[SunRescue] Q on "optimal" OS for Sun4c machines, now that Solaris 8 won't run

[CyrusM.Reedreedc at cc.wwu.edu]

Some of us "college" people still know the hardware too.  I hope I never
consider myself "too good" to work on and fix my own tools (i.e.
computers).  If I don't know how it works, or can't fix it myself (even 
if I don't *have* to), I'm less interested in using it.  Maybe I'm just a 
control freak and want to do *everything*. ;)  I started with Windows
(3.1) back on my first PC (which I built myself, with a little help), but
have been using Linux now for over two years.  My next project is *BSD,
which I'm hoping to get set up on a SPARC 10 that I was recently given on
semi-permanent loan (yes! real hardware!).  I'll agree that I've seen
quite a few CS majors that don't seem to know a whole lot about how
computers actually work; but I could be biased being a Physics major. ;)
UNIX is still used quite a bit in the sciences; in short-have faith, not
everyone has turned to the Dark Side. :)

-Cyrus

On Wed, 12 Jul 2000, Chris Drelich wrote:

> My friends, and myself, have all been computer geeks from an early age, and now
> in our late teens to early twenties, we are all unix users, and mostly unix and
> network admins.  We've been using computers all our lives and know how to take
> one apart and put it together.  We can  even do this with computers we've never
> heard of before, because we get the basic similarities, and our engineering
> skills help us fill in the rest.  Most of us never went to college or went and
> dropped out after a few days/semesters/years, some have been on "hiatus" for
> years now.  We know our stuff, do good work, and our well paid for it. 
> However, recently we have noticed that a lot of the people our age, who learned
> their knowledge through college instead of life have a different view of
> computers.  Sure, they can code well, and some of them even know a thing or two
> about UNIX.  Open a computer in front of them, and they won't know what to do. 
> Its a case of "We never learned that in college."/"Im too good for that, call
> tech support/technician."  I mean, back in the real glory days of computers,
> even the college educated ones could take apart a computer, sometimes better
> then the life educated ones.  Today though its not the case, and this is sad. 
> All companies I've been with have had the tech department divided among three
> lines: Hackers(college or life educated, they can take apart a computer and
> love to tinker), College Boys(college educated, they may think some computer is
> neat, but for the most part the are 100% Windows at heart, at most they might
> have built a computer once and brag about it a lot, they also used the manual a
> lot), Others(they may or may not have college education, but if they do, its in
> another field, they switched to computers after having decided what to do with
> their life once before, they are in it for the money or a love similar to the
> hacker.)  Either way, this current state of affairs is sad.
> Chris
> 
> Dave McGuire wrote:
> > 
> > On July 12, Roger Walkup wrote:
> > > Apple did the samething in the k-12 schools.  From my personal experience as
> > > an *old* (40) student and a part time worker in one of the tech offices at
> > > University of Wisconsin-Superior, the people who run the labs, maintain the
> > > network, and take care of the staff/faculty offices are pretty ignorent about
> > > unix of any sort and, in some cases, little better than power users of MS
> > > software (eg. they know how to install a custom version of Office 2000).  The
> > > computer science dept has bought *an* Ultra 10 which will be used as a server
> > > for compsci classes next year.  Most of the comp sci profs are big fans of
> > > NeXT, but that's dead.  A recent grad donated 4-5  classics, but they're not
> > > all running yet.  Looking around on the internet, I don't see much difference
> > > in other UW campuses.  It's a wasteland.
> > 
> >   Wow.  Is it possible that we are the last generation of people that
> > will know how computers actually *work*?  No computer *science* will
> > be learnt on Windows boxes, in my opinion.
> > 
> >          -Dave McGuire
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