Your discussions about Microsoft's boot disk policy , FS policy,
DOS prompt in Windows ME policy, etc., etc. are pretty pointless.
If you don't intend to upgrade your hardware, you have to stuck with old
versions of system, never mind if it is DOS, or libc5-based Linux or
Windows 9x.
If you are willing to upgrade your PC to more up-to date configuration
(which is anyway cheaper today than much less powerful PC configurations
few years ago..), you can already replace Windows by Linux - Linux
doesn't have higher hardware requirements than Windows 2000, in any way.
If you used to be user who understood what's happening inside your
computer - what is autoexec.bat, config.sys, what happens if you install
or uninstall applications, what to do if your disk crashes, etc. - than
you have really no other choice thant to start learning about /etc/rc.d
scipts instead of autoexec.bat, and about compiling linux kernel instead
of tweaking config.sys. There is no reason, why stripped-down version of
Linux shouldn't be asi simple to configure as DOS used to be, but most
user expect more functionality than DOS was offering, this is why Linux
configuration files are more tricky.
Unlike Windows, Linux is not "bloated" in a way in which Windows or big
browsers are growing larger and larger. It is true, that full Redhat 6.x
installation requires cca 1 GB - but this is not plain OS, this is full
workstation installation with development enviroment, documentation in
many languages including Chinese, Japan, Korean, etc., huge text
publishing and graphical editing suits, etc. You shouldn't consided that
you need all this stuff to run Linux.
Linux solves all problems with accessing all kinds of filesystems after
booting from floppy. Linux reports every single event which happens
while booting kernel and then /etc/init script reports what happened
when system attempted to start other system components. There is nothing
cryptical or undocumented in this behaviour. Nifty screens hiding what's
going on inside will be always optional in Linux.
Everything, what we liked on DOS - eg. chance to choose between command
line and file manager control, chance to understand where applications
are installed and which files are used by each application, chance to
understand configuration files, etc., this
is all granted in Linux.
Unfortunately, there are still some inconsistencies in graphical user
interface, which confuse users who expect graphical-only control over
their systems, and there are too many text configuration files for
beginner. This is the problem. There is strong need for some educational
distribution of Linux, which will include only the very basic files and
libraries - there will be always more files, than those legendary 4
basic DOS files (but later DOSes anyway include more drivers and
commands in C:\DOS directory...), but such version of Linux can
definitely fit on single floppy.
It really doesn't make sense to discuss what Microsoft is doing with
Windows, with DOS in Windows, etc. I think such discussions are little
bit offtopic in this mailing list (as well as Linux discussions, that's
true - but I am usually not repeating my words about Linux too often).
Microsoft doesn't want us to understand what happens inside. Only if you
don't know how to do something yourself, you have to hire people to do
those things for you. Most of use certainly don't hire people to drive
our cars - but few of us can control airplane. Microsoft want us to be
like airline passengers, who have absolutely no control on what's going
on, and want us to pay big money, like we pay to airline operators.
There are many simillarities: airlines also communicate with passengers
using internationaly understood icons and symbols, airlines want
customers to feel like they are getting good value for their money, they
want to get as many passengers as possible, etc. But they won't give you
technical documentation for engine of plane you are flying in. This is
general magic you are not expected to be interested in.
If we want computers to be as easy to undestand as cars, so everyone can
operate them and it is even not so hard to learn to repair them, we have
to look for products, which were deisgned from scratch to be open,
documented, configurable and extensible.
If you want to be passenger of Microsoft airlines, than you should stop
complaining about boot disks and hidden DOS prompts etc. You simply got
what you deserve, and you shouldn't be surprised, that cockpit is
separated from passengers cabin. Passengers are not allowed to talk to
pilots while flying. If you want to be pilot yourself, you have to start
attending flying courses - not buy airline tickets from travel agency.
My situation as software developer is very complicated. I must decide,
if I want to be something like engineer designing new engines and
airframe shapes for Boeing, or something like worker in their factory,
or airline pilot, or maybe just travel agent selling tickets to
passengers. Probably Microsoft expects, that all independent software
vendors will be considered to be just amateurs and hobbysists - but this
is big mistake. Unlike heavy industry, software industry can unlimitely
clone each product, therefore software development is extremely capital
un-intensive
enterprise. You don't need millions of USD to develop OS or web browser.
You just need millions to sell your solution to customers as only
possible solution.
So if you decide to go Linux way instead of Windows way, you can expect
much more fun, freedom, insight and control over what you are doing.
Most of my "if only it could do..." wishes about Linux were already
fullfiled - I can use Linux to write simple applications, draw images,
record music with my friends, play games, and of course surf web. I can
even open Microsoft documents using StarOffice, if I really need it.
In my point of view, there is really no reason for trying to understand
Windows or discussing, what Microsoft should do instead. You have to
decide, if you user or geek, and if you user, don't expect much fun or
control - just fasten your seat belts, and use computer in same old
boring way as most people obviously want it to use it. If you want to be
computer geek, than you have
to learn the language the most talented computers in the world decided
to share, and you will be allowed to enter already existing "virtual
reality" of unprecedented level of freedom, coopeation, complexity and
internal consistence.
