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Xref: sserve comp.os.386bsd.misc:5111 comp.os.linux.misc:34172 comp.os.os2.advocacy:76424 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mira.net.au!news.netspace.net.au!serval.net.wsu.edu!netnews.nwnet.net!oracle.pnl.gov!osi-east2.es.net!lll-winken.llnl.gov!uwm.edu!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!uunet!zib-berlin.de!news.th-darmstadt.de!fauern!lrz-muenchen.de!ipp-garching.mpg.de!bds From: bds@ipp-garching.mpg.de (Bruce Scott TK ) Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.os2.advocacy Subject: Re: Linux thoroughly insulted by Infoworld! Date: 25 Jan 1995 13:13:06 +0100 Organization: Rechenzentrum der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft in Garching Lines: 50 Distribution: world Message-ID: <3g5f8iINNbtf@slcbds.aug.ipp-garching.mpg.de> References: <950116203411@lambada> <1995Jan18.214037.6088@cs.cornell.edu> <3fk4hi$iu8@solaris.cc.vt.edu> <D2pK11.EJx@madge1.demon.co.uk> <3fpk32$80i@unix.sri.com> <3fqh6a$sl@manuel.anu.edu.au> <Pine.SUN.3.91.950123192551.1788B-100000@anshar.shadow.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: slcbds.aug.ipp-garching.mpg.de More bad "you need to be an expert to use Linux" mythology... I'll be brief about it this time. In article <Pine.SUN.3.91.950123192551.1788B-100000@anshar.shadow.net>, cdlevin <cdlevin@shadow.net> writes: > Most people who've switched to Linux [are or have close access to experts] > [...] If you don't know > any command syntax at all, you're basically screwed. This may have been true in 1992 but it is totally false now. Packaged Linux distributions that you buy (in my case from Linux Systems Labs for $60, before CD-ROM distributions became common) come with the LDP's Installation and Getting Started manual, which gets people over this hump. It is even a bit oriented towards the DOS user. LDP by the way is the Linux Documentation Project, which transformed the Linux world in late 1993. > Funny, but most pros have a tendency to trust the software that they > themselves write. A lot of people mistrust commercial packages for > sensitive material(IMHO). True but I thought we were talking about novices. I mean the sort of people who for years knew only a thing like WordPerfect, or in my case some basic Fortran editing/compiling system which today could not be credibly called a "development system". > [...] You need to be skilled to use linux. I'm just learning it myself, > but if I was a skilled C programmer, then it would probably be easy. False. I know nothing of C at all. Formerly having used VMS and similar stuff, I learned the basics of Unix in about a day. I said basics. That's what you need to keep your files and write your papers. The OS and how to maintain it is something you can learn in a couple of days if you are serious about RTFM first. That's important, and it is quite clear that many people can't be bothered. That's just as bad in the DOS world as in the Unix one. When I came to Linux I had zero sysadmin experience, and learned from the excellent documentation from the LDP how to get around. I set my network stuff up in five minutes. That's five minutes, with _no_ prior experience. But it is because I read the documentation first. (That takes an hour or two, and a level head, and no fear.) [stuff about OS/2 deleted; I know nothing about it] -- Gruss, Dr Bruce Scott The deadliest bullshit is Max-Planck-Institut fuer Plasmaphysik odorless and transparent bds@ipp-garching.mpg.de -- W Gibson