Re: [PLUG] apt-get / rpm freshmeat article

[Jeff Abrahamson <abrahj01@molbio.sbphrd.com>]

On Sun, Sep 17, 2000 at 11:04:44AM -0400, LeRoy Cressy wrote:
> [a whole lot of well reasoned stuff about how choice is good and
> dumbing things down dumbs down people, too, and how we risk becoming
> like the Windows world, finally ending with the invitation:]
> 
> I'd appreciate any comments.

I can't help thinking of the early cars offered by Ford (the man, not
the big company). They came with something like 108 tools and a thick
manual describing how to take everything apart and how to maintain
everything. This was necessary, of course, because there was no
easy infrastructure at the time for car repair.

But early cars were not the sorts of beasts that would have found
their way into every garage. (I gloss over whether that's an ideal
goal.)

Today most cars are not user serviceable. From complicated and custom
electronics to components that have extremely tight mechanical
tolerances, there's just no way I want to try to maintain my own car.
I think most people are even less apt than me to want to do that.

It's true that this reduces somewhat the choices I have, but lots of
people benefit from the lack of choice. It's nice to have a choice to
have a choice, though.

I've been amazed at the degree of not getting it I've seen from
computer users. Both Mac and Win users will say things that dumbfound
me, but it's just that they don't think of things the way we do, and
that's *their* choice.

There are a lot more people out there like that than people like us,
and having them have a reasonable choice to use linux is a good thing.

If a package system is exclusive of other package systems, I'd be
upset. But I mix rpm and tgz all the time, and, if I understand
correctly, I could add other systems to the mix and be ok, if
sometimes inefficient in my use of disk space. So I don't care much if
the world moves more towards rpm or dpkg or whatever, as long as that
system and the world are ok with the concurrent use of other systems.


> Have a great day :-)

My goal, every day.

-- 
 Jeff Abrahamson
 610/270-4845
 abrahj01@molbio.sbphrd.com


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