[ale] OT: Re: posting to Linux mail list

[Charles Shapiro]

Hmm. One interesting essay on this stuff is at 
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Biculturalism.html. This made me
think about how I view computers, the Evil Empire, et cetera and so
forth. It's wrong to think that folks who won't or can't use a CLI are
dumb or ignorant. They use computers for different things and see them
in a different way. 

Most of us spend most of our time solving problems on computers. Most of
the rest of the world uses them as tools to accomplish things  
unrelated to computers. The best way to solve a a computer problem is
with a command line. But once the problem is solved, using the solution
is quickest and easiest through a GUI.

The way we use computers affects how we think of the machines
themselves. Machines which break unpredictably and are hard to fix make
us crazy. But most of the rest of the world doesn't ever fix a computer
problem -- they rely on us for that. How easy a machine is to fix or
understand at a deep level is irrelevant to them. How often it breaks 
is also not important, as long as they can make it work long enough to
accomplish what they wish to do.

Microsoft, for all the evil we can say about them, is
strongly focused on selling to computer users. For good or ill, most of
the rest of us work and think as people who work on computers, not
people who work with them.  So Microsoft rules the client side. On
the server side, life is different. There, software _must_ be easily
understood and maintained. That's why Microsoft has only about 50% of
the market, in spite of a heavy push (Linux Journal Index). Further, I
believe that over time their share of this market will drop. They can no
more get their heads around our way than we can around theirs. 

-- CHS


On Fri, 2003-12-19 at 09:35, Geoffrey wrote:
> Christopher Fowler wrote:
> > On Fri, 2003-12-19 at 09:21, Geoffrey wrote:
> > 
> >>Christopher Fowler wrote:
> >>
> >>>Don't be so harsh ;).  At least give him some responses.
> >>
> >>Why?  As I noted, my primary concern regarding Microsoft is the way they 
> >>do business.  Until they address these issues, why should I help?
> >>
> >>Help them to continue to exclude other vendors and choices?  I think not.
> >>
> >>
> >>>#1 POSIX
> >>>   Need I say more?
> >>
> >>Embrace, extend???
> > 
> > 
> > Embrace.  Simply be compliant.
> 
> Right, you think they'll do this?  Look at their history.
> 
> > 
> >>>#2 A decent shell. 
> >>>   There are some people that use command line
> >>
> >>Uwin from AT&T Labs.
> > 
> > 
> > No.  shell must be installed with OS.  Delete cmd.com and stop
> > distributing it.
> 
> They have no interest in serving those who are sharp enough to use the cli.