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Xref: sserve comp.os.386bsd.misc:4989 comp.os.linux.misc:33794 comp.os.os2.advocacy:75273 Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.os2.advocacy Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!yarrina.connect.com.au!wraith.internode.com.au!tipellium.apanix.apana.org.au!cleese.apana.org.au!gumleaf!mike From: mike@gumleaf.apana.org.au (Michael Talbot-Wilson) Subject: Re: Linux thoroughly insulted by Infoworld! Message-ID: <D2q1z0.4M7@gumleaf.apana.org.au> Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 20:52:11 GMT References: <950116203411@lambada> <D2KBMv.B5t@actrix.gen.nz> X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Followup-To: comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.os2.advocacy Lines: 44 Steve Withers (stevew@atlantis.actrix.gen.nz) wrote: : In article <950116203411@lambada>, Mr. Ed <ed.duomo@lambada.oit.unc.edu> wrote: : > o linux is difficult to install (their senior systems analyst : > apparently failed to install it) : My first go took me 9 attempts before I got it right. But I had some : thing to login to after about the 3rd attempt. This senior analyst must : be limited to DOs/Win.......a babe in the woods with anything else, I : would guess. Never having seen any version of Unix I found Slackware 1.1.1 very easy to install. It went like a breeze to make a boot floppy, boot off it and a "root" floppy, and run fdisk. The fdisk was/is superb compared with that of MS-DOS. Much easier to use. It was then easy to run the Slackware setup script and install the a1, a2, and a3 floppies to get a bootable, but basic, working system. But at that point there can be a lot of hand configuration to be done, e.g. to get mail and news working nicely, and X doing it your way. Later, as a semi-experienced Linux user, I installed Solaris 2 from a CD. This was a dreadfully cumbersome process. The fdisk was appalling. It made me realise that Linux is superbly easy to install. But I still use the early, laid-back Slackware tty setup script, having found the later colour script restrictive and more difficult. It only allows you to see and do a minute thing at a time, and seems intended to control you rather than help you. More like Solaris. : The guy clearly isn't used to software as game-puzzle. He doesn't like : software as obstacle course. His life must be free of challenge or : learning curves. : He wants his hand held. He gets no satisfaction from figuring something : out for himself. : Linux is for people who want to *earn* the right to login as ROOT. : I like it, but I can how wimps would be put off by it. :-) This stupid attitude that the difficulty of the software is a positive virtue, and mere amateurs should keep their dirty hands off it, is a reason why Unix is about to disappear. Windows NT is selling well, but a fundamentally better system, Linux with X Window, can't be given away free.