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Date:      Fri, 2 Nov 2001 09:22:35 +0100 (CET)
From:      Nils Holland <nils@tisys.org>
To:        Ted Mittelstaedt <tedm@toybox.placo.com>
Cc:        Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>, 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:  <20011102090253.G795-100000@jodie.ncptiddische.net>
In-Reply-To: <003a01c16368$67667100$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com>

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On Thu, 1 Nov 2001, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:

> Look at DNS - under Microsoft it's a simple GUI that has few
> selections available and doesen't let the user do much.  Under UNIX
> it's a config file that can be written in shorthand, longhand, or a
> mix and you can imagine that a typical dumb user support call on a DNS
> zone file problem would probably chew up 5 times the amount of support
> time for UNIX as the platform vs NT.  That's a huge phone bank staffed
> with people that need to feed themselves and free software doesen't
> have the revenue stream to support an entire industry of people that
> do nothing other than read the instructions to morons who pick up the
> phone and call instead of cracking the instruction manual.

That's something that has changed in the industry, and I don't know if
it's too good. I mean: When computers were not present in every home, and
only real hackers had access to them or even owned one, the world worked
much better. I real hacker basically didn't use the computer because he
wants to store his recipies in there, but, basically, he uses the computer
for the sake that it's a computer.

This has changed today, and it seems that the majority of people is unable
to learn. I mean, I used a Commodore 64 (originally 1 Mhz, 64 KB RAM, but
can be powered up to 20 Mhz, 4 or more MB and even a harddisk) until 1995.
When I bought my first PC thereafter, I almost instantly started out in
FreeBSD. Back then, I didn't know anything about Unix, but by reading all
kinds of things, and by using my beloved trial-and-error approach, I
managed to learn the basics rather soon, and by now I think I'm fairly
good at it. This kind of learning has always been required when it comes
to computers - again, on the Commodore 64, you got a 100 pages handbook
which didn't tell you much, and then you had to figure out the rest
yourself, which could best be done by buying another, more in-depth book.

Looking at Microsoft OSes today, I guess they can be used by almost
everyone without much learning. If you set up a FreeBSD box with KDE this
is also true for FreeBSD. HOWEVER - make no mistake about it - even though
it is possible to start using a system without much learning, which is
probably a good thing, there *will always* be learning required if you
want to use advanced features. You can use a computer without reading any
documentation, but I guess you will have to read it in order to be able to
use the computer really effectively.

As I said, in the past, computer users were more ready to learn, and I
think that made computer users all in all more knowledgable. Today, they
want everything to be shoved up their *ss. If that will indeed be good for
them in the end can actually be doubted.

Greetings
Nils

Nils Holland
Ti Systems - FreeBSD in Tiddische, Germany
http://www.tisys.org * nils@tisys.org


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