[techtalk] request for ideas

[Julia Frizzell]

At 12:44 PM -0700 10/11/99, Vinnie Surmonde wrote:
>On Mon, 11 Oct 1999, lisa daly wrote:
>
> > I must disagree with this.  GUI's are great if you
> > don't care what's going on under the hood.  But to
> > truly learn linux, you need the command line.  It's

[snip]

>Plus, the idea that GUI == easier is...hmm..not exactly wrong..a GUI can
>be easier under many circumstances, but a GUI is not necessarily easier
>under all circumstances.

To be honest, I think GUI might actually *confuse* newbies to Linux. 
I know it's confusing me. I'm thinking of tossing everything out and 
starting over, this time installing everything that I want and 
nothing that I don't.

I'm a relatively experienced computer user -- I do tech support for a 
living. I know Macs and Win9x really, really well. I've dabbled a 
*bit* with NT. I've used a unix shell with one of my online accounts, 
but never more than typing a few navigation commands and pico and 
pine.

But Linux *scares* me. (why, I've no idea.) I've asked questions 
here, and gotten answers that I didn't know what to do with. You make 
it all sound so *simple* -- just add this line to your xxx file, blah 
blah blah.

So I went out and bought books on the subject. I've not gotten a 
chance to read them, but already I feel more secure having them. Many 
people have told me to read various HOWTOs -- so I did. And was even 
more confused than before! HOWTOs, at least the ones I've read, all 
assume a level of comfort with the system that I don't have yet. Or a 
level of experience I'm nowhere near.

But back to the GUI question -- I think having a GUI interface lulls 
a newbie into thinking "oh, this is just like Windows/MacOS" and it's 
really not. While there may be graphics on the screen, Linux (at 
least in gnome) does not operate like Windows or the MacOS. And 
that's the point I'm at right now. Linux is installed, but it's still 
just sitting there on my old computer, and I'm using my Win98 box to 
do everything.

Now, I must say that I'm not *planning* on dumping Windows for Linux 
-- I like my Windows too much, and it has everything I want. Linux is 
really a way for me to have a firewall between my computer network 
and the outside world (cable modem arrives November 11th!!!!), but 
since I like computers and like to play with them, I'll probably be 
poking around more in Linux once it's all set up the way I want it to 
be.

Needless to say, Deb, I'd be very interested in helping produce your 
docs, or at least see them when they're done!

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Julia Frizzell                        http://www.netspace.org/~glyneth
julia_frizzell at brown.edu                   http://www.theblackroad.org
glyneth at netspace.org                                      ICQ: 8458071
"Many people hear voices when no-one is there. Some of them are called
mad and are shut up in rooms where they stare at the walls all day.
Others are called writers and they do pretty much the same thing."
Meg Chittenden

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