You have to bear in mind that OpenOffice, KDE, and like programs aren't very Unixy in the first place. They are essentially crossover tools for Windows and Mac Users who wish a familiar enviroment in an alternative OS.
The problem is that Unix is not merely an alternative to Windows, it is fundamentally different.
The optimum solution for the same problem is thus going to be different in both systems. As such, crossover apps aren't representative of how to do things in Unix. They offer the functionality for those that require them. That's a legitimate role and I use such apps where appropriate, but they aren't "Unix."
ESR's book isn't about apps. It's about Unix and how to do things in Unix. Not about how to do things in a Microsofty way in Unix.
OpenOffice is perfectly scriptable, although in a somewhat Unixy way, but that isn't really the point. OpenOffice is a particular app, not Unix. Below the level of the app Unix is designed to be run by scripting. Windows is designed to be run from a GUI with added scripting features.
In many ways the enviroments are inverses of each other, much as the East-West cultural issues.
In the "old days" Unix gurus learned Unix much as they learned their own cultures language and way of doing things. By osmosis. They knew Unix. To them it was simply natural.
Now we have more and more people crossing cultural lines and moving to Unix enviroments from a Windows enviroment. They get lost. They don't know the language. They don't know how to use the toilets. They can't order food in a restaurant, and tend to conclude that the language is inherently chaotic and unlearnable, the toilets are "stupid" and the restaurants unusable.
The people to whom ESR's book is likely to be most useful to aren't actually the Unix people (althoug h they should read it too. They might learn something), it is these people who are crossing over ( or just wondering what the hell it's all about anyway, much as people will read books on Japan even if they don't intend to visit there).
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You have to bear in mind that OpenOffice, KDE, and like programs aren't very Unixy in the first place. They are essentially crossover tools for Windows and Mac Users who wish a familiar enviroment in an alternative OS.
The problem is that Unix is not merely an alternative to Windows, it is fundamentally different.
The optimum solution for the same problem is thus going to be different in both systems. As such, crossover apps aren't representative of how to do things in Unix. They offer the functionality for those that require them. That's a legitimate role and I use such apps where appropriate, but they aren't "Unix."
ESR's book isn't about apps. It's about Unix and how to do things in Unix. Not about how to do things in a Microsofty way in Unix.
OpenOffice is perfectly scriptable, although in a somewhat Unixy way, but that isn't really the point. OpenOffice is a particular app, not Unix. Below the level of the app Unix is designed to be run by scripting. Windows is designed to be run from a GUI with added scripting features.
In many ways the enviroments are inverses of each other, much as the East-West cultural issues.
In the "old days" Unix gurus learned Unix much as they learned their own cultures language and way of doing things. By osmosis. They knew Unix. To them it was simply natural.
Now we have more and more people crossing cultural lines and moving to Unix enviroments from a Windows enviroment. They get lost. They don't know the language. They don't know how to use the toilets. They can't order food in a restaurant, and tend to conclude that the language is inherently chaotic and unlearnable, the toilets are "stupid" and the restaurants unusable.
The people to whom ESR's book is likely to be most useful to aren't actually the Unix people (althoug h they should read it too. They might learn something), it is these people who are crossing over ( or just wondering what the hell it's all about anyway, much as people will read books on Japan even if they don't intend to visit there).
It explains UNIX.
Read it with an open mind.