Re: emc (TOME)

On Mon, 11 Oct 1999 20:53:46, batwings@... wrote:

>>From: "Darrell Gehlsen" <darrell@...>
>>
>>Hoyts real question:
>>Why do you guys insist on using free software when you could be buying it
>>from me?

>The questions was a real one. It wasn't motivated by a desire to sell
>anyone anything. I'm in here by direct invitation, by someone who knows the
>subject to be interesting to me. I participate in a number of forums and
>always offer best advice in them. You OTOH havn't as far as I can see
>offered any insights at all or even asked a reasonable question. Your only
>purpose was it looks like to flame me. The above will be the last note of
>yours that I ever have to decide to TRASH by hand, think about that. Goodbye!!

Your choice, of course, but aside from the terse sarcasm (which EVERY
vendor in the US anyway has to learn to live with, and rightly so), I
have to side with the suspicions raised by the people in the fore on
this "Linux...why bother" thread yous guys started. In EACH case, the
proponents seem to be someone who's announced themselves as having
products to sell or plans thereof. And just to add fuel to the fire, any
time someone tells me they "participate in a number of forums and always
offer best advice", I wonder if that fellow doesn't have a rather
enlarged view of himself. Just a personal observation learned over time.
And by the way, in a public forum like this, what the hell do you mean
by saying you're "in here by direct invitation". If someone suggested
you join in, how does that make YOU some kind of higher lifeform? That
sentence and the one following it, lauding your own advice, say
mountains about your assumed self-importance and self-worth.

When I read the "Linux/EMC is toooo hard" thread when it started, I kept
hearing this subliminal message something to the tune of "why are you
guys struggling with Linux & EMC, why not let the 'experts' do that for
you". Something like that. The one guy that suggested someone should
burn a universal CD that would work slam-dunk, which he'd be happy to
pay for?... I thot of the old phrase we used to use on our managers, "if
someone says to you, I want software I can just plug into any computer
and play without difficulty, hand them a lollipop". Heh.

But enough of the sarcasm; let's get serious. I'll tell ya why I'm DEAD
SUSPICIOUS of anyone saying "Linux/EMC is too hard, let's let the
WindozMT (oops, meant NT :) & Commercial CAD/CAM vendors do it for us".
Because I think the BIGGEST thing underlying Linux AND EMC together in
spades is CONTROL of our destinies thru *accessible* KNOWLEDGE. With
Linux and EMC, all that's keeping any one of us from being in near
complete control of bug fixing and basically our OpSys and CAM
programming destiny, not to mention a free/great/deep education in the
process, is our own native interest and intelligence. NO FRIGGIN "trade
secrets" crap and boy's club barriers. THIS I consider nothing short of
a MAJOR revolution. Now certainly it doesn't TAKE that depth of plunge
to just USE these tools, but that's the depth of it's POTENTIAL.

In the early days of computing (yeah, my first was an IBM 1620),
everyone I think actually believed there needed to be a Hitler to keep
everything compatible, and without the equivalent of the Gates of Hell
to keep everyone "inside", pandemonium would ensue. We should have had
more confidence in ourselves, frankly. What drives people to collaborate
and agree on standards (whether it be Linux or EMC) IS the desire for
ease of use and interchangeability. That's a NATURAL drive/urge; we
don't need some "Gawd" imposing their "benign dictators" will on us in
order to make that happen. Obviously Linux has (and will have) it's
genetic deviants, but has this caused the whole effort to dissolve into
undifferentiated pond slime? I trow not. Successful adaptation and the
coalescence of many able collaborators is what drives and feeds the main
artery.

In sum, I thot Linux's emergence was miracle enough in this age of
magesterially authoritative 'entremanurial' dominance, but the existence
of such a stellar piece of work as EMC coupled up with Linux, is just
WAY too magnificent an opportunity of the first order in this just
barely emerging age of computerized mechanization, to let some piddling
concerns about a few problem parts configurations causing some tantrums,
get in the way. Good gawd, men, stand back and look at the FUTURE
potential of things like Linux and EMC. Have you no vision?

I'll put it to ya simply; when you have the source code you're no longer
a slave to anyone/anything but your own sloth. And when a bunch of
people of similar notion collaborate together, such a voluntary
consortium, like this group as an example, has just *enormous*
potential.

And if you complain there's currently too much LinuxEMC traffic, ignore
it and start some thread on what YOU think is so much more important.
But of course, if it happens that your pet subject get's little
response, I DO hope you'll be the gentleman and take a hint.

Gar