Serious investigations into UNIX and Windows

[Giorgos Keramidas]

On 2004-10-25 11:15, TM4525 at aol.com wrote:
> You're also missing my point on this.  You don't have to get into the guts
> of windows to make it work. You dont have to be a programmer to tweak all of
> the applications, in fact I know more than one "windows tech" who knows how
> to set things up but really has no idea what the settings mean.

This is not really an advantage though, if you ponder a bit the implications
it has.  It basically means that your average "Windows tech" knows nothing
about the guts of the system (he doesn't need to, according to your
description).  Then, when a day comes that something breaks *badly* his best
suggestion is "throw away the entire thing, and start over with a bootable
CD-ROM of Windows XYZ".

This sort of "tech"-ness is considered dangerous in the UNIX world.

> Yes you have to understand the applications to some degree. But to me, its a
> different level of skill to install and maintain applications in a unix-like
> environment.

Agreed.

> There's also less documentation, fewer resources, etc. So its more difficult
> to be proficient in unix than in windows.

"Au contraire, mon ami."

I have always felt extreme frustration and angst at the lack of documentation
for Windows services, programs, procedures and everything else but the very
basic skills of clicking a mouse and moving around its pointer.

The documentation for UNIX systems like Linux and the various open-source
implementations of BSD has always amazed me.

If you have ever tried debugging a Windows installation that crashes part-way
through, about the same time the monitor displays a cute window with colourful
borders, carefully crafted GUI components and other useless trivia surrounding
a most-cryptic message like

	"Updating system files"

you know what I'm talking about.  The documentation and level of open-ness
that a Windows system has in cases like this is exactly zero, nil, zip, nada,
not-existent.  No matter how experienced Windows or UNIX user you are, there
is absolutely no documentation on debugging the installation process -- mostly
because the majority of Windows programs have their own custom "wizard-based"
installation.

On the other hand, UNIX programs that run on Linux or BSD are usually built
from source, have manpages, info manuals, README or INSTALL files that
describe step by step the installation, configuration and running of the
program, and a lot of other documentation material that I probably forget
about right now.

> Ask a unix tech to install a windows application, or ask a windows tech to
> install a unix application.  Which do you think has a better chance of
> success?

Generally, the UNIX technician.  Not because he knows a lot more about all
things related to computers and will instantly adapt to the Windows
environment because of some "magical" UNIX-foo he possesses, but because the
average Windows tech will run away screaming when he's confronted with a UNIX
terminal and a shell prompt ;-)

- Giorgos