Slashdot Mirror
Desktop Linux Sliding in Under the Radar?
Paul Johnson asks: "This article at ComputerWorld describes a sysadmin's discovery that many people in his company are installing Linux on their desktops without consulting IT. The writer is concerned with the security implications, but there is a wider issue. At present the 'official' penetration of Linux into the desktop market is something around 1%. The writer of this article doesn't give figures, but it sounds like he may have stumbled on several times that percentage of desktop Linux installations. If so then this is an important trend. Linux got its foot in the datacentre door in exactly the same way a few years ago, with unofficial installations doing odd server jobs.
If you are a sysadmin, in an organization that runs Windows on the desktop, have you stumbled on many unofficial Linux installations?"
I tripped over my mail server last week. Does that count?
Is the sysadmin sure he wasn't dreaming?
Wow, a lucrative publishing contract! I don't have to be evil anymore. --Meteor
Users have no place installing linux in the office without permission. Those who do it should be severely punished and forced to run Windows 95.
i dont have you worry bout this. the people at my organisation aren't clever enough to send an email, let alone install Linux
..now how much would you pay for VMWare?
But wait! There's more! The first Karma-whore to post about VMWare on Slashdot will receive some moderation points... absolutely FREE!
Order your copy now, while there's still time!
---
Sheesh.
I *wish* I had to time to make obnoxious posts to slashdot all day.
Er.. wait a minute...
I've been going in at night and switching the desktop OS for the people I administer from Linux to BSD. :-) Most of them can't tell the difference, though I got more than a few comments about how much faster their machine feels. :-)
That's preposterous! You have to get a LICENSE first, remember?
not only that, but my unoffical linux install is a good way for me to know that the corp doesn't have any spyware on my boxen. That and I stopped hitting my monitor so much after I installed linux.
You were a hall monitor in high school, weren't you?
Dicksmacking wankermaster.
"anti-virus software", "desktop license management agents"
Apparently you've confused Linux for a version of Windows.
This kind of sysadmin crap is why I prefer working for a small company.
Do not spread "09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0" over the internet, thank you.
and all our systems have rouge linux installs. Its true! ;)
New year Resolution: Don't change sig this year
Well, it's redundant because it's not a troll, it's not flamebait, and it's not offtopic. I suppose it could be overrated instead, but the point of the article was to hear experiences from people who have found desktop installations at work, not hear 600,000 "No" answers from people who haven't. If there was a "-1 Pointless Comment" mod, you'd have gotten that, but there isn't.
--That's the point of being root, you can do anything you want, even if it's stupid.
He says, if he ever gets fired, he will just boot to his Red Hat installation, and quickly format the hard drive!
Which is exactly why someday management will meet him early christmas morning in the parking lot instead of at his desk......
This was a regular occurrence in our engineering department for some time, and as any MCSE knows, Linux is insecure. As IT director, I was initially given the task of physically removing hardware when rogue Linux installations were found, but employees were actually discovered bringing in their own laptops to run Linux or using VMWare to host virtual Linux machines with active and unique MACs on the corporate network. To better battle this, I asked for and received the right to terminate employees. After several high-profile firings, our network is once again safe, and it has become policy to perform more extensive background checks on job applicants with a UNIX or Linux background to ensure that they haven't caused similar grievance elsewhere.
Bill is that you? I didn't know you had a puppet on slashdot!
the key was to install cde and tcsh and say it was solaris x86 (which he disapproved of too.. but less). since he never actually used the machines, this was easy.
2 1337 4 u!
1. Find a spare hard drive.
2. Open compuer case.
3. Insert spare hard drive.
4. Install favaroite OS on spare hard drive.
5. Leave IT *approved* OS on *other* drive.
6. ????
7. Profit!
- I can't believe I just make a for profit post. I must leave now.
... and furthermore
Then they copied code they were working on into Linux, also without telling IT... now look where it's gotten us!
}
}
}
} In the matter of SCO
} vs.
} Electric Cloud
}
}
}
Said defendent is alleged to have been running an unlicensed version of Lie-nucks, violating vaguely alluded to (but impossible to produce) 'intellectual property' alleged to belong to litigant, by virtue of having been written independently to superficially resemble an unpopular operating system the litigant overpayed to acquaire the rights of (c.f. UNIX), said litigant thusly excersizing their Constitutional Rights (tm) to sue uppity upstarts who dare make use of a legally engineered and freely provided system that competes with their abysmally unsuccessful, outdated, and buggy commercial offering.
Said litigant cites as prima facia evidence of infringement "a post to slashdot that indicated a successful deployment of the demonic system."
