On Fri, 26 Jul 2002, at 11:08am, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Anyone used to any one particular OS will find another > particular OS a bit "wierd" in this respect.
It is, of course, very true that anyone used to all the details of one Unix will find other Unixes a little "weird". However, that obscures the point I was trying to make: That Linux is fundamentally different in that the distributor (e.g., Red Hat) is not the primary maintainer of most of the software on the system. Old-school Unix admins are used to (e.g.) Apache being a "third-party" product -- even if it was included by the OS OEM, it was generally treated as a "pre-installed third-party product". Even the various free BSDs worked this way (base system vs ports). Things simply do not work that way with Linux, and (AFAIK), Linux is unique in that respect. (I am not disagreeing with you; I just want clarify my point.) > I think it's safe to say, that though UNIX is UNIX, and Linux is UNIX, > that if you *really* know one variant, trying to switch to another, though > not hard, does turn up some idiosyncrosies which can lead to confusion > and/or frustration. I find a good analogy is the confusion that occurs when switching from one brand of car to another. In the Honda I used to drive, the windshield washer function was activated by pulling the windshield stalk toward you; in my current Subaru, it is a button on the stalk instead. My dad's old Dodge Aries had the headlight switch on the dash, while my Subaru has it on the turn signal stalk. In the Aries, you pulled the turn signal lever toward you to switch between high and low beams; in my Subaru, you pull for high beams, but push away for low beams. And so on. They all work the same basic way (steering wheel, gas pedal, etc.), but the details can confuse you if you are not used to them. Since I know someone will ask: MS-Windows is like riding the back of a taxi driven by someone who means well but doesn't speak English and just got their license that day. ;-) -- Ben Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> | The opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do not | | necessarily represent the views or policy of any other person, entity or | | organization. All information is provided without warranty of any kind. | ***************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. *****************************************************************
