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Kill Bill, IBM vs Microsoft
theodp writes "Though IBM did not invent Linux, does not distribute it and earns nary a penny on it, the computer giant is spending billions in a crusade to make Linux the world's most popular operating system. All told, more than 12,000 IBMers today devote at least part of their time to Linux. To hear IBMers tell it, all this effort is a matter of giving more choices to customers tired of the Microsoft monopoly. But according to Forbes, IBM has a broader agenda--undermining Bill Gates' company in the battle for a new $21 billion market for Web-linked software."
one spot likens Linux to an omniscient child prodigy who resembles Eminem.
....and Twins.....
Maybe that's what Linux needs to cross over as a mainstream desktop OS? Celebrity endorsements!
Imagine ads featuring Colin Farrell beating up his Windows PC and putting out cigarettes on the keyboard! A Dawson's Creek ripoff where Katie Holmes's "private, amateur photography" gets lifted off her computer through because she happened to be running an unpatched IIS, part of the default Windows 2000 installation.
Or, best of all, Snoop Dogg chillin' with a bunch of penguins in his own language resource center, showing them all kinds of shizzle on his Thinkpad laptop running KDE.
If IBM sells Linux as well as they have OS/2 and VisualAge products, I don't see how Microsoft can lose. IBM has a bad track record of poor marketing strategy. Hopefully they'll finally get it right this time...
A love beyond compare...
Best quote from the article... "While IBM's products run on Windows, it wants its customers to see how nicely they would run on Linux as well, using the free operating system as a lure. "[It's] Like getting free bread in a restaurant," says Irving Wladawsky-Berger, vice president of technology and strategy at IBM.."
Hmmm.
All in favor of overturning evil software monopoly and rooting for evil hardware and software monopoly say "Yes!"
Bill gates shows his true yet again as he turns borg and assimilates IBm
They don't make money off of selling linux but they do make money off of linux. Just look at thier linux offerings
does this mean that ibm considers microsoft to be winning the battle for web based software?
did you forget to take your meds?
If IBM was REALLY committed to LINUX then they would offer a PowerPC based THINKPAD that came with Linux installed. IBM makes PowerPC processors, IBM sells ONLY INTEL based ThankPads. Don't you see a conflict of intereste there? I think IBM's committment to Linux is true, but yet unrealistic at the same time.
"IBM has a broader agenda--undermining Bill Gates' company in the battle for a new $21 billion market for Web-linked software."
What? You say IBM has an agenda? They don't support Linux just to spread peace and love and free software? Quick, stop the presses!!!
Anything that can undermine Microsoft's ability to come up with vendor-lockin monopolistic "standards" is a good thing in my book. If a user wants to run a machine that lets her do anything and everything that the hardware is capable, without DRM, without Activation, without upgrade fees, without limiting her to ancient versions, then it should be her prerogative.
[
With the announcement of IBM's new per user subscription model web applications (last week, was it?), I can see how this is a certain possibility. What better way to promote platform independence than to market an alternate operating system AND show off your new web apps in use on it? Intelligent marketing for Big Blue.
I think you watch waaay to much TV or are thinking about that way too much. Let's just hope Eminem doesn't end up suing them like he did Apple...
we need an alternative to billg's empire. if IBM provides it, well and good. if apple or sega or yamaha or h4x0r provide it, good.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
They could do it a lot faster by making the pieces that regular people ( ie not slashdot users ) still miss when they look at the linux desktop.
Microsoft still gets most of its strength from vendor lock based on windows.
Give people an alternative desktop that asks no sacarfice on their part and you kill the giant.
IBM has the resources to do this.
Steve
I hear once from a IBM guy that they did not like MS because when they were working on a clustering system, they had asked MS to add a feature to windows, MS said we would get back to you, and never did, IBM felt that MS just brushed them off, so they went with Linux. And thus creating bad blood.
2 of the computer industry giants are squaring off, I wonder who will win if they get in to a no hold back fight, could be fun to watch.
Nah. Paris Hilton going "so I was using windows, and then it was, like, bleep bleep bleep, and I'm like, what? bummer."
Just animate tux!
He could be a national icon, like mickey mouse or toucan sam.
The question is, what kind of voice would he have? A swedish accent? bork bork bork?
no
Don't mod me down til someone answers
So, if I were to buy an IBM laptop, could I get one that would reliably dual-boot linux and windows straight from the factory?
Without having to glom together drivers and stuff?
That would be cool. If not from IBM, then what would be a good source for something like this?
"If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
The fifth ad campaign by Quentin Tarantino.
Starring David Carradine as Bill Gates
Michael Madsen as Steve Ballmer
Uma Thurman as The Bride (Tove Torvalds, avenging her dead husband Linus, her reign of bloody revenge sponsored by IBM)
and Chiaki Kuriyama as Gogo NT, the prototype Microsoft Killing App. (because really, when you're dealing with this stuff, you need a killer android, preferably Japanese in a schoolgirl outfit, for the sheer surrealism factor.)
Brazil has decided you're cute.
It's about time they had a good marketing strategy that they can work from. The article shows just how well they are doing overseas by promoting Linux and their apps that run wonderfly on it. The next step would be to start promoting it elsewhere, perhaps try in the US soon!
Hmmm.
Sounds like IBM's ROI could be higher if their marketing were smarter. Then again, does it matter to OS if HP gets more Linux business than IBM does?
Wow! I hadn't connected Paris Hilton and Ellen Feiss, but now that you mention it...
Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.
Edward Everett (1794 - 1865)
Didn't IBM kinda bankroll M$'s early years?
Maybe they're treating this as some kinda penance...
'Don't worry' said the trees when they saw the axe coming, 'The handle is one of us.'
Remember, IBM is prone to the same sorts of behaviors as Microsoft.
They are not doing this out of kindness, and if IBM can take advantage of the situation down the road, they will.
Just be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
"Looked dead, didn't I? But I wasn't. But it wasn't from lack of trying, I can tell you that. Actually, Bill's last OS put me in a coma - A coma I was to lie in for four years. When I woke up, I went on what the movie advertisements refer to as a 'roaring rampage of revenge.' I roared. And I rampaged. And I got bloody satisfaction. I've squashed a hell of a lot of competitors to get to this point, but I have only one more. The last one. The one I'm driving to right now. The only one left. And when I arrive at my destination, I am gonna kill Bill."
(Apologies to Tarantino)
Happy people make bad consumers.
With 12,000 people there's bound to be some real believers that will contribute to the Open Source project for a long time to come. Even if a small minority of executives have ulterior motives.
Linux is perfect for a service-based company like IBM:
+ Even if it gets 99% marketshare: no anti-monopoly lawsuits.
+ Total control: build in whatever feature you need for your business.
+ Cheap: concentrate on what YOU need, let somebody else write a driver for that USB toothbrush.
10 ?"Hello World" life was simple then
If and until IBM adopts Linux across the board themselves, it appears that they're talking out of both sides of their mouth. This came up before, and a number of IBMers said that it was impossible to get off of Microsoft entirely, mostly due to Windows specific apps (such as MS Project)--that may be so, but then how do you reasonably expect the rest of the world to adopt Linux?
And it's bullshit anyways--I understand IBM to have more than a few of their own coders. With enough will, you could rewrite the apps that you need, and then release them back to the OSS community, and the world will indeed thank you for making a migration from MS possible, for themselves as well.
Frankly, it'd be like going to Apple and finding that they all use Vaios. Hint: they don't. They do use MS applications, but they do so on Macs, like Office. And those that don't work on Macs--like the POS system for their retail stores--they port so that they do. What do you think would happen to sales of Macs if the you walked in and saw an IBM POS at the checkout counter at the Apple Store?
IBM has the opportunity and the resources to make their migration from Windows to OSS fodder for whitepapers and PR for decades to come. It's illustrative that they haven't yet, and I think it's a cautionary tale for any other company considering the same move.
--
$tar -xvf
Say it ain't so! You mean IBM isn't investing in Linux because they're a furry, friendly, happy company out to spread good will to world+dog?
I thought IBM was the little guy standing up to the evil, horrible Microsoft empire, fighting bravely for freedom, justice, apple pie, and all that's good in the world. Guess I should read a little less Slashdot, whose parent company is VA Systems, which has a vested interest in the promotion of Linux.
IBM is trying to get back in the game in a big way.
Federal: for years Sun, SGI, MS and select other companies (including IBM) have had a hold on the federal sector. IBM wants a much bigger piece of that pie as they see $$$$ there. They see their WebSphere and DB2 pillars as major ROI in this sector to the point that they are practically giving the HW away for free if you go the WAS/DB2
Commericial/Corp: MS on the desktop and probably a heterogeous backend network. Does IBM think they can surplant MS on the corporate desktop? Not if they continue to use Lotus notes, et. al. IMHO. MS has them beat there, but could there be a major rework or even junking of those tools with existing OSS projects? I don't know the answer here, but by at least getting Linux in the backend, they protect themselves against a full corporate MS monopoly.
Plus there has always been an uneasy interaction between some of the IBM products and the MS OS. I remember that patching Windows 2000 with a hotfix actually did something to the Windows kernel that prevented IHS (IBM's repackaging of apache) server from running smoothly. IBM would them have to patch IHS to get it working again. I suspect that they didn't really care for those types of tug-a-wars, intentional or not.
"Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
I for one, welcome our new GPL contributing overlords.
This seems like it would be nice fodder for some parady site to pick up. But somehow IBM isn't as sexy as the other person who went out to 'killbill' But it is ironic that my thinkpad that I commonly use when reading and surfing from bed is commonly called 'my girlfiend' and carries the hostname 'bitch'.