Defendents declined to comment, but did point out to the court that the daemon was a mascott for another, competing free operating system, and that perhaps counsel for the plaintiff would be so kind as to wipe the froth from his mouth and clarify.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
localhost / # format c:
-bash: format: command not found
localhost / # fdisk c:
Unable to open c:
localhost / # deltree *.*
-bash: deltree: command not found
localhost / # del *.*
-bash: del: command not found
localhost / # sys c:
-bash: sys: command not found
localhost / # help
GNU bash, version 2.05b.0(1)-release (i686-pc-linux-gnu)
<snip>
</snip>
{ COMMANDS ; }
localhost / # fsda;lkjafdjl;kwfoied
-bash: fsda: command not found
-bash: lkjasdjl: command not found
-bash: kwfoied: command not found
localhost / # <insert_vcr_led>
Sobbing....I HATE LINUX....
Somewhere a penguin smiles.
(B) + (D) + (B) + (D) = (K) + (&)
I work at a hospital. There are not very many technically inclined folks here.
That's a good thing. I'd hate to have my nurse worrying about incompatiblities with her Wireless NIC and her kernel.
Or my surgeon trying to get First Post on a Slashdot story during my operation!
So thanks for making their job easier and my hospital stays safer. Keep those systems up!
~Z
"If I had real work to do, then I would use XP"
But you don't because you're an unemployed has been MSCE. haha
> the 'official' penetration of Linux into the desktop market is something around 1%.
> he may have stumbled on several times that percentage of desktop Linux installations.
If this is true it would be really great for us at Slashdot because then we could brag about a higher Linux desktop market share to our girlfriends...
No wait, that can't be right...
Well anyway, he said "Penetration". That's gotta be good, right?
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
...you insensitive clod!
I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve. BB
Sometimes I will post and read before performing a case. We have a terminal in our procedure room and it's common for people to email or browse the web as we are waiting for the case to get started.
I honestly believe that most of the trolls on slashdot are hospital admin people. What the hell else do they do all day?
Davak
Use linux, even trying to slip in a knoppix disk will get you FIRED! Why? Because KDE gave my boss nightmares due to its persittant use of the K, Kde, Kthis, kthat, kshit, kcrap, kkk. So our boss who is ironicly called Kharles Klapton has banned linux pernamently.
Posting anoynmously from Kracksburg korporation.
"And you didn't even spell MCSE right"
I can't spell dinasaur either.
If you did format my system with extreme prejudice, you had better be sure you have the authority to do so. The computer doesn't belong to you. It belongs to the company. So check with your boss, his boss, and his boss's boss first. Then double check with my boss, his boss, and his boss's boss.
Someone did this in my company to a laptop four years ago. Just last week I noticed he was still sitting funny after the impromptu buttectomy the VP gave him.
A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
...but I play one on T.V.
Read the rest of this rant...
"If you are a sysadmin, in an organization that runs Windows on the desktop, have you stumbled on many unofficial Linux installations?"
... get busy!
And if you are a sysadmin in an organization that runs Windows on the desktop, but you have not stumbled on many unofficial Linux installations
-kgj
"You'd think that black leather keyboards with spikes and clamps would be popular with these freaks."
Hey! I wouldn't mind a keyboard done in leather and crome, with clamps, and rings. Whips and chains...er, um. Excuse me I got to go. My dominatrix is call me.
So there I am in my cubicle playing my usual rounds of mental foursquare with three other cube-mates. One of them still refers to her desktop wallpaper as a "screensaver." One of the men passes corrupted floppy disks around with the glee of an idiot passing out used condoms; and the other still thinks no one can see him playing Solitaire. As for me, I routinely spill coffee and break the no smoking policy while clogging the email system with idiotic Flash movies...
So who and where the hell are these marauding rogue agents running around installing Linux on office desktops. It can't be IS, they're too busy, and it can't be cube workers, they're afraid of their CDROMs!
Or maybe I'm the only one here who saw "MDK*" and thought MurderDeathKill...
"Alcohol, Tobacco, & Firearms" should be a convenience store, not a government agency.
I was surprised by the number of posts that mentioned Knoppix. Almost no mention of Knoppix in C/ZD NET, Gartner, PC Mag, etc.
Yet, lots of people here are using it.
I'm using it right now.
Back in the 60s it was a fun thing to turn people on to marihuana for the first time. I've had fun giving Knoppix CDs away. Interestingly, with both Knoppix and marihuana, the first word was often: Wow!
1000 SlashDot sigs
Use the security holes that the newest service
pack fixes to break in and install said service
pack?
Or just have the proxy stick a signed ActiVex
control that updates their systems in every
webpage they download.
#include printf("[Yeemp: deekoo~tentacle.net]\n");
SYSADMIN OF 15-YEAR OLD COMPANY - find 71,000 Linux installations hidden in his company.
Does this headline look familiar? Of course it does. You most likely have seen this story recently featured on a major nightly news program (USA).
This 15 year old company's sysadmin was cleaning and putting backups away when he came across a large brown department that was suspiciously buried beneath some red tape and a WindowsXP EULA in the back of the 15-year-old company's closet. Nothing could have prepared him for the shock he got when he opened the department and found it was full of linux installations. Red Hat, SuSE, Debian, Slackware and Gentoo - all neatly beowulf-clustered in labeled piles...
- Peter Brodersen; professional nerd