Re: New (to Debian) user with some (what else?) questions

[w trillich <will@pinncomp.net>]

Maury Merkin wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Thanks for the wvdial tip.  I've successfully been using pon and poff so far
> (like three hours) but I'll keep this note around for future reference.
> 
> And, yes, I know all about the "man" and "info" docs as well as the HOWTO
> stuff.  The problem is figuring out what to look up.  Like I've been using
> Linux (first Slackware and then RH) for over five years now but have never
> used or even heard of 'pon' 'poff' or 'wvdial' prior to my move to Debian
> (the day before yesterday).  What in the world would make me enter "info
> pon" if I had never heard of 'pon?'

EXACTLY. me too!  :}

(sometimes 'apropos gizmo' or 'whatis gizmo' can start you in the right
direction, though. then there's 'find / -name \*gizmo\* -print' if
'locate gizmo' doesn't work.)

----

as a linux afficionado recently pointed out to me--and correctly so--a
benefit of having text-oriented command lines and config files is that
you can check them, tweak them and restart them whether you're at the
console in the mailroom or in timbuktu.

yet, as i'd like to point out, the GUI metaphor at least presents you 
with a list (maybe not comprehensive, but there it is) of settings via 
checkboxes, menus and what-not so you can have quite an improved
chance 
of finding the settings you need--and usually from within the program 
whose functions you want to tweak. (contrast with 'locate' and 
'updatedb'.) i approve of the trend shown in the /etc/init.d scripts;
same script to start or stop or restart or show status--internally
each calls different commands and different options, but to the user
it's one script/program/application, as it should be.

each world--command-line and gui--has its advantages (of course, 
since there's no such thing as Xwindows, i'm sure nobody in the
linux world knows that).

:)