Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 21:41:51 -0800 From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com> To: "'Greg Lehey'" <grog@lemis.com> Cc: "'Steve M'" <slavik944@metconnect.com>, <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: FreeBSD vs linux (some venting) Message-ID: <014e01c084ff$304db5e0$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com> In-Reply-To: <20010123135322.H414@wantadilla.lemis.com>
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>-----Original Message----- >From: Greg Lehey [mailto:grog@lemis.com] >Sent: Monday, January 22, 2001 7:23 PM >To: Ted Mittelstaedt >Cc: 'Steve M'; freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG >Subject: Re: FreeBSD vs linux (some venting) > > >On Monday, 22 January 2001 at 1:01:47 -0800, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote: >> Steve M wrote: >>> >>> The *nix OS' lack sufficient documentation for the average >>> user. I'm a little above the average user so I've >> >> What an insult! What about my book that was just released? And > >I wouldn't call that an insult. First, your book has really *only* >*just* hit the bookstands, and secondly there's the little word >"sufficient" in the original. That's pretty much an objective >viewpoint. It would be better to ask what's missing. > Part of that was partly tongue-in-cheek, partly flame bait, I'll admit. I was trying to make a point with a bit of humor that his definition of sufficient documentation was what you might call extremely high. Most UNIX's are documented these days with books aimed at specific programs anyway. The situation is similar with the Microsoft products, though, because once again the books out there mostly cover different Windows applications, or the Windows UI, not the internals or good admining on Windows. >> >> If you took someone who has never seen, never touched a computer >> before and sat them in front of a FreeBSD system, I wager it would >> take just as long to train them to use it as to train them to >> use Windows. MS's way only seems easier because you learned it >> first. > >Indeed. That's my problem with your book :-) You assume that people >already know Microsoft. > I make the assumption in my book that due to various political and religious preferences by CEO's and such that all think they know how to run an IT department better than the IT manager, that the question of using Microsoft on the desktop is a non-issue. It's going to be rammed down your throat whether you like it or not, along with Office and all their other creepy programs. Fortunately, those bigots that insist on Windows on the desktop generally don't know or care what the back end server OS is, which is where the IT manager has some discretion. So, if your going to be the IT manager of most organizations, your opportunity to use FreeBSD is going to start with the servers. Since you need to work your way up to being the admin, your going to have to start by learning Windows on the desktop. Ultimately it comes down to a credibility issue. UNIX people think nothing of giving no credibility to the Windows bigots because the Windows bigots don't understand or know UNIX. But, when roles are reversed, the UNIX bigots don't understand why the Windows bigots don't give them any credibility. If you make a conscious decision to be a UNIX bigot, as I did, no Windows bigot is ever going to give you any credibility when you advocate FreeBSD or other UNIX, unless you know Windows better than they do. You can be a PhD making $250K a year working for Sun, who has a history in UNIX going back 30 years, and a pedegree as long as my arm, but if you don't understand how to administer a Windows network, or how to load Windows, then none of that is going to matter to the average business owner that has been raised on a Microsoft diet. The second it becomes obvious that you don't know Microsoft OS then they are going to stop listening. Ted Mittelstaedt tedm@toybox.placo.com Author of: The FreeBSD Corporate Networker's Guide Book website: http://www.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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