LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: David Newall <davidn@rebel.net.au>
  To  : linuxsa <linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au>
  Date: Wed, 30 Jun 1999 12:32:05 +0930 (CST)

The more you use it the easier it becomes (Network Cards in Linux)

> It took me just under 40mins to install and configure two network
> cards into two Windows 95 computers and have them sharing CDROMs,
> printers etc. (and that was with a busted hand).

Curious.  It took me over two days to install one network card in
a WinNT 4.0 machine.  The message, "Insert Windows NT 4.0 Workstation
CD-ROM into drive A" was not particularly helpful given that it
offered no way to indicate that the CD-ROM was actually in drive D.
After only a few hours of effort the machine would blue screen of
death on startup.  After another couple of days, and with the use
of a second machine, I finally succeeded in getting the machine
running.  Fortunately the Windows registry is so well documented
that when Windows refused to install TCP ("supplier key already
exists") it was immediately obvious what to do.  Not.  The machine
does now work on the network, and honestly almost everything works
as you would expect.  Sent mail goes into the sent mail folder,
which I know because the file gets bigger, however Outlook Express
never shows those messages; but who cares about copies of sent mail?
Most DOS commands, such as more and edit, simply don't work.  Yes,
I think it's true to say that Windows is working just as one would
expect.

The problem, of course, is the "black box" mentality which says,
"Don't you worry about that, I'll make it easy for you."  As soon
as Windows fails to make it easy, you're almost totally screwed.
Lack of information, indeed the system actively tries to hide
everything (that's why it's a black box), is a bad thing.  Give
me an open and visible system every day.  Sure it might take a
couple of days to learn how to install your first network card,
but once you know, you're set for life.  (With Windows the best
you can hope is to be set until the next release.)

Let this be a lesson for our Linux community: It's all well and
good to go after the Windows market, but if that's done by putting
black boxes (read: guis instead of documentation) between the user
and the operating system then we are killing our chances.  Our
strategic advantage is that the more you use it the easier it becomes.
Windows, by contrast, gets harder the more you use it.

May black box GUIs rot in hell.

-- 
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