>First, I never gave a second look at a Mac. First off at that time APPLE was
Neither did I. My sum total experience using Macs is about 2 hours, back in
the 1980's on a microscopic Mac with a black & white screen the size of a
postcard. That was enough for me. Plus the proprietary, overpriced hardware
and single-button mouse, and lack of decent CAD software, and the general
dumbing-down effect of the whole Mac experience.
>Many of you have provided so much help to us
>newbies but your past experience and with some of you with a formal UNIX
>education go through command lines as if they were just plain englsih(or
>perspective native language). Personally, I don't get excited and find
>command lines boring and unnecessary. With a GUI it is point and click and
>so on. It is not lazy or an aide to the stupid. Frankly, not everyone who
>has a car wants a manual transmission or work on it to make the adjustment
>so that car runs the way the owner wants it to.
My "formal" computer training consists of one semester of punch-card
computer math back in the 1970's. I didn't use a computer again, except for
data entry, until 1989, when I started using DOS (command line) and a
little bit of Windows 2.0 (utterly useless). From that point I used every
version of DOS and Windows up to 98SE. I had never used Unix until about a
year ago, but I started programming in every computer language I was able
to find time to teach myself starting in 1990.
I love the command line, but I also love the windowing environment. That is
one problem I have with Windows - sure, you can open a DOS window, but it's
clunky. In Linux the terminal windows feel more integrated; I always have
at least one open. Often it is just more efficient to work from the command
line than to mouse all over the place - click, hold, drag, drop, oops,
dropped it in the wrong place, undo, try again ... damn, it copied instead
of moving (or vice versa) ... but the windowing environment does have great
advantages as well. It's a matter of finding a balance that works for you.,
and Linux gives me that freedom. I still use Windows, just not very often.
>I love Linux but I can honestly say as unbias observer Linux is not for the
>common person. So far all the usrs I have encountered are techies, wanna be
>techies, hackers(as in enjoyers of software and not a cracker) and those
>with a formal UNIX education. As Linux moves to become easier I think it is
>losing that thing that has given the rise and recognition. Still though
>evolution has a funny way of throwing a monkey wrench into the mix now and
>then. I am curious to see what the future holds for all OS.
I have to agree there, as a self-described techie and geek. For many years
I tried to hide my geekiness; grew my hair, was a stoner, and did the
blue-collar thing, but I couldn't hide forever. I cut my hair, sobered up,
and went techie (not in that order) and am now a happy geeky tech-dude. I
even own golf shirts and khakis now, though a lot of the golf shirts have
penguins on them rather than alligators ;)
Oh, by the way, I prefer manual shift cars ... but I haven't driven in
years. I ride a bicycle. It adds to the eccentric aura I like to project.
And it's more respectable than the bloodshot eyes and ponytail down to my
a** that I used to wear.
Jay
aka "The Insane Multitasker"
