Re: [SLUG] Microsoft backtracks (relpy to Travi's message)

From: Norb (niccademous@yahoo.com)
Date: Sat Jul 07 2001 - 14:44:32 EDT


I have to agree with Federico, Travis. The difference in your preference
stems from the environment to which you've been used to. You might have
used Linux for 4 years, but windows/DOS for 10. YOu're used to the
mentality of "One tool, all I need". Unix/Linux mentality is different
at the core and as such, will, bring about different tools with
different purposes stemming from differing lines of thought. That
attitude is just now starting to change in some aspects due to market
demand for "One tool, everything I need," the MS/Apple mentality
(mantra?) of monolithic software (I guess you could say the same for
Emacs, too, but I digress), which has been so long touted and cultivated
that it's now embeded into the consumer culture. To that end, the
UNIX/Linux crowd finds itself playing a the same game (power in
computing) with generally supperior tools, but differing rules to the
game - the MS/Apple rules - at which point all those powerful tools lose
out to who has the prettier uniforms. MS/Apple have cloth, Linux tries
to incorporate cloth into a plethora of materials.
Now, as an example, we could take the learning curve between Linux and
Windows - It's really about the same, all things being equal. I learned
Apple, then Learned Windows then learned Linux. The time it took me to
learn the basics on all of the was about the same - going on the net,
checking e-mail, copying, pasting, saving... In the end, I preffered
Linux because I was not LIMITED by the OS from learning. The underlying
assumption with Apple and Windows is "Users are idiots and we can't
alllow them to hurt themselves". The Linux/Unix assumption is "The user
is smart, but just in case they need the help..."

In short, you can see it this way - Apple/Windows programmers see
themselves as your superiors - they built your tools and you better
respect them for it (hence the entire MS/Apple cockiness we so often see
displayed). Linux programmers see themselves as your equals, which is
why you often get the "ellitist" attitude from them - they automatically
presume you know at least as much as they do. Windows/Apple insults your
intelligence, Linux/Unix expects you to be more than a mouse-clicking
monkey.

I'm still not sure where to put BeOS in all of this...

Norb

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