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Why PHBs Fear Linux
Tin Foil Hat writes "Paul Murphy over at LinuxInsider examines the role IT text books play in business school curriculums and the misconceptions and misinformation that they present to students. If you've ever wondered why your PHB just doesn't get it when it comes to UNIX and Linux, this article is for you."
i've heard either Pin Head Boss or Pointy Hair'd Boss..
any others?
I'm a little tea pot.
"Pointy headed boss". I am a PHB with an MBA and I never saw the word Linux in a textbook. However, being that I am natuarally geeky, I am slowly showing my company the benefits of open source.
"We are accountable for not only what we do, but also that which we don't do." -- Moliere
"PHB: /PHB/
[Usenet; common; rarely spoken] Abbreviation, "Pointy-Haired Boss". From the Dilbert character, the archetypal halfwitted middle-management type. See also pointy-haired."
Souce: http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/P/PHB.html
My local Best Buy stocks SuSE, and I know they used to stock Red Hat (may still stock the $99 edition). They may also stock Mandrake, but I honestly don't recall.
And yes, they're sitting there right next to Windows. It may not be equal footing, or equal mindshare, but the market penetration is constantly improving.
I don't know about Best Buy, but I know CompUSA has Linux boxen (as in product cardboard) right next to copies of Windows. Not only that, but their prices run the gamut from about $30 to $150, significantly lower than Windows.
Etiquette is etiquette. He kills his mother but he can't wear grey trousers.
...and while I haven't read them all, I find that their treatment of OSes is very general indeed. They talk more about computer systems and networks, and the foundations of these, than they do about which OS is good or bad and what's different about them. In the book I read, an OS comparison showed about 7-8 OSes, including Windows, Mac and Linux, and also had a case study about switching to Linux. (Note that the article doesn't really say that MS Windows is mentioned *so much more* than Linux, just that Linux is not mentioned often.)
This article, IMHO, doesn't really show the reality that 1) Linux even 5 years ago was merely a speck in most people's minds, 2) that Unix does have its downsides, and that 3) the authors of these books are probably running Windows as their native OS! This hardly adds up to the kind of bias the article suggests.
2-3 years from now you will start to see Linux information trickle down into these books, as they publish new versions. A couple may retain a "bias", but I bet that most will realistically track what has changed in the marketplace since the previous version of their book. To expect that formal education moves at the same speed as economic developments is silly. Education moves much more slowly, and it's got nothing to do with bias.
Actually, Pin Head is one of the main characters in Hellraiser. You may think that the that is proper comparision, but anyway, PHB = Pointy Haired Boss.
i teach high school history. from many of text books, you would think that the US is the greatest perpetrator of evil in the world. or at least, no better than most other nations. (okay slash trolls, flame on)
textbooks are notoriously bad, for the most part. textbook publishers have to sell textbooks and there are a whole range of issues they have to deal with. i was a member of the textbook adoption committee a few years ago and i had the privilege (?) of speaking with a few of the reps. holy crap!! it should be no different i IT. the people who have the loudest voices (i.e. political groups who squak about "representation") or the most money (corporations that need product placement), get their voices heard the loudest. it is disgusting, which is why i use the text for very little of the class.
here's a blatant example of the 10th grade Mod Civ book. Hitler and the holocaust get an entire section in the WW2 chapter, yet the multiple 10's of millions Stalin killed gets 2 sentences. hmmm...
My problem? I was perfectly gruntled, until some numbnuts came by and dissed me.
I don't mean to be a nit but "begging the question" refers to a specific logic fallacy where one assumes what they wish to prove.
For example, the following argument, taken from http://skepdic.com/begging.html, begs the question:
We know God exists because we can see the perfect order of His Creation, an order which demonstrates supernatural intelligence in its design.
I find it annoying that the phrase "begs the question" seems to have fallen into incorrect common use.
Of course I agree that the publishing of falicious information calls into question the credulity of the remainder of the text, however, no begging is happening here.
plurvert
Take for example the requirements that the how the publishers revise textbooks with such high frequency that it forces students to buy new copies instead of using a used copy of an older edition.
The publishers first priority is to make money for their shareholders, not educate people. M$'s first priority is to maximize the dollars of profit per share, not provide the best computing solution.
You could even get an abolutly free linux distro and make arrangments for your company to personnally support it and get paid LOVELY for it...its's been done before and I personally did it on a small scale by installing linux replacement's for windows nt servers and charging for support personally and doing maintnance via webmin...NEVER even one problem ...think about it
I work for a major defense contractor, where I've been integrating systems for numerous years. One of the primary reasons we don't do LINUX is because there's no profit in it for us.
Interesting. I work for a defense contractor and we are mostly a Linux shop.
Ever tried installing Java and Java programs?
Yes, I added jpackage.org to my sources.list and ran "apt-get install ant struts tomcat5" and got everything I needed.
Yeah, uhm... I didn't write that. Notice the "Source:" part. You suggest that I took the time to consider and write an all-inclusive definition, where in fact all I did was a 10 second google search. Don't be so quick to sling insults.
A long time ago, I read a book by Paul Reps titled "Zen Flesh, Zen Bones", that includes a story, "A Cup of Tea", that is particularly appropriate given the material in this article. I reproduce the story here:
A Cup of Tea
The PHBs have had their heads filled so full with material, and are so unwilling/scared/unable to unlearn it, that their education becomes a liability. Corporations encounter the same kind of problem when they develop "core rigidities" and are unable to rapidly adapt to the ever-changing marketplace.Aside: someone has been kind enough to reproduce this story, along with a number of other excerpts from "101 Zen Stories", and they can be found here.
If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law;