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Road To Linux -- Made It!
My PPP daemon keeps cutting out, and I'm puzzling over swap partitions, random seeds and generators bin/appfinders, so I'll keep this brief. In the next few weeks, I'll write more about my personal, somewhat hellish road to Linux. It was a hummer, accompanied every step away by the jeers and cheers of geeks and nerds on and off of Slashdot.
The big lesson was that I approached Linux in the wrong way, from every conceivable perspective. It needn't be that hard.
Rather than wading into manuals and books and programming (if you do it, believe me, O'Reilly is the best), I finally figured out that there are people like Joe Volodarsky out there, and companies like Amnet, people who live and breathe computers and Linux and who actually pick up the phone and help Every-Single-Time-You Call! The truth is, I never did figure this out. Somebody figured it out for me, but I finally got it. If you're not a geek, that's the big news.
And I am not a computer geek, and don't aspire to be one. I'm a writer, and happy with that title. Posting a column on a Linux laptop somebody else designed and preloaded for me hardly makes me any sort of nerd or techno-whiz. This is, in fact, the level of the classic breathless newbie, a mantle I expect to take to the grave.
Disagreement and criticism is a healthy, integral part of Web-writing, but the minor yet persistent controversy surrounding my writing for Slashdot has always surprised me. Some are passionately into defining who belongs or doesn't, an unfortunately common and increasingly difficult impulse in electric (and off-line) communities.
The term "geek" is broadening and evolving daily, and is coming to mean different, complex and increasingly positive things to people.
The real geeks and hackers, it seems to me, aren't into chest-thumping about who deserves the title. Like Joe, their real kick comes from getting people where they want to go. They're almost invariably welcoming and helpful. They're pretty secure about themselves, and their techno-manhood. From the first, they've been trying to help move me along, to the best degree of my limited ability. But if I recognize my limitations in writing on a Linux Box, I'm still pretty happy about it.
Real programmers are different from mortals, certainly from writers. They are a separate species. Programmers are precise, confident and look ahead. They have no doubt they can make technology come out right for them. Writers are imprecise, uncertain and backwards-looking. Their relationship with technology is uncertain, a means, never an end.
But here's what the fight about me being on Slashdot has always really been about: You don't need to be - and shouldn't have to be - a programmer to use and appreciate Linux, which is, to my amazement, every bit as easy and logical as my beloved Macs, once you get past the installation.
Linux is fun. Knowledge is, in fact, empowering, and learning and seeing how a computer actually works, especially in the context of a powerful idea like Open Source, is worth the grief and trouble. And for non-geeks heading for Linux, there will be plenty of both.
Joe Volodarsky was savvy in puttng together this computer for me, to a degree I wouldn't have thought possible. He used KDE and set up folders for Netscape, WordPerfect, documents,the printer, Templates, News, Updates, the Gimp, CD-ROM and floppy disks. I can't stay off of the KAPP Finder, which scrolls through an exotic list of programs and apps I'm reading about one by one, using my O'Reilly and other Linux guides. My laptop was designed with me in mind, even down to a Mac OS logo on the start-up menu. I've spent a dozen happy but nerve wracking hours puzzling over random seeds and bizarre commands, but I've learned more about computing in the last few weeks than in the decade I've been online.
For somebody who loves to write about technology, this is definitely a humbling gift and an opportunity. Open Source is one of the most powerful ideas I've come across in media, even as I'm just beginning to grasp how complicated an idea it is. Linux is a huge part of it. I'd like to go as far as I can get, taking small steps, one day at a time.
Playing around with my new laptop, I'm fascinated by how accessible the workings of this system are, (and how hidden the processes of my other computers have been) and have even moved a few things around, killed a few programs, and relished checking the Term windows to see my computing life and history passing before my eyes. I was up till 2 a.m., and had more fun than at any point in my life aside from walking into Joe DiMaggio on a New York City street when I was a kid.
Since this is the third time I've tried to post this message, I'm not going to prolong it.
