Linux etc.?

Except the fact that you were already a UNIX sysadmin professionally.
Others may not be.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Phil Launchbury

OK, let's talk a brand new user through the process of changing a line
in smb.conf.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Vic

Which is configured and set up how?

I run three Linux boxes here. But then I've been working with assorted
flavours of UNIX for the last fifteen years. Linux is OK, but it's not
The Answer To Everything. Nothing ever is...

It's a fucking joke, for Christ's sake.

 

On Thu, 4 Mar 2004 10:50:26 +0000, Nigel Eaton
<> bored us all completely to death with
wittery prose along the lines of:

There are a few distro's now that install this by default. Try
connecting to http://localhost:10000 or https://localhost:10000

If not, download and install from www.webmin.com. Follow the
instructions. It is really easy.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Cab

Well, yes. But you see that's kind of the point. For the *average* user
that's not going to be a starter. Not everyone has the time and
inclination to spend time finding this stuff out. They want (for better
of worse) to switch the machine on and start using it.

They *might* be persuaded to read the "Start Here!" flyer that comes
with the machine. Maybe even stick a CD in the drive on a good day. But
connect to http://localhost:10000 ? I don't think so.

 

In 1991? No I wasn't - I was a IBM S/370 assembler programmer..

I didn't start doing support of any kind till about 95!

I didn't start doing unix support until the late 90's.
By which point I already had 7 years of linux experience under my
belt

--
Phil Launchbury, Network & Infrastructure PHB
Triumph Tiger 955i
"I'm training the bats who live in my cubicle
to juggle mushrooms"
Remove sick person to email me

 

Installed as standard by quite a few of the current
distros. And doesn't really need much configuring.

Indeed. A games machine require Windows XP[1]..

Phil.

[1] My home network is a mixture of linuxes, Windows XP and Win2k.
With the odd OS/2 Virtual PC image sometimes running..

--
Phil Launchbury, Network & Infrastructure PHB
Triumph Tiger 955i
"I'm training the bats who live in my cubicle
to juggle mushrooms"
Remove sick person to email me

 

Be fair. For many users this doesn't happen in Windows either.
Installed XP on a machine on Monday (upgrade from 98). Classic
desktop, the works. All the user data is stored on the network.

30 secs after I walk away, he's on the phone
'Excell is not installed'
By the time I'd got back upstairs he'd found his spreadsheets and
started working on them. Depsite that he *still* claimed that he
'couldn't find anything'

The point I'm trying to make is this. *Many* users are just that.
They *use* computers in a monkey-see, monkey-do manner. They have no
idea what is actually happening. Change anything even basic (remove a
shortcut from the desktop to a spreadsheet for example) and it's
suddenly broken.
Typicaly users are able to work out what they need to do differently
simply because they've been using variants of windows for 6+ years.
Having been using *nix for pretty much the same amount of time, it is
just as easy, simply because I have the experience.

That is exactly what I'm talking about. They want it to be the same
as it was before. This does not mean that Windows 'just works' out of
the box. A little experience with alternatives and you may just find
that for many pointing a browser at the local host becomes just about
as taking as navigating to a network share to find their files.......

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
Alfa 116 Giulietta 3.0l (Really) Sprint 1.7
Triumph Speed Triple: Black with extra black bits
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Ok, but you were a nerd. Do you stand by your comment "if I managed
it then others can"? Do you see my point?

 

I suppose, being pedantic for a moment, he said others (some) and not all
others

 

IT'S A DEFAULT INSTALL!

Unless you specify otherwise it will be installed. Certainly on
Mandrake anyway..

I think you actually underestimate the sort of people that would be
doing this - if they have the gumption to try installing linux anyway
then I'm fairly certain that they have the ability to look at a URL..

Phil

--
Phil Launchbury, Network & Infrastructure PHB
Triumph Tiger 955i
"I'm training the bats who live in my cubicle
to juggle mushrooms"
Remove sick person to email me

 

Yes. And yes. Sure I'm a Mensa-capable genius who lives and breathes
technology (can you see the sarcasm here?) but most other people have
at least a basic ability to problem-solve..

Phil

--
Phil Launchbury, Network & Infrastructure PHB
Triumph Tiger 955i
"I'm training the bats who live in my cubicle
to juggle mushrooms"
Remove sick person to email me

 

That's a rather circular argument - "the sort of people who want to
install linux are the sort of people who can"

 

I want to install Linux and I can install Linux, but when I did it was
such a hassle to get it to do what I wanted so I gave up.

 

Any of the above, but my personal fave would be turn it into a pukka
firewall.

We run a P75 with <drumroll> 32MB of RAM and an (overkill) 500MB hard
drive. Smoothwall'd it and it's been churning away for a couple of years
now with nary a problem 'cept a system fan crapping out. Even /that/
didn't actually stop it, just made it a little quieter and a mite warmer.


--
| Wik -UKRMHRC#10- 2003 R1150GSA -DC#1 -'FOT#0 'FOF #39 - BOD#12 BOB#12
|# You don't believe me | "Experience is the worst teacher.
|That the scenery | It always gives the test first
|Could be a cold-blooded killer. | and the instruction afterward."
***** human response from wik at blueyonder dot co dot uk *****

 

Mmm, agree there... Turning it into a firewall, otoh...
--
| Wik -UKRMHRC#10- 2003 R1150GSA -DC#1 -'FOT#0 'FOF #39 - BOD#12 BOB#12
|# You don't believe me | "Experience is the worst teacher.
|That the scenery | It always gives the test first
|Could be a cold-blooded killer. | and the instruction afterward."
***** human response from wik at blueyonder dot co dot uk *****

 

Heh... All Windows lickers say that. To be fair though, it depends on what
you're used to.

 

G
--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
Alfa 116 Giulietta 3.0l (Really) Sprint 1.7
Triumph Speed Triple: Black with extra black bits
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

dixit Tim:

netbsd is coming along.

 

The version I heard said that the windows car would stop every few hundred
yards, evryone would have to get out while the driver restarted it, then all
would get back in and the car would slowly pull away again.

Whereas the unix car would whisk you off at high speed towards your intended
destination before inexplicably changing direction and dumping you outside
the library...