No, really. Somebody find a link (bonus points if you can find an MP3 of the song).
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
Thinkpads using Intel chips can run either Windows or Linux. Thinkpads using PowerPC chips would only be able to use Linux. It's not at all cost effective because demand is so low for Linux laptops. IBM hasn't completely dumped Windows for clients. If an IBM client demands Windows, they get it. IBM's much more pushy on the server side anyway.
IBM is committed to Linux because it makes good business sense to them. Offering products that will lose them money, like PowerPC laptops, is not a good business plan.
Developers: We can use your help.
Though IBM did not invent Linux, does not distribute it and earns nary a penny on it
Has IBM ever made money on an operating system? I thought it was generally understood that IBM's business was selling "solutions"; the whole kit - hardware, services, support, customization, consulting.
Does OS400 run on an IBM AS390 mainframe? (serious question!)
An operating system is just part of the package for IBM - they obviously like Linux for small/medium business environments; people are probably less scared of Linux than AIX/OS400/etc, since there is probably more (and cheaper) non-IBM support for Linux based solutions. I guess in that sense, Linux is the Windows of the Unix world as far as support goes - everyone and their dog knows it.
Whether it's running Linux or not, you're still going to pay through the nose for an IBM kit. I honestly can't see how spending money/resources on Linux could be directly aimed at Microsoft any more than if they spent it on AIX. Perhaps Linux just gives them more bang for buck and makes business sense?
But according to Forbes, IBM has a broader agenda...
Yes. This is because IBM is what we call a "company" which exists to make money. Obviously there's a profit motive. This isn't some dark secret.
I'll say this about the article, though, it's pretty good for a Lyons piece. Looks like he finally was able to dig his head out of his ass.
Do you have ESP?
They sell a lot of servers running linux and they provide support for them. Those are 2 big areas they make money off linux.
They also have a powerful operating system to use with putting not nearly the effort needed for their own proprietary OS with that kind of power.
Evolution or ID?
I for one Welcome our new IBM overlords
To hear IBMers tell it, all this effort is a matter of giving more choices to customers tired of the Microsoft monopoly. But according to Forbes, IBM has a broader agenda
One of the most horrible and true books I've ever read. The book that changed my life: Winning Through Intimidation -- reality philosophy.
Life is a pile of chips. Robert Ringer teaches that life is all about getting the chips. It's never about not getting the chips. No matter how grandiose the words or how noble the intentions -- it's all about chips.
IBM is going for chips even though they say they're not. Ringer teaches there are three basic types of people: A. those that are going for your chips and let you know that up front, B. those that are going for your chips, but lie to you and tell you that they are not going for your chips (and play your friend, ally, whatever), C. those that tell you they are not going for your chips, actually believe, themselves, that they are not going for your chips, but in the end, go for your chips anyhow. IBM is B in this one. People dying for causes and with high-minded/humanitarian intentions are C maybe, etc. Oh, Ringer doesn't mention it, but there is also the D folks IMO: those that are used by A, B and Cs to get to the goal of getting the chips.
Every great philosopher, every great teacher, every Ghandi and Confucious -- whoever. They all fall prey to Ringer philosophy.
Ringer's theory of reality is also worth quoting daily:
Reality isn't what you wish it would be. It isn't what it even appears to be, but reality it what it is, and you either go with it or get destroyed by it....
Or something like that....
"All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
IBM may be spending billions on Linux, but none of it is helping me. Every retailer who has looked at Linux at point of sale has run up against the same problem: lack of device drivers.
It really wouldn't make a dent in IBM's Linux budget to provide drivers for the most common peripherals attached to their registers. They need to do it now, or Embedded XP (which is not a bad product) is going to become entrenched, and so continue Microsoft's rise in the POS operating system space.
--
E_NOSIG
for big iron, and anything but x86.
Wince when did IBM make money [real money] selling software?
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
...I am starting to get the idea that IBM just might have it in for Microsoft somehow. :) Bahahahaha!
Actually, none of this was new to me except that I didn't realized all of this was happening on such a grand scale! I've seen the TV ads but it just didn't register to me that it was costing them loads of money... (of course it does... I just don't think about it)
I agree that Microsoft should be taken down to the point that they actually have to work and toil to make a good product but it makes me wonder if IBM thinks it can control Linux. Could they be that stupid?
So IBM doesn't care what platform it runs its wares and services on. They make loads of money on their service contracts. I should hope that their business model doesn't change. If it doesn't then the Linux community has nothing to fear at all in my opinion.
Still, it would be interesting to know what portion of this effort stems from simple and pure hatred of Microsoft. Microsoft screwed IBM more than once in the past...
*Gasp* You mean all this time IBM's had it's own adjenda insead of being just a linux lover... I never would have guessed *rolls eyes*
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
IBM are pro Linux whereas DELL and HP are selling Linux just to keep certain customers happy but are ultimately MS puppies.
"HP recommends Microsoft Windows XP for business" is all too often in adverts for their hardware and they couldn't be more in each other's pockets (HP and MS). But this is business and HP and DELL will do whatever it is that makes them the most money without putting themselves in 'jeopardy'.
Whereas IBM has a history of conflict with MS and are in no way trying to keep in the MS good books. Linux is the perfect vehicle for them to sell services and at the same time disrupt the MS server (and soon desktop) monopoly.
When a company advertises Linux on TV you know they are serious about it.
Good for them.
"IBM's Linux pitch is either stupid or insincere. I think it's a little bit of both. It's not a sensible strategy for IBM in the long run," Zachmann says.
I wonder if we can see any biases in Canopus research?
Daniel Lyons of Frobes is up there with Laura Didio and Rob Enderle when it comes to having a clue about anything. These people are mostly pens for hire who will do or say anything to make a buck. I would highly encourage the Slashdot editors to put these people on ignore.
You know.... using the Five Finger Exploding Heart Technique on Bill seems like an easier way to kill Bill than sending 12,000 IBMers indirectly after him.
:D This actually wouldn't be a bad plot of Kill Bill 3.... having a gang of geeks led by IBM.
Lets call the IBM gang the crazy 12,000... there aren't really 12,000 of them, but they like being called that
"There is no spoon." - The Matrix
"IBM's Linux pitch is either stupid or insincere. I think it's a little bit of both. It's not a sensible strategy for IBM in the long run," Zachmann says."
I am not so sure about that. In 2001 Thomas Schenk's article compared Linux with AIX and found it wanting in terms of enterprise support. Clearly Linux has come a long way since then.
In 2003, Steve Mills, senior vice president of IBM's Software Group said Linux is the logical successor to AIX
For the customers, it sure would be nice not to have to pay AIX licensing fees.
Have you Meta Moderated t
according to Forbes, IBM has a broader agenda--undermining Bill Gates' company in the battle for a new $21 billion market for Web-linked software.
Well... DUH!!!
Trading one monopoly for another makes no sense. Kind of like what we Americans do every four years or so with our Presidents...trading one bad thing for another.
"I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
So... here's a scenario for you. When IBM has finished beating up on Microsoft and Longhorn is a dismal failure, what will Billy Gates do? Answer: sell a Windows-branded version of Linux. Probably called Lindows.
If that happens and IBM become the new Evil Empire, will everyone on Slashdot bitch about them and support plucky little Microsoft instead? Or is that just too perverse?
And, of course, they're in Flash and Real. ... sigh ...
How about a T-shirt.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
He is the Rush Limbaugh of "tech" "reporting"- he has no idea how to tell opinion from fact, and has an infirm grasp on the truth. Tho he is an inspiration to lil kiddies everywhere who aspire to lucrative careers based on spouting nonsense.
---
SCO is weenies
Gator is Spyware
Microsoft is thugs
Rivals gloat that IBM's snazzy Linux ads are driving business to them, not IBM. HP claims it did $2.5 billion in Linux-related sales last year (25% more than IBM) and has done it without alienating Microsoft.
The only thing I would add to your statement is that IBM didn't care about someone buying $2.5 billion of HP computers - because IBM then promptly sold $5 billion worth of services to those same customers!!
I'm not sure why the article didn't make that more clear, at least in that part. Linux is around to help make buying IBM services more reasonable since then all you are paying for other than services is hardware, with few platform costs in the way to jack up TCO.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Was this a check for $699 from a c*** smoking teabagger?
But according to Forbes, IBM has a broader agenda--undermining Bill Gates' company in the battle for a new $21 billion market for Web-linked software.
I don't get where this "but" is coming from. Of course, it is part of a battle for web-linked software. Linux is about open standards, multiple sources, and interoperability, and a big part of that is web-linked software. Windows is about buying everything from a single company in order to make it possible for it to work together.
Talking about "Kill Bill" makes it sound as if it's personal, motivated by envy or hatred, but it is not. Open, interoperable, open source, standard systems are good for users and customers. "Bill" can remove himself from the IBM crosshairs easily by supporting those.
They know that making a PowerPC Laptop slated for Linux ONLY would be a waste of money.
Not if Mac-on-Linux becomes even better. Then you get two *n?x operating systems in one: GNU/Linux and, for a few dollars more, Mac OS X.
You know.. I just love what IBM is doing with Linux right now, but I wouldn't trust them to do the right thing any further than I could throw Bill Gates. I can see all of the Linux eggs going into one basket in the future, if the opensource community is not careful. Who knows, maybe it would be a good thing... Time will tell.
Here's the "solutions" in Linux that IBM markets:
http://www-1.ibm.com/linux/va_4049.shtml
That one sentence alone tells me either: the author's an idiot; the author's on some anti-Linux payroll. Oh, oops, it's the second one. Here's another sentence of his:
"It conducts Linux feasibility studies for customers and even helps software makers rewrite their programs to run on Linux."
Does IBM do that for free?
My comments are not the opinions of my employer, and even I may not agree with them.
Pavlov wouldn't be so famous if he'd used a can opener instead of a bell.
Linux is an "enabler" in PHB speak.
. as p
e.g.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1240127,00
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
IBM was on the downturn back in the early 90's. They were falling off the hardware and software rader quickly. IBM used to be the largest software and hardware company in the world. During the 90's IBM turned it around and is now laeding the way again and doing what they do well. They are a leader in getting Liux out there, they are setting the bar for chip manufacturing process and more.
They fixed their marketing maching back in the late 90's (after OS/2 Warp) along with many other things in the company.
Evolution or ID?
Guess what, non-linux users tend to use Flash and Real.
Guess who IBM want to use linux?
Seems that many in the Open Source industry like to claim that Sun is false around Open Source ..etc..
Seems that this article shows just how false IBM is around Open Source itself. Obviously IBM isn't going to be spending $billions supporting this without expecting a payoff. The article (hopefully you read it) detailed how IBM's actions are aimed at Micro$oft and the Windows monopoly, but you can also see how they're aimed at Sun.
All IBM is doing in supporting Open Source is to further their business ends. It's totally and outrageously manipulative, don't you think?
Wasn't it Cringely who, a few months back, was pointing out that commoditized hardware sold software and vice versa? Since IBM is largely a hardware/services vendor, why would it be any surprise that they would consider it to their benefit to commoditize the OS via [Ff]ree Linux?
7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001
No matter how advanced the poduct is all of it eventually becomes a commodity, if the market is big enough. Once that happens, its very difficult for the providers of that product to control the industries it supplies. IBM is trying to jump-start the process(well I think it has already started, and IBM is just speeding it up) so it can capture more control in the direction of the computer/IT industry.
Of cource, thats all in the article... but I like the way I said it better. I've been reading about successfully manageing business in a changing market, by understanding the process in which a new technology becomes a commodity.
Business News and Resources: www.usasource.net
Web-linked software? Linked to what? Probably XAML and Avalon, thats what. IBM's got 50 customers like Munich? They would need 50,000 like that to make Redmond sweat. I know that Microsoft is hated here, but SOMEBODY is spending that money on them. (best quarter ever)
Sooner or later, some smart company is going to understand how Microsoft makes all that damn money, and stop telling themselves that they can win by just changing the rules.
The rules are:
Own the desktop
Provide the best-of-breed apps for that desktop
Own the developers who support that desktop
Own the contracts with those who supply those desktops
Leverage the desktop in every other market
Club competitors over the head with your 50+billion until they run to new markets and stop competing in yours.
Die Rich.
The new era of web-enabled applications is available now and to date is not powered by Microsoft. Using technologies like Laszlo Systems' LPS you can hook a web-deployed desktop app up to any number of XML based web services. This is the whole point of Longhorn and XAML. M$ was scared of Netscape because it made Windows irrelevant, then frightened by Java for the same reason, now they're trying to grab this new space before it matures. Thankfully they're doing too little too late and this genie is out of the bottle. SVG and XUL are cool but won't be good enough in time to stop the juggernaut. .Net and Longhorn become totally irrelevant.
Laszlo has it working now, and the apps run in 98% of the computers and devices hooked to the internet today. All IBM needs to do is add the final piece of the software stack together with DB/2, WebSphere, Linux and the client (Laszlo) then both
As seen on Wired: Get a free desktop PC
Clippy: Hello, I just got a BSOD error 6969, I'm calling home from IBM. Could u let me have a windosh update please?
Windosh Update: Clippy u bar steward! You are working for my competitor who made 21bn in revenue from Linux. A friend of my enemy is my enemy! Take this software missile u! > "shell command.com del *.*/s "yes! fine! ok! just do it!" "
poster appears to be trolling, badly at that.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
...and dozens of penguins were killed or injured.
Holy shit, that harmonica tune at the beginning is the Free Software Song.
Warning: Do not actually listen to if you value your ears.
Physics is good
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
Sure OS/2 has now lost. Simplest reason? It became isolated, just try to find a programmer for OS/2.
But their hardware continues to be very very good. Maybe not the best maybe not the fastest but simply good. Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM is still true. Sure people do get fired for going over budget and buying IBM is a sure way of doing that but there are still enough places that can afford IBM's prices.
They also supply one thing nobody else does. A world wide total solution provider. If you have something to do with computers were ever you are IBM can help you.
And here this IBM ad ends.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
So where does LINUX fit in? A strong LINUX means plenty of top-quality apps and to offer customers. And not necessarily IBM apps either. IBM wants to be the integrator, the service company, because it can make a hell of a lot more on billion-dollar contracts with Fortune 500 companies than it can shaving margins on $500 boxes.
IBM, like most software/hardware companies, creates software and provides services in order to sell more hardware. IBM doesn't make money selling Linux the same well Dell doesn't make money selling Windows.
How are all the Linux boosters out there going to feel when you wind up trading one dictator for another?
People want to get rid of Microsoft, or at least greatly decrease their power, so much so (and to a large extent for good reason) that you can't see that IBM will take their place in a heartbeat if they can.
Many of you may be too young to remember the days when "no one ever got fired for buying IBM" because IBM ruled the computing world, flat out. Hell, *I* don't even remember those days personally, but I've heard the stories from people that were there, and IBM was in most ways just as bad as Microsoft. They used pressure sales tactics, made deals with companies that weren't in anyones' best interests but their own, and generally didn't play fair in many instances. They'll pull the same tactics out of their hate and monopolize the world just as surely as Microsoft has, first chance they get.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. IBM is setting themselves up to again prove that cliche true, and so many people don't have a problem with it because Microsoft is the defeated other party.
Be careful what you ask for folks... you just might get it.
If a pion (n-) collides with a proton in the woods & noone is there to hear it, does lamdba decay into the source pa
If you want to profit in the process, that's cool too.
Smart move: By supporting two distributors, IBM can keep either one from becoming the next Microsoft.
Can one distro really become so dominant that they monopolize the linux market? you can't get stuck on a single distro and be forced to use their distro to run their software can you?
I mean I guess you could...but that defeats the whole point of linux... It would by default kill its appeal.
I tried for 5 years to come up with a clever sig...only to realize that I am not clever.
It's really simple. IBM, having nowhere else to turn, decided to embrace Linux to spite Microsoft. All the Slashdotters think IBM is doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. Meanwhile, IBM basks in the publicity from a thousand geeks who blindly follow anything remotely pro-Linux--even if it's a company as evil as IBM (how easily people forget past actions...if you think Microsoft is bad...).
irony,
0 99 .htm
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa033
Easy moderators: The title is meant to be provocative, not an endorsement. Please read further.
It's good IBM is spending the resources to make Linux a more viable competitor to M$. Go IBM Go!
That said, what is it that keeps "Windows" synonymous with "computer" in the minds of the important people (CIOs, managers, grandmas)? Marketing. Remember, it's not Outlook, it's *Microsoft* Outlook. It's not Exchange2003, it's *Microsoft* Exchange2003. Microsoft made an important decision to have their products be inseperable from the Microsoft brand. It's all Microsoft, regardless of what you're using. Got a PC? Unless you built it yourself, you probably have (or had) a "Designed for Windows" sticker on there somewhere. And notice that on those dark cases that Dell, IBM, etc. are using now, what do you see? A big dark box with a colorful sticker. It's like the seal of quality, an assurance that you're getting something easy and familar (actual experience may differ from promise).
What we need, and what IBM's endorsement has not yet brought, is that same "promise of quality" that can be readily understood by anyone and *trusted* by everyone. Face it, with Windows, you know what you're getting, for good or ill. Linux just doesn't have that yet. Maybe it's the fragmentation of distros (Suse likes KDE, Redhat likes Gnome, etc.) As we can see over and over again, people don't buy the superior product, they buy the product they have been convinced into buying.
As an analogy, I offer this from my own life: I was in the store buying groceries. I needed peanut butter for sandwiches. I've been a lifelong JIF user, but JIF is kind of expensive. So I'm checking out the generics and store brands. All a bit cheaper, but not too much, and frankly, I don't know anything about them. They could taste better than JIF, but I don't want to be stuck with an open jar of crap peanut butter if it doesn't. The price isn't much different, so I suck it up and buy the JIF; I just don't want to run the risk of being disappointed. In my mind, JIF is the gold standard and until I am convinced otherwise *by external forces* I am probably not going to change. It's not that I don't want to, it's just that I am afraid of being disappointed and out some $ for a failed experiment.
Thus, I believe we need something, someone, to create that buzz that will usurp the idea that Windows is the good, safe choice. If I can get my grandma to ask for a pc and know that she wants Linux, and not Windows, then I think we will truly have succeeded.
You can use swfextract from swftools to extract the audio track from a flash file.
too bad my brand new x31 doesn't, and couldn't, come with a linux distro pre installed... i'd've been happy with either suse or redhat, if they could get the undock button and wireless workign flawlessly. Then maybe intel would've gotten those centrino drivers out a touch faster.
I prefer my evil to come from a company with a long history of evil. IBM got the history. Would you trust some tiny little upstart or a company that is now in its 3rd century of spreading Fear, Uncertainty and Denial? MS is still learning Slight-anxiety, Bit-of-doubt and Feeble-counter-argument.
Also the penguin logo is so much cooler. You can make him cute and cuddly or a fearsome killer penguin.
