Debian testing install

[Ric Moore]

On Fri, 2006-11-24 at 13:09 -0600, Ronnie Gauthier wrote:

> Linux needs to go even further in the direction of your rant. All
> those willing to put up with the learning curve are for the most 
> part already users. To gain further inroads on windows, you do 
> agree that is a good idea, dont you? Linux needs to be able to get 
> to the point and click masses. If that means dumbing it down then
> I guess so.

Hrmmmmm... just how is it dumbing down if the gui is done right? Isn't
that what computers are for??? Otherwise we'd all have 64 switches to
throw for input and a paper tape punch to read the output. But, oh no!
We've wussed out with KEYBOARDS! G D CRTs! Not manly at all, oh hell
nah... I want to carry a stack of punch cards down the stairwell, past
the rows of dimly red glowing tubes into the basement where some grad
student is chained to the maw of the beast, to accept your sacred
offerings and submit them with much waving of chicken feet.  

Jeeeezzz... get real. A really well designed click option instead of
garbal /# :_(345) -t + LEFT$(223) </> echo$(str$)ASCII
is reducing a complex task to a simple one... what computers are for,
for cris sakes. WHAT COMPUTERS ARE FOR! I'm sure the flint knacker felt
offended when the bronze age came around, but damn. A really well
designed graphical user interface just means that those who have other
gifts can do what they are meant to do with their lives and that is not
necessarily a lessor calling or -dumb-. 

I'd hate like hell to be under the knife of a brain surgeon who had to
spend the last three years pursuing the learning curve in order to
satisfy some notion that they have to, in order to be -smart-. I'd
rather he point and click on that CAT scan and stay in the business of
thinking like a Brain Surgeon, instead of a Coder. For damn sure. I'd
rather who ever created the script to his point n click be really really
smart in his craft so that my Doctor can be really really smart in his
own. Dumbing down? I do not see that at all. A computer is just another
tool, like a shovel or pen or player piano... it can do work, convey
information or bring Joy. There are people who build tools and people
that use tools. No one is more or less intelligent because they are on
either end. Just different, with differing Gifts of Purpose. That's all.
Ric