[wplug] Linux newbie

[Embery, Nathan]

FWIW, I totally agree... for a sys admin or power user.

I guess I should have posed my question like this:

Given the strides that mandrake, fedora, suse et al have made in making
Linux accessable to 'normal' people, is it *really* necessary to for us, as
established users, to tell people that they have to be able to edit obscure
text files, even if all they want to do is just surf the web?

Of course, there's value in me knowing how to do those things, but I'm paid
to know those things....

Also, I guess it depends on what one means by learning linux.

Nate

-----Original Message-----
From: wplug-bounces+nathan.embery=crowncastle.com at wplug.org
[mailto:wplug-bounces+nathan.embery=crowncastle.com at wplug.org] On Behalf Of
Brandon Kuczenski
Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2004 10:46 PM
To: General user list
Subject: Re: [wplug] Linux newbie

On Fri, 22 Oct 2004, Christopher DeMarco wrote:

> > It depends  though, is  learning   to manually  setup  your wireless
> > connection / X server / whatever using only  config files even worth
> > knowing these days???
>
> YES YES  YES!  The first  few times  you have to  perform black magick
> you'll feel totally  lost   but the first *success*   is exhilarating.
> While many  tools  can automagically  configure WiFi, and  X is mostly
> hands-free these days,  there are definitely times  when you'll need a
> familiarity  with  XF86Config   and wlan-ng   (e.g.  Xinerama,   or  a
> dual-mouse setup).   And mucking around in  the system  internals will
> give you confidence.  The more exposure, the better.
>

I have to agree fully - (though I myself am somewhat of a newbie) I think
the greatest folly of Windows has been to convince people that there are
things that "can't be done" on computers.  "No checkbox? Sorry, the
computer can't do that."  It's just not true.

I agree with what earlier posters have said -- understanding how the
checkbox relates to the config files -- and understanding how the config
files are processed when the OS needs to make decisions -- and
understanding where the line is drawn between end-user configurability and
program design -- has not only allowed me to tailor many details of my
computing environment to be *exactly* what I want, but it's also lent me
insight into the notion of "good programming," and it's illustrated the
development path that modern computing has followed over the last n years,
and it's given me a solid appreciation for the open-source philosophy.

It's a philosophical issue to me: a giant optimization problem.  "How do I
make this little box do what I want? WHAT IS IT that I want, anyway?" And
not enough people ask that second question.

-Brandon

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