Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1999 11:44:09 -0700 (PDT) From: Dirk Myers <dirkm@buster.dhis.org> To: Jeff Baker <Jeff.Baker@ACADHOTLINE.net.au> Cc: "M. L. Dodson" <bdodson@beowulf.utmb.edu>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: adopt a newbie program Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.05.9908271115480.83508-100000@harpo.dhis.org> In-Reply-To: <199908271726.CAA01419@bow.portal.net.au>
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On Sat, 28 Aug 1999, Jeff Baker wrote: > Hi ML, > starting to get it now.....this is a cult group, with deeply religious > roots, which explains the speaking in tongues (jibberish), and the > initiation ceremonies ....it's all making sense now....;-) > > My mistake, what I actually wanted was a secure (better than Bill$) intranet > server, didnt realise I needed to understand philosophy as well as > jibberish. :-) First off, what "philosophy" means in this context is (IMHO) something along the lines of "guiding principles of the system design". It may sound kind of esoteric, but these are the things you interact with in Unix that affect you just as much (or more) than the decision in Windows that you use the left mouse button for "basic" operations and the right mouse button gets you a menu for "extended" operations (at least on a right-handed mouse). Using Windows becomes much easier once you absorb that concept. Same way with Unix -- there are basic concepts that teach you what to expect. While you can muddle through without them, life is much easier once you internalize the way the thing is put together. You have to make some effort, here. I mean, using Unix without understanding the philosophy (and what we're really taking about here is the design of the system, not a something that's removed from day-to-day life as a Unix user) is like saying "I want to program in C, except that there are too many funny symbols and I really don't see why I should have to understand pointers". Or, "I want to get the best perfomance possible out of my car's engine, and I want to do it myself, but I don't want to have to know about all that octane and torque stuff". I understand that there's a huge amount of stuff to wrap your brain around. I hope you understand that this is exactly the reason the thing works so well (IMHO). It hasn't been dumbed-down. It seems to me that in tradeoffs between capability and comprehensibility to a novice (which is NOT the same thing as ease-of-use), capability will always win here. At least, I hope so. > BTW could any one slip a "how to setup an intranet server" page under my > door, so I can put it on the top of my reading pile.......that way I can do > some real work as well, and get to real reading when my reading age has > improved a little, reinforced by a positive learning experince. This would be better as a specific question. Are you asking about a web server? A mail server? An FTP server? A box for people to log in and do programming work? Dirk dirkm@buster.dhis.org To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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