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The guide doesn't quite achieve what it sets out to, i.e. showing a GUI user some concrete examples where the command line gives you more power. Instead the rea
by zeteo 15y ago
The guide doesn't quite achieve what it sets out to, i.e. showing a GUI user some concrete examples where the command line gives you more power. Instead the reader is presented with lists of fancy ways to access a shell (you realistically expect a Unix beginner to rent a linode.com server?!) and with semi-comprehensive listings of the root file system (as if e.g. "/opt, package-manager installed files" is some place where a beginner might profitably venture).
- jsmcgd 15y agoAgreed. I don't think the language is right for newbies: "What is computing with Unix? Unix is a family of operating systems and environments that exploits the power of linguistic abstraction and composition to orchestrate tasks." That isn't a question a newbie would ask or an answer they'd understand. Instead, I think the following would have been (less accurate but) much more helpful: "What is Unix? Unix is just an operating system, like Microsoft Windows or Mac OS." Know your audience!
- scott_s 15y agoHis audience are CS students: As a professor, I worry that the upcoming generation of programmers is missing out on the Unix experience, and with it, the power it grants. Your answer is too simple for them.
- bobds 15y agoI think you overestimate CS students.
- scott_s 15y agoI don't think I do. I've TAed many CS majors. That level of simplicity is borderline condescension.
- burgerbrain 15y agoI don't think so either, but I do think that leaving it just at "Unix is an operating system" is likely to generate a good more confusion along the lines of "wait, I just have linux, where can I get unix?", "what do you mean linux is unix-like?", and of course "I thought I could use OSX for this". It should be strongly mentioned that "unix" best describes a class of operating systems including "proper" unix systems like OSX and the "unix-like" systems like linux. It's also important to divorce the students from that layman perspective of "operating systems are all that graphical shit I see on my screen". In fact, I think that might be the most important part.
- hellrich 15y agoMac OS X is a kind of Unix.
- sciurus 15y agoIt doesn't help that "/opt, package-manager installed files." is wrong.
- maw 15y agoI don't remember what LSB says, but in my experience it's neither uncommon nor unreasonable for packages not provided by your OS vendor to install into into /opt.
- sciurus 15y agoTrue, you can download a deb or rpm from somewhere and it might install into /opt. However, /bin, /etc, /lib, /sbin, /usr, /var are all places where "package-manager installed files" go.