Yes, but if one learns how to use computers without being exposed to GUIs,
as I believe many of us have, one becomes very proficient.
Peace... Sridhar
On Thu, 12 Jul 2001, Tony Duell wrote:
IMHO, more clueful/knowledgeable people can do useful
work on less
powerful computers.
For example, if I _had_ to, I could get useful work done using only a Z80
box running CP/M. I'd not want that as my only computer, but I'd find a
way to configure some kind of word processor to drive a printer and
produce reasonable documents. Sure it wouldn't be as nice as LaTeX, but
it would get the job done.
And I could certainly write useful programs on it to support my hardware
hacking type projects.
And I could certainly do useful work on just about any unix box, however
old. That includes all 386+ PCs that can run linux.
But most people can't. They can't write special software (which generally
_is_ requeired to use older machines -- there just aren't ready-written
applications for a lot of uses). They can't wire up special cables or
make interfaces to hook them up to other devices (like printers). Heck,
they'd even be lost if faced with a command line....
-tony