-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
On Sat, 22 May 1999 23:42:05 -0500, Stephen Pitts wrote:
>Define casual user. People who spend 4+ hours/day on the computer, whether it
>be for business, or for school, or just for fun, are not casual users. I
>think that a whole lot more of the market fits that criteria than most
>people realize.
I'm sorry, I cannot agree. My mother works on a computer 8 hours a day as
an administrative assistant. She is a casual user. Time on a computer per
day != proficiency.
>Instead of complaining about the learning curve, start learning. WOW! Isn't
>that a scary word? Windows is not Linux. Linux is not Windows. Both have
>different target audiences, and the Linux audience likes to learn.
Start learning? This is EXACTLY what I am talking about.
Stephen, I don't know who you are, but let me tell you who *I* am. I
joined Netcom in the early 90s. 91 or so. Netcom, at the time, was *only*
shell accounts. I learned shells, started with nn and joe and pine and
filter. For over 4 years I ran my BBS across 3 different OSs, 8 months of
that while I was a truck driver on the road.
Returning from that job in 95/96 I was hired on as tech support at a local
ISP and within 6 months had root and was performing admin functions. I also
installed Linux on a dedicated machine during that time.
I've since left that ISP after working my way up to SysAdmin working on
20+ FreeBSD servers and associated hardware/wiring/etc. I was the chief man
for remote router installs. Now I'm an admin in the web department of a
national ISP. I work day to day on Solaris boxes.
Know what? Learning isn't my problem. I am pissed at the way ISPs are
going because I can't get just a direct pipe to the 'net. I run all my own
services. Even with all that... I don't want to hobbble together something
functional for mail.
Now, can I get any more explicit than that about the fact that I'm not
making an unreasonable observation and it isn't because I don't know how to
work my whay through at least three different variations of Unix? It is
because I don't *WANT* to. It is TOO MUCH WORK to do the easy things. You're
right, you can't get Windows to do a lot of that stuff. I acknowledged that
when I said make the *EASY* things *EASY* as well as the hard things.
No, this isn't a "my dick is bigger than your dick" message. I'm tired of
people thinking I'm some newbie out here asking for the impossible.
- --
Steve C. Lamb | I'm your priest, I'm your shrink, I'm your
ICQ: 5107343 | main connection to the switchboard of souls.
- -------------------------------+---------------------------------------------
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGPsdk version 1.0 (C) 1997 Pretty Good Privacy, Inc
iQA/AwUBN0eLA3pf7K2LbpnFEQJr2ACg6UaiSSB5BbtkqDmIz1/Fcxbwq68AnjgP
dDdpKFZLyu9IX+UCqDgqrfHe
=IPpx
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
