Re: To the Debian Project, IMHO
Hello!
Again some criticism about your opinions...
>Ok, ok, I sit corrected in several respects, but I am still adamant that
any attempt to paint Linux as an out of the box solution
>with no prior knowledge is a real danger to the on-going comercial success
of Linux. I worked in tech-support for Xerox for about 7
>years (Xerox used to sell Apple Mac, IBM PS/2 and Dell in Latin America),
and I would say that at least 70% of the problems we had
>we with users who not only did not know what they were doing (no problems
with that) but who did not WANT to know what they were
>doing. Microsoft has fixed the image of it's OS as "just use and ignore
it". Let's not fall into that trap.
>
>Fixing the customers expectations is paramount for a successful install. If
you fix the expectations as "zero cost, zero learning"
>then you are NOT going to have a successful install. I am fairly competent
with Debian, but the last time I looked at RedHat, I did
>not want to do any real config changes until I had read the corresponding
man pages and other documents, and these are both Linux
>based!!!!
>
>In short. If you use a tool you have to know it. If you want to use a tool
well you have to learn how it works. You don't get
>something for nothing and you definitely don't want to tell your customers
to expect the world for nothing.
OK, I know what you mean. I've been using Debian for a short time and
Windows for a quite long time now, and I worked together with many people on
PC projects. I also think in a way that there are two extremes concerning PC
users: There are some who want to dive deep into the secrets of the system,
and others only want to use it for doing their work. And I (I belong to the
first group) realized, whatever I worked on, that the second group of users
also got very good results out of their work.
Let's look on what the computer was invented for: Scientific calculations.
But people had to have very good knowledge and time to use it. And what the
computer can do now (at least sometimes): Help at work and calculate things
without needing much time for administration any more. Although I like to
administrate a system properly, IMHO it is very admirable that people can
now work with computers almost with zero administration. And it makes life
easier and makes the computer work for what it was created: Solving
problems.
So, IMHO, it is not good to think that people that can only work with GUI
interfaces and "dumb" OSes are stupid or worth less. I think it's very
understandable if someone wants to concentrate on his problems and not on
his systems.
Now, what do this thoughts end up to? I think there should be both kinds of
OSes: The "just use and..." ones and the ones which require proper
administration and can be tuned properly.
Why should we let MS control the market of the "just use and ignore it"
OSes? I there should be a Linux for EVERY person, and distributions like the
coming Corel-Linux, which are almost completely GUI-based, will improve the
success of Linux. But "Linuxes" also have to be tweakable.
I think that's why there are different distros: That different users can
reach different aims. Admins who want to tune it thorougly as well as home
users who want to use it without reading any manual, just to show to
extremes.
That's what Linux should be, I think. And if Debian should become easier to
install or something like that, there should be discussions about how the
future Debian can solve problems in a better way than last versions. But
there should not be a flame war about UNIX philosophy because it's no use
starting such a war. Time and users will tell where to go finally and which
philosophies are right. Why can't there be just peaceful coexistence between
different users and philosophies???
And: About the last paragraph: I think good software can be used without
knowing any manual. It has some help functions that quickly guide to the
required functions/params. You can see what command you must call. That's
good software. I want to dive into internals of OSes. But, personally, I
don't read manuals very often. And I succeeded with WIN and with Debian this
way. So that philosophy can't be that bad.
That was my opinion about this. I already have used WIN and LINUX, and DOS,
and the GEM UI, and DR DOS, and CALDERA DOS, and so on. Intolerance brings
no solution.
Did not want to offend anyone:).
Kind Regards,
Stephan Hachinger
Reply to: