Slashdot Mirror
Follow Up to "Linux's Achilles Heel"
donheff writes "Fred Langa has posted an Informationweek online followup to his "Linux's Achilles Heel" column that drew a lot of attention on slashdot recently. He responds to several of the most common criticisms and 'posits that high-priced commercial Linux vendors are on a suicidal course, unless they lower prices to accentuate their advantages over Windows.'"
I guess i'm not the only one who saw that flash applet?
Overall the guy comes off like a technophobe, getting the business ideas right but the terminology all wrong.
Linux is not what fails miserably to test against high standards of "Windows" (whatever the hell that means, we all know what high standards microsoft has for its products). The point is that he didn't drop any names. He mentions Microsoft Windows, but not Redhat RedHatAdvancedServer. He mentions Microsoft Windows, but not Mandrakesoft MandrakeLinux.
what the fuck?
I expect that Redhat's product if it costs say $180usd to be a product that is worth $180usd.
it's no fault of the Linux kernel or GNU project, not even the BSD software authors etc. etc.
SIGERR: laziness exceeds quota
parent post was no troll. grr.. it says comment so i commented.
SIGERR: laziness exceeds quota
It seems to me as if Fred wrote the article knowing that he'd provoke the Linux community.
He seems amazed that people could react in this way:
Many readers thought I was trying to hide something; or was secretly trying to stack the deck against Linux; or that I had some other evil motivation in not detailing the hardware.
some readers from the Linux community are deeply suspicious of criticism of Linux.
I find it hard to believe that an experienced writer such as Fred Langa would express disbelief at the reaction he received.
Look at all of the FUD that's spread about Linux, the lies, the half-truths, the selective analysis, the ignorant writers expressing their opinions based on hear-say. Surely Fred is aware of the mass of tripe written about Linux, how can he not understand why the Linux community is suspicious?
And if he knew of this, why didn't he provide more details? Surely he should have anticipated the questions that would be asked?
Maybe Fred acts the way he does for one of the following reasons:
1) Fred is biased against Linux/Open Source and wants to make the Linux community look bad.
2) Fred loves to cause discord in general.
3) Fred isn't very perceptive or just doesn't think.
4) Fred is pro-Linux and attempts to make a big deal of certain issues in the hope that they'll be resolved faster.
I don't know, I don't care. But to act amazed at the reaction he got seems like a sham, it would appear that it's just what Fred wanted, especially as he wrote up a whole new article focused on the angry, suspicious, Linux community that won't have anything negative said about their OS!
Linux/Open Source/Anti Microsoft News
But an UID is a poor way of determining that.
/., this means that you're probably looking at someone whose own personal experience with computing in general is older than yours. /. is what, 8 years old now (I can't remember) ... to a fairly large demographic of web-browsing public (teenagers), thats a farkin' long time ago ... half of some peoples' lives.
... "for most of their lives" ...
Untrue.
If you're 16 years old, and you've only had access to a computer for 4 years, and you see someone with a low ID on
So, yeah. Not that I think low UID's are something you should be proud of or anything, but keep in mind that we all do take for granted, sometimes, just how lucky we were to have witnessed such massive changes in the computer industry. For some people, there have only always been web browsers and Internet connections
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Or it just means that they took their time signing up
...
Please explain to me how a low slashdot user ID means that someone took their time signing up?
I'll say it again: Using a slashdot UID to judge someone's opinion is foolishness. Sometimes I wonder why I still hang around this place...
I won't disagree with you here on the foolishness part, but, particularly in light of the latter part of your comment, I would like to state that there are an infinite number of ways a person can be foolish
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
How do you determine age from a UID?
/. user' ...
... but either way, a low UID means _something_ about the longevity of the account.
Okay. Say I'm 15. I've got a UID 4123723. Someone else has a UID like, say "458". This low-number UID, while not necessarily an indicator of 'age', simply was created at a time much, much, much earlier in slashdot's history.
As far as I know, there aren't any less-than-3-digit UID's being created these days - yes, they can be bartered, yes a 12 year old might've bought one from EBay - but generally, a low ID means 'longer term
To someone who got here just yesterday, rightly or wrongly so, this means that the low-UID has a 'bit more experience with slashdot'. Whether this ought to translate into respect or revulsion, I do not know
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Irrelevant, as the original poster's link points to what is touted as a "desktop" version of SuSE, not a server version. But, if you really want, you can get Apache.
... but how compatible the OS is with common hardware.
...you would most likely be installing full disk images, complete with all the software you need (and patches) to the client machines,
Right, here we go for a corporate desktop.
Just download it.
Bzz. Wrong. I can "just dowload" debain or gentoo too. This is about a ready-to-go solution - XP Home does not provide this.
with third-party software as you want.
Bzz. Wrong. See above.
Linux doesn't provide you with one either, so this isn't really a good point for you to be
Bzz. We are not taking about Linux. We talk about SuSE - and SuSE provides a secure, virus-free work environment for the corporate desktop.
Linux has no issue with common hardware, windows has - Windows on AMD64 is still a no-go for example, while it is quite possible with linux. You dont need webcams and mp3-players on a corporate desktop. End of Story.
So you wipe out the hdd and install the same image on all machines. How do you get this right license-wise without loosing OEM licenses/doublelicensing?
It's all FUD.
Linux is perfect.
We should just stop development now because there is no room for improvement.
There is no merit to this article.
I believe that not only is he lying, but he is actually a cleverly disguised Bill Gates, and I think that Bill Gates is actually the vaguely disguised robotic incarnation of the Dark Lord Satan. All articles criticizing Linux are most likely written by Satan. One time I saw on a soap opera that Satan hates loud noises, so obviously Satan would lie about not being able to get his sound card to work to thwart the righteous cause of the angelic open source movement which is the only source of goodness in the vast expansive Universe as we know it, and probably even the parts that we don't know about.
It's an obvious conclusion.
When you don't use Linux, you are making rude hand gestures at god, but when you buy Windows, you are paying SATAN!
There's been a whole rash of them lately in the Linux newsgroups etc. all trying to drive out the curious by making abusive replies to their questions.
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
I think it's been well documented that Linux zealots are blind to all arguments against their chosen messiah. They're also blind to their own sowing of FUD.
Microsoft: Linux has a higher TCO than Windows.
Linux Apostle: But, what if Microsoft drops support for your obscure version of Windows? Then they force you to upgrade! IT'S PIRACY! THAT SORT OF THING NEVER HAPPENS WITH OPEN SOURCE! YOUR SECRETARY CAN MAINTAIN HER OWN CODE!
SCO: Linux stole code from our systems.
Linux Apostle: No we didn't! No way would any Linux programmer steal anything! All our ideas are new! GNU's not unix!
There's just no reasoning with somebody who will spend three hours typing configuration files on the command line to get a printer working, the whole time SWEARING it's easy to use.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
I don't get it ... where do people sell there slashdot UID's?
I've been on since chips and dips, and would've gotten an even lower UID if I hadn't gone to lunch early on the day CmdrTaco turned on the public registrations, but I don't consider that a low UID is a sign of anything other than 'devotion to Slashdot', and that can tell you enough about a post to give you what you need to either a) communicate more, or b) flee!
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --