Re: [tlug] Self-introduction

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

Bruno Raoult writes:

 > I suppose, as I know to usually use clear language, that "Linux" was
 > "Gnu/Linux" ?

If you prefer.  GNU/TeX/Python/Perl/X11/dpkg/Apache/MySQL/BSD/Linux is
my preference ;-), but that's kinda long, so like everybody I use the
informal "Linux", and if I need to refer to the kernel specifically,
"Linux kernel".

 > Well, I will disagree: An old guy here wanted to switch from Windows, and
 > came to my home for me to install the system.
 > He wanted for some reasons the "Mint" distrib. My job was to boot on CD,
 > and enter his name and my wifi password.

That's the way it turned out, but so what?  You're an experienced *nix
admin, not a newbie.  The newbie was unwilling to do the install
himself, right?  And the experience you've had many times is not the
experience of the OP, or of many of those who come here for help.
Who's to say "the old guy" wasn't right to ask you?  It could have
gone otherwise.  Can you say different?

I'll grant that the comparison is unfair in that n00bs don't install
Windows or Mac OS X *at all* these days, they buy vendor versions
pretuned and preinstalled in machines well-known to the vendor.  But
not everything can be fair.  We need to deal with the perceptions of
those asking for our help as they are.  We can tell them that there
are reasons, or that they can do things one way or the other.  We must
not tell them that they didn't experience what they tell us they did.

 > I am not sure to understand you, as you mix the receiver and the
 > sender.

It's the same point as Attila makes, he just does it in more detail
and with style.

 > Having a wiki spammed depends only on the wiki software, which is not
 > related to the OS. That one will not help to stop spam.

Do you know any wiki software running on a Windows system?  Can one
run Apache on Windows (without Cygwin[1])?  I'm not sure one can run
Sendmail, Exim or Postfix on Windows (same caveat), and while
theoretically one can run Mailman on Windows[2], I don't know anybody
who has even tried.

And consider this:
https://ma.ttias.be/system-calls-in-apache-linux-vs-iis-windows/.
The capabilities and weaknesses of software differ among operating
systems, as that page should make clear.


Footnotes: 
[1]  And I'm quite sure you don't want to, Cygwin is nowhere near a
perfect emulation of POSIX in a security context.  Not that POSIX is
perfect, just that its flaws are well-known.

[2]  Except for a security wrapper to sgid, Mailman is pure Python.