Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
And many who drive cars don't.
I've been drawing the analogy between cars and personal computers for years. You can own and drive a car without being a mechanic or having a working knowledge of the principles of operation of the four stroke internal combustion engine.
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You and me both. It's uncanny how many similarities there are, right down to RAM timings vs ignition timing, air vs watercooling etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
But if you use a computer, you do to some extent need to be a mechanic and have some idea of how the machine does what it does to make truly effective use of it. We've come some distance since the "dreaded C:\> prompt", but we still have a way to go.
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Dennis
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Should a command prompt be "dreaded"? I can start the encoding process for a movie to mpeg in a Linux terminal window with one line, in less time than it takes Roxio to even start itself up.
Foreign languages (and programming languages for that matter) look like gibberish to the uninitiated because understanding a different language is to understand a different way of doing things, a different mindset if you will. Differences between operating systems apply as well because they are based on different philosophies:
-Windows aims to be all things to all people. That means geniuses and dolts alike, and you clearly understand the result. It's already installed and the learning curve is virtually nil since it's been around what seems like forever.
-Mac is "UNIX For Dummies".
This doesn't imply that Mac users are stupid, but a Mac UI will be a lot more familiar to the casual user/target Apple customer than a terminal window. Of course, you pay for it, and dearly.
-Linux is the consummate DIY OS, available in varying states of completeness. It can run on anything but a toaster (and they're working on the toaster), but since it's so customisable it requires active effort on the part of the user...effort which has been lacking since Win 98 came out. Further, the whole shebang is predicated on the open-source development methodology.
I once wanted to start my own storefront computer business; sales, repair, B2B, custom work, all the greasy kid stuff. I got over
that idea in a big hurry, after watching people whose machines I'd worked on do exactly the opposite of what I'd done to fix their machines in the first place, accuse me of not knowing what I was doing, then take the machine to someone else (who charged twice as much) to do the exact same thing.
As rude as it sounds, then, my favorite rule of engineering states that in order to use a hammer, you have to be at least as smart as the hammer.