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Xref: sserve comp.os.386bsd.misc:4952 comp.os.linux.misc:33686 comp.os.os2.advocacy:74952 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!msunews!uwm.edu!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!newsfeed.pitt.edu!uunet!zib-berlin.de!informatik.tu-muenchen.de!lrz-muenchen.de!ipp-garching.mpg.de!bds From: bds@ipp-garching.mpg.de (Bruce Scott TK ) Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.os2.advocacy Subject: Re: Linux thoroughly insulted by Infoworld! Date: 20 Jan 1995 14:36:48 +0100 Organization: Rechenzentrum der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft in Garching Lines: 76 Distribution: world Message-ID: <3foe9gINNao5@slcbds.aug.ipp-garching.mpg.de> References: <oj7gpDm00iWPQ7hm0d@andrew.cmu.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: slcbds.aug.ipp-garching.mpg.de In article <oj7gpDm00iWPQ7hm0d@andrew.cmu.edu>, Ian S Nelson <bonovox+@CMU.EDU> writes: [on Linux] > Installing it is an involved procedure, it's not something you just sit > down and do in 45minutes one day. If your hardware isn't very > mainstream it can be real tough to install linux. I have yet to see a > relatively novice user using linux. Most of the people I know who run > it are self-proclaimed "hackers" or "wizards" that get off seeing their > 486 run a real "UNIX" system. "I compiled the kernel myself!" Awful > proud of you! Let me do a little damage to this myth. I am expert at the properties of numerical algorithms at simulating turbulence, something of a journeyman at Fortran programming and numerical analysis, and utter novice at anything else concerning computers or any sort of telecommunications. I had absolutely zero experience at any sort of administration or installation before installing Linux (in Nov 93, not today). They were somewhat equivalent, but I must say I had a slightly larger worry with MS-Windows than with Linux when I installed them one after another in the same evening (some things about Toshiba resume mode were not properly documented). I had to wipe the HD, partition it, and then install MS on its partition and Linux on the other. Each installation went in 30-45 minutes, and the Linux one went right on the first try (the limitation on time was simply the speed of the floppy drive). When I needed to set ghostscript setuid-root, I found out about it in the SVGAlib readme files. I had never heard of setuid before, nor did I really understand it. Secondary installation of X and the network was this week (I had up to that time been satisfied by emacs and TeX, and the SVGA-gs previewing system; they were easier for me to set up than my mother's copy of Ventura). I got the network stuff working in 5 minutes, and X took the time needed to go through the Xconfig examples on sunsite plus a few questions to the net (when I actually did it the time was about 15 minutes in some readme files). So there, a total novice can do it. I have to say the Linux documentation won hands down, because it was explaining how things worked and why they were set up that way as well as simply telling me what to do. This is important because when anything goes wrong, one gets a better understanding of what to do about it. Again, this was the preliminary Linux Installation Guide circa Nov 1993, prior to the major improvements of early 1994. One other thing: people tend to gripe at the terseness of Unix manpages; I however think the MS help files even worse. This is just Linux versus MS. I have to say I don't know OS/2 and have only heard of NetBSD and FreeBSD. I should think Linux and Net/FreeBSD similar, provided you can get the source to the latter. Source is important to me; it has helped me figure out what goes on when certain messages appear, and was important in solving the minor problem that caused the networking installation time to be 5 minutes and not zero (the device eth0 needed to be called dl0, as I learned from the boot message and the source file which contained it). > It's not a bad operating system, it is definitely useful for something > things, but it doesn't make up much of the market and it isn't really a > threat to OS/2 or windows. THe lack of support will keep it where it > is, and if by some fluke it becomes a major player, IBM and MS will act > accordingly. I'm really glad these considerations and the corp mentality behind them are irrelevant to me. I consider Linux support tremendous. Fast, and advice exactly at the level I needed it. No blank stares like I got when trying to find out from vendors and even Colorado information whether the parallel-port Trakker could be driven by Unix. It was these newsgroups that prevented me from wasting my $400. -- Gruss, Dr Bruce Scott The deadliest bullshit is Max-Planck-Institut fuer Plasmaphysik odorless and transparent bds@ipp-garching.mpg.de -- W Gibson