__/ [ Mark Kent ] on Thursday 01 June 2006 11:09 \__
Good post, Mark.
> begin oe_protect.scr
> Jim <james@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> <snip>
>>
>> erm... well, not quite.
>> Past experience in IRC help chatrooms has taught me that questions
>> should only be asked in such forums when all other options (like RTFM,
>> Google) have played out to no avail. Usually when someone says "RTFM!"
>> the answer to the (usually very elementary) question is right there, in
>> the package documentation that came with it either on the distribution
>> disc or on the package website, and the gurus damn well know it. Hence
>> the tendency for newbies to get themselves a new arse torn when they go
>> the Windows Way and expect the OS to hold their hand for them. IMHO
>> Linux isn't about that; it's about learning how to use the tools in
>> front of you instead of throwing it all in a pile and hoping to be able
>> to sort out the mess afterward (such as is the Windows Way).
>> It's not about elitism.
>> It's about your /computer/ working for /you/, and *not* /you/ working
>> for your /computer/.
>>
>
> To be fair, when you encounter a problem with windows, there's generally
> no documentation on the machine which could possibly help you, and even
> if there were, there's no easy way of finding it, particularly for the
> less technically aware. There's no equivalent of /usr/share/doc/, no
> 'man', no 'info', now /usr/share/doc/HOWTO/... and so on. Once upon a
> time, there used to be help with applications, often comprehensive,
> generally from the F1 button in the dos days, until MS realised that it
> was more lucrative to not put anything helpful in there and sell it in
> separate books instead. Or perhaps on a separate CD.
When I was about 12, I actually spent some days with DOS help. I was
exploring all the commands and, in the process, extended my knowledge of the
O/S and even computing in general. Some details were beyond my level of
comprehension at the time. I was soon able to write some batch file
'programs' that used simple loops (GOTO's) to achieve what I had wanted.
These are the olden days when *'help'* was actually used. People have become
very lazy since. They just call the next door neighbour (computers exist in
most houses) or phone support, not the OEM which never cared anyway.
I remember the time when I was taught about 'dir'. I think I had some
commands scribbled on the paper wrapper of the 5.25's (inches). These were
the times when, to me at least, computers motivated you to develop
problem-solving skills. Today it's all click-and-drool. When it doesn't work
(as often it does not), BUMMER!
> In the linux case, it's worthwhile searching the man pages, info pages,
> /usr/share/doc, and even doing $ app --help or $ app -h or something to
> see if there's anything useful to be had there, because experience shows
> that there's a high probability of finding answers. For windows users,
> there's no similar probability, so the natural reaction is to "find a
> geek" and ask them. They probably know.
>
> The result is that we have a lot of 'windows geeks' grown up over the
> last couple of decades. They are reasonably expert in answering these
> kinds of questions, but often know little of anything else. They were
> just the people who took the time to scratch out the answers, and
> perhaps attended an MCSE course or similar. They then realised they
> could make a career out of knowing just that little bit more.
I strongly agree with this. Sadly, too many people are becoming so-called
'experts', merely because they use the O/S. This makes the skill invaluable
(in the negative sense of the word). As I mention before, this enables noone
to distinguish talent from 'robot'. Same with Java. It's no (perfect) way to
train engineers and developers.
> In the Linux world, things are different. For anyone who's sufficiently
> interested and motivated, it's possible to drill down to the deepest
> possible level of comprehension of anything, since the source is
> available to all. This means that the real 'experts' really are expert,
> in the main. They're probably, on average, an order of magnitude more
> capable than their MCSE counterparts, although commensurately fewer in
> number. The IRC channels are really there for those people to help each
> other, or upcoming similar people.
You seem very cautious in saying this, but you should not be. Many Windows
users pine to migrate, but they are simply unable to, or afraid. In the mean
time, they ridicule Linux, hoping that it would just go away. Well, it
wouldn't. It is phasing in and it is even becoming easier, particularly for
these fearful users. Pints up for Ubuntu.
> There have been some fora set up to meet the needs of the more average
> user, such as Linux Gazette's work, but that's now stopped, I believe.
> What we probably need is for the MCSEs to start expanding their
> knowledge to include Linux/Unix, and start to help the average users in
> the same way they do in the Windows world. It shouldn't be too
> difficult, frankly, Linux is far more logical, accessible and
> predictable than Windows, so if they've managed to scale the heady
> heights of becoming a Windows guru, it should be a breeze doing the same
> thing in the linux environment.
>
> There's a fear factor around amongst the MCSE folks that the improved
> reliability and security of Linux means that many of them will lose
> their jobs. Whilst that's a reasonable fear, it can also be considered
> that they'll be able to look after far more people and machines, because
> of the fewer machine-issues there'll be, but also, they'll have much
> more time to actually fix problems, rather than the usual "sorry,
> supplier isn't going to fix that" response which we normally get. It's
> just possibility productivity could be improved, by computer support
> actually providing support rather than re-imaging and saying "sorry" or
> "reboot".
I have never ever scraped a Linux box, in my entire life. Once set up, they
have all been running relentlessly. Maybe it depends on the maintainer, but
the matter of fact is that only hardware faults (broken HDD) could ever
defeat Linux, in my case. Actually, when I come to think of, I once screwed
up Mandrake 9.2 (installed a much more modern Ubuntu instead of bothering to
fix). I experimented with the partition table 1 or 2 days after it had
arrived pre-installed. I take the blame. Mandrake warned me several times
when I rewrote the MBR without having a clue. I learned my lesson.
Best wishes,
Roy
--
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