Another rant

[Ken D'Ambrosio]

On 2017-11-16 19:51, Colin Watson wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 16, 2017 at 06:36:45PM +0100, Xen wrote:
>> You'd hope stuff would improve or that your life would become more 
>> solid.
>> 
>> But during the 2000s Linux distros were pretty calm and well 
>> maintained.
>> 
>> Now everyone rushes to the next big thing and doesn't actually finish 
>> what
>> they start....
> 
> Perspective is a great thing.  I recall people saying much the same 
> kind
> of thing in the 2000s ...

I remember, 'back in '95 or so, reading through the xf86config file, and 
corresponding HOWTO, praying to God I wasn't about to smoke my monitor.
I remember how the audio HOWTO ended with, "And if you're still having 
trouble, fire up Emacs, and type 'M-x doctor'."  Which fired up an ELIZA 
clone.  Helpful, that.
I remember when the networking HOWTO for the 3c503 offered to pay $5, 
cash, for anyone willing to send in the EPROMs off the card, because the 
module maintainer hated the cards so much.

All things being equal, I'm pretty content with Linux these days.  Still 
some bumps here and there -- but any time I start to get frustrated, I 
remember just how much fun it is to remove viruses from Windows.  (NOTE: 
I'm not one of those nearsighted linux fanbois who think we *can't* get 
viruses or worms; we can.  But even if we do, there are mechanisms that 
can help get behind the scenes -- 'strace', 'lastcomm', 'find / -type f 
-executable -mtime -1 -size +1c', etc.)

Just my two bits' worth...

-Ken