Thought experiment: new operating system
Oct. 4th, 2007 08:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flexagonI recently asked the same question of several software engineers: Say you had to spend significant time working with a new OS, one you had never seen before. What would you have to learn before you felt pretty comfortable facing your workday?
I have significant experience as a developer on Windows, but only semi-significant experience on *nix (that's Unix/Linux for you non-programmers). A lot of my heavy *nix use was at MIT where I learned MIT-specific things alongside basic Unix tools and never differentiated between the two, and I have only used iSparklies on a mac, no development and nothing OS-specific. All this makes me a little bit subhuman in the eyes of some of my friends and, it's true, makes me a less flexible developer. However, for Zillian I have thrown myself into the deep end by requesting a Linux workstation (required) and a Mac laptop. Coward no more, I charge into the breach! So this question is largely a measuring stick to see how deep the deep end IS... I suspect I know a lot of what I need to know on *nix already, and figure that if I have a written list of things to learn about the Mac it'll make it that much easier to get snuggled in.
And the interesting thing is, I got some flak about the question, but only from my younger colleagues. I quote one whippersnapper as saying, "I don't plan to ever have to do that again". My older, more experienced coworkers said things like "hmm... I usually X, Y and Z".
Here is the partially organized list of things people said:
File system:
the basics of navigation through the filesystem
what extension does a native executable file have? Is this required or just convention?
file manipulation (move, copy, delete, change attributes including permissions)
the basic structure of the filetree so that I would know where it was good style to put things (where does an application go by default when installed?)
Environment & Scripting:
Figure out how to script. Is there a native scripting language to be learned? What does it take to get a bash shell going?
How do environment variables get set? (two different Mac users told me they still don't know how to set environment variables in such a way that they're set automagically upon login -- wow. Does anyone know the answer?).
Basic apps:
How do I get a command prompt?
What is a good basic text editor (does emacs run?)
How do I start a browser?
Random:
How to adjust display
Figure out as many keyboard shortcuts as possible
System stats -- how much memory is left on the system, what processes are running?
Where to go for more help/information
How to set up a printer
How to turn it on and off (soft reboot)
Slightly less basic things I, nevertheless, would eventually need for work:
How can I view .doc files if not on a Windows box?
What's a good program for drawing diagrams that I include in documentation?
How can I schedule a task to automatically run at certain intervals?
I would welcome additions to the list from you geeks out there.
I have significant experience as a developer on Windows, but only semi-significant experience on *nix (that's Unix/Linux for you non-programmers). A lot of my heavy *nix use was at MIT where I learned MIT-specific things alongside basic Unix tools and never differentiated between the two, and I have only used iSparklies on a mac, no development and nothing OS-specific. All this makes me a little bit subhuman in the eyes of some of my friends and, it's true, makes me a less flexible developer. However, for Zillian I have thrown myself into the deep end by requesting a Linux workstation (required) and a Mac laptop. Coward no more, I charge into the breach! So this question is largely a measuring stick to see how deep the deep end IS... I suspect I know a lot of what I need to know on *nix already, and figure that if I have a written list of things to learn about the Mac it'll make it that much easier to get snuggled in.
And the interesting thing is, I got some flak about the question, but only from my younger colleagues. I quote one whippersnapper as saying, "I don't plan to ever have to do that again". My older, more experienced coworkers said things like "hmm... I usually X, Y and Z".
Here is the partially organized list of things people said:
File system:
the basics of navigation through the filesystem
what extension does a native executable file have? Is this required or just convention?
file manipulation (move, copy, delete, change attributes including permissions)
the basic structure of the filetree so that I would know where it was good style to put things (where does an application go by default when installed?)
Environment & Scripting:
Figure out how to script. Is there a native scripting language to be learned? What does it take to get a bash shell going?
How do environment variables get set? (two different Mac users told me they still don't know how to set environment variables in such a way that they're set automagically upon login -- wow. Does anyone know the answer?).
Basic apps:
How do I get a command prompt?
What is a good basic text editor (does emacs run?)
How do I start a browser?
Random:
How to adjust display
Figure out as many keyboard shortcuts as possible
System stats -- how much memory is left on the system, what processes are running?
Where to go for more help/information
How to set up a printer
How to turn it on and off (soft reboot)
Slightly less basic things I, nevertheless, would eventually need for work:
How can I view .doc files if not on a Windows box?
What's a good program for drawing diagrams that I include in documentation?
How can I schedule a task to automatically run at certain intervals?
I would welcome additions to the list from you geeks out there.