MS got some four colored thingy and a butterfly. Tsk. Might as well use a fruit and really show what kinda customers you expect to attract.
Anyone else find it humorous that MS logo is a bug?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Does the sign outside the penguin prison say AYBABT-'US' or 'MS'?
Article is by Daniel Lyons, one of the Forbes trolls.
If you don't have Linux, you can always get RealAlternative which doesn't involve installing Real on you computer, but you can play Real files.
Read journal when you are not understand
Whatever its reasons for doing this, the end result is that Linux gets a big boost from it. If IBM has its own agenda, more power to them - after all, they are a for-profit company. What do they get in return for expending so many resources with so little return? I'd do the same thing in their shoes.
Ads? What ads?
The system is basically an accelerometer which monitor the movements of the laptop, and spins down the HD when there is a risk of impact. I would like to write a Linux driver for it, but I refuse to reverse engineer the windows driver. More info here
RFC1925
I liked the portraits of RMS & Linus inside the temple for the short titled "meditation"
My current employer used to make loads off of AS/400 and System/36 work, but lately everyone has come to the realization that cheaper hardware and OS'es can do things better, faster and just as reliably. Four years ago the mantra was that "you know an AS/400 will never go down!" But after the latest rounds of PTFs, services packs and OS upgrades have wrecked havoc on working installations people have taken a second glance at that opinion.
The AS/400 is a great piece of hardware, no doubt. Their RAID controllers, massive RISCs and reliable hardware are fantastic for stable servers with 24/7 uptime. But OS/400 just can't take advantage of it. If you want to have hardware abstraction to the point that Sys/36 code from 1960 can still run you just aren't going to milk all the performance points you can out of the hardware.
One of the first things IBM did was get Linux running on an AS/400 (now eSeries). And I'm sure it wasn't a hobby project. They've got the hardcore hardware, now they need to get the industry behind a new common OS so they can sweep their OS/400 legacy under the rug. And good riddance, too.
Duh...
This may seem a surprising thing to do, but in fact it makes good sense to commoditize the products that complement your own. For IBM, a hardware vendor, that's the OS. For Microsoft, an OS vendor, that's hardware.
For the last twenty years, Microsoft has been extraordinarily successful in commoditizing PC hardware. This has not been good news for IBM (though most of IBM's problems over that time have more to do with a misperception of where the market was going). Now IBM is turning the tables on Microsoft by commoditizing Linux, which if successful, will drive down the price of Windows and make it more affordable to buy computer hardware.
WWJD for a Klondike Bar?
... will that mean that we have no choice but to commit technological seppuku? -Alex
yes I am... ... there is no flash plugin for amd64
but by the way
i think it is about time for an opensource flash plugin
stop supporting microsoft with pirating their software!!!!!
Besides the operating systems market. ... twice, to compete with m$ with his OSs, IBM DOS, and OS/2, i used 'em both, IBM DOS was just the same shit as m$ dos, OS/2 was a good OS, but they lost.
IBM Had it chance
The fact is that now IBM competes with M$ in other markets, and the main diference beetween m$ and IBM is that the hole M$ monopoly is based on 1 of their products: Windoze, Imagine that windoze doesn't exist, do you think m$ could sell competitive products to work on 3rd partys OSs?, do you think that someone using *nix on PC or on a MAC would buy office?, or Media Player?, or IE?. That's the difference, IBM is used to sell software to work on 3rd party OSes, and they want that OS to be GNU/Linux, cause they will be good positiones on that market; if windoze disapears, the hole m$ empire goes down.
I don't read the articles anyway! No feeding trolls here, oh no!
but /.'s are always going on about how un-innovative MS is.
What's the difference between IBM co-opting an OS because they are too pathetic to write a good one themselves and MS paying good money for other companies software?
It's funny how IBM have gone from prime evil # 2 to prime good guy in a few short years.
Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts, absolutely.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
http://splitreason.com/productdetail.php?id=99
In fact if you think about it the most evil pairing of all time, wintel, occured when IBM outsourced something it could have done in house. If they are smart they learned from this :)
So I agree with you except the "want to be in the service industry" They ARE in the service industry. All their other stuff just helps them to be better in it.
They might have to learn another lesson first though. One they haven't learned from the wintel fiasco.
Cheap boxes don't make much profit but they get your name out there. There used to be a time your PC was called an IBM-compatible. Now I get people calling their PC a dell or windows pc.
It is a subtle piece of marketing but where do you think a small business that grew big enough with dells and windows is going to look first for their first big server?
Big companies already know where to find IBM but what about the small companies becoming the big ones?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
as is the background tune, however they made it a little more techno/rock.
The younger crowd doesn't realize what a predator IBM was in the late 80's. Anti-Unix zealots... because *everything* can run on one of their mainframes or their POS mini computers.
Good riddance to both of 'em.
Who says you have to be an RMS "follower" to agree with his opinion. The ideals of free information far predate him. I like the guy, I agree with the guy, it does not make me one of his "followers".
"By 2008, predicts IDC, Linux server sales will reach $9.6 billion, versus $21.7 for Windows servers."
so by 2008, only 21.7/500 Windows servers will be sold!!!
Perhaps a jenna jameson promo distributed through the gnutella and FastTrack networks, really get it out to the sysadmins.
He also tried to disclose Pamela Jones' home address, according to this article of hers over at Groklaw (complete with lyons' name highlighted!). Now why would a reporter do that? The only explaination I can come up with is to scare PJ and make her feel uncomfortable. And why would a simple journalist want to do that? Clearly he and/or his masters had a bone to pick.
There is another ad by Novell, it features a kid running through an office killing butterflies with a paintball gun. Can anyone find this one?
WURD!!
Microsoft vs. Linux is just like Democrats vs. Republicans.
Linux is for those conservatives on the right who like things that never change and are extremely stable. Simple example are those that for whatever reason can't use anything but the Unix toolset even when they convert to Microsoft. They still need to use cygwin.
Microsoft is for those on the left that want to change things seeing a reason, and don't mind a little uglyness getting in the way of progress. Simple example...do we really need the things that Microsoft is throwing into Longhorn causing yet more instability and insecurity?
There are some on both sides who for whatever reason will NEVER switch...just like Democrats and Republicans. It's just like Coke and Pepsi too.
Computers and software are just tools to get jobs done. For many, nothing ever gets done because they keep concentrating on the tools.
Just my view.
Did you miss the little bit under the animations??
Both Flash and Real are available for Linux, if you don't want to use them, don't complain because the option is there
*Linux versions of these players are available. Get the free Linux plug-ins for Macromedia Flash and RealPlayer.
"Some things have to be believed to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson
IBM trys to overthrow MS with a technically superior OS
I wonder what lessons both sides learned from the previous round, OS/2 vs Windows?
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
There was sadly one series of IBM drives wich was insanely bad and IBM handled that insanely badly.
They lost their HD business through it and I hope they learned from it. No doubt they have but sometime in the future they will make another blunder like that.
Not that it matters. There are several car companies out there who made cars that KILLED people and they are still in business. If people can forgive being killed then surely merely losing your data can be forgiven as well?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Who the fuck ever heard of Laszlo? This is getting so redundant to no longer be the slightest be funny or interesting. It aint about the technology and it never was. It was always about the Marketing muscle to let folks know what you've got.
More people every day will visit msdn.microsoft.com than will ever hear of Laszlo, no matter what technology they bring to market. They cant win, except to gain a few clients that will keep them afloat until somebody big buys them, takes their tech and dumps them on the scrap heap of innovators who failed to understand that in every business, marketing wins.
And we deserve to be dev\null'ed.
Duh
So IBM has 12,000 employees working on Linux... I'm more interested in their dedication to an open-source replacement for MS Office.
"Trading one monopoly for another makes no sense."
Is there some part of IBM's involvment with Linux that requires IBM's participation after the sale? The only case where that might make sense is their proprietary hardware. If I run Linux on an IBM mainframe, I might have limited choices if I want to rely on IBM support. But then again, I can make the ultimate choice to migrate to some other hardware platform and keep my Linux applications pretty much intact. The mere existence of that option is going to make IBM more interested in meeting customer expectations.
With Linux, I can have whatever level of independence I choose. At the outer edge, I can in-source my software support and build a custom kernel if I want to. In reality, it makes sense to have some level of external support with the tradeoff being some limitation of what you do with the system.
For every strategic decision I make, I want an escape route in case it goes badly. I was asked, "How do you escape from your dependence on Linux if you face major problems?" My response: "It's a lot easier to get rid of Linux than to get rid of Microsoft, and if such a migration becomes necessary I will have saved enough money to pay for it."
Even if IBM somehow managed to create a Linux monopoly, the bottom line effect would be similar to replacing a one party dictatorship with two party democracy. Granted, the two party system often produces lousy candidates, but it still outperforms any dictatorship. Having more choices is seldom a bad thing.
and keeping those patent-drug companies in business.
:)
:) ;)
Remember folks, when you lie, steal or do anything
that you KNOW is a fucked up thing to do, YOU will pay
OH.. you don't think so? You're sitting there telling me I"m full of shit?
LOL then why, my learned friend, is YOUR life such a fucking mess and mine is unbe-fucking-lievably
Wonderful? Because I made the decision to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth a couple years ago.
More liberating then you can ever know.
BE WARNED! If you are NOT a truthful individual
and you put yourself on the path to truth, YOUR LIFE is more than likely going to get REALLY bad for a while. FORTUNATELY, it will get better and happier than you could ever possibly imagine.
So yes, the rewards are worth it.
