Ubuntu Drive Visible to OS X?

[Fábio Mendes]

On Wed, 2004-09-22 at 07:59 +0800, John wrote:
> Fábio Mendes wrote:
> 
> >I haven't read this essay, but there are some points that are
> >frequentely mistaken about command line interfaces. There roughtly are 2
> >kind of population that uses linux, the 1st being the people who (want
> >to) work _with_ computers and have linux installed in their desktop for
> >some reason. I won't say those people should better be using Windows or
> >Macs, because that's not true and linux DE's are quickly pairing up with
> >current mac and windows GUI. There are some rought edges, but I guess,
> >specially in gnome land, there's good will to change it, it has focus
> >and it's happening fast. 
> >
> >And, of course, there are the command line freaks. Linux is a great OS
> >for them, for obvious reasons. The command line has its advantages, but
> >is not for everyone. To be a shell master you'll need to do lot's of
> >documentation reading and some programming skills will also help. But to
> >fully control your machine, you have to be a shell master, the gui don't
> >show all (mind what you see is all you get). And that true in Macs,
> >Linux and even Windows (even with its pathetic shell capabilities). Of
> >course almost nobody needs that kind of control and ideally all common
> >routine tasks should be possible without touching the console, without
> >reading documentation, without diggin on deep menus with arcane names,
> >etc. But lots of old school linux users still advocates you should learn
> >some console skills cause it's the Right Thing, and it's indeed right in
> >the way that it makes you more productive in lots of tasks.
> >  
> >
> 
> Of course, with OS X you have both, a UI arguably (at least) the equal 
> of Windows, and the same CLI as on Linux (bash by default).
> 
> The utilities available vary; hdiutil burns CDs and DVDs and so replaces 
> cdrecord and growisofs, and it often has Unix itilities instead of GNU 
> utilities, but it's hard to argue the OS X experience is worse or more 
> limiting than Linux.
> 
Windows is the limiting one... I'm not saying that OS X is somehow
broken. Linux plays more nicely in the command line for 2 simple
reasons. 1st) distros generally assume the user WILL use the command
line and don't try to hide it from them. 2nd) The documentation for OS
specific tasks is more extensive for linux, the CLI culture is surely
MUCH stronger in linux, so it's easier to find someone to get answers
from. But don't get me wrong, OS X plays nice there, but it's not too
much it's focus. But even a mac user can benefit from learning to use
the command line. There are some tasks that you just can't do in the GUI
mode (like automation/scriptability) and some that are better done in
the command line (like editing config files), but of course those are
not the needs of an average user. The CLI is a step beyond in a
efficient use of the computer, to unleash all it's power, and other
nerdy goals, that few users want/need to take. I must put emphasis that
those kind of users are not the focus of ubuntu, and even people who
uses the command line a lot would like to have a working graphical
desktop to start with (and hell! lot's of things are only done in
graphical mode!)

-Fabio