Date: Mon, 20 May 1996 17:39:49 +0100 (BST) From: Paul Richards <p.richards@elsevier.co.uk> To: andreas@knobel.gun.de (Andreas Klemm) Cc: msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au, kuku@gilberto.physik.rwth-aachen.de, freebsd-current@freefall.freebsd.org Subject: Re: /stand/ee Message-ID: <199605201639.RAA11154@cadair.elsevier.co.uk> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.92.960519191647.8455A-100000@knobel.gun.de> from "Andreas Klemm" at May 19, 96 07:20:46 pm
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In reply to Andreas Klemm who said > > > Learning vi is one of those things you have to do to admin an unix box. > > If command line editing and mode based editors isn't your thing there > > are other OS's you can use :-) > > Exactly this is one of the reasons why people move to other > braindamaged OS like hell (seen on the whole). > > We have to provide simple tools as well as the traditional > ones to make an OS attractive. > > Don't take me too serious ;-) But this is in my opineon one of > the reasons, why windows has won the battle on desktop machines. > > Better user interfaces and less expensive application would have > been a big plus for Unix operating systems ... Well, what I was really getting at is that Unix is not trivial to administer and having the default editor be vi gets you off on the right foot :-) Seriously, there's so much you have to learn before you can run an unix box that the idea that ee is going to stop people switching is rather amusing. People use windows because it *is* easier to use if all you want to do is word process and run spreadsheets. I think it's foolish to try and win over the masses to Unix. We should make it very good at what it's best at and I don't see that market going away anytime soon. The only possible threat is NT rather than windows. Trying to win over every desktop user out there is not a great idea. Incidentally, what editor does Linux use by default? If anything's winning the battle for DOS/Windows users it's Linux. Don't try and turn FreeBSD into something else or the core unix users will not feel comfortable with it and we'll end up losing not gaining users. I'm serious about the documentation issue. New users will not find any documentation on ee out there, all those beginner books talk about vi (and possibly emacs) so those who really have switched to unix and want to learn how to use it will have another hurdle to jump over before they can even start. -- Paul Richards. Originative Solutions Ltd. (Netcraft Ltd. contractor) Elsevier Science TIS online journal project. Email: p.richards@elsevier.co.uk Phone: 0370 462071 (Mobile), +44 (0)1865 843155
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