Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!timbuk!cs.umn.edu!msi-s0.msi.umn.edu!srcsip!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!male!mutchler From: mutchler@zule.EBay.Sun.COM (Dan Mutchler) Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms Subject: Re: Windows 3 criticism Message-ID: Date: 27 Sep 90 21:22:38 GMT References: <3401@gmdzi.gmd.de> Sender: news@male.EBay.Sun.COM Lines: 51 In-reply-to: gerry@frc2.frc.ri.cmu.edu's message of 27 Sep 90 15:32:10 GMT In article gerry@frc2.frc.ri.cmu.edu (Gerry Roston) writes: I guess I have not yet made myself clear, and I apologize. Windows is okay because you can fire up a DOS shell from within Windows, but this is NOT the paradigm that the folks at MS are envisioning. They want everyone to use Windows applications and to never to see C>. This is the case with the Mac, and this is what I am so very afraid of. I don't want my user-extensible, infinitely flexible interface taken away because GUI's are the "in thing" which will solve every- ones computer problems. To answer you question, X is okay because you normally use it to fire up shell windows. I am still using SunView and can not imagine working on a system without multiple windows. And for you, and myself I might add, an environment without a command line is a royal pain. I can copy files or change file permissions much faster in a cmdtool under Open Windows than I can with the OW file manager or any file manager for that matter. But there is a very large class of people that have problems their paychecks are riding on that do not involve flexibly "programming" their computer. They need to get a document done or a view graph out, or some financial data collected and they could care less about how the computer does it, they just want it to be done. Sort of like a car with an automatic transmission. I prefer a stick myself, but lots of folks just want to go, stop and steer and that is all they need to do to get where they are going. Taking away all options that only confuse "go", "stop", and "steer" makes their life wonderful. GUI's allow people that don't care how a computer works to focus on the problem they want to solve, which typically has nothing to do with the computer. The computer is a means to an end, not the end. I like Unix, I like GUI's, I like to get a lot done with minimal effort. As long as I can have both a file manager and a command window on the screen simultaneously, I can get all I need done. Fortunately I can use the "find" command without referring to the man page which probably more of a curse than a talent and not something a lot of people care to learn. -- Dan Mutchler | ARPA/Internet: mutchler@EBay.Sun.COM Sun Federal System Engineer | UUCP: ...!sun!mutchler -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Flying back from Lubbock, I saw Jesus on the plane Or maybe it was Elvis, You know they kind of look the same. -- Don Henley