Re: annoyances digest, Vol 1 #73 - 5 msgs

>Sadly, the lessons of this text are seldom taught in Universities. On a
>recent tour of colleges with my son to select a computer science school, 
>had a conversation with the Dean of Undergraduate CS studies at a
>prestigious school. The Dean told us that the school focused on Linux,
>Solaris and Java. I asked what my son might learn about new technologies
>like C# and .NET during his four years at the school. "Nothing, if we can
>help it!" was the answer.

Sorry, dont mean to troll or anything, but I would say this is a topic of 
deep argument and flamewars among people who really understand UNIX and 
people who are relative newcomers. If you are an experienced UNIX user 
then I apologise for all this.

For example, some of the utilities/programs have to be maintained as they 
are to maintain compatibilities/portability between similar systems 
(Solaris/Linux as an example). Again, if you use this stuff day to day, 
you will understand the quirky behaviour and appreciate why it was 
introduced.

As for the CS Dean, sorry but he is absolutely right. First of all C# 
and .NET have nothing to do with Linux/UNIX, their design/implementation, 
or annoyances. C# and .NET are not "new technologies" they are merely 
a device invented by a corporation to further their monopolistic policies and 
ambitions. .NET is a direct respone to JAVA, which was eating up their 
market like anything. .NET allows them to have a greater stranglehold 
over the devloper.  

Also look at it this way: if you consider Linux/JAVA to be more low level 
stuff, learning it will enable your child to easily grasp higher 
technologies. It is much more harder to go from .NET to .CAPUCCINO if all 
you know is high level .NET style stuff. Knowledge of low level stuff 
enables easier transitions. Things like Linux allow your kid to poke into 
the very heart of the system and mess around and thus, learn something. 
.NET and related stuff will only allow her to make "higher level " 
software (web pages, apps, etc) which, frankly, any one can do in these 
days of point and click developer tools.  

Another thing: if you are a fee paying parent, be grateful that the Uni 
is using excellent and free software to teach you child. If they use 
proprietory stuff, who do you think is going to finally foot the license 
bills? Who do you think is going to repay the same bills after a 3-5 year 
cycle as the Uni is now into a "forced to upgrade to newer version" mode?

Sawan
-- 
Nine megs for the secretaries fair
Seven megs for the hackers scarce
Five megs for the grads in smoky lairs
Three megs for system source

One disk to rule them all
One disk to bind them
One disk to hold the files
And in the darkness grind 'em

[taken from a .sig in the Gentoo forums]