At 01:29 PM 4/27/00 -0600, Tim Uckun wrote:

>
>Well I guess it depends on who the target audience was. Until Linux came
>along I don't think anybody considered the average joe off the street a
>target audience for unix. It still remains the domain of the sysadmin for
>the most part. Now that linux is taking off there have been numerous
>attempts at binary distribution products like RPM or APT all with varying
>degrees of success. It's still a new thing for the unix world though. As
>for myself I don't mind recompiling at all. I like the fact I can add or
>delete parts or make changes to source code to meet my needs (if it's
>possible). In a perfect world I would not need to recompile to do that but
>I don't live in the perfect world.
>

Among the various perspectives on Linux:

1. Linux is an inexpensive, fast, robust operating system
that runs on cheap, fast, commodity hardware that doesn't
fight back.

2. Unix should have won in the first place. Let convince
the world that wallowing in unnecessary complexity is
a virtue.

The things I hate most about Linux is the attitude that I have nothing
better to do than to learn everything about a tool in order to use it.

Case in point. RPM -- the cutting edge of Unix ease of use. To
quote from the guys who invented it:

"Before trying to understand how to use RPM, it helps to have
an idea of what the design goals were."

I don't care about the design goals. I don't care about understanding
RPM. I don't care about RPM at all. All I want to do is install some
software. On Windows, I cram the disk in, click install, answer the
same damn 7 questions that I've answered a million times before,
reboot my machine 9 times, and I'm done. I didn't have go to Borders
to buy a $39.95 book on now to install Apache or Samba or whatever.

Computers are too damn complex to have to understand everything
about them. I understand vast amounts of how they work and why
they work and who did that and why C. quit DEC to write NT and why
the VMS ACP runs in process context and why C. refused to use
the call instruction and why interrupt latency is so long on a
VAX and why IDE was better than STC-506 and it's a gross and stupid
waste of brain cells. Who cares? As a developer, sure, I can
make better long term decisions so you guys still have an Interbase
after 16 years of managerial malfeasance. But I don't want
Interbase users to have to understand any of that crap.

Interbase is for people with a problem to solve. I intended to
put DBAs out of business (Ann says I should say I wanted to make
them more productive. This isn't true.) Now I want all system
administrators to be replaced by robots than can change tape
cartridges.

Interbase should be so simple to install and use that people
will use it in preference to their VCRs. If they need to hire
a DBA, we haven't done our job. If they need to hire a geek
to install it, we haven't done our job. If they need a system
administrator to tune it, we haven't done our job.



Jim Starkey