[mythtv-users] Ubuntu Edgy -> Feisty upgrade report

Brian Wood beww at beww.org
Wed May 2 11:32:29 UTC 2007


Brian J. Murrell wrote:
> On Wed, 2007-02-05 at 12:03 +0100, David Campbell wrote:
>> I'm not that bothered tbh, howerver you can see how daunting this would 
>> be for someone new to linux.
> 
> Right, but the point I keep trying to make that seems to keep getting
> lost is that if you are a new user to Linux, you should not be hacking
> around in configuration files.  New users should use tools until they
> understand what it is they are hacking around in.  The tools should do

We have a total difference of philosophy here.

A lot of people run Linux in order to learn it, and Unix in general. One
of the most basic things to learn is how to administer from the CLI,
because if all you do is use the "tools" you will wind up always using
them, and never "understand" what they are doing.

So, take an extremely simple case of somebody wanting to add a hard
drive and then export it via NFS.

If he's a good little admin he will RTFM in order to learn how to do
this the "proper" way, from the CLI, so he will learn and understand. If
he just wanted to use "tools" he'd be using Windows.

The problems is that now all the "Ms" he is trying to RTF are wrong. It
might be months or years before even some of them are brought up to date.

So he does what he is told to do and it does not work. Most people faced
with this situation, especially with something they are new to, will
assume that they have done something wrong, and waste a lot of time
before they figure out that they have not, if they ever do.

It didn't have to be this way. The change could have been enacted in
such a way that the behavior the books describe still worked, until the
user decided to change it, after being educated as to what was going on.

They should not have to stumble into the information in an unrelated group.

The kernel developers are  developing for themselves and similarly
experienced users, and have forgotten what it is like to be starting out.


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