On 11/16/05, Peter Van Lone
ding ding ding! We finally have a winner!
Hello, "world of supposed linux boosters"! --- if you want linux to dominate the market, that means it MUST be accessible. To those who just need to get their work done, but have not the spare time to devote 600 hours to learning the ins and outs of the various CLI commands and config files. Please.
I've been doing networking and computer support since the late 80's ..... all of it in netware/windows world. I am not a linux/grep/regex/bash script etc .... pro. I'm "making the shift" because I believe that the OSS model makes sense and because I think it is in my customers best interests to have choices.
But I don't have alot of extra time to develop some the expertise that I know I will eventually have. So, I put the gui on servers .... I configure them to boot to run level 3, but I know that startx is but a command away.
Is it helpful to have to listen to bigots spout about "stoopid noobies" that need a GUI on a server? No. Does it make me feel any less smart? No. It simply lessens my enthusiasm for getting some of my customers exposed to this list, for example, because it can be DISCOURAGING rather than helpful. For me ... I could care less.
Many of those "MCSE drones" are my customers, and potential customers ... and many are very very smart very very busy people. Want to guess whom I think is the "drone" or the "moron"?
But if you want to grow linux? ... grow up!
It IS grown up. I read an article by a "windows drone" saying X86 OS X is EXACTLY fit for "Joe Sixpack" and guess what .. distros like SUSE/Redhat/Ubuntu are as good as OS X right bloody now. So they must be as good as Windows XP is right now.. since he said OS X was as good as XP if not better. We do NOT have to cut out shellscripting, the shell and everything else that makes UNIX/Linux great in order to bring the Windows weenies onboard.. OS X is 1000000000x easier to use then XP is.. after all it's designed for "art fags" right? And let me tell you this. I can write bash, zsh, tcsh or sh scripts under OS X on my Powerbook or I can use Applescript to do what I need to do.. or I can point and click to get things done. So KDE/Gnome/Linux are now just as simple as any Mac OS X machine I've used and so I'd give up on the argument that Linux has to become dumbed down drek just to be used by MCSE's. We in the Linux community have listened to this argument over and over and over again .. making things easier and easier for "busy" people.. and year after year the bar gets raised higher and higher yet Windows stays the same for the most part. If my wife who is an art director can point and click as well as grep and pipe.. then the windows geeks can do it as well. Pleasing PHB's and MCSE's is like herding cats.. none shall be caught until they wish to BE caught. If it were up to these people.. they run Linux developers ragged until they'd just explode. I don't mean to sound crass or cranky about it. I've just heard this argument year in and year out for 10 years... and when one can install SUSE with a couple mouse clicks and not know much about the install.. I don't see how it can get any bloody easier. The same goes for OS X.. a couple mouse clicks and you've got a full fledged GUI'ed UNIX OS that can do what the user needs.. whether it's via CLI or with a rodent. So if both UNIX based OS's are so easy.. it must be something else holding back those "..very very smart very very busy people." such as misperception, conditioning and an unwillingness to change no matter what the cost is... other wise there is no real explanation for it. Because the commercial UNIX OS's are BEYOND easy to use... with maybe the exception being Solaris. ;D I just don't think paper admins such as the people they gave MCSE's to for the last 5 years of the .com boom will EVER get it... that is until the close their mouths and open their eyes. And I doubt any Linux distro will EVER work for them.. even if it had the Microsoft Logo on the box. And if they are offended by such talk.. so be it. It's about time we stop "steppin and fetchin" and say " Yessm.. massa.. we's gonna do it right up good for ya. " Because they will never be satisfied. Ah well. Such is life. -ben -- Atheism is a non-prophet organization.