Re: To the Debian Project, IMHO
On Wed, 15 Sep 1999, Simon Martin wrote:
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> Ok, so this is my 2 cents worth.
>
> GUI utilities are ok, command line utilities are ok, simple dialogs
> are ok, this is not the issue. The real issue is not to fall into the
> Microsoft or RedHat paradigm.
Please, do not compare the two. I run Red Hat, Debian, SuSE and FreeBSD,
and I truly believe the Red Hat guys do not deserve these criticism. If
you run Red Hat you can use both the GUI interface or the command line
utilities, just like in any other flavor of Unix (and I am including
Solaris here too).
> This is a flavour of Unix, Unix is not
> trivial, Unix is a fairly mature fully featured operating system and
> you have to know at least a little about what you are doing and be
> prepared to read the manual before you do something useful.
>
That's fine. However, many other users may just want to run a stable,
efficient OS that they have not had a chance to run so far. I do not see
why we should limit ourselves to the "techies" or "geeks" of the world,
especially since many corporations as well as small and midsize businesses
could also benefit from running Linux as long as we also make it easy
enough for them to get the basic configuration up and running.
> IMHO one of the reasons that there is a contest between NT and Linux
> is that Microsoft said that NT was so simple to install and use,
> unfortunately tuning and other administrative tasks can be a real
> pain. Linux never made any bones about the fact that you have to
> learn to be able to use it. It's not out of the box and run. I think
> that the efforts to dumb down the operating system and say that
> anyone can use it would hurt the Linux image, maybe irreparably.
>
I disagree here. The main reason why there is a contest between WinNT and
Linux is not due to customer disappointment at how difficult WinNT is to
set up or run. Rather, the main cause is the lack of stability and
scalability of that other OS. Add to that the strings attached to a
commercial OS manufactured by a semi-monopolistic company, and you have
all the ingredients you need for people to dislike WinNT.
> Apart from that all real computer enthusiasts are masochists any way.
> Tell someone that this is a system that only real men can use (sorry
> about the sexist remark but "real people" does not convey the same
> meaning) and you'll have them fighting to get at it (how do you think
> I started) and have a real sense of achievement when they manage to
> get the system to boot, and now PPP, and now bind, and now sendmail,
> and now ...
Again I disagree here. I do not think we are able to decide who is and
who is not a "real" computer enthusiast. This is starting to sound like
those inquisitors back in the 1950's trying to decide who was a "good
American".
In any case, I also doubt that the best route for Linux is to convert it
into an exclusive property of computer hobbysts. No matter how much wemay
dislike it, that is not our decision to make. In our societies, it is the
market the one that usually makes those decisions.
>
> Let Microsoft take the bashing from users who do not WANT to know.
> Stay just that little bit above the rest. Have all the tools in any
> and every form. Drag'n Drop is good, but so is rcp.
>
> And now it's back to work.
>
> __ _ Debian GNU User
> / /(_)_ __ _ ___ __ Simon Martin
> / / | | '_ \| | | \ \/ / Project Manager
> / /__| | | | | |_| |> < Isys
> \____/_|_| |_|\__,_/_/\_\ mailto: smartin@isys.cl
>
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