RE: new to debian have questions
Allow me to expand a little bit. I don't have
the time to sift through every mail client listed
on SourceForge/FreshMeat/etc. to find one I like.
I've used Outlook for years, I like it, it works
for me(tm). If you don't like it, don't use it.
I promise you won't hurt my feelings.
You don't see me sending HTML messages to the list,
getting viruses, etc. You use your MUA, I'll use
mine, but don't attack me because I prefer a different
one than you.
That's too bad I'm not ready for UNIX yet. Especially
since I've been using UNIX since '95. UNIX, as a server
platform, is fine for me. As a desktop platform, it's
still gonna be awhile.
FWIW, Outlook isn't the only mail client I use. It
all depends on where I'm at. If I'm sitting at home,
it's Outlook, at work it's Lotus Notes (don't even
get me started on Notes), and anywhere else I SSH in
and either use Pine or mutt.
Anyways, you use whatever you want and I'll continue
to use Outlook. As long as I'm not sending you HTML
email messages, you really shouldn't have anything to
bitch about, no?
j.
--
Jeremy L. Gaddis <jlgaddis@blueriver.net>
-----Original Message-----
From: Joost Kooij [mailto:joost@topaz.mdcc.cx]
Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2001 5:38 AM
To: Jeremy Gaddis
Cc: debian-user@lists.debian.org
Subject: Re: new to debian have questions
On Thu, Jul 12, 2001 at 02:01:30AM -0500, Jeremy Gaddis wrote:
> I use Outlook because I find it to be better than
> any piece of shit MUA that I can run on Linux. I
> happen to find Linux rather lacking when it comes
> to the desktop arena and when I actually have to
> do work instead of playing, I need something that
> works. Windows NT (and Outlook, when it comes to
> e-mail) happen to fit that bill quite well.
Maybe unix is just not the right thing for you (yet).
No offense intended.
On unix, if you say that your mua is a piece of shit, it means that
you are saying that you are a piece of shit, because you haven't:
- read the manual page, which explains why it should do as it does;
- read the source code, which explains why it doesn't as it should;
- figured out how to configure it to not act as apiece of shit, but
instead make coffee, slice bread and do the washing up for you;
- written a patch that makes it do your The Right Thing(tm) by default;
- forked it to use the much cooler foo widget library instead;
- created a dedicational website, that advocates all its limitations as
clueful, innovative or "standard" features;
- tried some of the 500 mailer apps available for linux, some of which
already do all the above (on the internet, there's always three other
nutcases exactly like you).
> For my servers, yes, they're all running Debian.
Seriously, consider learning how to use dselect, if these servers
represent any economic value.
> On the desktop, though, I need *real* applications
> that allow me to actually accomplish things.
I consider sed and awk applications that allow me to accomplish things.
Other people say microsoft word is an application that allows them to
accomplish things. Likely, they're trying to accomplish different
things
than I am.
The only question is, what are all the people, who think that they
need to fire up microsoft word if they want to send an email, trying to
accomplish? It reminds me of the times when I could surprise people by
showing that their computer could actually do something else than just
run wordperfect 5.1 from autoexec.bat (I stopped trying to explain that
part pretty quickly).
My favorite example of stereotypically clueless "requirements" for "real
applications" is where daft management types would argue to me that
excel is such a great tool and how one can do everything using excel.
So I would be nice to them and send them data in comma seperated values
format, thinking that they would be able to import it, being excel
wizards as they suggested they were. Though luck. It didn't have the
right filename extension, so they couldn't doubleclick on it in outlook.
So I help them to save it in the menu and then rename the file
(bedazzled
looks on their faces). Then I tell them "now just import it in excel".
Even more blank staring. As I show them how it is done, I notice that
their attention span lasts only half the way. Silently, I remind myself
to stay away from these people better in the future.
Oh, and then there is the time when I played a little with staroffice,
to see how well it would handle compatibility issues (very well). So I
sent some notably clueless people an "excel" file. Instead of being
happy for it, that they could doubleclick instead of having to think,
they actually came complaining, that "the data was no good, because it
had the wrong font face".
Nowadays, I just give a blank stare back and start mumbling about how
great an application awk is and has been for the past twenty years.
Then I try to start an argument on the relative merits of regular
expressions versus file globs. They are long gone when I finish the
first sentence. Serve with a smile. Do you want sourcecode with that?
Cheers,
Joost
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