:20, Bryan Phinney wrote: >On Sunday 22 February 2004 03:48 pm, deedee wrote: > >> While I mentioned in an earlier post that I know rank newbies who have >> had no problems at all with Linux, I do not know a single person who is >> expert in ms win who has been able to install and use Linux without a >> lot of problems. Not one. My own problems were due to thinking I knew >> something about Linux based on my ms win experiences and knowledge. > >Actually, I started out in IT as a Windows/OS2/Macintosh support person. >While I have always had exposure to alternate operating systems, I would have >considered and probably still consider myself something of an expert in MS >Win, even now.
In an earlier paragraph of the same post, I note the following: >> If your computing life has been primarily with ms win and ms dos, then >> you should know it is a completely different way of doing things. The experts I know who have all along been using several OSes don't have the same problems as those who have learned about computers and whose experiences are primarily with ms win. It is the ms win-only people who will find Linux a completely different world. Other people know that every system is its own world. I was debating with myself whether to refer to them as advanced users or experts, but power users works just as well, and I have no problem with that terminology. I just want to make clear that I'm talking about a particular group of experts which I defined, albeit inadequately, in an earlier paragraph of the post you refer to. > I also have a certification with HP-UX Unix, and have been >using Linux for 3-4+ years. I wouldn't say that MS Win "experts" would have >problems with Linux but would say that MS Win power-users would have >inordinate problems with Linux. Their expectations are higher. A newbie is >happy to just get things working, while a power-user not only wants to get >things working but has expectations about how things will work. The newbie >expects to adjust to the system, the power user wants to adjust the system to >them. I would agree with all of this. > The expert, OTOH, even in Windows, fully expected to devote the time >to figuring out how to adjust the system. The end goal is not to have a >customized system but the knowledge gained from learning how to adjust. I'm not sure that I agree with this as a generality. You are speaking as a support person. I am a user. I've used many systems over a period of 30 years -- dedicated systems, mainframes, miniframes, as well as several systems on PCs. I always go in expecting a basic system to be able to do certain things and that the problem I face is learning how that system does them so I can customize the system to do what I need. I recognize that this will require effort on my part and some portion of time on a learning curve. My goal is to customize the system to work for me. I have no interest in computers as such or in systems as such. For me, they are strictly tools or appliances, if you will. I'm just trying to get the appliance to work as productively as I can. > The >newbie just wants to color, the power-user wants to put the exact right color >in the spaces, the expert was probably always the type of person who was not >content to color within the lines at all. I think that that type of >mentality is rewarded much more in Linux than in Windows. I think getting the exact right color in the spaces is also rewarded much more in Linux than in ms win. From my very first experiences with ms win, I noted that the choices provided in ms win systems were more cosmetic than real, because my choices were not available. >> Do whatever you have to do to make things work for you. It's your >> computer and your software. You don't have to apologize for what you >> want to do with it (I'm making the assumption, of course, that what >> you're doing is legal, moral and ethical, which is true for most >> people). OTOH, no one else has to apologize for what they want to do >> with their computers either. With Linux, it's a free world. > >The only caveat that I would add here is that in my experience, necessity is >the mother of invention. Just as the saying goes, "A man can not serve two >masters" either you do the bulk of your work in Linux and toy with the other >OS, or you do the bulk of your work in the other OS and toy with Linux. >Converting requires an active effort to figure out how to do what you need to >do in Linux, otherwise, you will find yourself spending more time with the >other OS and less with Linux. I agree with this. deedee -- Registered Linux User #327485 Visit "WordStar & GNU/Linux" http://www.wordstar2.com Also, see the WordStar Users Group http://www.wordstar2.com/cbabbage/wordstar ____________________________________________________________ Find what you are looking for with the Lycos Yellow Pages http://r.lycos.com/r/yp_emailfooter/http://yellowpages.lycos.com/default.asp?SRC=lycos10
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