Thanks to Joe of Amnet, which makes Linux boxes, laptops and servers. For getting me up and running, he deserves a place in the Geek Hall of Fame. Rare in our world, he is both technologically skilled and empathetic. He only lost it with me two or three times, and then briefly ("Katz, you don't have to Re-Boot. Don't turn it off!"). Thanks also to VA Linux Systems for hooking up the Slashdot crowd with Sony Vaios.
For those of you who sneered and jeered, thanks. You gave me the iron will to persevere. It was the Penguin or Death. And nuts to you, too.
For those of you who supported me in a hundred ways - especially Rob, Jeff, Robin, Jesse, Joe, Karl, Tom, Sandy, and scores of others who offered help every single day for nearly a year - thanks even more.
I might never be a Linux Geek. But I am my own particular kind of geek now.
Seems to me that's the idea.
Hi,
;)
A Linux friend of mine who uses PPP had the same problem. Try putting a continuous ping into your build/teardown scripts, something like:
ping -i 300
which will ping every 5 minutes and keep any timeouts satisfied. Of course, you could do it right and find the timeouts, but this'll at least keep you online long enough to find those FMs!
If you use a mouse with a paint program, you're wacky ;) get a Wacom tablet- hell, my old ADB Wacom tablet works in Linux :) :)
Particularly if you're already using Photoshop you're already using _something_ that can use a tablet, so go for it. I've only known one guy who did _great_ art with a tablet- and believe me, it wasn't having a two button mouse that made him so good.
I don't know what else you're using (I personally was trying to get an entirely-GNOME setup to work with gnome-ppp) but for me, it turned out that I had to have /etc/ppp/options contain a particular command. The cammand was 'xonxoff'. This is because the Mac serial ports evidently don't have the same sort of flow control as pppd expects, and without that command (which gnome-ppp has no option for) it silently does a sort of hardware spew and fails to connect to the modem properly. I am posting this from LinuxPPC1999, btw... ;) Now I have to work out how to post news so I can be first dejanews article to return the actual fix to the problem ;)
WOOHOO! First workaround for this screwup!
And just try to get an HP DeskJet 712 to work under Linux.
:-(
Note that pbm2ppa, available at Freshmeat, allows you to print from these printers under Linux. B&W only last I checked though.
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
Another good resource for new users is http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ which is home the NHF (newbieized help file) and has web-based dicussion forums.
Other good resources for hard-to-find info are http://www.deja.com/ (a usenet search engine), http://www.google.com/ (THE search engine), and http://www.freshmeat.net/ (the canonical software search engine) .. Freshmeat itself doesn't necessarily have the info, but the software packages for any given type of application tend to have useful links. For instance, the xawtv site that I found by searching freshmeat had the drivers necessary for the WinTV 401 card I recently configured, and the cdrecord site, as found on freshmeat, has a ton of useful cd burning resources.
This is a long road, and probably for Jon (and most people) a never ending one.
,hacker Perl another Just)'
Linux (and any other OS) is complex - even Linus himself couldn't claim to understand the entire workings of a complete linux distribution (although I bet he's got a damn good idea) - how all the different apps work - how Corba is working in Gnome, how KDE marshals events, etc.
Of course the point is you don't need to know all those things to make use of something (whether it be Linux or BillOS) - it's just nice to have that feeling of control.
My point is that Jon needn't feel alone here. We're all on that learning curve - some are higher than others, some progress faster than others. And while we pass others by on that path it's a lot nicer to offer someone a hand up than to flip them the finger as we feel superior.
perl -e 'print scalar reverse q(\)-:
Matt. Want XML + Apache + Stylesheets? Get AxKit.
I advise beginning Linux users to pick the right platform for learning Linux. That is either a very, very standard PC, with no funny options or off-brand cards, or almost any recent (7200 or newer) Macintosh PPC. Without a doubt, the Linux kits I have installed on PPC Macs (I've installed MkLinux, LinuxPPC, and (this weekend) Yellow Dog Linux) have been the simplest Linux installations I have ever done, with the possible exception of the RedHat distribution for Sun/SPARC. And since it will run on an iMac (Saw a sales return iMac at Comp-USA for $699 last week), you can have a fast, small machine with networking and modem and a nice display for cheap.
