Re: What Was Your Experience When You First Started Using Linux?
From: Mark L. Cooper (mlcooper54_no_spam__at_aol.com)
Date: 02/17/05
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Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 18:22:44 -0500
Aragorn,
First off, thank you for your intelligent, well thought-out response. As I
tried to convey to the OP, that has not been MY typical experience.
>
> I don't hate Windows. I can find great joy seeing it run next to
> Gnu/Linux, requiring all its reboots and crashes. Really, I mean it!
> I find it amusing.
>
I'm responsible for a total of 6 servers and approx 60 workstations and
laptops. Considering the amount of flawless uptime I see with Windows
workstations and servers, I am very happy with Windows for it's INTENDED
purpose and audience.
>
> Even people who don't wish to troll end up trolling on AOLM, and I
> suspect on other Gnu/Linux newsgroups as well. And that is a bad
> thing. Hence the short fuse that we all seem to be having... :-/
>
I am only responding to posts in the alt.os.linux.redhat NG.
> I only hate Windows when someone asks me to install it on their
> computers, or even worse, if someone suggests that I *must* install it
> on *my* computers, just because they choose to support only "official
> operating systems" - a big "DUH!" for that!
I agree with the 'must' part. It's still less expensive for me (in my area!)
to purchase a PC w/Windows, than a PC w/out Windows. Why fight it? I just
wipe the disk and install Linux.
>
> No, it's usually the other way around. Doing a Google search on a
> certain matter can yield one an answer in less than 5 minutes. What we
> then usually do is tell the user that it took us less than 5 minutes to
> find the answer on Google and supply him/her with that answer that _we_
> were so kind to look up for them.
>
My experience with Google searches these days is an overload of conflicting
info. It does take some hard-learned experience to separate the wheat from
the chaff.
>
> I don't know MP/M... First time I hear of it. :-/ The first computer I
> ever set at had TurboDOS, on single-sided 5.25" floppies. ;-)
>
MP/M was the multi-user version of CP/M.
I started with 8" floppies. With/without hub rings. With/without index
holes. Single-sided/double sided. Single density/double density/quad
density. Pre-formatted/not formatted.
> Oh yes, and the phosphor green, glaring screen, of course. :-þ
>
Of course! Remember the Osborne luggable? The Kaypro 10? I sold Eagle
computers til IBM sued them and put them out of business. I sold Elephant
diskettes. C. Itoh printers. Had to make my own serial cables to hook up
printers. The 'Centronics' parallel port spec hadn't yet been invented.
>
> The documentation is not poor, or at least most of the documentation
> isn't. You have to keep in mind that the documentation must be
> translated in most cases, as Gnu/Linux is a worldwide project.
>
Poor was a 'poor' choice of words. Much documentation assumes a fair amount
of prior knowledge.
> If you are speaking of "poor documentation", then you _must_ be
> referring to the documentation that comes with Windows. Half of what
> you encounter in your system is undocumented. I've run NT 4.0 for 3
> years, so I know. There was no documentation whatsoever on the
> Registry.
Windows documentation. That's an oxymoron if I ever saw one!
I was running Lantastic over W95/98 during the NT days.
>
> In regards to poor examples, I'd say that's debatable. Some tutorials
> could indeed be a little better. But then again, you have to keep in
> mind that they are usually written by the developers themselves, and
> not by professional-grade editors.
>
Developers don't always make the best documentors. There is an awesome
amount of info on Linux AND Windows on the 'Net if one has the time to wade
through it.
>
> Yup, yup... dBASE IV... Nice, nice... ;-) Hmm... I was told there are
> UNIX versions of that software out there. I wonder if there is a
> Gnu/Linux version of it. It sure was fun coding in that one. ;-)
>
Check out the Harbour/xHarbour project.
>
> The way you present it, AOLM is infested with childish people. I would
> disagree with that, and I would like to point to the countless numbers
> of people that got and still get solid advice here from people who all
> seem to have their own field of expertise.
>
Again, I'm talking about my own experiences. There a few, very vocal, people
that usually lend a certain flavor to any particular NG.
>
> A PC with Windows installed comes with the OEM license, which means you
> are not entitled to support. And then even still, Windows is too
> expensive, as you pay for the appliance system alone without the
> applications to run on it. If those are included, then you can rest
> assured that you paid for that too.
>
Correct the PC (applaince) vendor is obligated to provide Windows support. I
don't have an issue with that. I get on MS support forums as needed.
> I prefer to have a system custom-built, with selected components of
> which I know that they are not "designed for Windows".
>
My clients generally cannot afford custom built.
>
> It's not crap at all. If a post catches one reply, then good for the
> reader. However, Usenet is a forum. It's like a big mailing list, and
> if people top-post, then you don't know *what* they are replying to.
>
My newsreader is Outlook Express<g>. The threads are quite obvious, even
with such a 'poor' newsreader.
>
> I do agree that a lot of people just "bottom post", leaving the whole
> thread of previous replies intact, and that this is unworkable as well.
> It's not just "don't top-post", it's "don't top-post and trim your
> posts".
>
YEP!
For anyone paying attention: I am not Linux bashing. One of my home-rolled
Linux firewalls is running Samba and providing a 3rd level of backup to my
primary W2K server. My W2K license is already bought and paid for. When it
no longer gets the job done I'll look at Samba to be my main server.
Mark
-- Mark L. Cooper Junction City, Ohio USA Unregistered Linux user
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