Slashdot Mirror
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."
ummm, OS/2 is probably what runs your ATM you get money from, yes it did fail to win the home market, but it sure worked well in the business and embedded markets
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.
That doesn't even make sense. Perhaps if you said "If IBM was really committed to PowerPC", your argument might have been interesting (but still unrealistic), but since x86 runs Linux wonderfully, I don't see what the lack of a PPC Thinkpad says about their commitment to Linux.
That *WAS* true of IBM back in the late 80s, early 90s. Actually, the primary reason I was an MS fan was because they were going to take down IBM ... mission accomplished. However, MS then proceeded to over step it's boundaries by snuffing out competitors illegally. Admittedly, I played a bit roled in create the monster.
Now the tables have turned, IBM is looking to take down MS, thus correcting my blindness, and it's the primary reason I'm an IBM fan now. I don't know if IBM has *really* changed their ways but they walk the walk and talk the talk so I'll back them. That said, there's a big difference between IBM and MS, IBM was *NEVER* actually convicted of being a monopolist, the DOJ dropped the case in the 80s.
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
That used to be the case, but unfortunately the vole is getting a lot of ATM business with hardened variants of Windows (NT4 onwards I think). Although my idea of a hardened Windows is it switched off. I have seen BSOD's on several different major UK banks ATMs.
Brought to you via Pidgeon TCP
Pfft. The "Enterprise," "Advanced" and "Datacenter" flavors of Windows cost more than any Linux distro I know of.
Napster-to-go says "Fill and refill your compatible MP3 player", which is a lie. It's not MP3. It's WMA with DRM.
"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
No. He means "free peanuts in a bar": a free product used to lure people into buying the expensive stuff (beer, or in IBM's case, hardware).
Well, since the stuff is open, they can't lock us in... Unless they make a really sweet db or something, but I like mySQL.... The OS is free, they provide service, apps & customization... That's quite a fall from providing *all* mainframes & servers though... tough luck... Maybe they'll do something unpredictable(tm)?
Oh, and tone down the damn caps already It's so 80s.
You can only drink 30 or 40 glasses of beer a day, no matter how rich you are.
-- Colonel Adolphus Busch
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.
Technically, you're still right. MS-DOS is the leading OS shipped on Point of Sale terminals.
--
E_NOSIG
They gave the PC OS market away to Bill Gates. They gave the PC to anyone who wanted to clone it.
They did not give anything to anyone. The PC OS market was supposed to be rocked by that wonderful OS/2 operating system, while Microsoft's DOS was just a toy, just a way to start the hardware sales until the software guys took 2 more years to finish OS/2. OS/2 was so good, that you could run DOS applications from inside the OS/2. Microsoft's was just el cheapo limited edition to have something in the hardware that was ready to ship.
The architecture for the PC was not opened as a give-away, it was in fact, young and feisty programmer Bill Gates explaining the virtues of open standards to IBM, where their machines become infinitely extensible by third-party manufacturers producing all sorts of peripherals for what used to be a closed platform.
How much would a PC cost today if it wasnt for IBM deciding that releasing the PC instead of drag in court for years?
Oh, I don't know, perhaps your local Mac guru will tell you.
You can use swfextract from swftools to extract the audio track from a flash file.
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
"IBM recommends Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional." (taken from their website)
Although IBM is working towards Linux, they cannot cut all ties with Microsoft right now, or many of their clients are going to be looking elsewhere... they will have to keep supporting Microsoft until they can get Linux to a level where they don't need to care about Windows anymore...
My dog ate my sig
To this day, the major hubs at United Airlines are still running an OS/2 backend. The workstations are Win3.11 but all the processing, routing, printing, and configurations are controlled from the OS/2 servers on old ass IBM hardware that connect to the mainframes. Smaller stations and relative new stations do not have a "backend", they connect directly to the mainframes via TCP/IP.
They gave the PC to anyone who wanted to clone it.
IIRC, they wanted the basic components of the PC to be mass produced by anyone and therefore dirt cheap, but wanted to retain control of the architecture through the copyright they held on the BIOS.
Worked well until Compaq reverse engineered a legitimate version of the BIOS, and others like Phoenix followed.
(ps. A quick Google to check my memory reveals that a company called Columbia Data Products produced a clean room version of the BIOS shortly before Compaq in '82).
Information wants to be beer.
slight nitpick...windows 3.1 had no native TCP/IP stack...therefore everyone used the cute little hack known as trumpet winsock.
Linux on the Apples is highly overrated. It's not NEARLY as good as Linux on x86 for a number of reasons -- more hardware choice on x86 being one of them. I have the misfortune of having an Airport Extreme Base Station -- there is NO WAY IN HELL I'll get it running with Linux. I can't even get my Win2000 box on it, and that's plugging directly into the ethernet port! So now running linux will cost me to get a new router, and I haven't even gotten my laptop running yet.
There are more people working on x86, so it's generally better supported. My PowerBook doesn't have any sleep mode under linux, the AirPort doesn't work, the backlit keyboard I paid extra for doesn't work, and many apps have to be recompiled under PPC with fixes made to the code beforehand.
All in all, if you buy a Mac, you WILL end up using it ONLY for OS X. The barriers to Linux on that platform are too great for 99/100 users. And you are one of them. Trust me.
If you want to run Linux, or are considering running linux, do NOT buy a Mac. I've been there, done that, and it's a royal pain in the ass for the quality of the results. Nice computers overall, but designed for OS X, and very unfriendly to anything but.
I've already decided; my next computer will be an IBM ThinkPad running Debian. Doc Searls has mentioned a rumor about IBM releasing Linux-only ThinkPads which have the G5 as their processor. If this arrives, I'm selling my PowerBook and all associated accessories PDQ.
I'm not normally an irrational zealous dickhead, but I figure "When in Rome..."
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
Serial printer .. and so on
Handheld scanner
Flatbed scanner
2x20 customer display
Cash drawer
PIN pad
Scales
You're right. Many of these are serial devices. But most retailers and most ISVs have gone down the path of allowing the hardware supplier to write the drivers (OPOS, or JavaPOS, or other) with the result that if such drivers don't exist, the retailers and ISVs no longer have the expertise in house to write them.
IBM does have such expertise, and while it may be harder for them to write a driver for a Symbol scanner than it would be for Symbol to do it, IBM has more incentive.
--
E_NOSIG
Do you have OS/2 around? Just run 'grep -ril "Microsoft" *' on it and see how many "Copyright(C) Microsoft" you will find.
OS/2 was developed in conjunction with MS a long time ago, and there are things that MS still holds the copyright inside OS/2.
Or maybe their Thinkpads would do a better job of supporting linux - read through the linux-thinkpad list and see how much work is needed to configure linux for a recent TPad and how much stuff (like power management) still won't work as well as it does under Windows.
At the very least IBM could patch their broken DSDT
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.
> IBM was *NEVER* actually convicted of being a monopolist, the DOJ dropped the case in the 80s.
IIRC, Microsoft has never been convicted of being a monopolist either.
IBM has had two DoJ consent decrees against them, compared to one for MS, if we're just comparing statistics: the first in 1937 in regards to their punch card monopoly, and the second in 1969 in regards to software bundling (ow, the irony!).
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
Then the microcomputers and the clones occured and things changed. To IBM's credit they have recently made a turn-around - becoming a services company more than a hardware company.
No, the WAFERS are 300mm. It's the new semiconductor standard. The actual lithograph (9nm, 130micron) machines are easier to replace than an entire production line. 200mm -> 300mm. ;-)
Really (pdf link)