On Fri, 19 Feb 1999, Michael Trausch wrote:
:
:How true, how true.
:
:The first time I ever heard of Linux (or UNIX, for that matter) was
:shortly after I got my first job at a computer store in my area. We never
:dealt with UNIX or Linux, just DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, and Windows
:98. However, one of my co-workers, Joe Theilen, introduced me to UNIX, I
:asked him a ton of questions about it.
:
:Boy was he right when he said it was *way* different. :-)
:
:Anyway, I bought my first set of Linux (the Slackware distribution) at
:HamFest here, in Toledo. I worked and struggled with it, eventually, I
:wrote down a ton of questions. I only worked one day per week, so I had
:to save my questions until then.
:
:One of my first questions was "What are the equivilants of dir, move,
:copy, etc.?", and soon after that, "Is there any documentation for this
:thing?" I was getting pretty frustrated with Linux at that point, only
:because I couldn't figure it out.
:
:Actually, the phamplet would be better. "type" doesn't work under
:Linux... and the typical DOS user won't know of cat or vi. Been there,
:done that ;)
:
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This is becoming an interesting thread. Sorry about snipping some of it.
I've been using computers for ~18 years but have limited DOS and very
little Win experience. Some VMS a long time ago, otherwise I cut my
teeth on Vic20, C64. I was (and still am) an Amiga user and got caught
up in the OS/2 wave for a while. I still think AmigaDos and OS/2 are
great OS's in their own ways. I started using linux about 4 years ago
and it has been my main one for the last two. 'nuff background.
Yes, I found myself asking 'equivelance' questions at first. Then
started looking at questions as functions instead and the pieces started
to fall together. A whole new way of looking at things happened to me. I
read man pages, HOWTO's, found out what grep and gawk could do and
played with them. "Wow, this is amazing", I thought. I somehow got the
printer working and after weeks of trying finally got a PPP connection.
I could lynx the WWW and ftp files. After a year of learning and a year
of console experience I decided to try X. No prob ... up and running in
less than an hour. I'm not a guru or a proficient programmer. I guess
I'm a can-get-the-job-done user and cautious administrator.
I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this experience. The move is on to
have an easy to install, point & click set-up and have millions of
people jump on the bandwagon who are still in a MS mindset. Sorry. that
doesn't work for me. I welcome all new users, but dammit, this ain't
windows. It's a serious, powerful OS. Those wanting everything done for
them and covet the latest 3D games won't be happy with any free *nix.
Having said that, there are millions of folks out there up to the
challenge of learning and appreciating linux. Many have found their way
and many more will follow. It's up to each of us to point the right
people in the right direction. This attitude sold a few million Amigas
until the manufacturer went bust. The Linux community doesn't have to
worry about that.
Barry
- Barry Selk Calgary AB CA -
\____ - Linux 2.0.34 - AmigaDos 3.1 - ____/
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