Re: Linux alternative to m$ abscess?

From: a.n.other (nowhereman_at_nowhere.com)
Date: 08/30/04 

Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 01:03:46 +0100

On Sun, 29 Aug 2004, Roger Blake wrote:

>On Sun, 29 Aug 2004 05:53:38 GMT, Rolf Arne Schulze <news@ronningveien.net> wrote:
>>Yes, but are you an average user? Do you really think a normal user should
>>have to have 30 years of unix experience to create a simple
>
>No, of course not, but that wasn't the point. I was responding to the
>nerdlet's claim that people who use the command line are obsolete
>"dinosaurs" who will go by the wayside. Let's see how far he gets
>with that attitude when X gets screwed up on his box and fails to
>load. (I'm sure he'll be the first one to scream for help from
>someone who knows the correct mystical incantations.)

I would think that most Unix sysadmins know that there are times to use
the command line and there are times to use a GUI style interface and
there are times to use an "ASCII menu" style interface. The more variety
there is the more choice and power we have.

And in fact few of us probably use a pure command line interface any more
since we'll be probably typing in our commands on an xterm window or in my
case quite often on a putty window, using copy and paste in support of our
"command line".

I was slightly disappointed when I first saw a Redhat desktop and had some
difficulty at first in finding the terminal window! Seems they might have
fallen into the trap of trying to be more like Windoze than Windoze.

Which brings me to my main point: while those of us administering Unix and
Linux usually feel confident enough to use whichever interface feels
comfortable enough for the job in hand, on Windoze systems, you have the
choice between a GUI that looks pretty and is ok for some things, but gets
truly tedious for repetitive tasks, or a truly archaic Dos Command Line
which personally I find deeply unattractive. When using Windows, I find
myself increasinly bringing up Uwin and knocking up ksh scripts to get
things done. (Actually the Uwin window is not that great, so I use putty
(which is nice) and telnet to localhost; the result is pretty much the
same as an xterm).

My point being that MS has relentlessly "improved" their windowing
environment while freezing their command line environment in the early
80s. This was a big mistake I think. 

-- 
nowhereman@nowhere.com

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