Changing IP Addresses

[JD Runyan]

On Mon, Feb ,  at 04:42:30PM -0600, Marvin Bellamy wrote:
> Then, Windows serves a role that Linux should/can not serve by providing 
> user-stupid interfaces that would make a Linux distro too cumbersome? 
> Taken a step further, then M$ should be lauded for bringing the desktop 
> to the average schmoe?  This is something I don't agree with in the 
> Linux community.  There's so much talk about the downfall of M$ to 
> Linux/Open Source, but there seem to be some huge tracts of land that 
> the Penguin dare not cross.  Is it or is it not a goal for the Linux 
> community to make Linux an alternative to Windoze for the average 
> consumer (my !L337 mom, for example)?  I stress the *average* consumer.
> 
> Brian Densmore wrote:
Let me start with I like to argue, so if you see me jumping sides in 
the thread, that may be me just playing devel's advocate.

I would say that there are diametrically different system theories in
the design of Linux, and windows as shipped.  Windows attempts to not
only optimize everything throught he kernel, but also abstract everything
through its kernel.  This is everything from presentation to administration.
Linux has allowed this to be handled by accessory daemons.  Sure as time goes
on Linux has added more to the kernel, and like everything else in the Linux
kernel, you can choose to compile it in, modularize it, or skip it.  You 
determine where to bloat and when.  Most distros will modularize all of these 
services.  Security is handled by the windows kernel.  On linux it is
handled any way you want.  It can happen with the kernel, or with a 
system daemon, or a few other mechanisms.  This is what make Linux more viable 
over the long term, it is also what makes it complicated to simplify.
I'm not sure what you read that said let MS have the lions share of stupid 
users, because If i have to support them (and I don't anymore) I would 
prefer a UNIX system, so I can sit on my fat ass and fix thier mistakes from
my desk rather than having to march to thier desk to fix it.  MS answers 
this call with Remote Desktop or Terminal Services.  A nice addition, but
slow clunky, and a client side resource hog.  I can only run a couple of
those at a time.  The server complains when you want multiple sessions, 
unless you disable it.  Not what I'm looking for.

The problem with MS that supercedes all others is they have decided what 
the user wants, and then try to market them into submission. They decide
how I should use my computer, and if I don't like it I must pay for other
software to defeat it.  As a community we need to insure that in our effort
to simplify the use of Linux, we do not in turn make these same sort of 
decisions for the users.  The hardest thing to make usable for the normal
user is the idea of root vs user access.  There will need to be some
clever programming to obscure this concept from the user without completly 
blurring the line between the user and root.