APPLEVISION Monitor

From: Richard Erlacher <edick_at_idcomm.com>
Date: Mon May 6 22:27:08 2002

----- Original Message -----
From: "Doc" <doc_at_mdrconsult.com>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Monday, May 06, 2002 6:56 PM
Subject: Re: APPLEVISION Monitor


> On Mon, 6 May 2002, Richard Erlacher wrote:
>
> > That may be true, though I have questions about the relative usefulness of
> > *nix, VMS, etc, in the current computing environment. However, until I
can
> > rely on being able to take the typical drug-impaired, femto-brained, at
best
> > quasi-literate, high school graduate and setting him down in front of a
*nix
> > box, when he's never even heard of *nix or VMS or whatever, and reasonably
> > expect to get at least half-a-day's work out of each day he spends at that
> > box, beginning with the first day, knowing that he can't read and extract
> > information from the process, I'll stick with Windows, thank you very
much.
> > Even a moron can manage that under Windows.
>
> Um, no.

> I have done software support in a Windows environment, and I have done
> training of both adults and children in both Linux and Windows.

> Chris's crack about finding the new document after writing it, in
> Windows, was dead on. My stint as "the computer guy" in a Windows shop
> was in a University of Texas research lab. Not exactly morons I was
> working with. Most people think Windows is easier because that's what
> they were trained in _first_. The Linux/Unix curve is steeper for them
> because of the UNlearning curve.

> Dick, no offense, but if you haven't used Unix since '82, or Linux
> since about 2000, you don't _have_ a valid viewpoint concerning ease of
> use. PTSD is not a reasonable argument in this case.

I used HPUX in the interim, and, of course a half-dozen dialects of Unix at
the POP. The place my confidence in the thing falls apart is in the
documentation. There is a Linux Documentation Project that seems to lag about
5 generations behind the "current" versions (not the betas).

> RedHat is not my favorite distribution for my own personal use, but I
> have to say that it is a much easier install than a comparable Windows
> setup. Effectively, on 99% of current (less than 6 yrs and more than 3
> months old) hardware, it's a matter of clicking on the default choice.

I don't see how it could be any easier to install than Win98. I just put the
CD in the drive and reset the machine. Then I go away, to lunch, perhaps, and
when I'm back the drive is freshly formatted as a single partition under FAT32
and the OS is completely installed, the drivers in place, the modem ready to
align with the internet parameters it wants (server names, addresses, etc) and
then I can install applications. If I don't want the HDD reformatted, I have
to stay long enough to tell it not to do that. It looks to see what the
hardware is and installs the appropriate drivers. It builds its own swap
file.

Nevertheless, I can grab what's on the various sites. We do have a few T3's
after all.

> After the _first_ reboot, everything from browsers to WYSIWYG word
> processors are ready to use. You never have to even _see_ a commandline
> unless you want. Spreadsheet (Excel-compatible, no less) apps, address
> books, games, the whole 9 yards. I see 11 and 12 year old kids sit
> down for the first time, ask where's the menus, and do homework, all the
> time.

Contrary to what you seem to believe, I don't mind a command line at all.
Much of my editing is done in WordStar. ( I like to be able to prune out
columns, and few text editors allow that.) Almost everything I do with
respect to hardware development and testing is done on a DOS-only box.

I recognize that there are some pretty decent Linux based cross-compilers and
simulators, not to mention cross-assemblers and debuggers. I just don't want
to have to learn to parse cryptic gibberish like what was presented as a
"cute" example by one of the script kiddies demonstrating his prowess at perl
or whatever. I just don't have time to try to impress somebody else. I just
want to get the work out.

I haven't had a Windows crash resulting in a data loss except for one recent
occasion where my elder son presented me with a diskette that had been in one
of the computers at school. Thank goodness for backups, however burdensome
they may be!

I have only fired nine people in my entire carreer, and six of those were on
the same occasion for putting a diskette in one of our machines after having
it on a school campus. I don't even allow diskettes that have been in the
trunk of a car at a school campus in my lab ... and then my own kid, who was
present when I fired those guys, does it to me. <sigh>

So which version/release of Linux do you hold in highest esteem? Why? What
are its strengths? Has it any annoying weaknesses?

Dick
Received on Mon May 06 2002 - 22:27:08 BST