mlb.com

[Shaun Oliver]

*SNIP*
It's just
that until now, no one has really been forced by Microsoft to seek out
other alternatives, and people are afraid of switching to an OS that
they
don't know about.
*SNIP*
the above statement is quite true.
despite the fact that unix and it's many and varied spin offs are a much
better solution for a stable computing environment, there's still the
matter of hand holding and unix don't do that.
my partner's father has just installed red hat 9.0 and is trying it out
just to see how well he can handle it. he knows a good deal about
computers but has never dealt with unix or linux in any way apart from
watching me deal with it and swear at it from time to time.
I can see both sides of the coin here. on one hand, the migrating users
would like things to be less cryptically labled in the gui environment
and possibly placed in some logical order or structure so as they could
find things alot easier. however, too much hand holding breeds
complacency and ignorence.
but, like I say at least for the newbie, unless there is a windows 98
like interface for x, they won't go near it mainly because they're too
afraid they'll break something.
and again, not everyone would know how to set up a cache only name
server for dns if they choose to use that linux machine for the internet
by way of a gateway etc.
moreover, unless they're incline to learn linux, and learn the
commandline all over again, they won't want to touch it with a barge
poll.
my argument is however, if you want stability forget about windows. you
ain't gonna get it there.
use a real os instead.
but again, it's each to their own. we need to go out and spread the
word. and as we've done for each other here, be prepared to answer some
really dumb questions. and if necissary, go and do the thing they want.
it doesn't take much to help someone. we were all there once.
that's my $0.02 worth.

-- 
Shaun Oliver

"Before I knew the best part of my life had come, it had gone."

EMAIL: shaun_oliver at optusnet.com.au
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