Subj : Is (Redhat) Linux just a cheap version of Windows?
To   : comp.os.linux.redhat,comp.os.linux
From : singburi_sam
Date : Thu Sep 02 2004 01:55 am

The subject line says it all.  Newspapers and magazines tell
me that Linux is the alternative for those who can't afford
the dollars for the superior Microsoft product.  Maybe they're
right: I notice the federal government is not so thrifty with
taxpayer dollars as to avoid Microsoft Windows in their space-probes
and attack submarines.

I find my Redhat-gnome environment very similar to Windows,
but I'd prefer to talk about an OS I used many years ago.  I'll
call it Version 7 because that was its name.

When I first started using Version 7, someone taught me a single
command ``man intro.''  From there I learned I could type ``man grep''
and later ``grep'' itself.  I learned about ``ps'' which led me to
``man 8 getty'' etc.  Before too long I knew quite a bit about
Version 7; eventually I was running ``adb -wk'' and all sorts of
fun stuff.  There was no Usenet then so no version7.questions to
help me, but I didn't need it.  Once someone showed me ``man intro''
I was self-sufficient.  There was no billionaire with a vested
interest in user ignorance: maybe that's why ``man intro'' existed.

Let me contrast this with my present system.  When I boot Redhat
the first thing I do when I get control is to send STOP signals
to magicdev and eggcups.  I stumbled on this procedure through a
combination of trial-and-error, and the techniques I would have
used in Version 7 when coping with a malicious user.

I have no idea whatsoever what the programs ``magicdev'' and ``eggcups''
are for, but it's either very important (they access the hard-disk
every second or two, forever, unless I send them the stop signal
-- this makes it almost impossible to do much with my machine) or
very inconsequential (stopping them seems to have no effect whatsoever
except to make the machine usable).  Well, they're not completely
inconsequential: ``Logout'' will hang the machine when they're
stopped, so I don't do that.  Version 7 had a ``shutdown'' command
and it seems to work with Redhat too (perhaps they just haven't gotten
around to breaking ``shutdown'' yet).

On Version 7, I could get a clue about ``eggcups'' with ``man eggcups.''
I know Mr. Stallman wouldn't approve of that, but ``info eggcups''
doesn't work either.  ``eggcups --help'' does have some effect:
it tells me, for example, to type ``--oaf-activate-iid=IID'' if I'm
interested in ``Bonobo activation Support.''  Hunh?  Earth to Redhat:
I was (vaguely) curious about eggcups; the ``--help'' option explains
zero but throws more meaningless brand-names at me!

If some kind soul answers my message, please don't tell me what, if
anything, eggcups and magicdev do -- I'm afraid my curiosity has waned
-- but do clue me in why there's no ``info'' or ``man'' for these
programs, though they start up by default.  I'd also be curious to see
the summary of Redhat's internal debate, where they decided their
customers needed to run, by default, programs with no apparent purpose
except to slow down the machine.

Obviously Redhat would do a much better job of emulating Version 7
if I stopped running in a windows environment.  I'd probably have
adopted that solution by now if I was 30 years younger, but with age
one appreciates comfort.  I *do* recommend that some of today's
youngsters try Version 7 sometime.  Better yet, please try to explain
to me why the world is so happy to embrace MS-Windows, the undocumented
eggcups, and all the rest of this CR*P.

Sam

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