Wake up and smell the happy life folks. It's right
on the edge of your perception
A couple of things that the press keeps missing:
;-)
1) Those HUGE profit margins Microsoft makes are because it has a monopoly AND those inflated prices are coming from it's customers profits. Ie, customers are paying and paying big. Very few in the press seem to equate Microsoft profits with it's customers losses. You know, the other side fo the coin.
2) That monopoly, they seem to forget that recently a federal court found Microsoft guilty of illegally protecting it's operating system business in the 1990's. Geesh, isn't that when IBM was trying to get OS/2 on the market???? But somehow they still won fair and square. hmmmm, Microsoft is a convicted felon. I wonder how many municipal governments prevent business relationships with convicted felons?????
And one more thing, in 1994 HP got a call from Bill Gates and was told to pull it's OS/2 based PC's off the COMDEX floor. They got man handled a bit by Microsoft but can put that behind them. IBM was the one getting bitch slapped over and over. OS/2 was IBM's and what happened to HP with OS/2 was what went on all over the industry. No wonder IBM wants to rip out the heart of Microsoft. IMO.
"Kill Bill 3" Coming to a computer near you. It's already on computers far from you.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
Do you make a living writing proprietary software? If the last statement is true, you would be a hypocrite for advocating against use of any proporietary software.
Yeah, just like burgerflippers that hate their McJobs.
License "Statisfaction" by the Rolling Stones an parody a Microsoft Windows commercial.
;)
Show various users with BSOD, virus warnings that say they cannot clean the virus, spyware/adware pop-ups, systems that cannot reboot because they say they are missing a file, a system lockup, Windows error reporting happening one after the other, Missing or Invalid DLL errors, a slow moving Windows system, etc.
Then near the end stop the music, show someone running Linux with no problems, then show a message "Can't get any satisfaction, try a Linux solution by IBM and get some satisfaction!"
Genius! Brilliant! I am not just saying that because I thought it up!
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
Could this be IBM's revenge against Microsoft for
ruining their world domination plans (http://www.ibm.com/software/os/warp/)?
Come on, they've gotta be a bit pissed.
GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there were lots of different kinds of micro-computers. There were Atari 800s and STs, Commodor 64s, 128s, and Amigas, TIs, Sinclairs, KayPros, the mighty TRS80, and lots of others including the Apple and the IBM PC. One of them had an open architecture that allowed other manufacturers to build things called "clones". The clone wars followed.
Now the dominant archtecture is the one that IBM pretty much gave away (yes, I remember there were lawsuits). Apple is hanging on, and the others are gone. The final blow to IBM dominance was when they tried a closed architecture with the self-administered nut-job of the PS/2 bus. (I owned a Model 50.) IBM is a lot of things, but hardware monopolist isn't it.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
That little freak in the IBM adverts looks more like something from The Midwych Cuckoos by John Wyndham than he does Marshal Mathers. Those adverts worry me.
> it does not make me one of his "followers".
Watching a commercial with RMS's Hymn puts you officially into "follower" territory.
It also turned out that their WebSphere IDE was not fully functional and up to date on Linux, only on Windows, and the web-based app for running their commerce system used JavaScript stuff that only works on -- you guessed it -- Internet Explorer.
enuf said
" OS/2 only runs the old-fashioned text based ATMs, not the snazzy graphical ones that are actually a little harder to use."
This is simply false. Many Kiosks, graphical ones at that, use OS/2.
All that said, IBM is no longer using OS/2 for kiosks, but is recommending either Windows 2k/XP or Linux.
Yes, I do happen to have experience at this!
The Enemy of my enemy is my friend.
As long as IBM is contributing to open, reusable software, who cares why they're doing it? The danger of Microsoft is that they can just say "oh, we don't want that software to run anymore" or "we don't want to support that anymore" and it just disappears. As long as IBM uses the GPL, the power is in the hands of the community. If they turn evil, we can just fork the code and do what we please with it.
Who cares why they're helping us?
But there is another kind of evil that we must fear most... and that is the indifference of good men.
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
So what would it take for IBM to make OS/2 open source?
I waaaant it.
wake up and hold your nose
"Though IBM did not invent Linux"
:)
Yeah but they did "invent" Microsoft so that's why they are the ones who have to clean this mess now...
Yahh, hiii haaaaa! -Major Kong, from Dr. Strangelove
Peace
It's really simple. IBM, having nowhere else to turn, decided to embrace Linux to spite Microsoft.
Nowhere else to turn? IBM had its own robust well respected and trusted version of Unix called AIX. IBM did not need Linux, IBM merely found Linux convenient. Just like the majority of Linux users, they are not motivated by a hatred of Microsoft, they just want a low-cost Unix box and find Linux convenient.
I retire Windoze2OO3 if there is a full graphical clone of "Windoze Commander" for Linux.
I just retire Windoze2OO3 if there is a full graphical clone of "Windoze Commander" for Linux.
I must to retire Windoze2OO3 if there is a full graphical clone of "Windoze Commander" for Linux.
Is it just me, or is this news really at least 2-3 years late?
I mean, IBM was a sitting duck in late 90s. Then they re-focused their strategy around Linux, and came back as a completely new "big blue", one we can actually *like*.
In y2000, IBM has already been the greatest promotor of Linux, helped open the doors for other Free Software/Open Source in the companies, and got a really nice ROI on this investment - both in term of $$, and in the mindshare.
We are in 2004 now, and someone suddenly discovered all this? Oh, my!
you nailed it.
You are not alone.
ohh the times I regret having talked Microsofts case in the early to mid-nineties.
especially the times when I come back to them and have to help them out of their current windows mess. I learned my lesson, hope I won't repeat the mistake. Experience gained.
when they ask me why we switch from MS again I say: "Evolution my friend, evolution".
"...does not distribute it and earns nary a penny on it..."
They don't? You can buy IBM computers with Linux on them. Looks like they do. I think you mean, they don't make their own distribution. I'm not even sure about this because they would have to do a lot of tweaking to get Linux working on their mainframes and AS/400.
How much has IBM made if a significant amount of those have websphere and/or DB2 + other software ibm sells???? HP doesn't have the software offering IBM does. So yes HP may sell more boxes than IBM in sheer numbers, however I bet IBM makes more per box once you add in all of the above mentioned 'extras'. We have a whole cluster of cheap (relativly speaking) IBM servers, however they all have Websphere. A few have DB2, most have some other IBM software on them. Point is a basic linux box from IBM costs us ~$5000 (Dual CPU). NOW put Websphere + appropriate licenses + DB2 + licenses (per CPU). Now that box costs us about $25000......
Thats whats IBM is about, not just selling a bunch of cheap x86 Linux boxes! Walmart can outdo everyone at that.
BTW Need some IBM consulting to go with that!!!!!
So Long and Thanks for all the Fish.
IBM does not care about making open source software (linux etc.) better. They really care about selling you anything for less and then creating reoccurring income through providing servicies. I know about at least one financial service company that has really crappy software from IBM. IBM also provides service for it ($30/per month, per unit).
Also, I don't understand why open source developers are directly helping such multinational companies. They are making money from open source software that is "free". And.. What they don't tell you is that they are seting you up for some reoccurring service income.
The idea of having a 2 button mouse on a Powerbook makes all Apple fanatics sad.
People should learn how to hold down the control key and click to simulate a 2nd mouse button.
Its far more appropriate that a company make money selling hardware, the stationary of software speech, than it is that they control what we can say.
20 years ago perhaps, there were few enough computer programmers that proprietary software could bribe or bluff them all into preserving a monopoly. Perhaps there were few enough computers or solution models that they could dominate all the working solutions.
Today developed world companies are swimming in hardware, often throwing out working hardware on vendor demand - not necessity. The number of programmers has grown and alternate programming methods have a long line of useful success stories to point to.
Microsoft, by dominating the market, has lowered the perceived value of competing solutions such that they might as well be given away. The Solution market is due for a huge correction as companies realize that their own home made solutions make them no money if not implemented at all. Open sourcing solutions at least capitalize their existing training and organization. Service and Support creates wealth and can gain client loyalty.
Proprietary software interests act like railroad barons of the American frontier - they are trying to monopolize key bridges to data flow. They are effectively saying that if I have my business on their tracks I can never make tracks of my own at anything approaching the real cost of track. I cannot build similar bridges,only because they built first. I cannot even use industry tools cheaply because they claim ownership of how you swing a pick.
In the midst of all this the reality is that sharing logic is a principle element of humanity. You may hoard tools & possessions but methods & information want to be free.
Protectionist, monopoly software is like the ancient silk monopoly of China. It has to fail because the world needs to use its computers affectively - not pay Billions of Dollars to Rich American firms for drawing pictures, ordering lists, and filing data.
Proprietary software can change and become a center, perhaps _the_ center, where things are done particularly well or they can slowly become a much resented backwater as more efficient systems spring up to bypass their bridges.
It is immoral to not allow poor countries to modernize for the real cost of organization. License and Permission costs are not real costs. Hardware companies know that, and will eventually sell to the world population at real costs plus a small profit margin.
As we absorb computers into how our culture operates society must claim computer languages, and their phrases and nuances, as 'free speech' the exercise of which is a right.
LS
It's called comprehension. Something you seem to greviously lack.
Again moderators: How you can moderate a Straw Man argument as +Insightful is beyond me.
Did you miss the little bit under the animations?? Both Flash and Real are available for Linux, if you don't want to use them, don't complain because the option is there.
... and a depricated one at that.
Not on my 64-bit dual opteron GNU/Linux installation they're not. Nor are they on my PPC GNU/Linux laptop.
