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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mira.net.au!vic.news.telstra.net!act.news.telstra.net!psgrain!news.uoregon.edu!arclight.uoregon.edu!usenet.eel.ufl.edu!news.mathworks.com!zombie.ncsc.mil!news.missouri.edu!vortex.cc.missouri.edu!rhys From: rhys@vortex.cc.missouri.edu (Justin "Rhys Thuryn" McNutt) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.os.linux.advocacy Subject: Re: Historic Opportunity facing Free Unix (was Re: The Lai/Baker paper, benchmarks, and the world of free UNIX) Followup-To: comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.os.linux.advocacy Date: 30 Apr 1996 21:42:19 GMT Organization: University of Missouri - Columbia Lines: 43 Message-ID: <4m61fr$12q6@news.missouri.edu> References: <NELSON.96Apr15010553@ns.crynwr.com> <31784FD9.28AA98F6@lambert.org> <kevinbDqC0xC.99w@netcom.com> <4lkcv6$n4j@gorgias.uchicago.edu> <4lof2m$t48@digital.netvoyage.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: vortex.cc.missouri.edu X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.development.system:22613 comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc:882 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:3581 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:3439 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:18409 comp.os.linux.advocacy:47473 Joe Sloan (jjs@digital.netvoyage.net) wrote: : In article <4lkcv6$n4j@gorgias.uchicago.edu>, : steve farrell <spfarrel@gorgias.uchicago.edu> wrote: : >i think it's crazy to expect unix to take over the desktop. why in : >god's name should professors of english, secretaries, doctors, CEO's, : >etc etc learn unix? : You seem to be making a common, but erroneous assumption - : namely, that every one who uses Unix must learn Unix. : Does every one who watches television understand the internals? : Have you used a new SGI? That's definitely Unix, but they've : done a great deal to shield the naive user from the underlying : complexity. : Any properly configured Linux machine can offer significant : user friendliness as well. For instance, my wife has little use : for computers, and knows nothing about Unix, but she can send : and receive email with ease. When she logs in to my system, : X11R6 is started automatically, the netscape mail client is : launched, and her mail is retrived from a pop server. : She never has to go near a command line, and she even has her : choice of wallpaper. : She could care less what OS is running, but the robust nature : of Linux lets her do her thing without worrying whether the : computer is going to crash. Exactly. How many people that use Windows really *understand* that if you delete an icon in the Main group window, you haven't really deleted anything. I see people who panic all the time because they think they've deleted MS Word (or whatever), when all the did was nuke the icon. Learning an OS is not a requirment for using it. -------- If you can lead it to water and force it to drink, it isn't a horse. Got a Linux problem? Or can you help others solve them? Visit the Linux Common Problems page at http://vortex.cc.missouri.edu/~rhys/linux.html rhys@vortex.cc.missouri.edu