Linux Arcana as the highest goal?
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| Author | Content |
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| r_a_trip Nov 24, 2010 8:15 AM EDT |
I don't know what to think about this article. It correctly points out that Linux is about the freedom of choice, but then falters horribly by telling everybody that you are a noob when you don't build up your own distro. I thought we were trying to shed the image of plaything for the masters of geekdom. I've been mucking about with Linux for 10+ years and I don't consider myself a noob (although there certainly are many Linux areas where I'm completely green). Why do we keep propagating the ideal that LFS is the users end goal? I know I am capable of cooking something up with LFS (I know how to read), but the question is why would I want to? I don't have exotic needs. I use Linux as my main desktop OS. The "ready made" desktop distributions are a huge time saver. I don't have to bootstrap my minimal environment, I don't have to build up my "productive layers" like DE and applications. I don't have to think about maintaining my own OS. Don't get me wrong. I applaud the existence of the option to roll your own. For those who need that level of control or who just like the idea of being free to do so, it is a wonderfull thing. What bothers me is that a very large group of Linux users is now labeled noob, just because they don't build up their hill from a grain of sand. What is wrong with taking a mountain and chisseling it down to a hill? In both cases you end up with a hill. Also, there is nothing wrong with living on a mountain. Whatever fits best. To all Linux users out there. If you know how to maintain your system with whatever tools make you feel comfortable and productive, you should consider yourself past the stage of newbie. p.s. Don't take LFS to literally. I used it as the strongest example of building your own Distro. |
| gus3 Nov 24, 2010 8:56 AM EDT |
Quoting:I thought we were trying to shed the image of plaything for the masters of geekdom.Without Linux as a plaything for uber-geeks, where else would the uber-geeks go? Windows? MacOS? Hardly. Okay, what about *BSD or Haiku? Good luck with your hardware, although FreeBSD is making strides in peripheral support. Linux is the first and best for the widest range of tinkerers. Super-adjustable, scalable to an extreme degree, and wide open. Some of those tinkerers see their collective task as making it usable for non-geeks. Kudos to them; accomplishing that task is beneficial to the wise. One does not have to open the hood (bonnet), to learn how to drive a car well. But opening that hood gives access to a whole new world. |
| hkwint Nov 24, 2010 11:21 AM EDT |
Reminds me of "Do you pine for the days when men were men and wrote their own device drivers?" The people who needed to write their own device drivers probably were noobs too, nowadays they aren't noobs anymore and they don't have to write their own drivers anymore. When I was a Linux-noob, I started building my own system almost from scratch, a kind of 'automated LFS'. Nowadays however, I wonder what's the use of it, though I have to admit I still use it. Once you're not a noob anymore, I guess you pick the tool which makes you most productive in the quickest way possible. So, from a pedagogical point of view, the post is way off. First, you learn subtracting / adding numbers by heart, then with a piece of paper, and only then are you allowed to use a calculator. Then you have to make some tables and draw some graphs with only a piece of paper, and only after that are you allowed to have a Graphing Calculator (like TI83). When you proceed to university, first you learn to do some symbolical calculus, and only after that you're allowed to use the most advanced system of them all: a (symbolical) computer algebra system, like Maple or a TI89. First you learn something, and then you use an automated tool to do what you learned in a much faster and less error prone way. Doing it the other way seems pretty stupid to me! |
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