Legacy 32-bit Intel GNU/Linux is only a subset GNU/Linux
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
cheers- raga
Off course IBM's making money from Linux. They made back their initial investment within the first year.
Dawson's Creek? Dude, no...
Are you intolerant of intolerant people?
It's the iSeries, and OS/400 seems to be called i5/OS nowadays...
Reminds me of some companies effort to replace their aging AS/400 with NT systems around y2k:
But it appears that Microsoft was not quite so amused, and denied the whole thing.
Remember how Microsoft sunk OS/2?
Remember how Microsoft destroyed the browser market by giving away Internet Explorer?
Someone at IBM does, and they know that by making the OS a commodity item, they can reap greater profits on hardware and consulting.
HP and Dell are about to get hit by a bus, and they don't even see it coming:
I, for one, welcome IBM's move. I'm sick of buying computer systems that Just Break(tm). I shouldn't have to constantly patch my machine; my hardware should work the way it is supposed to; my software shouldn't welcome viruses with open arms. IBM knows this, and that's why I'll be buying IBM hardware in the future.
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
I just watched that. Leaving aside all questions about the quality of the animation, it appears that the Biker Tux rides his motorcycle through a plate-glass window and into a bunch of other Penguins.
Biker Tux may wish to kill some or all of those imprisoned Penguins, but that is still not a good idea.
This Like That - fun with words!
So either cut Office or make deals with the OEMs to ship more Linux. Windows is so $%^&*! complicated to install, no one would try.
IBM motivated by profit!
I'm shocked,
Alex
You make me consider the other slant that you'd have to put on the findings.
IBM has found a good working solution that pleases many of its customers and is developing it. Seen without the Microsoft backdrop this is much more positive news. No discord, just better technology and profit for the company that pursues it.
Thanks for the heads up!
ls
The "Free the Code" animation is remarkably reminiscent of Apple's "1984" commercial introducing the Macintosh.
Back in those days, many of us thought the Big Brother figure represented IBM.
When all you have is an axe, everything looks like a grindstone.
for OS/2 :)
... I loved my os/2 boxes, i did not even know they were there, tey were so stable, usable, nice, fast .... and so ... b ut then came linux :) and then came MS
most likely not, but I would like to see them putting microsoft outta business as ms did it with os/2
Now if only we can fit Daniel Lyons himself into that ad... He is our resident SCO spokesperson and scolecophagous scorbutical scoundrel ...
I'd do it as well, but were does a geek get that kind of stuff reasonable?
You can still download all of them for free and not pay the support contracts. Try that with commercial software.
The difference is that Apple's 1984 was shown during the Super Bowl, and these are flash animations buried on some web site where only fanbois can find them.
(sorry, it's not fully functional like total commander)
open4free ©
But I already knew IBM was versus Microsoft...
(note for humor impaired... check my slashdot nick, which existed LONG before any popular movies, and has absolutely nothing to do with Mr. Gates)...
Mathematically impossible requirements are technically not against policy.
IBM's Global Support organization certainly makes a good number of pennies on it, so I wouldn't go extolling IBM's selfless virtues too much.
"They've canceled the show but we're still here. What does that make us?" "Big Damn Junkies, Sir!" "Ain't we just"
I can see how pushing Linux actually makes sense for IBM. IBM has lost a _lot_ by being in the number two spot in terms of profit/stock value. Simply cutting Microsoft down would mean that IBM could regain some of the monopoly rent that goes to whateover computer company is "the biggest". I don't think that Microsoft can at this point do anything similar to IBM--a lot of IBM's strength now is related to their position as a large, service organization that can field folks in numbers/locations other organizations have trouble matching. I have a bit of trouble with the idea of HP/Dell being the big "Linux vendors" long term--both of these companies have some serious quality issues IMHO with their products compared to IBM or Toshiba. What IBM needs to do here IMHO is more agressively invest in smaller, innovative companies than Microsoft can/does(and utilize the stength of the IBM research organization to spot serious innovation).
You have a point but you come off sounding like the biggest asshole in the world. Not everyone can afford a brand new dual opteron machine.
IBM had revenue to the tune of $260 million from Linux servers in Q1 2004, according to ZD net.
Evan Prodromou | evan@prodromou.name | http://evan.prodromou.name/
(no userid, no passwd at hand, whatever, thus AC)
Then there's the idea of asking money for enterprise versions of Linux distributions like Red Hat Advanced Server and Suse Enterprise version. IBM could do well without licenses, but if they provide support, they will likely ask "a nominal license fee" per year, even if Linux itself would be $0.
From EnglishPlus.com - In standard written English the possessive pronoun his is used to refer to a singular indefinite pronoun
If you don't like English, choose another language. But don't bastardize my language with your silly PC-speak.
You're an individual, just like everyone else.
The "source code" policy had to be stopped because customer-modified code generated a lot of calls for maintenance, and therefore costs for IBM at that time where the maintenance was still unbilled, I believe.
Now, the question is : "How would they name it" ?
Do you think "OS/3" would be a good choice ? :D
Signature omitted in order to save space. Thanks for your understanding.
Joey, this is your mother, please get off the computer and come up from the basement. I'm so horny today...I need your cock inside my wet incestuous vagina. Please, I need your salty cum in my mouth. I'll be in the bedroom. Watch out for your sister's toys on the floor.
http://www.i4u.com/article1573.html
They tried it with OS/2, and quickly learned that they're not suited to dealing with consumers (people who call for tech. support because their version of Myst doesn't display correctly with the 4-year-old video card that the neighbor kid put in their machine).
As long as it's not Gilbert Gottfried, I'm cool with it.
dinner: it's what's for beer
Back in those days, many of us thought the Big Brother figure represented IBM.
Back then, they were. Now, it is MS
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
sombody mod him up for using the correct word
Oninoshiko (has a pet peeve)
I've said this before, and I'm sure I'll say it again. The real target of the IBM Linux campaign is Sun. IBM desktop people may well want to split the market between Linux and Windows, but they don't want to kill Microsoft; after all, most companies in the desktop PC business believe that MS drives the upgrade cycle with new versions of Windows. Stopping that would be even more shortsighted than IBM usually is.
IBM is positioning Linux as the top-to-bottom server solution. That puts it against Sun, particularly at the low end where IBM has had little success in the past. Microsoft has no monopoly in any of these segments, and the biggest single player in most of them is Sun. Microsoft is entirely absent in the very highest segments, and is behind Linux in all the higher ones. Microsoft is growing very quickly in several of them, though. Apparently a lot of HP Superdomes are now sold with Windows. These are part of a high end segment that Windows wasn't in at all previously.
In summary: the IBM Linux campaign targets Sun, not Microsoft. Any success against Microsoft is incidental, and IBM has no desire to kill Microsoft, even if they would rather sell other software. In several of the market segments that the campaign targets, Windows is currently growing rapidly, although from an established base of nothing.
This raises the metaphor to a new level. JIF and its ilk has saturated fats added to it in order to prevent oil separation. This is generally considered less healthy, and also generally causes a worse taste. Natural peanut butters, on the other hand, require a bit of stirring when you first open them, but you get a healthier food that generally tastes better.
Now compare Windows to Linux. Windows doesn't require that initial investment of work that Linux does (although this is improving daily) but you pay in terms of health (security) and flavor (customizability and tools). Linux gives you what the other guy is missing, at the cost of some work in terms of learning, installing, and transitioning. I'd rather not extrapolate this further to IBM vs Microsoft, but you get the idea.
Oh, and for those of you who have a Trader Joe's around, you need to try their peanut butter. It's easily the best I've had anywhere.
"I may not have morals, but I have standards."
Have you tried to load Fedora Core x or RHEL on a ThinkPad G40? It would be nice if the onboard NIC worked with the supplied driver. Not so... You have to complie a driver from Broadcom.
;-)
So I guess we have define what we mean by supported.
"IBM has taken a religious view. Their message is Linux, Linux, Linux. Microsoft understands HP is not running a religious jihad," says Martin Fink, vice president of Linux at HP. [my emphasis]
Am I the only one who is concerned about this bad analogy? What a truly unfortunate choice of words on Mr. Fink's part. Shame on him for mixing these issues. :-(
zWhat would an EWOULDBLOCK block, if an EWOULDBLOCK could block would? -- me
I am not that sure about that. After all CMS or CICS were *much* more suited to terminal architectures available at that time (mostly 3278/9 and 3174 control units. On these, you just cannot run anything like vi ;o), but you ease the CPU work to the point where you can have have 17,500 CICS terminals or 2000 CMS terminals connected to a 3033 having... less memory than our present PCs ! :-o
Not that bad :o)
Also, I guess that IBMers were just as clumsy on UNIX than UNIX users were on CMS; and/or any vi-only users on the (excellent!) XEDIT :oD
IBM was probably right at the time; however, true, they were too slow to "move with the market" in time.
Probably it was not accustomed to at the time either ;o) Remember however that IBM mainframes already had these wonderful typeballs 2741 fully-buffered terminals when plenty of their competitors were happy to give Teletype ASR33 and KSR33s ! :-o
Signature omitted in order to save space. Thanks for your understanding.
The parent is a troll right? I have to respond anyway...
DB2/400 performance absolutely sucks
Yeah I started believing the propaganda too but then I did some testing of my own. Simple SQL select statements took twice as long using MYSQL as DB2/400. Throw in some scalar functions with a "group by" and MYSQL just rolled over and died. DB2/400 didn't even slow down.
