From: wilcoxt@cuug.ab.ca (Terrance Wilcox 229-3361)
Subject: Re: Need to convince boss 486's are *not* w
Organization: Calgary UNIX User's Group
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 08:45:55 GMT

In article <z1h3lbb@rpi.edu> johnsd2@jec315.its.rpi.edu.its1 writes:
>>
>>Listen, if you delete nextlogin.tiff, you do not kill the computer.
>>You do not have to reinstall the OS.  It is a simple matter make tell
>>loginwindow to use a different tiff (there are zillions of them in the
>>OS release).  This means two things:
>
>It requires the user to do repair work (perhaps there's
>an easier way to do it than reinstallation, but that's not
>the point)

That is the point. If I use ResEdit to destroy the Finder, then turn the
machine off, what do I do? Obviously I repair it.

>
>Why on earth should the NeXT need to have a tiff at all? Shouldn't
>it be able to get by without them? C'mon, there are lots of
>ways to do this. Use that display postscript. Keep a tiff
>(b&w?) in ROM. Search for and use one of those other tiffs in the
>installation, if the one the user wants is no good.

It doesn't need the tiff. If all else fails, you hold down two keys
and get into the ROM monitor. This is all in the manual. I would
guess that his problems were not related to changing the login tiff
at all. I would guess they were playing around as root.

>
>>either:
>>	This person deleted a *lot* of other files
>>	or This person reinstalled the OS when he didn't have to
>
>I suspect the second; if the first he's being deliberate dishonest,
>but if the second he just didn't get it. However, users quite
>frequently do not get it. So it seems likely that he simply
>did not have a clue how to fix the problem short of reinstalling.

Users that don't get it shouldn't be rummaging around as root. This 
isn't NeXT specific, this is Unix. The root account assumes the user
is the system administrator : someone with a brain. A casual user
can't touch the important files.

>
>>If I delete a bunch of resources from the Macintosh System file, I
>>will have to replace it.  Is that a weakness in Macintosh?  no.
>
>Nope. Because it is not possible for a casual use to do this;
>it requires extra software. Software Joe Novice User will not
>have; software that screams "You are about to die!" whenever
>you try to touch the System file anyway, just in case some
>poor fool novice DID get his hands on it.

It is not possible for a casual user to touch the NeXT system files.
Anybody can open ResEdit and have a field day. The point is, these
'experts' logged in as root, and did something wrong. Then they blamed
NeXT for it. After all, it was a scientific survey.

>Normal users apparantly sometimes try to muck about with their
>machine. If this requires root access, then they will do it
>with root- and if that blows away all of the NeXTs user protection,
>then they will do thing dangerously. And get burned.

So is it reasonable for them to blame the OS for their own stupidity?

>Im not even talking about having the computer
>say "c'mon you dont REALLY want to do that now do you";
>I mean having the computer recover from this simple sort of thing.

If some knowledgable user reformats the hard drive in his Mac, how's
the machine going to recover? Who knows what these guys did? Why didn't
they just boot off a floppy? Why didn't they RTFM?

Anybody can claim that changing the login tiff screwed up the machine
and that they had to reinstall the OS, but is it true? Maybe as they see
it. I change my login tiff fairly frequently. No problem. I screwed up
my system once. I read the manual, booted from a floppy, and corrected my
mistake. No problem. There's no replacement for common sense.

>>  Therefore it is entirely this person's fault
>>that he screwed up his machine, because he was mucking around as root
>>without knowing what he was doing.
>
>Whose "fault" it is is ->totally irrelevant<-. The user got screwed;
>the system didn't help. It should. Computers should not say
>"you made your bed, now lie in it"; they should say "you screwed
>up, so here I'll fix it for you.". (they should also make
>it hard to screw up, but in this case I dont quite see how that
>can be done. The best I can see is a warning saying "If that
>file is gone, the system can't start!")

If fault is totally irrelevant, the user shouldn't be blaming the OS.
I have a roommate with an SE/30. He's got a RasterOps 24 bit color board
in there. Some time ago, he was without an external monitor, but the 
computer assumed it was there. He kept losing his cursor in the corner.
One day he had a problem. The solution was clearly marked : zap the
PRAM. No big deal. He did it. Problem gone. New problem : the main 
monitor defaulted to the non-existent one. Suddenly, he had nothing on his
screen. At the time, he didn't know what the problem was. He reinstalled
the software. No help. Finally, he figured out the problem. He certainly
didn't blame the Mac OS for allowing him to do such a thing.

The moral? The problem isn't always what you think it is, nor is the
solution. How about, no computer can protect you from your own folly.

Terry Wilcox