Nix and Doze co-existance (was: recovering FC3 from a bad superblock)

[Benjamin Scott]

On May 24 at 10:22pm, aluminumsulfate at earthlink.net wrote:
>> I'm afraid I have to disagree.  In my experience, simply installing and 
>> running Doze size-by-side with Nix does not cause any spontaneous data 
>> loss.
>
> Okay, so your a Linux fan AND a Windows fan.

   I'm most definitely not a Windows fan.

   However, the fact that I'm not a Windows fan doesn't mean I'm Windows- 
ignorant.  (Note that this statement is not meant to imply anyone else is or 
is not Windows-ignorant.)  The world I work in requires me to know how to do 
Windows right, so I've taken the time to learn how.  You can make Windows work 
in a production environment, provided you throw sufficient time, effort, and 
money at the problem.  You still end up beholden to Microsoft, though, which 
is one of the major reasons I'm not a Windows fan.

   One thing I've learned in the course of my education is that anyone who 
tells you that Microsoft Windows is cheaper, easier, or better-documented then 
Linux is either lying or ignorant.  This is not to say that Linux is 
particularly cheap, easy, or well-documented; just that Windows sucks even 
more.  Plus you have to pay outrageous fees for the privilege of being 
subjected to the software in question.  That's another reason I'm not a 
Windows fan.

   It also seems to be that, when Windows gets broken, it stays broken, short 
of wiping the slate clean and starting from scratch.  You can't fix the damn 
thing.  (Another reason, in case you couldn't guess.)

   Spontaneous data destruction, however, is *not* one of the reasons I'm not a 
Windows fan.

   Your experiences, are, of course, another matter.  I wasn't there, so I 
cannot comment on them, and I won't try.  I do find it good to know that you 
base your comments on something real, though, and were not just emitting vague 
FUD.  I *am* an opponent of FUD and bad information at any level, for any 
cause.  One of the reasons I detest Microsoft is their love of such tactics, 
and I'm not about to accept them just because they favor a cause I support.

  "He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not
   become a monster."  -- Friedrich Nietzsche

> Any well-designed operating system will not autonomously hose (1) itself or 
> (2) any other OS installed on the machine.  Linux fits this requirement. 
> Windoze does not.

   I've had Linux (and related software) do nasty things to my disks. In 
particular, I've noticed over the years that Linux utilities are particularly 
good at generating invalid partition tables.  They work fine within Linux, but 
violate the standards in ways that cause other OSes to scribble on the wrong 
spots on the disk.  Maybe that was your problem?

   I've also had Linux eat filesystems, trash data files, and/or stop working 
for no good reason.  I've had these or similar experiences with every other OS 
I've spent serious time with, too.  If I had to stop using every OS that ever 
farked something up for me I'd prolly have to stop using computers completely.
Sometimes I've contemplated just that, but I'm far too obstinate to give up 
that easily.

-- 
Ben <dragonhawk at iname.com>