From: dudek@acsu.buffalo.edu (The Cybard) Subject: Re: A suggestion to unexperienced linux users. Date: 31 Mar 1993 01:31:13 GMT
butler@cs.tulane.edu (Larry Butler) writes:
>It seems like half of the problems that people are having are
>a direct result of not understanding unix, and have absolutly nothing to do
>with anything specific to linux.
Speaking from the view of an unexperienced user, I think the problem is
that an unexperienced user is not sure if his/her question is a Linux or
Unix question. Please understand, I get your point. This group is way too
cluttered. (FAQ's are inexcusable however.)
>Unix isn't like MS-DOS. Unix is much more
>flexable and therefore it is more complicated to set-up and maintain. You
>can't expect to ftp something and it will magically work. You have to know
>what you're doing.
This is a problem. Linux was first written by a CS student to learn more
about OS's. This is why source code for everything including the kernel is
available. This is a Catch-22 situation: to get a system of your own up
and running to play around with and learn enough to "know what you're
doing", you have to "know what you're doing"! Perhaps there should be an
SLS distribution for Unix idiots, maybe even a separate FAQ. Also, Linux
will die out if the climate is unfriendly to non-wizards. Linux, IMHO,
actually might have the opportunity to rival some OS's like DR-DOS!
>You can post questions that are not specific to linux to
>another group. Linux is still under development and there is enough traffic
>on c.o.l related to that. The suggestion is this: buy a book about unix,
>and read it.
Agreed. I have purchased a couple of the O'Reilly Nutshell books, and
found them to help me a lot. I also made a notebook filled with printouts
of all the Linux, UNIX, and Xwindows FAQ's as well as some of the docs from
the ftp-sites to serve as my Linux manual. I also found a couple of guys
here on campus to pester with questions. :-)
But even after this, I have to admit that I've probably posted a couple of
questions that should not have been in this group after all......
--
David Thomas Dudek / v098pwxs@ubvms.bitnet \ __ _ The Cybard
State University / dudek@sun.acsu.buffalo.edu \ / `-' ) ,,,
of New York / "If music be the food of love, \ | | ()|||||||[:::}
@ Buffalo / play on!" - Wm. Shakespeare \ `__.-._) '''