[members at lugog] Introduction:

[MJ Ray]

Damian wrote:
> [...] In Linux, that was out of the water. Anything 
> that went wrong needed the command line. And what do you put into the 
> command line? Who knows! It's all very simple when you know how, but 
> mind bogglingly impossible when you don't.

The command-line hasn't been essential for years.  I nearly only use
it to talk to servers, where it's much quicker than alternatives.

Yes, you often need text file viewers and editors to tweak things but
well, that's far better than messing with regedit and co.  And that's
when you can actually find out what the problem is.  Windows seems
miles behind when it comes to logging and debug output.

Mind bogglingly impossible if you don't know how?  The online manuals
on most distributions are far better than Windows Help files.  I
started out knowing nothing and look at me now... sysadmin to stars...

And then...

> I use the command line a fair bit now, but the less it's 'needed' the 
> better *IF* the end goal is to compete with Windows. If that's not the 
> end goal, then the uber-geeks can keep happy on the command line. 

what a disappointing demonisation of people who read manuals when
things go wrong.  "uber-geeks"?  Really?  :-(

> [...] I've had a 
> MythTV home cinema system for years now, but a couple of times with a 
> couple of the really nasty problems that have taken weeks of forum 
> support to iron out, I have been VERY close to packing it all in and 
> installing Windows media centre.

I don't know what the really nasty problems have been, but media
systems are fraught with trade secrets and user-hostile providers who
would much rather everyone used something they control (like Sky+ or
maybe Windows Media Center if that has similar lock-outs) instead of
supporting open standards.  It's a challenge I've not really taken up
properly yet.  So far I've left it pretty much as what works works and
what doesn't doesn't.

> The main point I was wanting to make was the first one. Suddenly there 
> was one distro with a huge user base rather than hundreds of distros 
> (way too much chose for someone starting with little/no knowledge) with 
> much smaller user bases.

Which came first?  Chicken or the egg?  If you look at the graphs I
linked a while ago, it seems like maybe suddenly there was an
*impression* of a distro with a huge user base, rather than actually a
huge user base from day one.  A triumph of "buzz"?

Regards,
-- 
MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op.
Webmaster, Debian Developer, Past Koha RM, statistician, former lecturer.
In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
Available for hire for various work http://www.software.coop/products/