Vatsala: You probably don't recognise my name on this list. As a Linux user (debian) for about 4 years I tend to observe it from a distance most of the time; however after reading the nature of your posts I feel their is something which I should point out.
>From all of your off-topic ramblings about greed, Microsoft, evil capitalist and the wonders of your particular religion I get the distinct impression that you are one of these people who see using linux and OSS as some kind of higher moral calling, and OSS as something created by happiness and the love of some army of tree hugging idealist hackers (Richard Stallman?). This is simply not true. Their are many large companies (ever heard of google, yahoo, apple, IBM ... even your dreaded MICROSOFT uses OSS code from FreeBSD in Windows) who use, and contribute significantly to open source software. The contributions of these large companies are a significant factor in the success of gnu/linux and OSS we see today. Open source has proved to be a very good development model in many (though not all) circumstances. This is why people use it. Because it works for them. In my experience, I have found that most of the really hard-core hackers - down in the trenches so so speak - are not all that much concerned with the moral and political issues. They are writing the code, simply because they NEED the code and because they enjoy writing it and being part of a team. To quote directley from Linus Torvalds recent book 'Just for fun' (p122)- "Open source hackers aren't the high tech counterparts of Mother Teresa. They do get their names associated with their contributions in the form of the 'credit list' or 'history file' that is attached to each project. The most prolific contributors attract the attention of employers who troll the code, hoping to spot, and hire, top programmers." I mean, let's take a reality check at this point. Linux is software - a man made tool that serves a purpose, and we need to remember that Linux is only software, and not some godly means in life where we must cast down all those who oppose. The particular Linux users that I direct this comment to are what I would call "those users who like to express their opinion in forceful manner"; in other words, those people who get very hostile to anything that isn't Linux. These people remind me what I would call religious fanatics. People who go around and forcefully try to 'convert' everyone to their religion and impose their views on others. You might have noticed that all normal people absolutely hate these fanatics, no matter how convincing their arguments. The absolute WORST way of getting someone interested in your particular opinions is to go around telling them that their own considered opinions are wrong and they are stupid but if they 'convert' they will be OK. People don't like being told they are stupid (as evidenced by your recent comments on this thread) and hence this way of behaving actually has a detrimental effect on the number of people 'converting'. The reason I am telling you this is that in my opinion, you seem to be approaching the Canterbury LUG the same way one might approach a religion, and since GNU\Linux, OSS is NOT a religion I feel this is rather inappropriate and why people are going so stop being so nice to you and helping you with your linux problems. For example, assume I want to become a [insert arbitrary faith here]. Suppose in the process of 'converting' I had some problems with some of the opinions of the new faith. It is very likely that I might spend a lot of time talking to people involved with the faith and trying to resolve these issues. Because of the nature of religion, the people I would be talking to would be obliged to help me as much as possible with these issues at the expense of their own time, even if I asked them difficult and non specific questions about their faith, and even if I became frustrated and abusive towards them. Open source philosophy is NOT a religion (despite what RMS might think). The Canterbury LUG exists to help people with specific Linux problems. The ONLY thing these people need to have in common is an interest in Linux. It transcends all social, religious and political barriers. From my observations, this works well and members of CLUG are generally very helpful. I suspect that the vast majority of members are this way not because of some higher moral calling, but because they like troubleshooting linux or feel obliged to 'pay back' favours other group members have given them in the past. They all have real lives, and do not have an infinite amount of time available. Over the last few weeks, you don't seem to have made much progress getting a basic linux system set up. Personally I don't seem to have this problem and find the modern Linux distributions very easy to set up. Most problems can be solved by googleing. However since this does not seem to work for you, I can only recommend the same solution other group members have suggested. If you want a decent, stable unix based system that 'just works' then I highly suggest you just go out and buy a Apple Mac running OSX. This would make everyones life a lot easier. Regards, Richard Graham On Tue, 2004-11-09 at 19:35, Caleb Sawtell wrote: > On Tue, 2004-11-09 at 12:57, eBhakta wrote: > May I suggest you switch to Mac OS X it is nicely newbie oriented, > requires hardly any computer literacy which you obviously don't have. > > > > Hi, > > > > In trying Linux, it seems that it is an enormous task just to get it set > > up nicely, and with all kinds of people giving all kinds of advice, that > > leads to where...? Advice that they don't even know if it works, or not. > > Rascals! Basically, if it cannot be set up nicely, then forget it! > > Well basicly, _NOT EVERY ONE HAS THE SAME BRAND OF COMPUTER AS YOU > HAVE!_ > > > Better > > stick with the present system (best stick with the ORIGINAL system). Word of > > advice... filter out those who are involved for destructive purposes. > > Ultimately, the best is simple living, and high thinking. Those who are on > > the side of greed, will only be rewarded with their inevitable destruction, > > as greed NEVER pays, nor triumps, ultimately, and fortunately. Wishing well, > > always... > > > Then why are you going to go back to windows? > > > Caleb Sawtell (Linux Gamer) >