Dog is my co-pilot.
However, this post, like all those of Jon's contains little substance. What's the point? Jon's got a working linux box - nyehhh! (That's the only point I can gather.)
I think the anti-Katz reaction can be summed up thusly: The people that don't like Katz' posts don't like them because he seems to insist on being heard even when he's got nothing to say. (Find me a Katz post with a high signal-to-noise ratio and I'll show you a post Katz didn't write.)
He's like the pushy, presumptuous new guy who's suddenly best friends with everyone eventhough he's only been around for a week. There might not be anything really wrong with him, but his boundry over-stepping and clinginess to the group just feels wrong.
It was the lack of easing into the group that alienated a lot of folks, and recovering from that first impression will be a tough row to hoe.
I just finished installing LinuxPPC on my Mac (in fact this is my first /. posting from the new OS) and I must tell you that Linux is several orders of magnitude harder to install (at least for a newbie) than the Mac OS. If you have a standard configuration, installing on a Mac is literally a matter of inserting the CD and doubleclicking. Not so with Linux. I've been using Unix regularly for a year and a half, and it still took me all day yesterday to install it. On a Mac, you don't have to worry about repartitioning your drive, setting up users, manually configuring PPP (I had to screw around with the routing table, I'm not sure you can even look at the routing table on a Mac.) and lots of other BS. I shudder at having a non-geek attempt this process. Few would have the patience. This is not to say that Linux needs to be dumbed down for everyone, but I wonder if there isn't still work that needs to be done to make the process easier for non-technical users. I'm running LinuxPPC 1999, reportedly one of the easier-to-install distros, and I'd say there's still a lot of work to be done. Ideally, there should be a single graphical install that walks you through partitioning, installation, and configuration. It would also be a great help to have Mac-style control panels for many features. This is anathema to the traditional Linux power user's way of doing things, and I'm not sure I'd want to do it that way, but if Linux is going to go mainstream, that's what needs to happen. Most people don't have an entire day to devote to installing a new OS on their computers, and most users would have a lot more trouble with it than I did under the current system. People simply do not have the time or the interest to learn in detail about the internals of their computers. If Linux is going to take over the world, it needs to accomodate that.
Jon Katz == well-respected, professional writer who adds a diversifying aspect to /.
That is open for debate. Your asserting it does not make it so.
Josh == some guy who uses the word secondarily. Gee, starting a sentence with an adverb, ehh?
I am not a professional writer. I wrote a five minute response to a post on slashdot. It will be read an order of magnitude fewer people than Jon's stuff. Forgive the lack of proofreading.
Dont talk about bad writing unless you yourself are a writer,
Hmm... Interesting theory, to be a critic you must practice the artform itself. Shut up Ebert, unless you can make a movie yourself, you have no right to criticize.
You don't need to be a writer to know bad writing when you see it. In the same way you do not need to be a director or script writer to know a bad movie when you see it.
and NEVER throw out stupid and groundless insults and expect to be respected around here.
Groundless? Hmmm... you appear yourself to be attacking me instead of my argument. Provide some counterevidence if you find my argument to be groundless. I listed the reasons I perceive for the negative response Katz has received on slashdot, in response to a theory that Katz put forth in his post. If you think that is stupid and groundless, so be it. I can live with an AC thinking I am a moron.
And a first stepping stone towards respect on slashdot is to attach your name to you posts.
-josh
It seems to me that the best way to learn something is to learn two of its type. I found a good growth of my knowledge of computers when I
learned my second OS, but not my third. The same with programming languages.
You certainly learn a lot from two examples of something, but it's not the only way.
When you look at a second OS or language, you learn about all the things that can change. Things aren't black and white anymore. The start menu isn't the only way to start a program. The registry isn't the only way to store configuration.
