[GRLUG] "network is unreachable"

[john-thomas richards]

On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 06:29:36PM -0500, Michael Mol wrote:
> On 2/11/2010 6:25 PM, john-thomas richards wrote:
> > Ah, the pragmatism that comes with age.  I've been using Linux for about
> > thirteen years now and only once have I reinstalled from scratch in
> > order to solve a problem, and that was about a year ago when Debian
> > Testing got really, really messed up (modules wouldn't load, etc.).  I
> > realized life was too short for me to go through the long, arduous
> > process of fixing it so I reinstalled.
> >
> > There's wisdom in that.
> 
> One of the valuable things that arises from the time spent is learning 
> why it broke in the first place. Not "why" as "this file was removed", 
> but "why" as in "oh, this subsystem needs to talk to that subsystem, and 
> that thing needs to be configured so that that part over there works."
> 
> If that's outside one's area of interest, then yeah, reinstall. 
> Otherwise, by all means, be stubborn and learn!

Perhaps I pressed <ESC>:x and then y to send my email a bit too soon.
The reason I've only reinstalled once in thirteen years to fix a problem
is because I wanted to fix all the other problems I ever had (X won't
start, this hardware won't work, etc.) and was successful everytime.
When I realized how difficult it was going to be to fix my Debian
install I weighed the benefits of increased knowledge against my loss of
productivity (I use my laptop for work daily---except Fridays).
Pragmatism won.  I suspect it may win for Bob, too.  But you're right;
problems are an excellent way to learn the internals of the system.
Taking the time to do so often makes solving the next problem much
easier.
-- 
john-thomas
------
Westheimer's Discovery: A couple of months in the laboratory can save a
couple of hours in the library.
Frank H. Westheimer, chemistry professor (1912- )