I used Linux exclusively for most of 1995 and 1996, or thereabouts; back then, I found it to be a total nightmare. It
took me three weeks to get X to drive my monitor at better than 640x400, even though Windows did 1280x1024x16
without flinching. I spent weeks fighting IRQ conflicts, trying to get PPP working, trying to find a three-button mouse
that worked, and all manner of gross indecencies which do not bear mentioning in polite company.
I understand that here in this modern world, things are much better; but at the time, it was the most pathetic
computing environment I had ever had the misfortune of being shanghaied into trying to sysadmin.
(And the fact that some of the problems I had were hardware problems did little to make me feel better; regardless,
they were problems that were easier to solve under Windows, and problems that I would not have had at all had I
been using a hardware/software combo from a ``real'' Unix vendor. I've heard all the apologies and excuses, I know
the litany well.)
See, unlike most hackers, I get little joy out of figuring out how to install the latest toy. I don't get much sense of
reward from having discovered how to get the Foo card to coexist with the Bar card. As far as I'm concerned, that
crap is a solved problem, and not worth revisiting. That's like banging rocks together and being proud that you've
re-derived fire from first principles. It's boring.
So finally I talked my boss into getting me an SGI Indy (which I've since replaced with an SGI O2) and life became
joyous again. Because SGI actually knows something about building user interfaces, and about making it possible to
administer a machine without being a member of the technological priesthood. For but one example, I was able to
install and format a new disk on this machine through GUIs, without once having to run ``man'' and try to remember
some random arcane command that I last used in 1986.
Self-acclaimed "power users" over-happy to solve the same "problems" (like configuring modelines) again and again, getting pride in that they mastered another useless config option,
are plainly idiotic. Computers where invented to do the repetitive stuff for us, remember?
*key programmer of the Netscape browser (up to version 4), XEmacs, and Xscreensaver (among others), check him in www.jwz.org
That may be true, the only problem is: What is a stronger motivation for excellence? Prestige or greed?
I would bet on prestige. The world runs on prestige, not money. Money is just another means
to acquire prestige (and thus, get the girls!).
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Self-acclaimed "power users" over-happy to solve the same "problems" (like configuring modelines) again and again, getting pride in that they mastered another useless config option, are plainly idiotic. Computers where invented to do the repetitive stuff for us, remember?
*key programmer of the Netscape browser (up to version 4), XEmacs, and Xscreensaver (among others), check him in www.jwz.org
That may be true, the only problem is: What is a stronger motivation for excellence? Prestige or greed?
I would bet on prestige. The world runs on prestige, not money. Money is just another means to acquire prestige (and thus, get the girls!).