From: "James A. Donald" <jamesd@netcom.com>
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 95 15:33:40 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: DONT READ -- Continuing James Donald flamewar
In-Reply-To: <9501280307.AA20529@snark.imsi.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9501291438.A12603-0100000@netcom4>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Notice that my thread title -- was humorous and self mocking
"Even more holy wars on unix", and that the 
articles that I posted were very funny.


Whereas Perry -- the salesman who refused to take 
yes for ananswer when dealing with Netscape --  is 
filled with passionate rage.

What is up Perry -- do you have piles, or is the 
sawdust and chickenshit diet putting your temper 
on a short fuse?

One can reasonably argue, as he is now arguing, 
that unix is a good modern development environment.  
I think he is wrong -- I was amused at how unix folk 
were impressed at how I casually put up windows gui 
interface for a throwaway program that would
only be used once.

But it is a position that a rational person could 
reasonably believe, and might reasonably argue if 
this was the GUI development list and not the 
cypherpunks list.

But to claim, as some have claimed, that unix is 
as user friendly as Windows or the Mac, when 
suitably configured -- is a sign of utter irrationality 
that shows that those who assert such a fantastic claim 
are incapable or rational thought or rational
discussion on the topic.

The letters I have received also give ample evidence that 
those who hold this view are incapable of rational 
discussion on the matter.

The Holy bible attitude to unix is illustrated by the 
fact that the most flagrant and outrageous unix bugs 
are held to be correct behavior by definition -- 
"Unix does this, therefore it is right, and if you 
destroy your files as a result of this behavior then 
unix is right, and you are wrong."

Now one can argue that unix has bugs and DOS has 
bugs, but unix people, or at least those of them 
so irrational as to make the claim that Unix is 
user friendly, confronted with a unix bug, proclaim 
that the bug is is right, and DOS is wrong for not 
having the bug.


For example I received numerous letters arguing that the
the unix "mv" command is more powerful than the separate
DOS "replace" and "rename" commands.

This is like arguing that a combination hairbrush and 
chainsaw is more powerful than having two separate
tools, one a hairbrush and one a chainsaw.  One can
plausibly claim that such a tool is indeed powerful,
but that is hardly the point.


-
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                                          |  
We have the right to defend ourselves     |   http://www.catalog.com/jamesd/
and our property, because of the kind     |  
of animals that we are. True law          |   James A. Donald
derives from this right, not from the     |  
arbitrary power of the omnipotent state.  |   jamesd@netcom.com