* Mon, 02 Jun 2003, andjoh@rydsbo.net:
On Mon, 2003-06-02 at 01:30, Theo v. Werkhoven wrote:
I don't agree. the /dev/ fs is an important property of Linux/Unix, it is imho important that users realize that ordinary files basically behave in the same way as a mounted floppy, a string of zero's, a string of nulls or a tapedrive. Ie, they have stdin and stdout, and can pipe from or to programs.
No it isn't. It is completely useless knowledge for, say, the company secretary. In fact, it is worse than useless, since it's just distracting from his/her real work.
But the company secretary won't be asked e.g. to extract some information from a sql database and put that on a floppy in a DOS format or whatever.
There are users for whom that type of knowledge would be useful. And then there are most users, for whom it is not.
It doesn't help users to keep them in the dark about why things work the way they do. You don't keep information about the drives system from Windows users either, although most never have a clue about the implications.
Knowing a thing or two about the /ever present/ standard text processor tools is usefull too, if only to give them a feel for the power of these tools for future uses.
For most regular users there are not now, nor will there ever be a time when sed, awk of vi is useful. This is why companies have admins.
How can you say beforehand what a user needs or is going to need once he/she has the tools at their disposal? Some people do more than email and writing memo's you know.
It is extremely detrimental to the "linux on the desktop" movement to include this type of material in "luser" classes. It scares people away.
No it doesn't, the thought that they can't play their games and that they don't get all these "funny" emails with flash/java/mediafiles or who knows what scares them away. Theo -- Theo v. Werkhoven Registered Linux user# 99872 http://counter.li.org ICBM 52 13 27N , 4 29 45E. SuSE 8.2 x86 Kernel k_Athlon 2.4.20-4GB See headers for PGP/GPG info.