[H-GEN] PPP and dial-on-demand during certain hours

[Ben Fowler]

(Note reply-to: being general at humbug.org.au vs Ben Fowler <b1.fowler at student.qut.edu.au>)

On Sun, 1 Aug 1999, root wrote:

> (Note reply-to: being general at humbug.org.au vs root <dougy at gargoyle.apana.org.au>)
> I've messed with NT for years and generally can get most things
> working acceptably in short very time, thanks to acceptable
> documentation
> and intuitive interface, however I can't say the same for any *nix I
> have used ..... I have been trying to come to grips with the weird
> commands, totally unintuitive approach to the simplest task, and the
> abysmally poor standard of most *nix documentation that will have to be
> rectified before it becomes acceptable to a wider range of users

Is this a troll? :-)  I _love_ holy wars!

It's not "weird" or "difficult", just "different".  With NT, the
developers have obviously gone to great pains to make the system easier to
set up by non-IT-specialist personnel.  UNIX-like operating systems do
make the assumption that the user is familiar with a few core concepts,
and once this happens, doing fancy and complicated things is not difficult
at all - all you have to do is read the copious amounts of documentation
lying around the system, and on the Internet.  I think Mr Suter made this
point before.  Compared to earlier MS systems, and indeed most UNIX
variants, your typical Linux system comes with stupendous amounts of
documentation.

A lot of people make the mistake of labelling command-line interfaces as
"hard to use".  I argue that while there _is_ an initial learning curve,
it affords great power, in that it allows you to get the tools do things
the original designer never thought of when s/he first wrote them.  _That_
is power.

I'd argue that for system/network administration tasks, Windows-style
"ease-of-use" is irrelevant.  You generally want trained and clueful
people operating your computers and networks - think about the sort of
people Microsoft is aiming NT at.  For me personally, popping up an xterm
and typing a few keystrokes under UNIX is _much_ easier and faster than
hunting through a pile of menus/directories to do something. 

BTW if you're stuck for documentation, try the following:

* look under the /usr/doc directory hierachy:
      * /usr/doc/HOWTOS   <--- most useful for a given task
      * /usr/doc/FAQ
      * /usr/doc/<some-program-name>
* use the "man" command (duh).
* use the Info help system - there is a mindblowing amount of
  documentation available in Info format.  

  "man info" will get you started ;-)

HTH.

- warmest regards,

Ben.

--
 Ben Fowler, 3rd Year BInfTech(CompSci, DataCommunications), QUT.
   e-mail:       ben.fowler at humbug.org.au  b1.fowler at student.qut.edu.au 
   vanity page:  http://azure.humbug.org.au/~zuul/ 

  "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn
    from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their
    apparent disinclination to do so."           -- Douglas Adams



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