chuck> What I found happened after switching over entirely is that I
chuck> evolved differnt ways of working that were more easily
chuck> integrated into the unix world.
Yep. GUIs and command lines offer fundamentally different ways of interacting with the computer. But I don't valorize the latter by identifying it with power users and the former with non-power users. Different people use tools in different ways.
But you're exactly right, Chuck. At first I thought I wanted to use the Unix approach because of the kind of work I did; but, as grad student in philosophy of religion, that turned out not to be the case. What I found was that using different tools made possible different kinds of work, some of which I grew to like very much.
chuck> weeks, and then I could use TeX in a limited enough way to
chuck> get by for my needs.
Hmm, I'm scared of TeX! I use LaTeX for my dissertation and word processing needs, and it's more than powerful enough for me.
chuck> The point is that instead of expecting to transfer all the
chuck> ways that you used to do things on an MS system, you discover
chuck> you have changed in a fundamental way. So, after the
chuck> transistion, you do things differently with different
chuck> tools. But the good part is that in addition you learn all
chuck> sorts of things that you never expected to know, and discover
chuck> entirely new worlds with other problems.
chuck> It really is a (or was for me) a very radicalizing
chuck> experience.
Yes. I found -- in my naive liberal bougeois way, no doubt, some will suggest -- it to be a very *freeing* and empowering transition. I advocate others at least trying to use it in hopes they have the same kind of experience. All of this got started because I'm curious why relatively few progressive activists (of a type) are willing to try. Some of Kelley's regular themes here on this subject are almost certainly at play, including the very male cult of competent users and developers of Linux, the BSDs, etc. -- which I probably, despite my best intentions (ooh, more liberal bougeois naivete!), reinforce and perpetuate.
Best, Kendall Clark