WebSphere performance and management blows
I don't have experience with WebSphere but I do use Apache and Tomcat. The intranet I maintain runs both. Management is just what you would expect for any Apache/Tomcat install. The performance of Tomcat and java servlets hasn't been an issue either.
after the latest rounds of PTFs, services packs and OS upgrades have wrecked havoc on working installations
Are you sure this isn't a personal problem. I've been through three model upgrades, twice as many OS upgrades and countless PTF installs. All came off without a hitch. Total unplanned downtime in 6 years: 45 minutes.
Their RAID controllers, massive RISCs and reliable hardware are fantastic for stable servers with 24/7 uptime. But OS/400 just can't take advantage of it.
I'm not sure what a massive RISC is but that doesn't matter. The reliability of iSeries/AS400s is directly due to OS/400 so I'm not sure how OS/400 isn't taking advantage of all that great hardware. The error handling capabilities of OS/400 are a true work of art. Virtually all cards and devices can be hot swapped. Adding drives and new features (PCI cards) can be done without a reboot. Newer models include standby processors for capacity on demand and fail over capability. And OS/400 can run multiple partitions. Those partitions can be OS/400 or Linux. I just don't understand what you mean by OS/400 just can't take advantage of it
The iSeries really does Rock! To know it is to love it.
Yes. Let's all "ignore" opposing viewpoints becuause that's the best way to win the debate - not to mention it's a lot more mature. Besides, the average slashdot reader is clueless, uninformed and not capable of critical analysis so we don't want them to see anything that might dissuade them from the "correct" view.
Yes, both are available for the things like this that make up 5% of said content; the other 95%, annoying ads.
No thank you.
There is a market for computers running Linux. IBM want's a part of this market. That's all. EOS
My favorite was "Meditation" with the posters of RMS and Linus Torvalds.
Yes and no.
Yes as far as core operating system was concerned. OS/2 beautifully shared a sound card (a stupid idea, but a great OS test!) between two programs when Windows 3.0 did not do it very well
But unfortunately false as user interface was concerned. OS/2 fonts were ugly, and did not even incorporate the font design "know-how" that was present to design the 4250 electrocomposer fonts. Because the labs who designed them were not the same and had incentive to cooperate :o(
Now, what is the most important in a PERSONAL computer for the people who buy it ? A beautiful motor under the hood, or a beautiful look ? Well, the customer is always right, by definition.
However, a machiavelic move by Microsoft was to add these three useless and even harmful Windows keys to the PC keyboard! The two message to prospects were clear : "The PC is a thing intended to run Windows, period!"; and "What ? You mean that OS/2 is unable to use those keys ? Well, Windows is certainly a more mature product, then!"
Signature omitted in order to save space. Thanks for your understanding.
Did you know that the system 360 on the mainframe is an open architecture. That SNA, VTAM, FEP and the entire code base on the mainframe could be licensed. That Siemens, Amdhal and fujitsu built and sold mainframes that ran the IBM OS.
Oh IBM I have a long history with thee..
You were once a monopoly giant that ruled the PC hardware market when all pc's had an '86' processor. The government struck you down a notch but you trudged on, undeterred. You burned me with your screwy ps2 microchannel architecture ; it died the death it deserved.
Later I felt betrayed as a loyal OS/2 user when you half assed promoted it while fully promoting windows on your own hardware, I swore against all things IBM dropping OS/2 after Warp and moved to a new love... Linux.
Now, here you are again, but this time you've totally redeemed yourself! I ask myself if history will repeat itself; I hope not.
signed,
Disgruntled IBM supporter.
Having run OS/2 for years, I can atest to this little factiod, running Command & Conquer in a window on OS/2 with sound, while working on email and having a telnet session up monitoring a process at work. Can you yet do this in Windows? (I haven't tried, the BSOD frightens me too much to leave anything running during a game!)
And, IIRC, the thing that killed OS/2 wasn't anything less insidious than MS's anti-competitive practices, something about Office 97 not being backwards compatible by design (recall that little forced update fiasco?) and Office 97 apps asking for a memory address at the 2GB limit. (OS/2's VMs were limited to 512MB, so Office apps bombed when they didn't get what they asked for, not that they used anything above 512MB. I suppose someone enterprising should have hacked the memory request code, but that didn't happen.)
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
Isn't ironic that this IBM commercial shows the 'Free Code' penguin opening the minds of the other [proprietary code] penguins when about 20 years ago the Apple commercial freed the minds of IBM users?
I used to work with an AS/400. Had a drive failure ( dolts ( not IBM ) installing drives had set the input voltage to wrong setting, messed up controller ). The machine halted, warned us about the problem. Dolts came back, made temp fix, got the drive array back up. Machine just resumed what it was about, no additional problems.
We decided to upgrade the processor in our AS/400. The new one was the PowerPC based unit. The old one was whatever was in use before that. I had worked with the IBM service person before, so he let me do the upgrade. Did a PTF like HAL upgrade, shut down the machine, slid out old card with CPU on it, slid in new card with CPU on it. IPL, and away we went. Everything worked just as before, except faster.
emt 377 emt 4
Linux users tend to use Flash and Real, too.
I was pretty sure that he was already dead!
So, the CPU is the same...
The hardware around the CPU is not. As someone who has seen both, the AS/400 ( in the days I was involved with it ) was very good. Very expandable, lots of throughput. We had the corp office, and about ~200 external users, and things ran pretty well. Hardware to replicate this in the PC world? Way more than one machine. And we would have had to pay to have admin folks at each external site. Cost in aquisition and in ongoing maintainance would have ( and did ) make the AS/400 look like a bargain. Not to mention that we would have had to pay thru the nose to get the software needed written.
Hardware: yes, it has the same CPU, but that CPU is doing business, not waiting for IO completion. All that kind of stuff is pushed out to the devices, which are generally very smart comparied to PC hardware. *That* is part of what you are paying the extra for. Dont buy it if it isnt usefull to you, but dont say dont buy it, if it is. One size does not fit all.
emt 377 emt 4
IBM has always looked at the long view - the short term stuff never really mattered to IBM.
... In order to be competitive in the consumer PC sales circus, IBM PC-Co signed a deal with MSFT to license the OEM Windows 95... Without that deal, IBM would have to bundle the full retail edition of Windows 95 and it would make their PCs uncompetitive. Unfortunately, the contract had a clause which was the knife which killed OS/2 - IBM could not sell/bundle OS/2 nor could they develop it.
... all the driver support (the old PITA for OS/2 users) is actively worked on by the community (face it, if peripherial vendors wouldn't write an OS/2 driver, they wouldn't work on a Linux driver either)
OS/2's Death was a simple case of smothering the baby because their hands were tied
IBM is basically focusing on what the industry would look like in 10 years time. In the long term, the software is essentially free, consumer hardware is sold at cost (it practically is nowadays) and all the money to be made is in consulting and customizing the software.
The major benefit of something like Linux is a single architecture which works on a wide range of hardware... from simple embedded low-power systems to high performance clusters. It makes it attractive as the skills are the same on all of them - simply the hardware may be tuned easily for the application.
When IBM looks at Linux, they see it as a platform which they can launch themselves from. This was how they treated OS/2 - as a vehicle to sell their consultancy. The retail sales of OS/2 never justified it's development costs. However, the retail "public" presence of OS/2 was important: It's very difficult to sell services on top of a system which the customer has not heard of before.
In many ways, for IBM, Linux is better than OS/2... They do not need to spend so much effort to market it. It already has a penetration into the minds of the public and generally the public perception is "It's free; it's fast; it's secure... sometimes difficult to understand" but the last bit is not a bad hurdle - it just means that the customer already expects to hire someone to put it all together.
I am pretty sure that IBM makes a lot of its profits in consultancy and custom programming. Ok, their mainframe deals can be pretty sweet for the revenue - but such big iron costs big bucks in the first place. The software front, IBM knows that it can be painful to move faster than the smaller guys (think of IBM as some kind of dancing elephant)... They are using the nimbleness of the FOSS movement to develop the foundation
Hmm... Like any long posts, I kinda forgot what my original point was...
-- The universe began. Life started on a billion worlds...
-- Except on one where stupidity was there first.
Figure out how to remove all the (c) Microsoft code.
I once saw a power cord for a rack of drives kicked out of its socket. About 36 drives (attached to an AS/400 of course) just went dark. The drives were just plugged back in and the AS/400 never missed a beat, never crashed. I would hate to see the carnage that would cause on any other server.
Uh-oh! 12,500 IBMers were behind OS2 10 years ago. Doom lies ahead!
Can we all now agree that the Kill Bill jokes are played? They weren't very funny in the first place.
I'm asking a legit question. How is that trolling? I would think IBM should use their own products.
FFS, the only reason IBM is even remotely interested in Linux is to sell services first and hardware second. IBM earns billions every year by telling customers "we're from IBM and we can make this work for you". Once IBM Global Services are in they are there for life. Who else could possibly get that Netsphere hairball to work properly ? And BTW, for all the lovey dovey crap I hear about them contributing Eclipse to the open source gene pool why is it that nobody realises that it's an anti-Sun ploy pre and simple ? Look at the name for god's sake: Eclipse... Sun... geddit ?
Is it just me, or did the knuckle-dragging monkey creature in the "Evolution" story bear a striking resemblence to Dubya?
There is one: http://www.swift-tools.net/Flash/. It can only play pre-v.5 flash, though, so it needs your help!
WeRelate.org - wiki-based genealogy
From the Article: "Linux now powers more than 3,400 servers inside IBM, including machines that run IBM's state-of-the-art 300-millimeter semiconductor factory in East Fishkill, N.Y. Now IBM is considering erasing Windows from its desktops and moving them to Linux, too."
