*BSD News Article 93571


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From: squash@inlink.com (Josh Grebe)
Newsgroups: alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Linux or FreeBSD (or something else?)
Followup-To: alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Date: 14 Apr 1997 20:05:37 GMT
Organization: InLink
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: Do you apply this same standard to all tools?  For instance, should people
: need to understand something about how petroleum is refined before they
: put gas in their cars?  Should one need to know thermodynamics in order
: to make one's refrigerator get colder?  Should one be conversant in rim
: flushes and siphon jets before one flushes one's toilet?

: --Tim Smith

That is a good analogy, given certain things were the same. Look at it
from this aspect.

If your gasoline doesn't work, you put in different gas/fix your vehicle.
If your refrigerator works, out comes the maytag man.
If your toilet doesn't flush, theres plenty of plumbers out there.

If your computer doesn't do what you want it to... YOU LIVE WITH IT! Quite
likel present company excluded, but your avergae Joe WinDos user won't
question it and just let it be. True, they could take it to a service
shop, who would promptly put the same thing over the old thing and say
"It's fixed", but Winblows 95 doesn't invite, or moreso deters, someone
knowing what the hell is going on. A plumber would look at the cheap
plastic pipe and say "It's a cheap plastic pipe, it's not reliable to make
the turds go away", the maytag man would say "You put brand XYZ
refrigerant in this thing? Come on!".  Best Buy would say "Here is your
Win95 boot disk, please go reinstall an inferior product onto your high
horsepower desktop computer, so it can break again."

Computers don't get handled the same way as most other products.

Imagine, if you will, if cars were dealt with like computers.

"I bought this expensive car and it started up OK, so I pushed the pedal
down and it went faster and faster and faster but then it crashed, and now
it won't run any more!"

See what I mean?

- Josh