Slashdot Mirror
What's Microsoft Up To?
So, today's one of those days when every bit of news is dominated by Microsoft. To spare you six different stories about the Borg, we'll assimilate them all into this one. You have seen the stupid Passport hole in an earlier story; also the iLoo, although that hasn't stopped you from submitting stories about it, oh no. New news: a report paid for by Microsoft shows that Windows is a better server than Red Hat. A class-action suit has been filed charging that MSN and Best Buy combined to scam customers. The WINHEC conference is ongoing - Steve Ballmer says DRM is an opportunity, not a prison, the Xbox is going to be your home communications center, Wired talks about how hardware will be changed to imprison users, and once you're locked in to Microsoft you get to pay more each year. An article describes why user desktops are locked down. Oh, and here's another on DRM, just because.
...they're running SAMBA. For balance I think they should test Windows 2003 throughput of NFS.
Bob
Listen to my latest album here
Microsoft pays for a test that shows that Windows 2003 is twice as fast. That's nice. But not very productive.
I see nothing in the report that they had a Red Hat guru optimize the Red Hat server. It is easy to get the results you want. If I don't see proof that Red Hat was configured by a Red Hat guru, as I am sure that Windows 2003 was optimized by a Microsoft guru, then the tests are bunk.
-Brent
Before I get ripped into for this, I will point out I use Windows 2K at work, write programs for .Net framework but use Red Hat at home for my deskto and server.
The 'cost' of Windows is not as straight forward as 'buying' a Windows 2K server license or downloading Red Hat. I know in my area that someone who is a real expert in W2K will cost around £30k/year and I'd have a choice of them, yet the cost for a Red Hat specialist is -far- more expensive. It's more in the £40k region at least, and I'd not have many to choose from. Therefore, the cost of the software is beset by the personnel costs.
Support wise: I agree that there's enough information on the web for RH but also Windows. However, unless your a large organisation you shouldn't rely on a support contract. I'd not hire a £45k Red Hat expert to run the servers and expect him to rely on a support contract.
Documentation? You don't need it really do you? Do I need a manual for C#? SQL Server? Notepad? IE?
Source code: Ok, you get the source code. For me, that's not a selling point. For some it is though, I conceed.
Patches: 2K server is very stable. If you secure a 2K machine and make sure that it's properly patched you're not likely to get into trouble. Sorry, you might not like to hear it but it's true. Badly patched machines - whether Linux, Mac or Windows boxes are badly patched machines.
I don't think that the RH vs Windows is as simple as you make it. I am not a great fan of MS but some of the stuff they are doing is damned impressive - and I use RH.
...With regard to IT's (real!) need to lock down desktops...
We need a new definition of OS stability.
Today, "stability" basically refers to the ability of an OS to run without crashing _in the absense of configuration changes_.
In the real world, there are ongoing needs to install new software, apply patches, updates, etc.
In a system that had proper modular design, it should be possible to install something new or change a legitimate setting without feeling that you're playing Russian Roulette.
CERTAINLY it should be possible to install vendor-recommended updates with a high level of confidence that it's not going to break something.
Remember all that stuff a few years back, that implied that the problem with stability was that people weren't keeping their systems properly updated and that "self-healing" systems would fix that? Well, now, we all but have them, and, in fact, it's made things worse.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
From what they say in the wired article I can see DRM being extremely dangerous. If you can sign an email, making it only viewable by the intended recipient and stopping them from print/forwarding/saving, then you could very easily mount a campaign of e-stalking, sendingv vulgar and/or threatening emails and the person receiving them unable to remove them or forward them to anybody who can help.
I am a windows dev for past 4 years.
Documentation:
Windows: None
There is more documentation for windows than i can shake a stick at. To this day, i haven't met one issue that i didn't resolve via MSDN, KB or Google/Newsgroups.
Support:
Windows: Support costs you hell a lot of money
RedHat: If you can't afford to pay RedHat, it's Linux for God's sake. There're thousands of people on the net willing to help you.
