Xnix
Thanks to the Open Source CommunityI began to use computers when I was 45 years old. I started using DOS, after few months bought a Mac and in the same year assembled my first PC with win95. That weekend I found inside a computer magazine an strange OS called Linux, or Slackware (difference was not so clear). Next week, together with my friends Guido and Luca we had our first linux box up and running.
In the years ahead my relationship with the Open Source Community through Linux and FreeBSD influenced a lot my habits of thinking.
- First
- thing I learned was that computers just do what you say them to do. They do not understand no language but their own. If the manual say ``Alt z'' for next page, you can only do ``Alt z'' for next page. Later I realize that this interaction ``man to machine'' is not different from ``man to man'' interaction. The answer you get is the meaning of your request.
- Second
- when you interact with a computer what you really do is to follow the rules the programmer constructed to get some result, say writing. So, each time you see a warning ``Do you really wan to delete this file'' is a caring programmer that prevents you to make a mistake, just a man helping you to make your work.
- Third
- that marvelous RTFM! One of the best piece of education around.