Win98 -- all kidding aside

[Jimmy Montague]

On Thu, 2008-07-31 at 15:16 -0400, Phil Sexton wrote:
> Jimmy Montague wrote:
> 
> > Well, I don't WANT a command-line solution. I'm not INTERESTED in a
> > command-line solution -- unless it fixes the GUI so it does what it's
> > supposed to do, e.g.: allow me to read, to write, to format, and to
> > rename floppy disks, and to perform those tasks with the mouse.
> 
>  From reading your posts, I am inferring that you don't want to have 
> the power of Linux available to you or to learn how to use it.  I 
> don't believe that you are quite ready to use Linux.
> 

I absolutely DO want the power of Linux available to me. I just want it
available to me through the GUI, as the power of Windows or OS-X is
available to users of THOSE operating systems. I used to be quite good
with DOS and batchfile programming. All of that went by the board when
the industry threw DOS in the trash (because it had a command-line
interface, remember) and went with the GUI. Now, having been using a GUI
for the last 15 years, I don't want to learn the command line again.
The command line is dead. Linux admitted as much when Linux decided to
go along with the rest of the world and fabricate a GUI.

So why doesn't the Linux GUI do tricks of which other GUI's are
perfectly capable? I've been hearing for years (from Linux people) that
the bad old days of command line programming are history. I've been
hearing about the elegance and the power of the Linux GUI. I believed
the things I heard, and so I am here. Now I find that the truth about
Linux is that Linux is the province of guys like you.  

> I suggest you use an operating system such as Microsoft offers.  It 
> has a very limited command line interface.
> 
> I haven't had a floppy drive installed in my last 3 boxen as they 
> are so unreliable and CD/DVD media are cheap and reliable.

Because you understand what I'm asking for, and because you know your
product is incapable of doing what I ask, you invite me to look
elsewhere. That's the same Linux help file I see every time I try Linux.
You must be proud of it because (along with your staunch adherence to
the command-line interface) it's one thing about Linux that never
changes.