On Tue, 05 Feb 2002, John Oram wrote: > Question: How many non-single-user PC-based computer systems have you > ever installed and supported for more than three years? none. All of the people I deal with out in rural areas only have a single pc and the only 'networking' they do is with the isp. Of those that I know personally, only a few work in an office with a network. And of those, none would care to network their computer to the office system.
When they get home they dont want to think about work. But then, this is a different culture. The real world that they live in has an attractiveness that inclines them to put up with the inconveniences of rural life. From what I can tell, they like the convenience of email over snail mail to keep in contact with distant friends and kin. Some would call it technophobic, but they aint thrilled with the idea of being subject to interruption every minute of life with a cell phone, IRC, IM, et al. But because stores and malls are a long ways away (for which some thank the gods) they shop a lot online, and have enough patience to wait an extra day or so for Fed X or UPS. Only one of my correspondents, a graphic artist, ever send image attachments. A couple are trying to write the next great American Novel, a few are involved in the Greens, and a few share my interest in Native European cultural traditions going back into antiquity. for all of these, text mode would be fine for 95% of what they do. And for most of them, what they run are 486 & 586 SURVPCs. which would do better in text mode unless surfing. Part of the file management problem in Linux is that there are so many more files to deal with. One of the things we commonly do is download, extract, and try apps. In dos, we commonly do this in an empty directory created as needed; and if we dont want it, just del the files and the directory. But in a system that has dependancies and puts files in places the user dont know about, or if the app trashes some essentials that other apps need, most users including me are clueless. You havta depend on an 'uninstaller', and if that is screwed up, you will be scrod. But in dos, DC or DW will tag an entire directory with a single key, and then delete it all with another, and then del the directory. the upshot is that I can try out a lot more tools a whole lot faster in dos without worrying nearly as much about what any of them will do to the rest of the system. IF linux has a text mode file manager as functional as DC or DW, then why is MC the only one I see that comes with the distros? The answer that comes to my mind is that Linux newbies dont use text mode, which again relates to a focus on windoz users. From what I have read in distro installs, the CLI is for geeks. Not for users who want the fastest interface on a SURVPC. I got the impression you could seriously screw up a distro with the CLI, whereas the GUI wouldnt let you do some things. And of course, for folks who dont have a sysad who knows what he is doing in the building, the relatively crude simplicity of dos is re-assuring. I never hear about people who have to 're-install' DR-DOS in order to straighten out some mess caused by an app. To unsubscribe from SURVPC send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe SURVPC in the body of the message. Also, trim this footer from any quoted replies. More info can be found at; http://www.softcon.com/archives/SURVPC.html
