Re: tlug: djb [was: ibm.net with LINUX (Red Hat)]

[Karl-Max Wagner <karlmax@example.com>]

> anyone was overlooking anything.  Indeed, the government and a large U.S.
> corporations were pushing for it hard in the 1970s.  But most Americans took

That's right. There WERE farsighted people. However,
unfortunately, that was not enough.

> the attitude that they didn't care if it was more expensive, they just didn't
> want to switch.  and so, at the close of the 20th century, there is still not
> much metric stuff in the U.S.

Unfortunately.....
> Actually, what makes it bigger is having to have all those metric tools in
> there, as well :-)  Ditto for the cost :-)  Seriously, though, in the United

That makes them even bigger. Last time I saw suc a thing I saw
the equivalent of set roughly equivalent to our 4 mm to 14 mm
sets and it was in fact three times as big and contained three
times as many sockets. I didn7t contain any metric stuff ( for
that the guy had an extra metric box ).

> States, metric and non-metric tools are the same price, so the extra cost does
> indeed come only from needing extra tools and a larger box, but the unit price

Yes, exactly.

> is the same. Because of some of the odd sizes needed, I won't argue that a
> U.S. tool set isn't bigger, but it isn't three times bigger [1].

I just know that I have some imperial tools here but I very
often lack the appropriate size to get some piece of equipment
apart. So I know there's LOTS of odd sizes.

> [1]  My brother and my father were both professional mechanics before going
> into the computer field instead, and I'm a halfway decent amateur one (don't
> like it anymore,though), so I have some acquaintance with the size of a
> professional tool box and what it contains.

I don't doubt that :-). Actually, an US mechanic must be a lot
more competent than a European or Asian one in order to get
along with the messy system. I admire those guys....

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"It was hell. They knew it.          Karl-Max Wagner
  But they called it                 karlmax@example.com
    W-I-N-D-O-Z-E"
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