From: william@cs.arizona.edu (Dragon (William Hertling)) Subject: Re: WHAT'S THE POINT? Date: 2 Apr 1993 22:43:47 GMT
In article <733561611.F00007@remote.halcyon.com> Ray.Messier@f52.n203.z1.fidonet.org (Ray Messier) writes:
>Recently I found Linux on a local BBS. Being anxious to run a Un*x box
>for some time I quickly dl it. After reading all the FAQ's and the Docs
>that came with it; and finally finding this net mail conference on Linux
>I am no closer to running it than I was a month ago. What's the point of
>an operating system that is so complex to learn unless you are in 'the
>club' so to speak? Call this asking for it, but I am no simpleton when it
>comes to computers, in fact I am quite competent. But I think Linux will not
>reach it's full potential until it's as easy to install as DOS (dare I
>say that?). I can only boot Linux from floppy, when I try to run *any*
>utilities I get bizzare undocumented or poorly documented error
>messages.
>I have been running DOS for years, and feel that one month is too long
>to take installing an OS! Any suggetions? How about some quality
>documentation that non-engineers can understand? The public needs a
>powerful operating system like Linux, lets try to make it that way.
I found out about Linux several months ago. Since entering grad school,
I've been forced to deal with Unix machines for the first time. All of
my previous experience before this year was with DOS machine. I also
consider myself quite knowledgeable about DOS. However, I recognized that
Unix itself is quite complicated, and that any non-commercial software,
supported by a wide group of people around the world is going to lack
some cohesion, and the 1-2-3 installation that DOS users are used to.
I prepared for this by reading this newsgroup every day for about
two weeks before I even started to download the SLS distribution.
Then, once I started installing it, I took it slowly - rather than
trying to get everything in one night, I did it one step at a time.
Rather than posting 1,000 messages about my problems, I waited until
I saw it discussed on the newsgroup, or saw that someone else has a
similar configuration, and then emailed that person, asking them how
they solved the problem, if they had the same one. By doing all of this,
I was able to:
1. installed linux over a 2 week period, in the spare 1 or 2 hours
per day that i have.
2. learned about the system administration aspects of unix that i
would need during the course of setting up linux
3. spared the newsgroup from dozens of messages. other new linux'ers
could do themselves and the newsgroup a favor by just reading the
newsgroup for a few days, and seeing the answers to their problems
come up, without posting any messages and increasing the traffic
beyond the almost-too-difficult to read number of messages going
by each day.
4. learned enough about linux and some of my own hardware problems
(too slow rams), to start planning how i will fix my hardware
problems, and how i want to go about reinstalling everything later
on.
I wouldn't expect to install any large application or OS overnight.
I think that there are a number of problems in Linux that can take
quite a few days to solve (ie - i can't find anywhere that it says
that bus mice need to be on irq 5 by default). However, if you
methodically track down problems, read all the FAQs, pick yourself
up a unix book, and read the newsgroup thoroughly for a few weeks,
saving important posts, you should be able to get linux up and
running in a 3-7 days, even if you know nothing about unix/linux
previous to these preparations.
Now that I've gone through the whole process, and know where to
find a lot of the information, I think I could probably install
linux again, on any system, in a day or two at most.
You say that you've gotten nowhere in a month. I find it hard to
believe that you could have a problem, post that problem, or send
email to people out there, and not get back a single helpful
response.
I don't think anyone out there will claim that Linux is the
simplest thing in the world to install. But when you get it
up and working, you'll feel pretty good about it. More than
that, you'll have learned quite a bit about Linux, Unix, and
your hardware in the process.
I wish you the best of luck, and suggest that if anyone else
out there is having problems, that you follow the guidelines
I mentioned above, as well as those posted in the FAQ, meta-FAQ,
etc.
And if anyone is totally stuck, email me and I'll try to help.
I'm just learning it myself, but whatever help I can give, I
will, even if that just means pointing you to the right
README file.
william@cs.arizona.edu