🚀 go-pugleaf

rampson@ave050.ve.ford.com (Chris"Big-Kahuna"Rampson) wrote:

>Brian Hoort (hoortbri@pilot.msu.edu) wrote:
>: Sounds like Linux to me.  Any features you don't find in Linux could be
>: implemented personally.  Source code included.  I'm reading news at this minute
>: with Netscape under Linux and X11R6.
>: Its' already here.

>I am of the opinion that the smaller the OS, the easier it is to understand.
>This makes Linux "harder" to understand. Now I'm talking about Joe Average,
>you know the blue-collar guy that wants a computer to do good things for
>him. Is this guy capable of debugging a very complicated multi-tasking
>system with hundreds of commands? UNIX is a 2-edged sword - it is a
>wonderfull multi-tasking OS, that you can configure endlessly. It is also
>VERY complex, which is why it has never "caught-on" with the masses. An
>educated, intelligent, persistant person can use it quite well, but how
>about Mr. high-school diploma (GPA 2.1) and working on the "line" all day.
>Can he grasp the UNIX ideal? Yeah I know you can make a GUI slick install
>program that does it "all" for him, but what happens when errors start
>popping up?


I've preserved your comments at the cost of bandwidth because it is a
good post. In answer to it: You are correct. (Although, I don't know
how slick the install package is...not to offend the author, but...
dialog --title "The Linux Install Menu"
	dialog --menu "Install" 10 50 9 "Quick" blah, blah, blah.
This isn't so slick, but very cool, except for the repaint. That is
kinda slow, but anyway...)

It is true that the average user will balk at Linux or any flavor of
UNIX. (Consider the article in Business Week where they said 'IBM says
OS/2 will not be shipping on this latest generation of
laptops...Instead they will load AIX, a computer operating system that
uses *arcane* commands.") Sure, it's hard to configure and one has to
keep on top of it. (Though, to the X Consoritum's credit, X11R6 is
quite easy to use.) You are right. Linux is an aspiring developer's
dream but probably not suited to the average person. I will say this,
though. To a hacker, Linux is a Godsend. It offers power and lots of
it. At reasonable prices. Linux is probably not the wave of the future
except for those who want to learn UNIX. But, I do believe that as the
more popular OS's merge (and merging they are, in more than just
interface,) Linux and UNIX will become the choice of those who are
related to the field in a technical way. I mean, if you think about
it, Win95 and OS2 take from the user basic knowledge of their system. 
The more prevalent these systems become, the more likely that being a
tech will be lucrative.

Xenon