Re: Debian as a server.
On Tue, 13 May 1997, George Bonser wrote:
> Debian is not "point and click" or "plug and play" but then again,
> neither are the operating systems that claim to be, really.
and that's the truth.
I think that's one of the things that annoy me the most about the plug and
play mythology - that it IS merely mythology.
The only people who have reasonably stable Windows machines are the tech
heads and geeks who have the time, ability, and the inclination to mess
about it with it for days and weeks on end.
There is no way of avoiding the need to properly configure your OS - and
IMO, if you're going to have to spend time configuring it you may as
well use an OS which is stable and reliable to begin with.
I really do believe that Linux is EASIER to configure than Windows:
Because it's documented. Because you can have comments in text config
files. Because there are no hidden surprises. Because there are
thousands of volunteer support people in the newsgroups and mailing
lists. Because there are HOWTO files. Because Linux actually works as
advertised. Because you can find out what's going on. Because there's 30
years of unix history, knowledge, tradition & wisdom to draw upon as a
resource. Because development is open. Because source code is available.
Because I can take someone else's shell or perl script and hack it into
something which does what i want it to. Because end-users can talk
directly with software developers. Because developers listen to users
and implement good ideas. Because end-users can implement good ideas and
submit them as patches for other people to share. Because.........
When configuring / fixing a Windows machine I tend to get quite angry
and swear a lot at the machine. Not only is the whole system generally
unreliable, but there is something about the configuration procedure
which really irritates me...it makes too many DUMB assumptions, hides
too much information, and requires too many reboots. It is nearly
impossible to accurately determine why something isn't working....it
could be a) operator cluelessness, b) hardware failure c) wrong config,
d) windows bugs, e) incompatibility between foo.dll and bar.dll which
only occurs if xyzzy.dll version 3.2 is installed, f) one or more of the
above, g) some other stupid reason. There is no way of telling for sure.
I've configured many windows machines, and usually get them to work
"properly" (as well as windows is capable of working, that is) but the
whole damn thing just feels like black magic to me. I don't always know
WHY it's suddenly decided to start working, and I feel no CONFIDENCE
that it's going to stay working in the future. There are too many
unknown and unknowable variables.
I have never met ANYONE who really knows what's going on in Windows, who
feels *really* confident about it, who *doesn't* rely on some voodoo
black magic to mysteriously happen for the thing to start working.
Frankly, I would be very surprised if such people actually existed...the
best i've seen basically approach windows configuration the same way i
do (plug and pray), only with more knowledge or experience of particular
applications or drivers.
In contrast, when configuring a Linux machine I tend to stay calm and
the only thing I swear at is myself (usually when i finally figure
something out and wonder how i could have been so stupid as to not see
the bleeding obvious). It's science, not magic.
I have met many people who understand Linux/unix, and many who have a
far better understanding of how unix works than I do - that alone is a
reason for feeling confidence: unix IS knowable if you put in the time
and effort to learn it (and it's nowhere near as hard to do that as most
people think).
In short, configuring Windows is generally unpleasant and stressful.
Configuring Linux is nearly always a pleasant opportunity to learn
something new & useful about how the system works.
So, Linux is good for my health and my hair too. Less stress == more
hair. :-)
Sorry about the rant, everyone. I don't really know what relationship
this has to debian except to say "if you think debian is hard to get
working, just try getting windows to work".
craig
--
craig sanders
networking consultant Available for casual or contract
temporary autonomous zone system administration tasks.
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