Baslinux mailing list

[qwms-avib AT dea.spamcon.org]

Day Brown wrote:
>
> What dont make sense to me is why an app dont offer to 
> include all the dependancies it might need in the download. 

Because that would double (or triple) the size of the download.  
Most users will find the dependencies they need on their own 
distribution CDs.  There is no need for every website to provide 
them.

> I dont every recall downloading a dos app and not being able 
> to run it cause it couldnt find a driver or .icn  file 

DOS applications tend to be self-contained:  unzip and go.  
You'll find some of those in Linux too, but more often a Linux 
package is a building-block, which fits together with other 
building-blocks.  Naturally, a newbie finds this building-block 
approach difficult, but in most cases his distribution's package 
manager will handle it.  Debian, in particular, does a very good 
job of this.  Slackware does not.  The philosophy of Slackware
(and BasicLinux) is to put control in the hands of the user and 
not baby-feed him.

> Seems like, if the browser is smart enough to run popups and 
> JAVA, it oughtta be smart enough to dialogue with the ftp 
> server to make sure that the platform already had all the 
> 'dependancies' 

Spooky.  I don't want a browser that smart.  I turn off popups
and java and I sure as hell don't want the browser to rearrange
my filesystem for me.  I want to be in control of my system,
not at the mercy of some two-bit software that thinks it's 
smarter than I am.  No thanks.

> network sysads are much more knowledgeable about their systems,
> so they know how to deal with it 

IMHO every serious computer user can reach that level of 
understanding.  Sure, 90% of computer consumers will never 
do more than point-and-click and look at eye-candy.  They 
will never understand their systems.  But BasicLinux is not 
for them.  It's for people who want to get their hands dirty 
and figure out how to control their systems.

> Linux seems to have Perl, C, C+, C++... and many other
> compilers, each of which has its own devotees...

Isn't choice wonderful?

> I began with punched cards and greenbar printouts 
> the next day. I remember thinking how cool the original 
> 25x 40 green 'Matrix' font looked on a 9" monitor. 

I too started with punched cards and really appreciated the 
move to 25x40 VDUs.  In fact, if our civilization declined 
and we all went back to 25x40 green screens, I would happily 
continue hacking on them.  But punched cards, no way.  If we 
regressed to punched cards (and two-hour waits for printouts), 
I'd throw in the towel and forget about computers altogether.

> Having to 'mount' drives is stupid to the single user. 

What's stupid about it?  The mount command is simply a way of 
attaching additional filesystems to the main filesystem.  It 
works well.  Drives can be automatically mounted (at startup) 
by putting them in /etc/fstab.  What's the problem?

It is true that the ramdisk version of BasicLinux does not
automatically mount the HDs (although it could), but that 
makes it safer.  If the HDs are not mounted, it is harder 
for the newbie user to accidently corrupt them.

Cheers,
Steven