Thanks Martin, I'm looking forward to learning the world of Linux. I hadn't realised that Linux predated DOS. Did I understand that correctly? As I recall, when IBM brought out the first PC they needed an operating system and found this young geek called Bill Gates, who promised them a solution and then quickly cobbled together an OS from something he borrowed. It was referred to as QDOS (for quick and dirty operating system) but I'm not sure if that was Bill Gates' efforts or the name of the product he begged/borred/bought/stole.
DOS was also known as the "Trapped Rat" - a reference to the 1K (am I right) of memory that it was trapped inside, a legacy that was still hampering Microsoft well into Windows 95, I seem to recall. Not sure about any of these facts - they are all the grapevine as told and retold in the education community of the early 1990s where BBC, and later Archimedes, computers were used. Parents used to complain bitterly saying "Why don't you teach them to use DOS? That's what they'll be using when they leave school." To which we would reply that children didn't need industry standard, they needed software appropriate for *their* needs. And since DOS had no colour graphics and no sound by default in those days, the Acorn and RM offerings were far more suitable. How the world moves on. But where was Linux back in those heady days? I hadn't realised that the open source community was at work even then. Apologies for lengthy rabbitting. I do tend to go on and on. BTW - when is next meeting? Tonight? Best wishes, Brian -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Martin Nix Sent: 25 November 2008 08:52 To: 'Peterborough LUG - No commercial posts' Subject: Re: [Peterboro] Getting rsync output into a file Just to correct you on one point Brian - DOS can be likened to Linux (not Linux is like DOS), it predates it quite considerably DOS is considerably more limited though Martin -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brian Smith Sent: 24 November 2008 21:02 To: 'Peterborough LUG - No commercial posts' Subject: Re: [Peterboro] Getting rsync output into a file Greetings All, As a newcomer to Linux I'm fascinated by this strange new world. This email doesn't require an answer, I just thought it might amuse you to know that I've no idea what an rsync command is (something you type at the terminal, I suspect - and I *do* know what the terminal is and can even go to it. Then I'm lost because DOS commands generally don't work.) I've also no idea what a cron job is. Fascinating :-) The reply made some sense - the syntax is like DOS but what on earth does 'netstat' stand for, I wonder? See you at the next meeting - when is it, by the way? Confused of Stamford. _______________________________________________ Peterboro mailing list [email protected] https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/peterboro
