Bernie wrote:
>
> Perhaps I missunderstood but isn't the problem due
> to the fact that "dev" and whatever more it was didn't
> exist in the current directory?
No, this wasn't the problem. /dev/fd0 is the floppy drive.
> Or is Linux only meant for some people?
No, Linux can be used by everyone. Just give them a GUI
(and don't give them the root password).
> DOS is safe in the sense that you can never screw anything
> up by typing something that isn't according to the syntax.
Same for Linux. Meaningless commands do nothing. However,
if you make a mistake in your typing and accidently enter
something which has a meaning, then you may get an unexpected
result. This applies to both Linux and DOS.
> If the user happens to give a command that is allowed then
> it's the users fault.
This is precisely the situation we are talking about.
The user mis-typed the command and created a boot disk
with wild data. When he tried to boot his system with
this boot disk, it ran wild and affected his CMOS.
> C:\DOS\>DEL (BALL:COM
That's interesting. Your keyboard must have the "(" on
the "8" key. I didn't realize the number keys were so
different on foreign keyboards. Which of your keys has
the "*" ?
> C:\DOS\>DEL *BALL>COM
> No such file or directory
C:\DOS\>DEL *BALL.COM
> undelete, unformat and a backup will fix
If you DEL *BALL.COM in the DOS root directory, it will
delete COMMAND.COM without telling you. You won't be
using undelete because you don't know COMMAND.COM has
been deleted until it's too late. Bootdisk? Lucky for
you, you have a bootdisk handy, but some people will not
be so lucky.
> Only way to accidently remove all COM files like
> that would be to hit the following keys:
> d, e, l, , , "shift-8" (*), "miss the keyboard",
> "miss the keyboard", "miss the keyboard",
> "miss the keyboard", ., c, o, m
d, e, l, , , "shift-8", b, a, l, l, ., c, o, m
> this is in anyway diffrent from the dd bug since the
> program can't know that this wasn't something the user
> wanted
There was no bug in dd. There was no bug in BasicLinux.
The user told dd to transfer data to the floppy, and
that's what it did. It's not dd's fault that the data
was not the correct data for a bootdisk.
> due to a malfunctioning program
There was no malfunctioning program.
> if it was due to an error that the program couldn't
> be able to spot then it's the users fault.
Hooray!
We finally agree. It was the users fault, not Linux.
Cheers,
Steven
____________________________________________________
Linux for old PCs: http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~ichi