But taking just two samples doesn't tell you what's the best way to do something. The start menu is pretty easy, but the command line is faster if you practice. The registry is fast, but if it gets messed up, it gets REALLY messed up. Is there a third way that combines the advantages of both? Sure, and a fourth.
The nice thing about learning the third and fourth variants is that the majority of the learning curve is already over; it isn't as hard to learn the additional ones, but now you're learning things that few people have, because you have to have learned three languages before you can learn the fourth. So you have a competitive advantage.
Eventually, you start to understand that all four of the languages or OSes you learned have flaws. Learn a bit more, and soon you can think of ways to fix the flaws - usually by copying a better approach from a different system with different flaws.
If you get really good, then you might actually come up with something new. That doesn't always work though.
For many people, maybe even most, the faddishness of Linux just isn't worth it. You've been plugging away at it for a year now, but what do you really have to show for all that time spent, other than feeling like "[your] own particular geek now"?
Exactly how I felt. After a while I realised there was no point in spending unproductive time fighting to get a desktop system which worked as well as my previous one, and being frustrated many times when the promised "configurability" didn't appear (as far as I could see, KDE 1.1 has no key redefinition ability, nor the ability to bind hotkeys to apps - amazing) I just went back to my previous one (Windows).
This is not necessarily a problem with Linux; but what I'd love is the MS GUI look 'n' feel on top of a stable underneath, with all the facilities and key bindings therein. MS may make crap OSs, but (for people used to it) their GUI is good - why should we force people all over the world to relearn their GUI conventions, and put up with worse functionality? Are we that arrogant?
Gerv
NE2000's are notoriously quirky, especially the PCI versions. I personally try to avoid them like the plague. On the other hand, I had significant trouble getting a WD/SMC 8013 to work with FreeBSD 3.1 on a machine I have, and that card is a very standard item that is autodetected by most recent Linux installs. I have to say that in general most of the Linux distribution installs are easier than FreeBSD, and FreeBSD is purportedly the easiest of the *BSDs to install. FreeBSD reminds me a little bit of older versions of Slackware in terms of its install. Linux installs may not be perfectly easy yet, but nothing is. Your milage may vary, but I'd have to say that in general Linux is on-par with anything other than MacOS in ease of installs. Unfortunately, MacOS is what Katz is used to. Then again, MacOS has it easy, due to the rigid levels of standardization on Apple's proprietary hardware.
I wouldn't consider myself a typical user. For one, I have never personally used MS-DOS or Windows on any of my computers on any sort of regular basis. I never really took an interest in x86 hardware until the first x86 *BSD's came out around 1992/1993 (and I ran into hardware compatibility trouble with them too -- which is why I went to Linux in the first place). As a matter of fact, I don't own a copy of Windows. I also own no less than 3 SparcStations at home and several Macs in addition to the numerous Linux boxes.
I use mainly SuSE and Red Hat these days. Both of them provide a fairly granular level of options at install time compared to what some other distributions (like Caldera) do.
I am not normally someone who is intimidated by user unfriendly or poorly documented install processes either. In the late 80's I installed 4.3BSD-Tahoe from source code on a VAX 82xx machine, which was completely undocumented and had to be done totally by hand and trial and error. I had to hand-hack several device drivers to work with unsupported 3rd party (Emulex) plug-compatible devices.
I was able to figure out how to get my WD/SMC 8013 card to work with FreeBSD, but it took a lot of fiddling around to figure it out (just like things used to do in the old days).
As for the books you are looking for, I noticed when visiting the local Borders (and I live in a backwoods midwestern town) that they now have over 60 Linux specific titles including at least a dozen new titles since my previous visit. Several of the books fit the "How to use" rather than "How to install" criteria you are looking for.
Make no mistake that I wish no ill toward any of the *BSD's. I hope you are right about the *BSD's being able to leverage some of Linux's momentum to get better hardware support.
And Apple-free, as well. Welcome to the world of free software!