Considering you rarely need any support with Windows, and setting up the simplest things on Linux is a torture. Do we also want to spend the time figuing out something that the program creator should have?
Patches:
Windows: Waiting for patches if Microsoft has the time and mood to fix it. Service packs come out once in a blue moon.
RedHat: It's Linux. Thousands of people have access to the source code. Bug fixes come out rapidly.
This is just pure FUD bullshit. MS is very responsive to bugs, especially nowadays. Fixes are released sometimes hours after bugs are found. Subscribe to the security newsletter and find out for yourself.
Windows also reports less annual bugs than Linux, this is an old article, but the pattern continues to this day. A little search on SecurityFocus will show you.
Hmm.... Windows is better than RedHat?
Depends on your background. Don't be a stupid troll.
It's nice to hear some reason within the millions of MS bashing posts. The security and reliability of any server lies squarely on the administrator. There are millions of Windows machines in the wild that can be exploited at the drop of a hat; same true for *NIX. Not because the OS sux, but because they have not be properly configured and secured. Win2000 and WinXP are very reliable products. Almost to the point that I will agree that MS might have shot themselves in the foot to some degree; but me being the consumer, I only see a benefit to that argument.
"Reality is a crutch for people who can't handle drugs" - George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)
With all due respect, bullshit.
I test drove two tablet PCs recently (one from Motion Computing, the other I can't remember) for about a week each. They were certainly cool, and they invoked much drooling and exclamations of "ooh, shiny!" from my co-workers, but boy did they suck for daily work.
Here's a brief summary of my testing:
Pros:
Cons:
Of course, they don't run Linux (there is some testing going on, and I found one person who got a kernel to boot, but no usable distros yet), but that's not that big of a deal for me. I'm concerned with usability primarily, and tablets failed that test.
They will not replace laptops anytime soon. What might replace laptops are those laptops that double as tablets (where the monitor rotates, and then folds, so the laptop is closed, but the monitor faces out). Those might catch on. But laptops will not be replaced by tablets until handwriting recognition becomes just as fast (if not faster) than typing, with reduced errors.
What tablets will replace are notepads (the dead tree kind, I mean) and legal pads and the like. The one use I found for the tablet was for taking notes in meetings. I can go back and write on the upper part of the screen, if there's something I missed, rather than having to PgUp and delete and re-type. I can then digitize the notes later, or print them out as images. Tablets are great for that. I predict they'll be used mostly by PHB types or folks who attend lots of meetings and need to take notes. They will not replace conventional laptops for a long, long time, if ever.
There is no sig, there is only Zuul.
I used to work for Best Buy. We were given the whole deal about getting out as many MSN disks as we could. The thing about that is, MSN kicks back a good amount of money for each free account that someone signs up for. Whether or not it's the 30 free days, 2 months, or 9months (or whatever). Heres what happens. Say a customer buys a computer at Best Buy, they automatically get 6 free months (if they pay with a credit card or major debit). If the customer doesn't sign on and activate that account, they never get billed. However, even if they sign on just once, even for just 30 seconds, they have to call and cancel the account.
Now, if a customer signs up for the 30 day free trial, yes they have to give a creditcard number, but they have to call and cancel the account even if they don't sign on. I had that problem but I called MSN and got this resolved and my money refunded immediately.
Now, the problem is that some bestbuy clerks don't bother to tell the customers this. I've had customers outright refuse the msn and i said that's fine and just don't go through with ringing it up. I always mentioned it to all the customers I talked to, and if they just didn't want it, I never scanned it. This class action probably won't work, but I hope this guy gets his money back.
Anyway that's my piece!
- People dont get Tablets to run Photoshop.
They are currently a niche product, sure, but they're great on a sales floor or to take quick notes in the field.
The home inspector who did my walkthrough had a tablet PC, and it suited him fine for checking off boxes, jotting a few notes, making some quick sketches, and then printing me a hard copy.
This is the hardest thing for computer geeks to understand: not everyone has the same demands of a computer that they do.
For many people, a tablet PC is a much better fit than a laptop. Comparing the two is like comparing a PDA with Gameboy Advance.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!