Mainstream . . . (LONG)

[Bradley Miller]

At 09:02 AM 1/31/01 -0600, you wrote:
>Brad,
>
>   Nothing wrong with Linux. I never had a problem with 3c509 cards. If
>yours aren't working then your configuring them wrong. True some of the
>older ones have to be set initially from a dos 3Com driver diskette that
>should have come with it. I have 3c509's and 3c590s (Vortex) and they all
>are recognized at boot. Secondly, you should never have to mess with
>creating /dev paths unless you're doing some serious system hacking, the
>second harddrive should be /dev/hdb if ide or /dev/scd1 (this can vary
>somewhat, but will never be /dev/drive[anything]). I think you should read
>some introductory material on Linux. You are doing a lot of very bad things,
>like putting source code for a particular driver in directories with object
>libraries. 

I'll have to admit -- I'm still learning . . . I've only been working with
Linux for well over 2 years now.  I have yet to find one good Linux book.
I'm beginning to think that once people get to working on Linux that they
forget all about intended audiences and just start going off on wild
tangents.   The Red Hat Linux for Dummies book spends a lot of time
configuring and never seems to go anywhere.  The last few PHP books I read
were just about wastes of time.  It looks like about midway though the book
they needed to meet contract obligations and started writing about stuff
they wrote and think is the greatest thing.  (Like examples and such).  

If you read my post - in the past I haven't had any trouble with 3c509
cards . . . two of them are merrily chunking bits back and forth as my
router, both in the same machine even!  

Bottom line here is -- Linux will never be mainstream for the public.  If
someone with over 20+ years experience in computers and a BS in Computer
Information Systems is rooting around trying to find out how things work,
then it's not going to be easy for anyone else.   If Linux does ever rise
to the same complexity and levels Windoze software copes with, then it too
might be just as buggy or problem prone.  The only thing helping Linux is
most people will say, ok -- I'll just start from here using the "sort of
current" hardware.   If it's too bleeding edge, there won't be support, but
if it's too far back there won't be support either.   Ugh!

-- Bradley Miller