Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 16:39:01 +0200 (SAST) From: Patrick Hyland <pbh@iafrica.com> To: Tim Gerchmez <fewtch@serv.net> Cc: freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: How important is "the OS?" Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980625160328.3535B-100000@paradox.cpt.tech.iafrica.com> In-Reply-To: <3.0.5.32.19980625033446.00809730@mx.serv.net>
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On Thu, 25 Jun 1998, Tim Gerchmez wrote: > Somehow, Unix has to catch up with this paradigm if they want any > significant portion of the desktop, not just the server market. X-windows > is a *bare beginning*, but if you think our "average user" is going to want > to edit configuration files by hand to get the desktop look and act the way > they want, you'd have me rolling on the floor laughing. Then they shouldnt be using FreeBSD, Linux or any other flavour of UNIX. Nobody forces someone to use a particular operating system. If joe average is happy with Windoze 95 and thinks thats all there is - then good for him. His PC may crash occasionally and he may naively think that PC's are supposed to crash from time to time. In his little universe it doesnt matter. If joe average decides one day that he doesnt like the fact that when Netscape crashes on his system it brings down his whole operating system and looks for an alternative, thats great too. If he then decides that learning to use UNIX [or vi *grin* (no flames please)] is too difficult and goes back to windoze, nobody cares. The Unix community certainly doesnt care. They dont need users like him. My point is FreeBSD [read Unix] is an intelligent operating system. It is geared at an intelligent user. An intelligent user is a user with an enquiring mind. > Those of us who find the OS itself of interest (everyone on this list) are > obviously still around, but I think we're a dying breed. Desktop computing > is changing rapidly, and Unix is lagging far behind. This is a bad thing. > Does anyone else agree with me? No I dont agree. Granted I work for an ISP - so I wouldnt call the work I do desktop computing, but if I was working elsewhere, id still have a FreeBSD machine. As I said, FreeBSD will never be aimed at your average user - but this is not a bad thing. > Like many others on this list, I enjoy OS's and computers > (hardware/software) FOR THEMSELVES more than for what you can do with them. > I like to edit configuration files (well... I can put up with it anyway, > and am not daunted by it). I enjoy building and repairing computers. I > like experimenting with installing and configuring OS's. These things are > more interesting to me than watching multimedia clips, playing video games > or doing word processing and data entry. > > Folks... what do we do about kids entering computing in 1998, whose first > experiences involve Win95 and playing arcade games using DirectX? Who's > going to be around in 20-30 years that cares any more about Unix, other > than a few lost souls in their 60's who earn millions a year because they > can still administer a Unix system? I think Unix is going to be around for a long time to come. The majority of serious production servers on the Internet are unix based. There is tons of documentation available about Unix for people interested in operating systems. This documentation will still be availble well into the future - as will be Unix. If theres no-one around to care about Unix in 20-30 years [somehow I doubt it], who cares. Windows might not be around either. In fact - whose to say some other nazi doesnt take hold of the OS market leading its minions to believe their product is the only thing. As I said - Unix is aimed at the intelligent user and if no-one cares about it in 20 - 30 years then they dont deserve to care about it. Patrick To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message
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