Re: Easy Installs

["Matthew C. Weigel" <weigel+@pitt.edu>]

On Fri, 2 Jul 1999, Thomas Vincent wrote:

> that is why Apple invented Mac OS X.

*Bzzz!*  Sorry, try again :-(

NeXT, Inc. created NeXTstep, which is the codebase from which Mac OS X
comes.  NeXTstep was as close to the Mac interface as Jobs could legally get
away with (this was in the same era as the Apple ``look and feel'' lawsuit). 
Apple then rehired Steve Jobs and later, bought his company.  Once that
happened, they just changed the GUI to be essentially the same as Mac OS,
which is what they wanted to begin with.

And then there's also IRIX, and 4dwm -- a *very* easy-to-use interface, and
the main one which still shows its X roots (KDE and Gnome aside for the
moment).

Mac OS X is only unique in the fact that it's something like IRIX or
NeXTstep sold on a machine that regular users can afford, from a company
that sells machines to regular users.  NeXT's machines were sold as
workstations, and ditto with SGI's.

>                                                  Unix with a Mac
> interface, and a command line. The elitist attitude is something that just
> doesn't fly. I don't like NT for several technical reasons I wont go into.
> Ease of use is a factor for management. Unix needs to be easier to use or
> it wont survive. Linux is a wonderful thing because it is introducing more
> and more users to Unix. It has mindshare, and is gaining market share. I
> use both Linux, and BSD based OS's. Depending on the task.

And I disagree -- a CLI-only, hard to use interface is, for some
applications, a must.  Scripting, for instance, or selective batch
operations, and similar powerful capabilities have yet to be matched by the
command line.

Sure, Mac OS X/NeXTstep/OpenStep have some really whizbang GUI programs for
network and system management, but when it comes to loading an existing
userbase into their databases, pointing and clicking is not the way to go
(As of OpenStep, at least, this was not a problem since they have scriptable
CLI programs as well).

Ultimately, it boils down to this: users should not have to touch the
command line to handle their accounts and go about their business (in a GUI
environment), and sysadmins shouldn't need to use GUI tools (whether as a
requirement for their OS or a requirement of their lack of knowledge).

> Elitism in Unix will be its downfall if it becomes prevalent.

Ummm... huh?  Elitism in Unix is the norm.  Or do you mean if Unix is
prevalent?  How will Unix fall further by being prevalent and elitist, than
rare and elitist?

 Matthew Weigel                                       Programmer/Sysadmin
  weigel+@pitt.edu                             Operating Systems Advocate
                         http://www.pitt.edu/~weigel