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Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!simtel!zombie.ncsc.mil!news.mathworks.com!uunet!in1.uu.net!news.widomaker.com!escape.widomaker.com!not-for-mail From: shendrix@escape.widomaker.com (Charles Shannon Hendrix) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Slight flame from Linux user Date: 7 Jun 1995 23:00:14 -0400 Organization: Escape from Widomaker Lines: 45 Message-ID: <3r5p3u$7t2@escape.widomaker.com> References: <3ql3gd$je2@bell.maths.tcd.ie> <D9nMI9.Lys@midway.uchicago.edu> <D9nMoA.M8G@midway.uchicago.edu> <3qsng2$bue@bell.maths.tcd.ie> <3r0et8$2gh@agate.berkeley.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: escape.widomaker.com jkh@violet.berkeley.edu (Jordan K. Hubbard) writes: >Time to inject a little "official position" into this discussion. 'bout time... :-) [ lot's of rare common sense about UNIX criminals deleted ] >A good (and easily configured) user interface, easy menu-driven >access to all the features FreeBSD has to offer, that's what the >*majority* of users want and that's what I'm personally going to >do my best to give them. I have the benefit of hindsight now, along >with most of the other war-weary survivors in the UNIX circle, and >nobody's going to be able to accuse me of missing the boat *twice*! :-) I really think it is great that you feel this way. Too many UNIX hackers have a suicidal "the hell with non-hacker UNIX users" attitude that is largely responsible for UNIX having such a hard time being accepted. I've been able to teach all kinds of people to use UNIX and they come away knowing that UNIX, sans administration, is actually easier than DOS. But, getting to that position is hard because of the (deserved) reputation of UNIX and the attitudes of a lot of UNIX people. I think that the Linux distribution from Red Hat Software and Caldera can do a lot to change that. In fact, it would be nice if Red Hat could put some of their tools and installation out for FreeBSD. I run Linux for now because changing to BSD would be a bitch and there is a lot going for Linux right now. But, success for Linux could spill over to FreeBSD. I mean, if people start seeing Linux as a good system to port their apps to then the step to FreeBSD should be easier than it is now. After all, porting to FreeBSD is not any harder. I have no problems getting things working under UNIX, I've used it enough years that nothing really fazes me. However, I hate spending the time required to do administration. Installing PPP is no big deal but it takes a lot of my time. So, it isn't just a matter of making UNIX easy for newbies... a lot of us old timers would like to spend our time using UNIX, not doing dull, boring, admin tasks! -- csh --------------------------------------------------------------------------- shendrix@escape.widomaker.com | Linux 1.2.1 / BSD 2.0 http://www.widomaker.com/~shendrix | <<<< UNDER CONSTRUCTION >>>