As a habitual critic of some of your writing, I will hope that the end of this struggle means that you will now have more time to reflect on and think through the philosophical issues of what you are writting, rather than having to struggle with pppd. :^)
Now that you've made the conversion, it would be interesting if you could tell us about how you find Linux to work for you as a writer. What were you using to write before? What are you using now? Have you converted to the emacs religion, the vi religion, or are you using a WYSIWYG application? How did you choose? What issues are you encountering as a non-programmer writer in Linux? Do you in practice have to return to the Land of Bill for publications insisting on submissions in Word(tm) format?
(At least this should eliminate stupid flamage about Microsoft "Smart Quotes"[sic] ...)
Programmers are precise, confident and look ahead
Just as well, or we'd be in all sorts of shit when the date rolls over next year.
I remember when I got my first login prompt...I was jumping up and down while yelling YES YES YES.. My installation problems were actually very minimal ( it was RH 5.0 on an old crappy 486 ) but it was still a real thrill to see this "Linux thing" actually boot up. I think I stayed up about half the night just trying to figure out what commands did what.. how to get a text editor going..etc.. It was that night that I fell in love with Linux..(My last install of RH 6.0 on my new PC made me realize of how far they have come in a couple years, about a half hour and I was up and running...)
Anyways... good luck Jon..even though I still think your a bit of a poser..I wish you well with your journey.
I've actually seen a couple different species of programmers.
There are those who are very creative. To these people the creation of the solution can be the real hubris. They live for the art of programming. The code on the screen isn't just a bunch of syntax and variables, but a mosaic of various tools that when properly formed create something beautiful and functional.
The second type I've seen are those who are technically geniuses but could care less (nor are they skilled this way) about creativity. To them effeciency and procedure are the only values that matter.
In the end though they still are just human.
I will agree to some degree that there are a LOT of "noble hacker" type geeks out there. I like to think that I'm fairly helpful when I'm asked, and when I'm stuck, I know a few more knowledgeable people who I can turn to for helpful advice. But that's not the whole picture. I think a good portion of what I would consider geeks and hackers are very pretentious and insecure (I myself fall prey to this on MORE than a few occasions). For example, let's look at the pure HATRED shown for nearly every column you publish . . . I don't agree with all of your points, and sometimes you're not the most informed, but you know that, and the columns are well written. The only reason I can see for so many consistant blatant attacks is jealousy. I mean, what geek WOULDN'T want to be read by the rest of the community.
Unfortunately, there is a bit of exclusivity with Linux, or with any Unix. It's not a dummy level OS, and though there are many of us bent on achieving global domination and letting EVERYONE run a non-MS-OS, there are just as many that don't want the masses into thier little world. Linux is "thiers", as are geeky films or music or whatever. There are those that gravitated to geekdom as a way of rebelling from those around them, and they'll defend thier safety to the proverbial death. If you listen to Stereolab because you don't want to be associated with those who listen to the Spice Girls, would you be likely to expose them to your music? Likely not.
Again, I don't think there is any one definition of geek. As you said, geeks aren't really concerned about what is or isn't geek. But by that, there can be no "real geek". There are respectable geeks, and there are assholes. Just like in any other community.
Just my $.02. I'll go back to sleep now ==
Bad things often happen to good people,
It is up to them to see that they remain good.
First of all, congrats to Jon on the Linux system!
The experiences he describes in the article remind me of when I was playing around with my very first computer (A TI99/4A - they just don't make them like they used to). The learning curve was high (well, BASIC's a high learning curve when you're that young) but it left one with a great feeling of accomplishment. Later, when I learned assembly for my Commodore 64, I got that feeling again. And then I didn't get it for the longest time.
Years later, I installed Linux on my PC, and the memories came back - I think (IMHO) that this is how a lot of us here got started with programming, just by playing around, getting something to work, and feeling that sense of accomplishment. There's nothing more rewarding than getting X to work after hours of messing with your XF86Config file. Sure, it's only 320x200 with 256 colors, but it works, and that's what keept me going.
