[plug]

[Christian]

On Wed, Oct 04, 2000 at 05:36:01AM +0800, tlee wrote:
> Yes thanks for that Greg - I did have a feint idea that what you say would be the
> case, as one would hardly go for linux if one wanted to have an easy life.

Actually, I use Linux because I want an easy life.  (In particular I use
Debian because I am *really* lazy.)  Windows is just to slow, awkward
and painful to use.  I don't have time to re-type the things that I
write because the operating system crashes out from underneath me.  I
don't have time to re-install every two weeks.  I don't have time to
search obscure (and unofficial) knowledge bases on the web because the
documentation that comes with the system is ridiculously deficient.
Frankly, I don't have time for Windows.  One of my colleagues up the
corridor is stuck using a Windows machine that crashes several times a
day and only successfully boots about half the time.  We're in the
process of setting up Debian on it and so far Linux has not crashed
once.  Last year, three out of four of my fellow honours students had
major problems with Windows and Word that cause them either lose work,
lose computing time or spend hours working around obscure bugs.  One
lost a month of writing time because he installed DirectX on his Windows
PC and the machine stopped booting.  Trust me, when you're writing an
honours thesis, a month is an eternity.

Windows is just too hard.  But I use Debian which, like I said, makes me
particularly lazy.  If I wasn't so lazy I'd probably use OpenBSD or
maybe FreeBSD but Debian makes it so easy to manage the software on a
system I just can't be bothered with anything else.

> Usually the hardest way works out to be the quickest way - rather like a mechanic
> in engine of your car. He does not walk around to the seat to start the engine -
> simply shorts out the starter motor and the engine bursts into life. Vi and Emacs
> will accomplish tasks without the added comlication of a word processor editor.
> But I don't suppose they are much good for word processing and the like? What
> say?

Well, a text editor creates ASCII files so, by themselves, they aren't
word processors.  But when combined with a tool like LaTeX, you have one
of the best text processing systems available at your fingertips.

Regards,

Christian.