Ach, Bob, if it was that simple... > ... just update any workable Linux distribution on > that same 486 with reasonably current ppp software and you're in > business.
In a linux workshop here we had _lots_ of problems with M$-tweaked ISP's ppp, and it gets worse over time. And often enough it's not done with a little job of "updating". (Someone who could tell a lot about the variations of of all sorts of ISP login/ppp hassles is the - AFAIK only remaining - active _DOS_-ppp developer who still seems to follow this list.) Or else, take the simple task of replacing broken monitors or, specificly printers, with an otherwise well running system. People who are ordinary, reasonably 'puter-literate users can get their hair tanned bright gray, and stiffly straightened, if they just happen to be not perfectly conditioned in a specific dialect of a specific jargon. (This is not per se a "Linux", even less Linus' fault; but much of the tons of man[ual]s, HowTos, and pertinent information is done in a way which makes it pratically useless for "users". Sure, yes, ok., it's all _there_ and existing and available. But so is "legalese"; and the consequences are quite drastic, in social or sociological terms.) Which is rather sort of a "cultural" problem. Thus no wonder that "rant" is part of the outcome. And well, there' "ranting" on the SurvPC list(s) too. So what ? (And who'd never ever have been "guilty" of this ?) At least sometimes, I find it indeed amusing to read; and there are even informative elements in it, if not always in strictly technical terms.<g> And now for some of the substance. There are still quite some "regional" problems with net accessibilty even inside a country like the USA. It just so happens that our lister from behind the Ozarks seems to be the only one on this list from a typical "rural" US environment - others may not be present here precisely because of difficult or too expensive net access; look at any of the more detailed net "penetration" data of the US (and not to speak of other[,] exotic places.) And while email and (text) browsing are fairly feasible even under prevailing (social as well as "regional") conditions - and with rather elementary hardware (as it should be) -, I condider the almost complete "net dependency" of something as "sophisticated" as system maintenance a somewhat doubtful condition. (Aaahemm, and what do we _see_ with M$'s ".Net" tricks ?) I think our friend in the Ozarks is quite reasonable when he (1.) does this mainly offline, and (2.) demands a useful and useable printed manual for doing this. (Just to remember: you wouldn't have a 'puter only for emailing. You'd use it for counting, for instance [your beans], or for trivially writing/printing - it's getting difficult these days to get hold of an oldfashioned typewriter; hence, how's one to write even snail ? Though I _do_ know one person who faxes handwritten letters and manuscripts, to the horror of his friends and editors/publishers.) Regrettably, Debian, the most purest and most open and most political correct of all "distros", and of which Bob is so infatigable the defendor, is at the same time the most "vulnerable" in that respect - without good/cheap net access, not much Debian, and not so much of the most perfect updating facility in this still so imperfect 'puterworld either. BTW, I tried, honestly, and paid weeks if not months of work time on it but had to refrain from Debian nevertheless: despite of heaviest committment from the Linux community around me, it never got the not-at- all-so-exotic combo of video card and high-res screen working, which is my excistentially needed gear for pixel treatment - "commercial" Mandrake managed that on the fly. So I'm stuck with that less-than-perfect RPM. As seldom as I use it indeed, it works too. However, I ran into precisely the trap described in the Ozarks - "updating" [upgrading, in fact] Mozilla wouldn't work without a major/whole "system" upgrade. And I'm quite sure that a "simple apt-get" would do that in a Debian system neither. For ME TOO, this example is reason enough for "ranting", on or off list. -hc