-Denor
I run Linux on a PowerMac and there are some caveats about it. I'll grant you that if you're doing CLI stuff there's no drawback whatsoever- but when you start getting involved with X, expect problems with the one button mouse. _I_ happen to think a one button mouse is an ideal pointing device, and that keyboard modifiers should be used to add to that, but almost everyone writing apps or window managers for X expect at least a two button mouse- and typically build absolutely indispensable controls into the 'extra' button. Like a root menu that lets you shut down... though if you can break into a virtual console and kill X using top, then you can get out of just about anything.
I always return to Window Maker on PPC Linux, because it's pretty easy to set up onebuttonedly. Go to the control panel and assign key equivalents for the root menu (I like using F1 and F2 for root and window menus).
As a final note, the most recent LinuxPPC suffers from RedHatItis, in that it is screwy on some machines. I had to boot singleuser and run Xautoconfig just to be able to _run_ it, and I still have not got pppd working like it worked on the older LinuxPPC- and I know to hunt DejaNews and am fearless of really arcane twisted geekery. To top it off Linux is _not_ faster to interact with than MacOS is- especially if you're talking Enlightenment with textured GTK- compare that with 'Kaleidoscope' for MacOS that's at least six times faster at doing the exact same interface tweaks. I suspect that E+GTK is so optimized for x86 that it runs that fast itself- on a PC. On a Mac, if you want that level of eyecandy in usable form, you have to stay with MacOS so far, because even on a 300Mhz G3 E _crawls_ when using GTK textures, and I know quite well it's not that slow on a PC.
Something's unoptimized in the state of PPC Linux, and it is certainly not the PPC (again, Kaleidoscope does all that at least six times faster than textured E, arguably more than ten times faster). Anybody have an idea what's going on with this? Is it gcc, egcs, or simply window manager/GTK code that makes heavy use of x86 optimizations and falls back to really crap code when they are not present?
There are a few things that matter in terms of preventing your code from getting out of hand (in my experience): Design and style.
Design... well, the importance should be obvious. I'm presently preparing to retrofit some new features to a program I designed before realizing they'd be needed, and doing it cleanly's going to be an interesting task. Perhaps the best test of a design is taking someone new, showing them your headers and asking them to explain how your program works. If they can tell you, you did the design right.
Style's often no less important. I've seen folks spend 170 lines* of (long, difficult to follow) code in something that could be done in 15 (and which I _did_ do in 15 lines, just to demonstrate).
But then again, none of my projects have (yet) gotten so large as to grow out of hand. Perhaps next time I find myself working on something sizable, I'll realize that even if everything starts out right you've sometimes got to throw one away, or at least fight it. So far, though, that hasn't happened.
* - This is slightly less impressive once you realize he used a style somewhere between K&R and GNU, spacing out his code far more than I do.
Seriously, Jon, I'd like to know. Well, I know what the point is for you -- you felt somewhat of an obligation now that you're writing for Slashdot, proving the naysayers here wrong, etc. -- but what would be the point of such a switch for someone not in that unique position?
After spending a whole year with it, PPP still isn't working properly for you, and you had to get someone else to put your computer together for you. For that much trouble, I was hoping to hear what it is about Linux that would be worth switching from your Mac. Well, I can't find anything more substantial in your article than "mov[ing] things around, kill[ing] a few programs, and ... checking the Term windows." What is one to make of this?
I think your article unintentionally makes a strong point that is often drowned out here at Slashdot: For many people, maybe even most, the faddishness of Linux just isn't worth it. You've been plugging away at it for a year now, but what do you really have to show for all that time spent, other than feeling like "[your] own particular geek now"?
As an aside, Jon, I'd also like to explain one reason why some of us get irritated with your articles, and it's not because you don't know as much technically as some people here (or more probably, as some people here claim they have). It's the way that you (mis)appropriate the word "Geek" to refer to just about about person with positive qualities. You write, "The term 'geek' is broadening and evolving daily, and is coming to mean different, complex and increasingly positive things to people." Now, I think if someone's reading material consisted only of your writings, that they'd agree, but that's because you seemingly use it to describe anything you like. Your statement near the end of the article seems to go along with this, too: "I am my own particular kind of geek now." The whole thing smacks of pandering to the crowd here, and I know that's what annoys a lot of people here, especially since you yourself rail against the mainstream media's constant pandering to other crowds.
