EDS' Secret Love For Linux Laid Bare
Ashcrow writes "'Only a day after flaming open source as insecure, unscalable and unfit for Australian consumption in its Agility Alliance, services vendor EDS has revealed it really does have a soft spot for the penguin deep in its heart.' Apparently the 'Linux environment provides a level of security and stability unavailable elsewhere' which differs from that they had said earlier."
Now let's all hug.
Left hand, meet right hand. We'll introduce you to brain later.
In other news: EDS global vice president for Agility Alliance Rob Rasmussen was found not to be scalable.
An anonymous insider said, "We still give him rubber pencils and an Etch-A-Sketch for a laptop, he's getting better about drooling, too."
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Ha ha!
Or more to the point, I believe EDS has demonstrated themselves to be unreliable and unscalable...
Apparently Linux, in addition to providing a level of security and stability unavailable elsewhere, seems to be free!
In related news, [insert MS joke regarding costing too much and not being nearly as secure].
-Valiss
They'll pretty much say or do whatever people pay them to say or do.
Wear the nun outfit and spank them with a floppy? Sure, they'll do that.
Call you "Mommy" while wearing a swimsuit? For the right price, they're yours!
And to say that Linux is good one day, and insecure the next, well, that's just another whore transaction. All in a day's work for EDS, I guess.
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
In their case study, they state "Linux environment provides a level of security and stability unavailable elsewhere". Maybe that level is lower, not higher? ;-)
"I was against Linux before I voted for it"
Both will tell you just what you want to hear and do just about anything to make a buck.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
EDS - IT Provider of The Beast
I'm just another happy EDS/NMCI end user.
I'm sooo sooo happy I might start laughing and never stop.
*Tries to strangle himself with ethernet cable*
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
Is it even necessary to try and make a joke at the expense of the article title?
MARLA: You fuck me, then snub me. You love me, you hate me. You show me your sensitive side, then you turn into a total asshole! Is that a pretty accurate description of our relationship, Tyler?
JACK (V.O.): We've just lost cabin pressure.
No, seriously, I just come here for the articles.
We have many hundreds of Linux boxes in our data center, run by EDS. We have a cluster of about 150 4-way Opteron machines, as well as several other clusters. This is in the US.
I also need to say that our support for Linux & MySQL from the EDS team supporting us has been excellent.
I was disappointed by the comments earlier this week, doubly so as I'm an Australian. I thought my countrymen would have smarter things to say about Linux...
Alan.
You're making the classic mistake of confusing the messenger with the sender. It's really popular these days, though old as the hills: the prophet must be the god he's talking about! When a journal reports hypocrisy, the journal isn't confused - they hypocrite is *confusing* - and maybe confused.
--
make install -not war
EDS is a consulting firm. They sell "billable hours." If those billable hours result in an accurate study or a system that works it is strictly because the individuals whose hours were billed happen to do a good job.
Kudos to the submitter, propz unlimited and all that.
I wonder why anyone would listen to EDS about anything.
After all, they don't even listen to themselves.
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
Same that happends with SCO and others.
They never had a legitim bussiness (or they did in the past, but now it's gone), so they are paid to spread FUD; and would just do anything to take the last bucks out of their company.
WTF am I doing replying to an AC at 5 A.M on a Friday night?
1. Researchers have integriddy. Intuhgrity. Inta--that thing where they pursue truth. They develop a hypothesis, test it, and report the results, unvarnished.
2. ????
3. Profit!
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
Just after reading about EDS bashing Linux, I read this article. about the myriad of glitches in EDS's software for the Colorado welfare office that is going to cost millions to fix.
Now, they do say that colorado pushed the go live faster than was recommended, but the point is that EDS might not be the one to talk about stability and flexibility.
As I said here and as others have commented about. I guess now that SCO is mostly off the radar, we have a new 3 letter company to make fun of and hate.
"Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
You know, I hear Oracle is part of that group, now.
[ducks]
I really want to know how these 'Alliances' and think-tanks get formed in the first place. Does Sun come to IBM and say something like:
Sun: Hey, wan't to go in with us on this joint think tank and study group? It will do industry analysis for all of us and we can get them to voice our opinons through their reports. I have a few friends I can pay to sit around and write articles.
IBM: Wait, whose opinions would these be? Yours or ours?
Sun: Does it matter?
IBM: Not really. Ok, I'm in.
Microsoft: Hey, my nephew's a philosophy major and is having trouble finding a job. He's quite a good writer - do you think you could get him a job in it?
Sun: Sure.
IBM: Wait, aren't we all mortal enemies?
Malike Bamiyi wanted my assistance.
Look what Colorado got from EDS for our $200,000,000 in taxpayer money:
Benefits plan assailed - Lawsuit targets benefit system - Benefits program hits predicted snags - Loss of aid to poor feared - Computer causing headache, heartache - Computer upgrade in works - Donate food, mayor urges - Judge: Keep system running - Company has other unhappy customers - Computer glitch costly - Food drives ramping up over weekend - Pressure to go online - Mixed results on rollout - Living on the edge - Glitch leaves poor out in cold - Benefits system lawsuit revived - Old system assisted payroll - Woman desperate to get meds for son - Needy could wait months for welfare benefits - Federal report blasts state welfare backlog - Benefits battle boiling - Letter blasts benefits system - Demand for food 'unprecedented' - Consultant derides new benefit system - Nursing home 'crisis' - Counties faulted on benefits - Mother deals with confusion on benefits - Lawyers wrap up arguments on benefits system - Judge: Clear backlog - Family in downward spiral -
If they can't even properly manage their own public communications, I wonder how well they can manage their client's systems?
