RE: tlug: directions...

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>]

>>>>> "Beth" == Beth Noble <beth@example.com> writes:

    Beth> Personally I agree with the NO LINUX FOR THE MASSES policy
    Beth> but with a few exceptions.

Let me clarify my own position.  I'm not a "no Linux for the masses"
person.  I don't know anybody "too dumb" or "too ignorant" to use
Linux.

I don't think binary packages and automated installers as such are
evil; I use them myself for a lot of things.  And even though some
people delegate things to the PMS that horrify me, it's not really any
different from "Windose for the masses" (who aren't informed enough to
realize that they can catch a Windose even if they use vinyl keyboard
covers and don't share them with Mac users).  Except for one
thing---with Linux, they do have source, which either they can learn
about (belatedly) or they can hire/wheedle someone who already knows
into fixing (some) of the damage.

I also don't object to GUIs as such; I happen to be fortunate (?) to
have two left pinkies and the ability to remember enough 2-letter
abbreviations to make T-Code sound like fun, so GUIs slow me down.
Slowly they're getting to where they don't get in my way.

But I object to people who should know better doing a half-ass job and
then selling it to the masses with slick GUI installers.  (Man, some
of those InstallShield installers for Windows would make _excellent_
screensavers!  Too bad you have to use up disk space to watch them....
Hmm, hey, Jamie, maybe the NoseGuy could wander around dismantling the
Windwoes installation with appropriate quotes from "The Cathedral and
the Bazaar", and those whizzy gauges going down to zero off in a
corner of the screen?)  People who sold distros with the SMTP daemon
listening by default back in the bad old days before Smail even knew
how to tell In from Out, and none of the others disabled relaying by
default ... people who sold distros with rshd on by default ... with
`xhosts +' by default ... with root with a fixed password ... with
automatic installers with no shell escape ... I _could_ go on---and on
and on.

80%ers suck.  If being a loud nuisance will convince some of those
folks that they ought to be spending their effort on making the
insides work better rather than polishing up the surface, hey, I enjoy
that kind of work!

    Beth> There is no need to downgrade the quality of linux for the
    Beth> benefit of everyone being able to use it easily.

True.  But don't worry, this is technically true.  (Except that the
more talent working on ease-of-use, the less is working on quality.
But there is no inherent conflict; that's part of the "remaining 20%".)

    Beth> If for some reason they take an interest in linux, get
    Beth> involved in a community of linux users, etc, who knows what
    Beth> it might do for them and the rest of the world?  (wishful
    Beth> thinking.....?)

Not at all.  Do a Web search for "yaseppochi-gumi" and "kobe".  You
won't find the site, the hard drive crashed long ago.  But there are
probably some stale links around.

    Beth> It would be nice if universities would use linux.  It would
    Beth> save them a lot of money

No, it wouldn't.  My department looked at that and concluded that
gikan time required to service Linux was worth at least three times as
much as what Sun charged (TCO) for Sloaris386.  It's also alleged that
our students are too stupid to figure out that $YourFavoriteOSSTool
will compile on Sloaris just as well as on Linux, so the problem of
policing up Yo-Nige-Ya installations would be lessened.  (Certainly
RPM makes yonigeya installation easier.)

It certainly would improve the educational experience for a few
students, though.

-- 
University of Tsukuba                Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences       Tel/fax: +81 (298) 53-5091
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