Mainstream . . . (LONG)

[Brian Densmore]

Brad,

   Sorry! I misunderstood. Problem with us 20+ years of experience and BS in
CS people is we tend to over-analyze things and we know enough to really get
ourselves in trouble fooling around with things. Funny coincidence I am also
20+ yrs exp and BS in CS. I agree on one point only, and that is the system
isn't quite there for Joe & Jill Average. Because of installing things. But,
Joe & Jill Average don't install Windows either. Joe & Jill Average buy a
preconfigured system. This is the market approach that needs to be taken. My
wife is perfectly happy to compute away in either Windows or Linux, because
she got her system preconfigured by a professional (at least they tell me I
am). Example, Friday the Windows PC HD died an untimely death. I plugged in
a Linux Pc for her to use and now she is happily plugging away in Linux. End
of Story. Linux can be made ready, it's just the marketing that needs to be
done. One thing that has been sorely lacking is configuration and
installation software. But there are some tools out there now. It just needs
shrink wrapping.

IMNSHO,
Brian

Brian Densmore <mailto:DensmoreB at ctbsonline.com>  

 
Associate 
Computech Business Solutions <http://www.ctbsonline.com>  
voice: (816) 880-0988
fax: (816) 880-0998
:-{)> 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bradley Miller [mailto:bradmiller at dslonramp.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2001 9:26 AM
> To: kclug at kclug.org
> Subject: RE: Mainstream . . . (LONG)
> 
> 
> At 09:02 AM 1/31/01 -0600, you wrote:
> >Brad,
> >
> >   Nothing wrong with Linux. I never had a problem with 
> 3c509 cards. If
> >yours aren't working then your configuring them wrong. True 
> some of the
> >older ones have to be set initially from a dos 3Com driver 
> diskette that
> >should have come with it. I have 3c509's and 3c590s (Vortex) 
> and they all
> >are recognized at boot. Secondly, you should never have to mess with
> >creating /dev paths unless you're doing some serious system 
> hacking, the
> >second harddrive should be /dev/hdb if ide or /dev/scd1 
> (this can vary
> >somewhat, but will never be /dev/drive[anything]). I think 
> you should read
> >some introductory material on Linux. You are doing a lot of 
> very bad things,
> >like putting source code for a particular driver in 
> directories with object
> >libraries. 
> 
> I'll have to admit -- I'm still learning . . . I've only been 
> working with
> Linux for well over 2 years now.  I have yet to find one good 
> Linux book.
> I'm beginning to think that once people get to working on 
> Linux that they
> forget all about intended audiences and just start going off on wild
> tangents.   The Red Hat Linux for Dummies book spends a lot of time
> configuring and never seems to go anywhere.  The last few PHP 
> books I read
> were just about wastes of time.  It looks like about midway 
> though the book
> they needed to meet contract obligations and started writing 
> about stuff
> they wrote and think is the greatest thing.  (Like examples 
> and such).  
> 
> If you read my post - in the past I haven't had any trouble with 3c509
> cards . . . two of them are merrily chunking bits back and forth as my
> router, both in the same machine even!  
> 
> Bottom line here is -- Linux will never be mainstream for the 
> public.  If
> someone with over 20+ years experience in computers and a BS 
> in Computer
> Information Systems is rooting around trying to find out how 
> things work,
> then it's not going to be easy for anyone else.   If Linux 
> does ever rise
> to the same complexity and levels Windoze software copes 
> with, then it too
> might be just as buggy or problem prone.  The only thing 
> helping Linux is
> most people will say, ok -- I'll just start from here using 
> the "sort of
> current" hardware.   If it's too bleeding edge, there won't 
> be support, but
> if it's too far back there won't be support either.   Ugh!
> 
> -- Bradley Miller
> 
> 
> majordomo at kclug.org
>