Re: [tlug] command line

[Matt Doughty <mdoughty@example.com>]

On Fri, Jul 19, 2002 at 03:36:31PM +0900, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
> >>>>> "Matt" == Matt Doughty <mdoughty@example.com> writes:
> 
>     Matt> It is mind boggling to have installed the OS, and still not
>     Matt> know something so fundamental.
> 
> Not really.  Speaking of foolish analogies, could you tune a
> late-model car?  I stopped trying in the early '80s.
> 
> But of course that is only an analogy.  It breaks down immediately
> following the first successful boot.  If _you_ don't tune your car,
> _you_ pay for the extra fuel and the repairs to your engine when the
> pistons gash the cylinders.  If _you_ don't tune _your_ firewall, _I_
> get DoSsed.
> 
> So we have a world in which it's as easy to switch from Windows to
> Linux as it is to switch from Ford to Toyota, but unfortunately the
> costs of remaining ignorant about internals are much more likely to be
> borne by others in the case of OSes.

I should have qualified that a bit. What I mean is it was mind boggling
to me.  I was also boggled the first time I met someone who was relatively
familiar with windows, but didn't know what autoexec.bat was. In my mind,
Windows had its foundations in dos, and to use one somehow suggested a
knowledge of both. I have been laboring under the illusion that to use
linux you have to have atleast a passing familiarity with its parts.
This is probably because the first time I used linux was the infomagic
slackware distro[1].  I used linux for years without even getting
X to work.  As is I pretty much avoid distros that prevent me from getting
my hands dirty, and the end result seems to be that I am completely out
of touch with what the new user experience is these days. It seems, to
steal your bad analogy, I'm the hot-rodder who went on to become a 
mechanic, and just assumed anyone with a high-end car was doing
their own work under the hood. So while it true that if you step back,
and look at what the linux market has become it isn't completely mind
boggling. I think I have been working very hard to avoid getting any
sort of perspective[2]. ;)

--Matt

[1] I was actually estatic the first time I used virtual consoles, and
if their good enough for me there good enough for everyone dag-nabit.

[2]. Why else would be using gentoo/NetBSD/Solaris exclusively. I actually
installed RH on a box one day when I was in a hurry, and even though it
was running fine just knowing it was RH irritated me enough that I finally
had to reinstall it to Net.