Hello Debian Userlist Readers, I will wholeheartedly agree with all those who shout the virtues of Linux.
I will praise Mr. Tovalds for his most worthy accomplishment, and his great act of charity, a far more noble man than Mr. Bill Gates (and by the same token a lot poorer). I greatly admire this man for his act. But please, learned ones, don't insult the intelligence of "Mr. Newbie" by telling him just how easy linux is to learn, especially in an informal and unstructured environment. The debian documentation has improved by leaps and bounds over the last three months, and it is still doing so. Coming available online is much more information (if he strives to look for it) which will give the new comer a much better orientation relative to learning linux. Initially what the newcomer needs is some type of roadmap (a syllabus) to show him how to learn linux. From what I'm learning, the Debian Documentation Team is making a great effort to put something together. Those of you who have "cut your teeth" on unix type systems are at a great advantage using linux, and I envy you for it. You're where I want to be. For those of us who have leaned msdos first, we've found it a lot eaiser to learn. They teach msdos in quite a few schools, at all levels. More people use msdos systems, and therefore, it is easier to get informal instruction on msdos. It is also easier to get access to msdos systems. At this stage of the game, linux is something different (special), and the newbies are making the effort to learn the ground rules. That is why we are here. Do you think its easy for some of us to use the "net" to solicit help, expose our ignorance on a given subject, and then have someone tell us its easy, or give some quick sofisticated reply that flies right by us? Put yourselves in our shoes, how would you feel? It is not easy for the newcomer without ANY unix exposure to find his way around a linux system. There is a certain price to pay, the "learning curve"? I fully agree that all those who aspire, should pay the full price, but, help us, please "don't blow smoke", and tell us its easy. Asking for help on the userlist, and having a lot of fine people offering their resouces to rescue us (the newbies) is magnificent. I personally appreciate the effort they make to understand some of the "gibberish" we sometimes write, while trying to explain our problems. The gibberish is not by design, at this stage, we just don't know how to put it all together to fully explain the troubles we are experiencing. As the saying goes, many times the "learned ones" are making "sense" out of "nonsense", while trying to construct a reply to our questions. Again, I thank you, the "learned ones". In the last four months, I've read more than three thousand messages on various lists. So, I know of what I speak, relative to what appears on the lists, not of linux. Maybe after paying our dues, and having vaulted the early hurdles, we may change our perspective, but for now, linux ITS NOT EASY. Bert Conliffe -- Unsubscribe? mail -s unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] < /dev/null
