On Sat, 4 Dec 2004, Timothy Payne wrote: > On Sat, 2004-12-04 at 16:03 -0500, Robert P. J. Day wrote: > > On Sat, 4 Dec 2004, Matthew Wood wrote: > > > > > I am very new to linux, in fact i have only used it for about 2 > > > hours before i wrote this email. i cannot write anything to the > > > following directory /user/local/lib. I need to be able to, so that i > > > an install MPlayer. How can i resolve this. > > > > > > <html><DIV><FONT face="Lucida Handwriting, Cursive"><EM>Matthew > > > Wood</EM></FONT></DIV></html> > > > > a couple of observations: > > > > 1) it's "/usr/local/lib". you won't be taken particularly seriously > > if you can't spell the names of standard system directories. > > > > 2) you really should put in considerably more time reading an intro > > book on linux before you start asking questions here. if you don't > > even understand the concept of the root account and superuser > > privileges, frankly, i don't think you're ready for linux yet. > > > > rday > > > > "frankly, i don't think you're ready for linux yet" > > And who put Mr. Day in charge? um ... no one. it's a community here, remember? (and you know you've hit the big time when people actually use your name in the subject line. :-) > You should have used I not i, but I guess you are a small person > anyway. You could apologize, that takes a much bigger person than > to criticize. whoa. you mean i missed a capitalization? damn, i'll try not to let that happen again. :-P but let's address your general snarkiness and pressing need to switch to decaf, shall we? my first piece of advice, that the original poster take the time to spell things like directory names properly, is not to be taken lightly. as i said, if you don't even know that the major system directory is spelled "/usr" and not "/user", you will, as i said, not be taken seriously. more importantly, it will confuse people *trying* to help since they won't know if it's a real problem, or whether you really *did* just misspell something. (this is why most guides to asking questions recommend that you cut and paste important info, rather than trying to type it in again by hand.) but my second point is at least as relevant. as you can read above, the original poster admits to having used linux for only *two* *hours* before making his first post asking for help. two hours is generally not enough time to even read the release notes, much less get comfortable enough to start installing new software. (and we *all* read the release notes every time, don't we? :-) quite simply, most mailing lists strongly recommend that, when you join, you at least hang out for a bit, watch the posts go by, check the archives, etc. it seems fairly clear that the original poster hasn't taken the time to either familiarize himself with linux or with mailing list protocol. and the question he asked *suggests* that he doesn't understand the concept of the root account. if that's the case, i stand by my original position -- he's not ready for linux. he may very well be in time, but at the moment, he isn't. he badly needs to read at least one intro book or something before asking further questions along the lines of "i tried something, it didn't work, what do i do now?" as i see it (and i'm willing to be disabused of this notion), the FC mailing lists are not meant to be the *first* avenue for problem solving. it's expected that, if you have a problem, your initial attempts to fix it might involve reading the docs, reading the man pages, googling, perhaps bugzilla, that sort of thing. in other words, try to solve the problem on your own. and if none of that works, *then* you turn to the community. what i found inappropriate about the original poster's question was that his *first* reaction seemed to be to ask the list when he clearly (by his own admission) didn't have even the basic background to be administering a linux system. and that's my story, and i'm sticking to it. rday
