[rescue] Wooohhhooo XP -> 0 to BSOD in 12min23sec

[Greg A. Woods]

[ On Monday, October 29, 2001 at 20:58:26 (-0500), David Rouse wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: [rescue] Wooohhhooo XP -> 0 to BSOD in 12min23sec
>
> My point was to suggest that the challenge is to provide a computerized 
> environment they can use that really does help automate thier jobs and 
> enhance the quality of the work they can perform -- but doesn't require 
> them to be Systems Administrators (which they really don't have the time 
> to learn).

Even "personal" computers need systems management, even the most
brain-dead simple ones these days.

If they're connected to the public Internet then they need even more
systems management.

I recently read a column in a very well respected magazine suggesting
that every home computer user had better start getting comfortable with
the idea of becoming a computer systems manager in short order lest they
forever lose more and more time, effort, and opportunity to the ever
increasing demands their unmanaged computers will place on them.

The only way to give people computers that don't need systems management
is to take away the "personal" (again).  That's easier than you might
think too -- indeed that's very much what some of the more advanced
"set-top" boxes are doing as they are very properly "information
appliances", not personal general purpose computers.

> I just don't think such an environment exisits yet

It sure as heck does!  It's called "Unix"!  It's been giving
non-computer people help in automating their jobs and enhancing the
quality of the work they can perform, all while at the same time not
requiring each and every one of them to be a systems administrator, for
over thirty years now.  These days it even comes with (or at least has
available) many of the same many-megabyte GUI-enhanced zillion option
applications available on so many personal computers.

Tomorrow I'm going to a lecture by Brian Kernighan.  It's title is "Big
Pictures or Tiny Detail:  What Should and Educated Person Know About
Computers?".  It's based on his experience dveloping and teaching the
"Computers in Our World" course at Princeton University.

Not so long ago we even had a thread here in this very forum (or was it
over in the almost infinitely more appropriate "geeks" list?) about how
much productivity is lost because of GUIs.

You don't have to learn very much about Unix and how it works in order
to use it effectively and productively.  Any semi-sentient person with
even the most minute amount of computer experience can learn enough to
be productive at daily tasks in a matter of a few hours.  Most people
find that learning to use a Unix system that way is so intriguing that
they'll continually learn more every day and as a result continue to be
able to enhance the quality of their work on an ongoing basis.

-- 
							Greg A. Woods

+1 416 218-0098      VE3TCP      <gwoods at acm.org>     <woods at robohack.ca>
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