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Sproaticus wrote in message ...
> With that assumption, I'll make one more just 'cause it's late. Noting • that
> UNIX was formed by a money-grubbing empire (Bell labs and later AT&T), and
> that it was buggy as all git out for the longest time (basically until BSD
> surpassed System V in usability), one might ascertain that had you been • born
> twenty years earlier, you'd hate UNIX. But fortunately, UNIX changed, went
> open, evolved into something not only extremely useful but also incredibly • fun
> for perhaps millions of computer hobbyists world-wide.
My current experience with UNIX is limited to IBM's AIX, but I find it
infinitely more painful to use than Windows for some of the following
reasons:
X-Windows: sorry, in many ways X sucks. There are TWO ways to do cut and
paste, and not all applications support both, result is that some
applications can't receive pastes from other applications. Also, though
there is some advantages to the select and then paste with center mouse
button, it is also annoying in that you can't keep something in the paste
buffer and then select something else. The place I really notice this is
using Netscape. I have to either remember to clear the URL first, then paste
in a new URL, or paste in the new URL and then make the correct selection to
clear the old one, leaving the new. No select the new URL, copy, select old
URL, paste. My life is made somewhat easier by an editor which works more
like Windows than others (the bad part is this is one of the applications
which only partially supports the two methods of cut and paste, it can paste
from anywheres, but can only paste into certain applications, fortuanately I
found a clipboard program which can accept pastes from it). Oh, then there's
the fact that every application seems to have its own idea about keyboard
shortcuts for things as basic as cut and paste (and they are almost never
the same keys as Mac/Windows, at least my editor does copy, cut and paste on
ALT-C/X/V, but Netscape uses ALT-C/?/Y for some bizzarre reason, and other
applications use the CUA Ctrl-INS/?/Shift-INS, the question marks are of
course because I can't remember the keys, gee, how usefull...).
Case sensitivity. Sorry, I see no legitimate reason for Xyzzy, xyzZy, and
xyZzy being different names. It's even worse in passwords.
EMACS. Sorry, stomping on another sacred cow. I have always hated EMACS,
ever since college when I used to get the cut buffer up, and couldn't figure
out how to get back to the file I was editing. VI is only slightly less evil
(but I've forced myself to learn it so I can have command retrieval, have
never figured out how to configure it to use the arrow key command
retrieval).
Oh, since I mentioned it, configuration. Sometimes DOS/Windows is obtuse,
but man, the number of options UNIX presents are a serious barrier to
getting started, and because so much is configurable, everyone has their own
way of doing things, which means that if you get Fred to help you set up
your machine, and two months after Fred has left the company, you need help
with your configuration, Jane has no idea how your machine works (and may be
lucky to even be able to type basic commands on your machine depending on
choice of shells and aliases - I don't think the people who create a "dir"
alias for "ls" are really doing themselves a favor).
Lotus Notes (ok, this isn't entirely fair - on the other hand, that is IBMs
standard for office applications now). The AIX Notes client isway behind,
and none of the office apps are supported. The result is that we all log
onto an NT server (originally with Wincenter which didn't get along too well
with Notes, now with Winframe). I've many a time thought I'd be better off
with a Wintel machine on the desk, run an X-Windows client, and get access
to the UNIX stuff that way (if our area bought into it, theoretically we
could use a build environment which wouldn't care if your desk machine was
AIX or Windows).
Another minor one. I like my IntelliMouse. I don't know if any thing like
that is available for RS/6000s (IBM does have the Scrollpoint mouse, so at
least IBM makes the hardware, just a question of drivers (and possibly
X-Windows support)).
I'm also amused that my new "high powered" RS/6000 has wimpier video than my
PC had several years ago, and in fact, as far as I can tell, you still can't
get an RS/6000 equiped to display 1600x1200 or higher (perhaps you can use
3rd party video cards, in contrast, IBM has offered Matrox Milleniums which
are capable of 1600x1200 on Aptivas). At least with the RS/6000 I finally
got a machine which is theoretically faster than my home machine (512 meg
RAM, 266 Mhz), but it ONLY has a 2 gig hard drive... I also did get a better
monitor than at home (definitely now that I have a P201, much better than my
View Sonic 20, before the P201, I had a P70 for a couple years, and I
considered that better than the View Sonic, very nearly as large, and much
better video quality).
I do sincerely hope that Linux manages to create a system which is truly as
over all useable as Windows. Windows does have its headaches, but from an
overall point of view, in my mind, Windows is more useable, and ultimately
that is what counts in a computing environment, how productive am _I_ with
it. Linux does seem to be picking up more of the Windows look and feel than
AIX has (and of course, as always with UNIX, you do have some choice about
what bits to use).
Frank
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Perl rules!
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| (...) Well, I think you're not going to find much love for AIX anywhere. (...) Oh my. I personally like the ability to at least have case retained, but can go either way on whether opening a file is case sensitive. But passwords sure as hell should (...) (25 years ago, 18-Jul-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Perl rules!
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| (...) Hey! I *like* seafood! What are you saying, Todd? :-D (...) I know. :-, That's why I chose the platform to pick on. (...) Okay, it's actually starting to make sense. You're morally opposed to the evilness of Windows, not its usefulness. I'm (...) (25 years ago, 17-Jul-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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