That is some thick wires. At least resistances will be low :-) Perhaps they meant to say "IBM's state-of-the-art 300-picometre semi-conductor factory."
Slashdot: Where nerds gather to pool their ignorance
it says
All your base
belong to us
hehehe - mad flash animator....
Nice. Can you point me to the link for the amd64 version please?
-- MartinG To mail me: echo kewyjlcxyzvjfxbqwh | tr bcefhjklqvwxyz
Correction!!!!
.....
all your base
are belong to us
IBM certainly has had a history of taking market-capturing monopolistic moves not terribly different than some of the stuff Microsoft has been pulling. The difference though, between IBM and Microsoft is that for the most part, IBM's products don't suck.
Think for a moment-- if Microsoft's products were anywhere near as well designed as, say Apple's, do you really think they'd be getting the kind of flak they're getting now over their monopolistic practices? Linux would have a much harder time of it if most Windows users actually liked Windows.
And that's not to say that IBM can't produce junk, I'm sure there's plenty of examples people could point to. Generally though, IBM is capable of recognizing, admitting and/or correcting the problem when it occurs. But Microsoft's FLAGSHIP product is junk, it's been junk for its entire lifespan, and it would appear that not only is Microsoft incapable of competing on quality, they are completely aware of that fact and therefore resort to the most underhanded means of lock-in and other consumer-unfriendly market protections (either that, or they simply prefer to do things in an underhanded way-- a distinct possiblity).
Because of that, I'm inclined to give IBM far more slack with regards to it's "selfish" efforts to steal market share away from Microsoft...
...then why don't they offer Linux on the laptops they sell? Even a dual boot laptop would be a sign of their sincerity.
Red Hat is extemely expensive. ~$1000 per machine for this "support contract". The EULA that you clickthrough to install Red Hat says that you agree to purchase support agreements for ALL of the machines you install Red Hat on. If you've got a cluster of 100 machines Red Hat will cost you $100,000, unless you violate this contract. I don't know the Windows pricing
memory and can recall the days in which they were UNDISPUTED KING OF ALL THINGS COMPUTER. They'd like to go back to that I think...Not that they would be any better than M$ as monopolists.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
IBM stickin' it to tha man!
I want to see a Tux vs. Darl/SCO Flash game. That would kick ass.
perl -e 'print $i=pack(c5, (41*2), sqrt(7056), (unpack(c,H)-2), oct(115), 10)'
Am I the only one who noticed the "All your base are belong to us" sign beside the prison?
Microsoft wrote OS/2 up til version 0.9, which came out at about the same time as Windows 0.9.
I did actually beta test both, as I worked for a video card mfg then.
Then MS bailed, preferring to focus on windows.
So there may not actually be much MS code to throw away.
The win32 compatibility stuff.
wake up and hold your nose
Here, they have a technology they get build off of, even if it isnt theirs, it can help them a free software.
They have a free base to innovate off of and build their own tools off of, and a powerful weapon against one of their most powerful competitors, maintain good relations with opensource, and make use of it to keep people on their side, and to wipe out one of their competitors.
Eventually though, they'll create proprietary systems that simply use linux as the kernel.
It's like how Apple uses Openfirmware in their powermacs. it's open and free, but most users arent going to bother with it. Besides, it's free for them, and they dont have to create a developent team to make another part of the system.
So it does work out for everyone.
"meanwhile over on Slashdot, geeks argue over 2 multi-billion dollar corporations...."
bit sad really , isn't it? isn't there other VASTLY more important things to be talking about?
in other words - who gives a fuck?
True. Do some homework all those /'ers defending Monopoly$oft & disparaging IBM.
Find out how Gates lied, cheated & manouvered himself into temporary fortune.
Disclaimer: I don't work for them, but the t-shirt rocks, so I bought one. Excellent!
"The rules are: Own the desktop"
Which is predicated on the assumption that the desktop MATTERS. It's the changing of those fundamental assumptions (making the desktop OS not matter) that IBM is trying to drive.
Lets not forget history i have no doubt that their are still those at ibm who are out for Bills head after what occured with OS2, for them linux is the easiest way to get vengance and have full support of just about everyone while doing it.
all i can say is rockon
You slashdotters are too stupid. IBM's model is consulting. Linux has to be hard enough to use and buggy and insecure for IBM to profit. Linux fits the bill, so it makes perfect sense for IBM to support Linux. That's why TCO is very important and that's where IBM is losing. Sooner or later slashdotters (except the Mac idiots who pose as Stallman type of communists) will realize that Linux is going nowhere. Today it is getting market share from Sun only. Windows is still strong at the server.
screw me once shame on you screw me twice shame on me screw me a third and ill go open source on your arse anyone who knows the history of IBM-Microsoft dealings will get the joke.
Isn't part of the bloat that Windows is so often (and appropriately) accused of directly attributable to having to support a nearly infinite number of hardware / software configurations?
:)
Aren't you complaining about the converse of that - that Linux [can't|doesn't currently] support every possible software / hardware configuration?
I am really not trying to troll here, but in all honesty, you are quite a bit closer to the bleeding edge than most (and I'm a little jealous) so you have to expect that the edge is, well, farther from the center.
I would imagine that its not the end of your world that you can't use Real / Flash on your machine - if you're like me, you probably question the worth of most media in those formats. On the other hand, we hear all the time that one of the principal strengths of Linux is what it does that nothing else does as well or as easily / cheaply. Anyone can install the Flash player on a Win98 box - I would guess that you probably have more specialized uses for your machines that a Win98 box wouldn't address. Just as my (imaginary and probably faulty as an analogy) Porsche can't pull my (equally imaginary) boat as well as a truck could.
That said, when you get your OOS Real / Flash player written, feel free to post it here. Otherwise, wait 6 months, and I'm sure someone will come up with something.
Battling Beasts
The Microsoft+IBM OS/2 alliance stopped around 1992 ( see http://groups.google.ca/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8& selm=3790A700.1E571603%40isomedia.com ). By this time Windows 3.0 matured and Windows 3.1 was almost ready for release. When the split happened, MS used some of the code in Windows NT. Long story short, there is an amount of shared source from the partnership being used today, although I'm sure alot of it has been refined since.
What a second... do you mean to tell me that the first goal of business is to COMPETE with one another in attempts to gain market control and increase profit potential?
I... I'm speechless. I thought that companies simply enjoyed creating stuff for people, and that the money was an unimportant "perk" of giving openly to the community.
What kind of a sick world do we live in? And why didn't anyone tell me this kind of thing sooner?
Real finally figured it out... someday, Macromedia may figure out the power of flexability.
I don't get the parent posters rant either. As a person who admires well designed products, the AS400 ranks high in my book.
:)
:)
Everything on the system is an object. Devices, files, users, etc. The design goals of the AS400 were met, the glue between Mainframes, Midrange and PCs. To have it run Linux in a VM speaks volumes on the extensibility of the system.
IBM's loyalty to the system is also admirable. I once placed an 'Intel Inside' sticker on the front of ours (leased) and the technician dragged my boss into the computer room and explained to him that I had basically defiled a work of art and IBM wouldn't put up with it
The only flaw in the design is my hatred towards RPG, but thats a different topic
Enjoy,
It's just the normal noises in here.
Yep, I couldn't get through the entire thing.
OMFG it's not even good enough for William Huang.
History
HOME: http://www.planettribes.com/allyourbase/
Since then, IBM has been trying to figure out how to squelch the monster they created. However, do not kid yourself, IBM did create this monster.
However, do not kid yourself, IBM did create this monster.
IBM did not really create it. They just did not stop it when they could. Their own greed got in the way. Now adays, I think that IBM's attitude is one of, "if we can't control it, then nobody shall", which works in this case.
"You slashdotters are too stupid. IBM's model is consulting. Linux has to be hard enough to use and buggy and insecure for IBM to profit. Linux fits the bill, so it makes perfect sense for IBM to support Linux. That's why TCO is very important and that's where IBM is losing. Sooner or later slashdotters (except the Mac idiots who pose as Stallman type of communists) will realize that Linux is going nowhere. Today it is getting market share from Sun only. Windows is still strong at the server. "
Nice troll!
"hard to use" (if you're trying to work under the bonnet/hood in troubleshooting), "buggy and insecure" all apply more to NT/W2K etc etc.
I just installed SUSE 9.1, and NOT on a dual Opteron (amd2500+). Flash is auto installed on the box using Mozilla. Obviously, it will run on less of a machine, not just shiney new dual Opterons. Spend less time crying and more time just downloading and installing it for your distro of choice.
Just because a program is not GPL, doesn't make it bad. Really.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
Although I have never seen any indication on an ATM or any kind of kiosk that it was running OS/2 (like you see BSODs on these things every once in a while) I know that it is used by several banks still, as terminals/desktops.
After all, AIX isn't going away for quite some time, and there are craploads of gov't/public utility programs that only run on RS/6000's with AIX, and would cost a great deal to replace. Having a portable AIX system for coding/debugging/beta testing/demos would be a neat niche product.
Since then, IBM has been trying to figure out how to squelch the monster they created. However, do not kid yourself, IBM did create this monster.
Yeah, it's like IBM is Batman and Microsoft is The Joker or something.
Colin programs for OS/2. Used to be Fido ZC for Zone 3, too.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Tux could dance around like Britney Spears. At he end of the commercial Bob Dole says to his dog "Eassssy boy!"
Check out Real's system requirements. They have players for PPC/Alpha/Sparc Linux.
The question is, what kind of voice would he have
That's easy, just get Linus himself to do it, just increase the pitch of his voice.
Don't eat me