Matt Randolph schreef: > [I just thought I'd chip in my two cents on the question of whether > Linux is easy or hard. It's turned into more like my $11.62, so it's > a good thing it's broken into sections.] > > Linux is easy. > <snip of Matt's tour-de-force, virtually all of which I agree with, except it still assumes that a 'knowledgeable user'; i.e. an admin, is involved, which was the point of the whole debate-- Windows users believe that they should always be 'pure users' and the very fact that they or someone must 'admin' Linux automatically makes it "too hard"> > > The only thing that is harder to do in the Linux world that in the > Windows world is to find commercial software and some driver support. > > > > > > > In the Windows world, you don't have to ask yourself "is this > software available for my OS?" In the Windows world, you buy the > hardware first and then check to see if it's compatible AFTER you > start having trouble getting it to work in your computer.
Which is, btw, completely bass-ackward to start with, which was my original point (the assumption that 'pure user, no admin necessary' is possible is fundamentally wrong, and patently false based on the observed evidence). You can't buy a couch on a whim without taking into account the measurements of your doors/room first (well you can, but if you can't get it into your house, no vendor is going to say, 'oh, sorry, that's my fault'). If you do, and the movers can't get the couch up the stairs/through the door/into the room, whose fault is everyone (including you) going to say it is that you can't use the couch? *Yours* for not determining that the device (couch) was appropriate for your environment before buying. This idea that somehow computer hardware is different (fostered by MS, where everything supposedly 'JustWorks') is completely contrary to knowledge and experience we have of the Real World --where you can't just buy 'anything' without checking something first (you try on clothes, or at least check the size, you make sure that electrical appliances have the right connectors for your wiring or needs, heck, if nothing else you make sure the color matches your room or shoes). Judgement is an 'admin-level task', and it is unavoidable that judgement should be involved in such a situation as buying computer hardware (because we are currently unable to create computers that are able to either make such judgements for themselves, or are so flexible/standard that such judgement does not need to be made at all). The fact that the OS manufacturer with 90+% of the market is actively fostering the complete untruth that judgement is not only outdated and uncool, but furthermore completely unneccessary in Our Modern World (ha!) is, shall we say, "deeply disturbing" to me. Holly -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
