[cobalt-users] Re: Re: Re: whois...'nt.

[Charlie Summers <charlie@xxxxxxxxxx>]

At 10:18 PM -0400 7/20/01, baltimoremd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx is rumored to have
typed:

> In some areas the twisted logic is well thought out...take majordomo

   Yuck. I can't imagine anyone wasting perl processes on list email. I'm a
strong SmartList proponent - it certainly isn't Listproc, but it's got the
smallest resource footprint of any of the mailing list managers, being
written in speedy and small C. (Although the bounce processing can eat
resources when AOL decides to send 50-60 bounces back at you all at once...)

   (Hum...I created a user this afternoon with useradd on the command line,
since I wanted a SmartList user that wasn't attached to a website - you don't
suppose that that is what caused the mail to fail, do you?)

> My contention is that they did it to palm off the concept that you don't
> need to know anything about the OS(See the sales hype) to own a
> RaQ...reminds me of the late-nite infomercials about setting up an online
> business.

   My argument here is that they could have accomplished the same goal while
leaving standard configuration files. I can point you to others who have done
it (albiet not on propriatary hardware).

> Side benefit....at 200 bucks per hour for support, a basterdized system
> could be a profit center.

   Ah...now THAT'S starting to make a great deal of sense.

> See logic above....they weren't thinking of you...they were thinking of
> Appliance Operators like me.

   See comment above - they didn't need to intentionally muck up standard
unix config files to make it an easily-operated appliance. My argument is NOT
that they made it simple to do routine tasks...my argument is that in doing
so, they intentionally made it practically impossible to do what they believe
to be non-routine tasks. (Look at their inability to provide a PHP 4 .pkg
file - PHP/MySQL are practically the most popular e-commerce duo in the low-
to mid-range market, and apparently none of the people being paid by Sun can
figure out how to install it on a RaQ.

> But, aside from a re-write of the GUI, or buying a vanilla server, you
> WILL have to don the mantle of the "Cobalt Way" and become one of the
> grasshoppers, even if you throw pepples.

   The trick is to learn to work around the self-imposed limits. You're right
that I have too good a deal to not use a RaQ, but I do _not_ have to settle
for doing everything the Cobalt way (which equates to: if Sun doesn't provice
it, you aren't allowed to do it.)

> Welcome to the wide, wonderful and logical(g)  world of Cobalt.

   You take way too much glee in saying that...   ;)

         Charlie