Date: Fri, 2 Nov 2001 00:58:21 +0100 (CET) From: Nils Holland <nils@tisys.org> To: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> Cc: Paul Robinson <paul@akita.co.uk>, "Andrew C. Hornback" <achornback@worldnet.att.net>, <chat@FreeBSD.ORG>, <advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: NatWest? no thanks Message-ID: <20011102004644.I54336-100000@jodie.ncptiddische.net> In-Reply-To: <4.3.2.7.2.20011101163902.043e2db0@localhost>
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On Thu, 1 Nov 2001, Brett Glass wrote: > >I love it when people try to minimize my bandwidth costs by sending short > >and precise answers... > > Sorry, but you asked a "yes or no" question. That left two possible > answers. ;-) That reminds me of the Enlish lessons at school. When asked a question by the teacher, you may not simply respond with "yes" or "no", but you have to say somthing like "yes, I am" or "no, I'm not". Hmm, wait, I guess this is off topic - I always tend to let myself get carried away when writing eMails at 0:48... Now, where were we? > >Will the masses out there ever use an OS where you have to type > >something like "find / \! -newer report.tex"? > > Where you HAVE to type it? No. Where you CAN type it? Sure. Hmm, seems sane. Yes, that is exactly what I was trying to say. The *CAN* makes the difference. On MS OSes, you can do most (all?) things only by clicking. Here, on *nix systems, you have the choice if you want to type or click. That's just fine. It's a form of freedom, and it makes the system much more flexible. The stuff I wrote before probably sounded so strange because I always tend to fear that when someone talks about mass acceptance, the motivation behind saying that is trying to turn the operating system being talked about (in this case, FreeBSD) into some Windows clone. I really wouldn't want that. Just as I wouldn't want a system where I am forced to type, I wouldn't want a system where I am forced to click either. I want a system that allows me to do both, and I think I have that system and am using it right now. Of course, spreading the word about FreeBSD is good. Taking new user's feedback into account when it comes to the system design cannot hurt either, as long as the needs of experienced users are not influenced in a bad way. Unix systems have long been known for their flexibility, and I believe that it's that flexibility that destinguishes us from the "king in the field", and that is our most powerful weapon. As I have said in a message sent about three minutes ago, it's a bad idea to sit just hear and argue about "mass acceptance" or banks that block access to their site (although these discussions tend to be funny sometimes). It's a better idea to make the public aware of what we have to offer - only that can boost our popularity. Enough for today. I hope that I have been able to sort out the things I have said which lead to a little protest earlier. If not, I'll be back to reply to your mails after about 8 hours of sleep -> shutdown -h now Nils Holland Ti Systems - FreeBSD in Tiddische, Germany http://www.tisys.org * nils@tisys.org To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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