[rescue] "I prefer a GUI"

[Wes Will]

First, this is - not - a flame, leave the asbestos shield alone.

Second, the Russian saying is, "O kusakh net sbora," or "About taste there
can be no argument."  Enjoy your GUI's.

Third, grab about any old box you can scavenge with at least as much CPU
horsepower as a "Pentium 133" (the more oomph! the better, of course; check
for compatibility first, but just about any Sun SPARC, SGI, or PowerPC
would be acceptable and preferred to the Wintel chips).  Install some form
of *NIX on it.  Pick one of the BSD's, one of the myriad Linux distros,
whatever suits you and the hardware, and anyone who wants to start a distro
war can just fuheddabouddat, too.  It's not WHICH distro you use, it's that
you USE ONE.  

Give it a network connection, and go to it, GUI and all, most of them come
with.

Yes, Gnome and KDE are resource hogs, and they try too hard to cater to the
M$ crowd.  Waah.  So what?  They work (more than they don't, and a heck of
a lot more reliably than Winsucks), and people who like GUI's, like using
them.  Nobody is making anyone else use them if they don't want to.  If
they don't fit the way you work, or your personal ideology, stick with
headless and serial ternminals and such; nobody's stopping you any more
than they are me.

Play.  Have fun.  Learn.  Enjoy the mouse and the graphics and all of it.
Won't hurt my terminal-using feelings one bit, and anyone who gives you
grief about your choices (rather than helpful and constructively-phrased
supportive criticism and assistance in making -better- choices) especially
when you're just getting started and learning, seriously needs a life and a
clue.

Accept the opinions of others, try them on for personal fit, adopt the ones
that you like and not the ones you don't.  Maybe you'll figure out what the
fuss is about, and switch to a terminal once you find your way around a bit.

But don't count on good documentation, there is none.  Insufficient
background, no step-by-step instructions for the assistance of the
neophyte, and all too often an attitude of "I figured it out, you're stupid
if you don't."  Just be patient, and ask people who've done it for a leg up
(after you've tried it once or twice yourself).  Try Eric S. Raymond on for
a quick look, he says it better than I.
http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cups-horror.html

I hope to make a bundle writing some decent manuals.  Check the bookshelves
early next year....I hope.

Have a frippin' blast with your GUI, chum.  Enjoy the hell outta the thing.
 Blessings be upon you and your house.  May your children wed young.  The
Source be with you, and any other silly platitude you'd like to tack on.

--
wwill