[H-GEN] Re: Unix vs NT [long; both informative and then religious]

[James C. McPherson]

(Note reply-to: being general at humbug.org.au vs "James C. McPherson" <James.McPherson at mq.edu.au>)


Doug Young writes:
 > (Note reply-to: being general at humbug.org.au vs "Doug Young" <dougy at gargoyle.apana.org.au>)
 > 
 > Something of interest to command line junkies .... the Quensland Justice
 > Department still uses DOS / Wordperfect 5 and from what I hear they badly
 > need someone who appreciates command line stuff  :)


Hmm - gratuitous comments from somebody who professes an interest in linux and 
unices, has problems, cannot be bothered to spend even the barest minimum
amount of time researching the problem and possible solutions, and accuses
members of humbug of not having a life. Not something that one should do, even 
while wearing asbestos underwear.

As I remarked earlier today, spend the time to figure out what's going on by
reading the _copious_ documentation that is supplied _as standard_ with linux.
Sure, you may have to read it a few times to figure it out, and scribbling
diagrams on paper as well as _having a go_ and writing down what worked and
what didn't will take time, but you'll end up learning what you need to know. 

If that is such a scary thing that you feel the need to retreat into "I'll fix
it by re-installing the OS" then one might surmise with a great degree of
confidence that you are only trying to be buzzword compliant in your attempts
with linux. 

Yes, I did see the smiley above, but I also saw your other posts before I read 
that one. As it happens, there are _good_ reasons why people and government
departments stick with technology like Dos+WordPerfect. How about
    1) it has worked before, and will work for some time in the future too,
    2) there are an _awful_ lot of secretaries and other para-legal staff out
       there who are incredibly productive with WordPerfect - training and
       learning curves cost a lot of money you know,
    3) WordPerfect was (and probably still is) the mainstay of the legal
       profession because of the features that were written into it from the
       beginning, and quite possibly,
    4) the Qld Justice Department amongst others faces budget cuts or
       financial rearrangement of one sort or another on a yearly basis. Why
       would they want to try to implement an NT "solution" (or even a unix
       solution, since WP runs on a large variety of unices, including linux)
       when they may well not have the money in their budget for it?


Doug, have you got the message yet? RTFM and RTFF (substitute "fine" or
"fscking" depending on your state of mind at the time of reading), and _have a 
go_, and for crying out loud, you have to really put some effort into fscking
up your linux/unix/vms(!) box to require a complete reinstall of the OS. 


cordially,
James C. McPherson
--
Unix Systems Administrator            Phone: +61.2.9850.9418
Office of Computing Services            Fax: +61.2.9850.7433
Macquarie University   NSW    2109     
AUSTRALIA			     

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