Re: musings

[jfm2@club-internet.fr]

> 
> Jean - et al
> 
> Linux? Should it be approached from a single users viewpoint? Let the user
> become familiar with the OS, then, if the user wants all the networking
> capabilities, let the user choose to add it? My first thought as I began to
> try to familiarize myself with the OS, "I do not need this network stuff."

Don't mix networking and servers.

You need networking for a very good reason: No networking, no way to
ask for help.  You have to reboot Windows (a bad point because my goal
is precisely to wean out people of Windows: that is why I included
software like xinvest) and to begin with that means you cannot do
interactive trouble shooting through IRC.  For mail and news you will
be describing symptoms from memory so there is a good chance you will
fail.

Now the difference between Indy and other distribs is that their
developpers think "Linux is a server just like Unix and ah yes we will
add a couple features for other uses" while I think "Linux is not a
server and Linux is not Unix.  The key user is the guy who is using
Linux in an untraditional use for Unix.  We have to 
provide games, artistic software or software for real life and ah yes 
software for file serving.  It just happens this is included in the
base distrib


> I still catagorize myself as a newbie, 3 months and I still can't get
> connected to my ISP. I am making progress.The pppd sometimes is configured

PPPD is not part of the kernel.  It is a daemon who will invoke the
ppp driver.

> into the kernel and sometimes not. I found the command 'insmod' which works
> at times and sometimes not, because I'm told by the kernel, it doesn't

This shouldn't happen except if you have more than one kernel.  Are
you using the original kernel or one you recompiled yourself?  In
addition you should use modprobe and not insmod.  Modprobe takes care
of modules who need another module to have been loaded first.

Have you tried to ask in the caldera mail lists.  They are open to
everyone.


> support it. This is Caldera OpenLinux 1.3, I am getting ready to toss it the
> Good Will store, though I should not because it would be passing ill will to

I tried Caldera and I really liked it.  However I never succeeded in
making LISA load the drivers, so I edited by hand the init files.
Despite this Caldera is very good.  Caldera loads modules at boot time
instead of loading them when the peripheral is used.

> someone. I'll try Red Hat, I have it on the way via CheapBytes. I choose Red
> Hat because of SEUL. When you have that CD ready to ship, I will purchase
> it.
> 

Problems will not magically solved.  It will be a distribution a bit
more realistic and fun but no magic.  Just "Designed by earthers for
earthers who will be using Linux on planet Earth".

> A GUI setup interface is what most of the computer users expect, as most
> users are just looking for programs to use and not networking capabilities.

There are some now.

> Until that can be accomplished by the people who do the work, I applaud your
> efforts, again, until that is accomplished, Linux will not be an OS for the
> masses.

Thank you.  It will be a long road.

-- 
			Jean Francois Martinez

Project Independence: Linux for the Masses
http://www.independence.seul.org