tlug: The philosphy of using Linux - was a whole bunch of other subject lines.

[Dave Gutteridge <dave@example.com>]

Hello all,
	I've had a good nights sleep and my mind is fresher and ready to tackle
the issues. I ket thinking about a few of the things said, and then this
morning I've read through the new postings on all the "RTFM" and "Linux
community" and "Old Guard" issues. I'm actually very impressed by the level
headedness with which everyone is talking about the issue, and I'd like to
get around to all points directly, because there were a lot of good ones
(that's how you can tell when intelligent things are being said - dumb
things aren't worth arguing about), but of course being at work prohibits
me attacking the shear volume of what's been said.
	Oh, and by the way, someone asked if Chris knew i was sending parts of his
e-mail to the mailing list. I did send him copies of what I was posting to
the list, and he has been really cool about it, and we had a bit of a
discussion off the list. But I stopped telling him EVERYTHING that i was
putting on the list, because he did decide to unsubscribe, and so i felt
that it wasn't quite right to keep mailing him. That would sort of defeat
the purpose of him unsubscribing, wouldn't it?
	Anyway, there's a couple of points I'll speak of in general.
	1. I think my postings yesterday may have given the impression that the
man pages are ALWAYS ineffectual, and that if you aren't a UNIX guru, they
NEVER make sense. Or that the documentation that comes with most Linux
software is assuredly cryptic 100% of the time. Well, just in case it
seemed i was making a case against reading, I just want it made clear that
it isn't the case. I think that nine out of ten times i get my answer from
the man pages, or from the multitude of books i have on Linux, but on that
tenth time i sometimes find myself with a question that is simple, and yet
i can't figure out how to get to the answer.
	Here's an example (with which i sincerely want help with). I'm telneting
to my Linux server, and i want to toggle it so that the computer waits
until i've hit the return key before sending the string over the net,
instead of sending every character one by one as i type to my machine -
which is on a remote site, so that makes the typing go slowly. Now, this is
a relatively simple deal. I think it's just a matter of one command. And i
would like to go to the man pages and find out the command, but how i do
that? I have a concept which i'm fairly sure is possible, but i don't have
a term in mind which i could type "man ____" with.. Assuming I didn't want
to just come bug you guys but find out for myself with just me and my
machine, where and how would i ask this question?
	2.Here's a sort of side angle to the whole concept of being part of the
"Linux community". One of the things that attracts me to Linux has notrhing
to do with it's features. I like it because I'm an anarchist, and the
completely non-corporate origins of this OS make me feel like I'm being a
part of something which in a small way reflects a better model for
technology to progress without the necessity of money. To me it's evidence
that cooperation builds better product than greed. I don't know if that
really clarifies anything for anyone else, but i just thought you might be
interested to hear of a reason from left field about why Linux is cool.
	3. Previously I said i thought that the idea of a seperate mailing list
for those who want a higher level of talk on the issue of Linux was a good
idea. I retract that now. I think if you want to do it you should, because
i think everyone should do what they want. But personally I like this
discussion that's going on. It's educated me about how other people feel
about Linux, and I always want to know more about how other people feel. I
think as a result, I for one will probably be more efficient and
considerate about how i come looking for help from the other members of
this group. Maybe others will get the same effect. Probably this discussion
will happen again in a while - if discussions ever really go away - with
new people who come to the group after this thread has died. I've been told
this discussion has happened before. And i think that's good. This
discussion needs to happen over and over again, with all the arguing that
goes with it, so that new people can come in and learn. Just like we are
always educating children who have never seen before what we take for
granted, constantly telling new Linux users what's what is a part of a
healthy society.
	That's my 2 cents, again. So i guess i've put about four cents into this
now. Who's collecting that money?
		dave

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