Re: Restart after long silence

[Kevin Forge <forge@myrealbox.com>]

jfm2@club-internet.fr wrote:
> 
> > Two additions to this point.
> >
> > #1. /usr should not be a separate partition.  At least not on any
> > system operated by a novice.  For such users the '/' partition
> > should include the whole OS.  '/opt', '/var', and the rest can
> > be made into separate partitions after the user figures out why
> > he wants to do that.  '/home' could be made a separate partition
> > from the start however.  Maybe..
> 
> It is more robust but problem is that for a nvice it can be easier to
> reinstall instead of fix problems.  In that case it is good to have a
> separate /home.  Also there can be other reasons for alrtenative
> editors not being reachable like editor not installed or destroyed
> libraries.

Agreed.  This is why "/home" is the only one I considered making 
separate by default.
 
> > #2. The easy editor new users need dose not exist yet.  If it
> > looks and behaves like edit.com from DOS, then there is no need
> > to explain it's function.  After all, every popular GUI word
> > processor or text editor has the same behavior.
> >
> > Joe, Pine, Pico, Jed and a few others are nice. On average it
> > takes an advanced novice ( good with computers but doesn't know
> > these editors ) working on his own 30 minutes to figure out how
> > to use them.  That's with the Man page available.
> >
> 
> What commands he needs for bsic fixing in short files like config
> files tend to be?  Moving (arrows), deleting (the suppr key) and
> insrting (self inserting).  These don't need man page reading.  Only
> ones needing reading are opening a file, saving and exiting

Until you save the corrected file and exit the editor you have
not actually achieved anything :).  I help people with Windows 
all the time and Even those who I have to tell "Type dir. D-I-R..."
don't need to ask how edit works.  I say "type edit space 
config.sys and tell change the line that says ...".  They have
never seen edit.com before and yet they don't ask me how it works.
 
> > Turning a novice user with a text editor he doesn't understand
> > yet loose in '/etc' with root privileges is enough to make tech
> > support start wetting the bed.
> 
> He does not have another person for adminsitering the box (private
> user) so he is the system administrator and he has also has rm and cp
> for make support wet the bed, so editor is not biggest problem.  But
> if once the support tells hilm what has to be done, he answers how I
> do it and support cannot give him aclear answer then either support
> suicides or user is told to reinstall from scratch and eturns to
> Windows

I know :).  We tech support people develop a certain caring for the 
mental health of computer users in general.  Even those who don't 
pay our extortion like fees.