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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!simtel!news.kei.com!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!usc!howland.reston.ans.net!news.sprintlink.net!noc.netcom.net!netcom.com!tporczyk From: tporczyk@netcom.com (Tony Porczyk) Subject: Re: Slight flame from Linux user Message-ID: <tporczykD9s35B.1Ko@netcom.com> Keywords: Linux FreeBSD Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) References: <3ql3gd$je2@bell.maths.tcd.ie> <D9K4Iz.BJM@midway.uchicago.edu> <3qstb1$oca@dg.thepoint.net> <D9rtsG.3v@eskimo.com> Date: Wed, 7 Jun 1995 01:07:58 GMT Lines: 38 Sender: tporczyk@netcom18.netcom.com And the award for the most bizarre reason to choose an operating system goes to: lparsons@eskimo.com (Lee Parsons) writes: > I personally run FreeBSD to (in part) keep my Ex-Sysadmin hand in on > the nuts and bolts of installations. A Linux install that doesn't force > me to get out the old calculator and figure out how big the partition > is would not be very useful to me. Forgive me, I do not mean it as a flame. It's just that my jaw is still on the floor... I do hope you're not using C to write programs? It would insulate you too much from the real man's language: machine code. And speaking of calculators, how can you tolerate a machine doing what you can do with a pen and a piece of paper? :-) I, for one, applaud Jordan & Company for their efforts to make mechanical, repetetive tasks more automated. I value the computer for its ability to free one to be more creative, not for forcing one to do the same, routine, daunting, boring crap over and over and over again in the longest and least automated way possible. The scripting and the incredible wealth of tools on UNIX is the best example of it: once you figure out how to do something, you can automate it and proceed to apply your brain to something else. That's why I can't stand the Mac. While it starts quickly, it forces me to remain at the same level for ever. And while I am glad I have learned how to calculate sectors, blocks, clusters, partitions, slices, etc., I see absolutely no reason why I have to repeat the same process over and over again. That's what I have my computer for. In fact, my dream installation would be a single script which I can edit *once* and from that point on, have it execute in a totally non-interactive way, so I can install a number of machines in the same exact way without any intervention *whatsoever* besides slapping a CD into a reader. t.