"Linux Gurus" That U Should Avoid

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: "Linux Gurus" That U Should Avoid
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2006 00:55:50 +0800
From: 國產 Wei-Yee Chan
To: undisclosed-recipients:;


Fellas, for those of U who are still considering whether to switch to Linux, the author of this article (http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm) will be the kind of "Linux Guru" that U might wanna avoid like the plague. He's right on many counts but it seems to me that he might have passed off many of his assumptions as absolute truths. But I do agree with him on some of the points that he'd made, especially about the Lego part, cos I built my OS the way I wanted it to be - GUI style. That's what U get when U put a Windoze "Power User" and Linux together. :-p

There's this question that's begs to be asked. Why was the mouse invented? Why is it widely used today? Why do people who have keyboards need to use it? Are they dumb or what? And I'd really love to see the author write a purely CLI clone of the Gimp, GNUCash, OpenOffice.....etc. Recalling Wordperfect and Dbase for DOS, why...even they had GUIs!

I don't despise the CLI, cos I'm well aware of its capabilities. It's what I use where no GUI frontend exists and it's also what I rely upon when things go horribly wrong, on both Linux and Windoze systems. In fact, it was the very thing that set me apart from ordinary users in the past. Sometime in 1995, the lines started to get blurred because of the launch of Windoze 95 as well as the popularity of Win 3.11. I could have chosen to be a diehard CLI advocate and clung to the past, and I'm glad that I didn't. Instead, I reinvented myself to changing times and secured my position. As such, the people who used to look up to me still do today.

For more balanced viewpoints, see http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2005-October/msg00747.html and http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2005-October/msg01099.html

Ten years ago, I would have written this email using Pine, but thanks to the GUI, I was spared the black and white (sometimes green when I got sick of seeing white) screen. My signature is still the same old ascii one that I used in the past, but now there's additional pretty graphics at the bottom. ;-)

After I send this email, I'll get back to my IRCII session on the other terminal. Oops...I forgot...I'm not in the lab anymore - I graduated from uni many years ago. Most people live in the present - Some people choose to live in the past. Well, to each, his own.