Cheers,
ZicoKnows@hotmail.com
I've got to agree about the programming bit.
In all the years I've been programming, more times than not the program I'm writing is called, for most of its initial design "test", or more likely because I dumped the original test2.c.
You generally find yourself starting with an idea, trying out a data structure, and trying not to cloud your mind with that big bit that you can't quite get a handle on. Eventually you either find your way roung that boulder, finally get to it to discover that it was easy after all, or totally give up three quarters down the line.
I've always found that programming is A LOT like writing. The only difference is that you have to be stricter with you lexicon, clearer of mind and more patient in the rewrite (a process generally known as debugging).
If you've every smacked head long into a problem you can't manage to think round, you KNOW what writers block is about. And it's worse: the more stressed you get the least you can think straight, and the deeper the block gets.
The point I'm trying gamely to make is that very few of us of mechanical, logical automitons, most of us are working at three in the morning, having not eaten for 15 hours, desperately coxing the computer in a slightly-to-loud voice that if this compile works, with no problems, that you'll buy that 128Mb dimm you promised it, you'll like that won't you.
Mark.
Jon,
One day a newbie will complain about a problem he has with Linux.
This day you will be close enough to him to hear him groaning.
You will ask him what is the problem.
You will help him get his problem solved.
You will wonder how you did THAT.
You will realize that you are beginning to geekify, that what looked difficult and boring at a time is powerfull when mastered and fascinating.
You will wonder where is your old self, this naive man that had no idea how wonderful the world of computing is from inside.
You will not be a mere writer any more.
You will be a Geek writer.
"The obvious mathematical breakthrough would be development of an easy way to factor large prime numbers." Bill Gates,
It seems to me that the best way to learn something is to learn two of its type. I found a good growth of my knowledge of computers when I learned my second OS, but not my third. The same with programming languages.
You start to learn what is fundamental to the process, and what is just extra stuff added by the designer.
As I look down the list of all the things I am good at such as music, I see that the Two Of Everything rule applies there as well.
Good job to Katz, and anyone else who attempts a second of anything as daunting as an operating system, so that they may understand what's fundamental, and what's fluff.
I am glad for Jon that he finally paid someone to install Linux on a laptop for him. What a triumph. He is truly a geek now. He is the master of his technological domain. You are one of us Jon :)
But seriously, it is good to see that he has realized his limits, and that he would never be able to install it on his own. He is in fact a writer, and I am sure he has better things to do than wile away the hours tracking misbehaving daemons and tweaking vsync frequencies.
But here's what the fight about me being on Slashdot has always really been about: You don't need to be - and shouldn't have to be - a programmer to use and appreciate Linux, which is, to my amazement, every bit as easy and logical as my beloved Macs, once you get past the installation.
No, the fight has been over the fact that Jon is first of all a relatively poor writer. Suffering through some of his muddle-mind and meandering posts has truly be a harrowing experience at times. It is often difficult to get to the root of what exactly Jon is trying to say.
Secondarily when he writes about technology he exposes a level of ignorance that is generally not well respected by the highly technical slashdot crowd. It is not a matter of 'belonging'. As a writer it is about kwowing the limits of your knowledge and sticking to what you know.
I don't write authoritative papers on nuclear physics, because I only know a tiny bit about the subject. Similarly, Jon should not be writing posts on installing or using Linux, and attempt to make his self appear as an authority on the subject. This is what has rubbed slashdotters the wrong way.
-josh
You may hate the guy, but re-read this once or twice. This is the customer of the future. A man so driven to actually understand instead of just install his own software.
Jon seems to speak for a secret sect of our new installed base. Hurrah. Jon has left the establishment of MacOS for the disestablishment of the FreeOS. Think about the changes in thought process that that requires.
