Re: RH and GNOME
On Sat, 25 Jul 1998, Scott McDermott wrote:
> . . . I don't think that people that don't "work with computers,
> operating systems, networking, ..." necessarily have any need for Linux.
> It's overkill. Maybe I'm wrong, . . .
Yup. Maybe you are.
Take my case. I don't particularly want to be an IT / OS / networking
wizard or Unix guru -- but I *do* want a decent document engineering
workstation. It's a professional tool, and I need it to function.
I couldn't give two stuffs about being part of the hacker culture, steeped
in hackish lore, etc. etc. etc. I simply want a working tool; the best
that I can afford. And if I have to build it myself, I will.
Try building one using MS or Apple products. You're left with a very
definite feeling that there's got to be more to life than what they have
to offer. (Which is in the main: incompleteness; and constraint.)
What's left that won't give any normally constituted bursar an infarction?
Or that you can use at home as well? That you can modify and adapt to
your own personal tool-using needs, at will? That *does the job*?
Linux.
And, for reasons of technical excellence as far as getting the job done
without running into major technical problems is concerned -- Debian.
(You find this out by trial and error. I have [quite happily at the time]
so far used: Linux-FT; Redhat; Caldera OpenLinux; and Debian. Also NT.)
And I am not alone among professionals in the humanities who want to use
the computing tools they have become used to in academia in their own
offices / homes. Archeologists; visualizers of all kinds; musicians;
curators; librarians; modellers -- we all want the latest tools to help us
do our jobs. We are all of us used to and capable of looking after and
keeping our tools in good working order -- but beyond that, we have NO
interest in becoming professional network sysadmins / computer wizards.
It doesn't stop us using the same tools as they do, though.
And some of us are beginning to hanker after supercomputing facilities
now, as well. (Remember -- we're "artists" -- we *don't see* the problems
techie folk tend to get hung up on.)
-Martin
--
mwheeler@startext.co.uk http://www.startext.co.uk/
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