[buug] Re: Jackpot!

[Nicolai Rosen]

On Mon, 10 Jul 2000, Rick Moen wrote:
> The usual obstacle to that is that they refuse to pay anyone to install
> and configure their systems, or to administer them.  They want
> installer routines to run themselves flawlessly, even on unbelievably
> crappy x86 hardware components (e.g., Lucent winmodems, controllerless 
> printers).  They want the default computing environment to be absolutely 
> intuitive and meet all their needs _without_ custom configuration.  They
> don't believe in system administration (if they've even heard the term).
> 
> It can't be done.  Even the best-tweaked desktop-oriented Unix, such as 
> Linux-Mandrake or Corel Linux, is necessarily configured in a somewhat
> generic fashion.  And x86 hardware will always hold pitfalls.  And
> Unixes cannot be totally automated, even after being custom-configured.

But it can be done. If the people who manufacture these computers
configured the install themselves & then burned it onto a CD so it could
always be fixed then this would work. If you're going to buy a custom
built computer from mom & pop then obviously you're going to have to know
something, but there's no reason why computers can't be preset to be
relatively idiot resistant.

> _Absent_ that, what tends to happen is that all those people with
> totally unrealistic expectations, and an attitude problem that the
> less they pay for assistance, the less they should respect it, come
> pouring into Linux newsgroups and user-group mailing lists, demanding
> fixes to their problems but refusing to learn to be self-sufficient.

Yeah, this will probably never change. Recently clueless fucks have been
coming into plug and asking questions answered in man pages or by using a
--help argument. I don't so much mind answering these sorts of questions
in person at install fests & the like, but it really does get on my nerves
when as much time as possible is wasted by using text.

> I think this may become my test-bed for effort to create an "InstallFest
> server" -- a standard set of Web pages and other machine setup for
> InstallFests, with mirrors of the most commonly-needed information and
> browsable information on available software, expertise, etc., which we
> can stamp out on CD-ROMs or offer over the Net.  A group would use this
> setup to set up a walk-up kiosk to introduce people to their InstallFest 
> and direct them to resources they might not otherwise know exist.

Not a bad idea, an install fest HOWTO would be nice.

Nicolai Rosen, nick at netaxs.com
http://www.netaxs.com/~nick/

If god had intended for people to smoke, he would have lit them on fire.