No coder inside him -- just someone who wants to extend the tool of the OS to its pinnacle -- in the way that he can best understand. We should be embracing him and those like him, and then extending them into the potential of their aptitude.
He is our future. Kudos Jon Katz. #30 TLS
The story we all like to hear.
:-)*
First off, I'm glad to see an end to those ultra-annoying question mark comments.
Interestingly enough, my KDE setup happens to have that Mac look as well. I find it quite funny when people end up maximising windows they intended to close.
With KDE (and GNOME), many, many people are getting into Linux. The cable modem installer came by a while back and grabbed my mouse to setup the IP settings. I told him that I should probably do that. He was dumbfounded when I told him that it was a Linux box. I guess he thought I had a dock on the right side of my screen a la Norton Utilities. It was, in fact my KDE bar.
Hey, my mom can use it, and prefers it...
Oh yeah, since you're on KDE, Jon, I'll have to make a couple of app recommendations:
- KNotes, quite useful
- KDeskView, which lets you get to those desktop icons covered by open windows really quickly. I use it constantly
- Geheimnis, an easy to use crypto app. The docking one encrypts/decrypts from the clipboard.
- If you ever learn C/C++, KDevelop is excellent
- KLyX, sort of a TeX frontend. What You See Is What You *Mean*
- KPackage gives you all sorts of nifty information about installed packages
and if you really want to impress people, get the XScreensaver distrib from www.jwz.org and put it in your autostart with the '-root' option. I have 'xmatrix -root' in there. It freaks people out. Maybe I should write a shell script to run a random one in there.
Sorry to hear about your network troubles, though. I'm sure someone here has some good suggestions, I haven't used PPP in years, and back then I used dip...
Katz's comments seem to be in-line with what quite a few people are saying about Linux -- once it's running, it's really cool. But the installation is hell.
Linux certainly isn't alone in the confusing installation arena. I forget the article, and I'm too lazy to go find it, but a certain columnist just recently expressed how even as skilled as he was, he spent quite a bit of time installing Linux yet quite a lot more time installing Win2k.
It seems to me that in order to get the most desktop share, you really have to get preinstallation deals, plain and simple. OS installation is going to remain just plain difficult as long as we keep the unchangeable pieces of the computer as simple as possible. This is a good thing -- because the less that's unchangeable in the machine, the more can be innovated in software.
My wife is an extremely competent Mac user, but she doesn't do installs. I do it since I'm the one with the half a degree and voluminous experience (mind you, I didn't say I'm smart -- I've just been exposed to quite a bit) :-).
Indeed, that was a fine homework you did. Perhaps you don't realise it, but you learned more about geeks through the whole process than you care to admit. We're not chest-thumpers, we're a community. There's some kind of secret handshake that actually takes the form of some technospeak, and then we're happily geekin' out.
You shouldn't feel as if having to resort to help meant you weren't being a geek. That's exactly the point! the fundation of the Open Source and Linux movement is one of help and mutual support! By exploiting these resources, you took true steps into the geek world. How does it look like from the inside?
See, I don't agree with you here. Not at all. We're not miracle workers; few of us have a methodology. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten to the middle of a program, and wondered if I could pull it off.
As a programmer and a writer, I can tell you this: writing and programming is actually quite similar. You begin with a vague outline, with a goal in mind. You research your bases. You enter the subject head-on, and hope you won't stray from the objective too much. And then, something marvelous happens: as you progress, your work takes a life of its own, and you don't feel as if you're directing it, but rather that it's directing you. There's an inherent structure that emerges, and in the end, it can just take you a step further than you imagined when you began the project.
Coders have the same relationship with words than writers have with technology. It doesn't mean they work their craft differently.
Again, congratulations on making the jump to Linux. And keep this fresh attitude about the geek culture. You'll see we're not wizards or a different species; we're not that hard to figure out.
"There is no surer way to ruin a good discussion than to contaminate it with the facts."