[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>)
 > <James.McPherson at mq.edu.au>  wrote:
 > > I don't know about the others on this list but I've been working with various unices since 1990
 > 
 > Thats the point exactly ..... what  about the thousands of people trying to
 > get somewhere with *nix who haven't had nine years experience???

they generally find documentation, be it online (manpages, HOWTOs, web pages
etc), or they find a book in a library or bookshop, and they read the
information available. Then they try for themselves, ask questions, re-read,
re-try re-ask etc. 

 > Whether or not the faithful are prepared to accept the fact or not .....
 > thanks to the arch enemy of all things *nix, a bunch of regular people can
 > now have computers they can use without the pre-requisite of three degrees,
 > and it can hardly be contested that there are one or three more Microsof t /
 > AppleMac operating systems out there than there are *nix ones. If a few of
 > these people are, for one reason or other, desirous of looking at
 > alternatives to the dreaded Microsoft ...... why do the "experts" feel its
 > essential to make the transition for these newbies as difficult as humanly
 > possible ?? Not everyone has the interest, need, or desire to become a
 > maestro in *nix ...... some of us just want to know enough to get the job
 > done, at least in the immediate future.

I'm by no means a maestro and I don't have three degrees (I take it that
that's sarcasm). I have an Arts degree (majors in History and Maths), half a
Science degree and several years of practical experience. As you might have
surmised from my postings earlier in this thread, I'm not the sort of person
who dictates that there is one and only one OS which is worthwhile. I'm more
than happy to say/suggest that the OS should not be the first option looked
at, rather that it should be the penultimate, just before hardware
considerations. 

I think what you have shown over the past few days is that you don't like
curiosity, you don't like exploring, and you don't want to have to think about 
what you are doing. This is deplorable. How do you expect to get the knowledge 
that you require if you aren't willing to explore? If you set yourself up as
an admin, you have to know things about how to admin, and to a large degree
you also have to have the right attitude towards the job. It doesn't matter
whether you admin NT, MacOS, MVS,VM/CMS, VMS or any of the myriad Unices (ever 
used a pr1me, sequent dynix, sco or pyramid box? they suck, but at least they
suck in a standard fashion) - if you don't want to get to know your operating
system, how it works and what its design philosophy is, you're fscked and will
never be able to claim promotion on merit or capability grounds. 

Harsh? yes. If you're not curious about things, you may as well go home and
sit in front of the idiot box all day. 


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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