LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Alex Garner <alex@netcraft.com.au>
  To  : Glen Turner <glen.turner@aarnet.edu.au>
  Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2000 12:31:40 +1030 (CST)

Re: Self help

> Alex Garner wrote:
> 
> > I think that UNIX is more user friendly and easier to learn that windows
> > will ever be.
> 
> I can't agree.
> 
> UNIX lacks consistency.  Alt-W closes a window in Netscape,
> but not in Applix (which wants to use the Ctrl key).

UNIX is not completely consistant, but it is more consistant that
windows is. The consistancy is just one reason why it is therefore more
user friendly. 

And don't be fooled into thinking userfriendly = GUI. It does not. You
comments below seem to take that angle.

Userfiendly means relying less on quirks and more on system wide
consitancy

`command --help`
`command --version`
`man command`

As a very very basic, but still fundamental example.

> Single-unit system administration is a crock.  Linuxconf
> does this, but not the other.  If you use it on Samba or
> sendmail you'll probably end up trashing things rather
> than configuring them.  And the command line isn't
> much better -- it seems that none of the files in /etc
> have a common format.
> 
> Compared to the Mac, Linux is a user interface disaster zone.
> 
> I'm not saying that this is the way things have to be,
> and I'm not saying that there aren't people working on
> fixing the UI, but I am saying that the currently shipping
> distributions need serious UI work to simply not to look
> embarrasing.
> 
> What Linux does do wonderfully is large-count system administration
> and provides a marvellous programming platform.
> 
> So it's great if you want hundreds of solid desktops, all
> remotely and administered.
> 
> And it's good if you want to run something where the quality
> of the program environment matters -- servers and experimental
> applications spring to mind.
> 
> But the major advantage of Linux is simply its minicomputer
> heritage.  Multiuser, multitasking, memory protection and
> so on are all designed in.  Compare this to Windows, which
> has grown up from microcomputer OSs and where multiuser
> operation is still very dodgy.  Or the Mac, where they've
> just got true multitasking.  Linux simply does the OS basics
> very well, and this shines through for some applications.
> 
> Unfortunately, the infighting of the UNIX vendors and their
> "I can do this better" wheel-reinventing attitude is also the
> major reason for the horrible UI.
> 
> And at the moment, these vendors are holding us back.  Linuxconf
> would work heaps better if the appropiate parts were maintained
> by Sendmail Inc or the Samba Team.  But because Linuxconf hasn't
> been picked up by other UNIX vendors, those groups have to provide
> alternative (and thus inconsistent) graphical administration tools.


Cheers

Alex!

-- 

Alex Garner <alex@netcraft.com.au>

NetCraft Australia
Phone (08) 8370 3650
http://www.netcraft.com.au

...I should have taken the blue pill.