On Tue, 21 Dec 1999 18:15:29 -0500, you wrote:
>>May I make a suggestion? Please set your line-length to
>>something "reasonable." Your text goes WAY past the sides
>>of my poor, html-impaired, text-only email client.
>
>>Next, I didn't say you had to become a "Linux guru." I
>>meant that you need to become familiar enough with Linux to
>>know how to upgrade it through installing new software, and
>>doing other BASIC admin stuff such as installing kernels,
>>etc.
>>Now, I'm no programmer and I"ve only been using Linux for
>>about a year now. Hell, up until about 3-4 months ago, I
>>used Windows at home exclusively. Now I'm a dual-O/S person
>>at home.
>>OTOH, I grew up using the CLI with MS DOS, so I'm more used
>>to the CLI than the GUI, so that may explain my willingness
>>to take risks. I just think it's silly to not want to "get
>>your hands dirty" at all if you're going to run Linux!
>>I think it would be great if Linux took some desktop market
>>share away from MS, and I think it WILL require being a bit
>>more userfriendly. However, I also think that Windows takes
>>some getting used to.
>>For example, my dad is in his mid-70's. He's just now
>>learning Windows and every time something "blows up" under
>>Windows, I have to fix it. To me, Windows has just as big a
>>learning curve as Linux. It's just that we've all grown up
>>using Windows, so it's second-nature to us to do things.
>
>>John
>
>John
>
>Sorry about the line-length; I was trying a new
>email client and it doesn't have a setting for the
>line-length wrapping of outgoing mail. I have
It happens....<g>
>only been using computers in general for about 5
>years now, so I'm still a little wet behind the
I began programming in DOS on a TRS-80 with 4k of RAM. Paid 2
or 3 hundred bucks for the 256k addon and though I was in heaven. <g>
Sheese...that was a long time ago....<g>
>ears on some things, but I have the ability and
>desire to learn, although this desire is certainly
>not shared by everyone who uses a computer. What
>my gripe is, basically, that people may not like
>the way MS practices business so they want to try
>something else. Where to go:
Who does...
>
>Mac (Only if you like Steve Jobs dictatorial
>stance, he makes Gates look like a kitten)
True.
>OS/2 (Only for those who really, really like IBM)
>*nix
Actually, I have a computer running Warp 4.0...<g>
Been an OS2 user off and on since 1.0. It could have taken windoze
on head to head if IBM had been smarter about it.
>
>Of those Linux seems to be the most attractive,
>and the majority of the Linux community would like
>to see it adopted by the public at large. This
They prob would not mind.
>would be wonderful, but it still has a lot to do
>to be palatable to many people. I'm not saying
>that this is a bad thing, but people in the Linux
>community, I think, must own up to this fact.
>There are a lot of things about Windows that make
>it easier to use, such as an intuitive and
Sure...and most linux users, geeks and non geeks know that.
>flexible install routine. I'm not advocating that
>Linux be so dumbed down as to become useless, it's
But, unfortunately, that is what many are asking.
>just that if you are really afraid of the CLI, in
>my opinion, you should not be forced to use it for
>some of the basic, and daily jobs that must be
>performed. I'm not really bashing either OS, they
There GUI evquivalents for many of those tasks now and there
will be more as time goes on and linux moves more and more to the
GUI environment.
>both have the uses, strengths, and weaknesses. It
Very true.
>just seems obvious that Linux is not the best of
>all possible worlds, and I get tired of people who
>act like it is and then berate those who think
>otherwise.
I get the impression from this and your earlier response that you
think I and others who have responed in this thread think linux isthe
best of all worlds.....it isnt...and neither I nor the others that I
have read responding think that way. But neither is it reasonable to
expect it to become just a clone of windoze. I personally use windows
98, NT server, workstation, Mandrake, OS2 warp...and on one box have a
version of 5.0 dos. <g> All of the above just in my office at home.
I use each for certain things and programs that I have come to enjoy
and use over the years. So I found it funny that I was accused of
being a Unix geek or guru....<g> I enjoy linux...even when it was in
its infancy...because I felt comfortable with the command line. And I
like its flexibility.
This whole thread started because of the guy who stated he wanted to
basically know nothing do nothing learn nothing but wanted detailed
step by step intructions on how to do anything from those that HAD
taken the time to learn at least the basics because HIS time was more
important.
That attitude I DID take offense at, though I did not flame him. It
was in no ways a response meant to imply that linux was the end all of
end all OS's. Its just that unless you are willing to learn something
about the OS, or as someone else stated, hire someone to do things for
you, you will either need to learn it...or go back to windoze. In the
future it might be...but that is sometime in the future. Prob years
away.
>
>I really didn't want to offend anyone, I just
>wanted to voice another viewpoint.
No offense taken.
Dennis
>
>
>Adam Koch
>"Nothin in here 'cept a trunkful of dead bodies"
>Electrical Engineering
>North Carolina State University