So pretty: http://shots.osdir.com/slideshows/slideshow.php?re lease=286&slide=13&title=kubuntu+kde+3.4+screensho ts
That is just plain wrong
Star Trek, there maybe hope.
Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition (Highly critical)
Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Server (Highly critical)
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server (Highly critical)
Microsoft Windows XP Professional (Less critical)
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition (Less critical)
Linux Kernel 2.4.x (Less critical)
Mandrake Linux 9.x (Not critical)
Mandrake Linux 10.1 (less then Not critical)
RedHat Linux 8.0 (Less critical)
RedHat Linux 9.0 (Not critical)
RedHat Enterprise Linux WS 3 (less then Not critical)
No sig for now.
Translation into Real English: Linux is as far below "perfect" as most other Operating Systems out there are below Linux.
Translation of Translation: Linux isn't perfect, but it's heavenly compared to any of the alternatives EDS has tried.
Translation of Translation of Translation: EDS need to see about getting on Prozac.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
An endorsement by EDS ? This could be the end of Linux.
What keeps me going is my inertia.
They've got lots of eggs now -- they just have to scrape it off of their face very carefully and pull their foot out of their mouth. For desert, they can start eating their words.
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
Who cares what EDS thinks? Sure, they have their hands deep into the pockets of the Fortune 500, but they're no less vulnerable to the effects that Linux may have on the market.
EDS has been obsessed with being everything to everyone, and this is just another facet to the multiplicitous facade. Once they get someone to buy into either end of the argument, they get their consulting wing fully embedded in the customer and then suck them dry like a vampire on steroids (but not the kind of steroids that make you hit home runs ... no ... the kind that makes you into an egotistical shmuck who feels impervious to the ridicule from such factions of reality as customer satisfaction and cost controls). Please, just spare us any more stories about EDS and their views on Linux!
when it rains, it gets real soggy. when it pours, i'm under the tap just _waiting_ for the joy
First Article: From a corporate perspective, we are not confident where Linux is right now today. A large enterprise needs to be sure because it relates to securifying [sic] the environment.
Second Article: Nearly a decade after it was first developed, Linux is gaining popularity with corporate IT departments that admire the operating system for its stability and security.
If most corporations are considered psychopaths, then these guys are schizophrenic.
Ruby on Rails Screencast
Lots and lots of engineering application vendors have their software running on Linux. EDS doesn't ... I wonder why that is?
5 g3Ca2Xs6r0p8 hackerkey.com
--
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"Seems it be much smarter for EDS to adopt Linux, thereby being able to legally "steal" all the "IP" that their feared competitor IBM is producing."
Kind of hard to build a consulting business on "stealing" Linux IP. EDS can use IBM's open source stuff no problem, but a potential customer is going to be faced with the choice of:
- Hire IBM because they are developing Linux stuff so they obviously have the expertise
- Hire EDS who is probably learning as they go because Linux isn't exactly their bag, and are now bad mouthing it to boot.
IBM isn't stupid. They know ownership of the IP in the Linux world doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is if your potential clients view you as savvy and expert and IBM obviously conveys that on Linux, especially with the never ending barrage of great Linux stuff they post on their developer site and the non stop advertising.
If you are trying to land a consulting gig it also helps if the potential customer sees you as getting Linux and are not trying to "own" things or do proprietary lockins.
"They way it is now, they just look incompetent."
Totally right. IBM's marketing strategy is to be pro Linux, and not overtly anti Microsoft or anti anything else. Everyone knows they have no love for Microsoft but if a customer wants Windows IBM consulting will do it in a heartbeat. They'd probably even do Solaris if the customer required it, though probably more reluctantly (the old proprietary UNIX religious wars run deeper than the Linux versus Windows religious war).
EDS on the other hand, at least in this case, is being anti something and that is a really stupid marketing approach for someone selling services. You need to be pro something versus anti something. But its hard for EDS to create much excitement being pro Windows desktop and Solaris servers. Its an ancient strategy and long in the tooth, especially since many people think SUN is half dead. IBM looks leading edge and trendy being pro Linux. If EDS tries to be pro Linux they just look like a "me too" compared to IBM. IBM really has them foxed.
Not sure where CSC falls in this. I imagine they will just whore their services based on the customer's desires and aren't religious about it.
@de_machina
I work for EDS, and I have to point a few things out. For one, it's a HUGE corporation...it's a world unto itself. We've got over 120,000 employees all over the planet, on nearly every continent and in every time zone. You always have to take what one guy says with a grain of salt; there are very few universal truths that cover all of EDS, and none of them have to do with a preference for a kind of technology, one way or the other. For gods sake, I'm sure there's a linux beowulf cluster somewhere, and a whole lot of Windows ME somewhere else.
I'd also like to point out that the previous article about the EDS "stance" was very likely taken somewhat out of context by the reporter. You've got a guy high up in EDS saying that in enterprise environments, linux doesn't match up to Solaris 10, and in a lot of ways he's right. If you doubt that, check out Solaris 10 and its new features. It rocks like mad, and I do prefer linux to Solaris.
No large enterprise on the planet is all of anything; even Microsoft got caught running linux and a BSD variant at times. So let's get over the notion that one guy out of 120,000 may not like linux so much yet still have it in his corporate environment?
Oh, and I use linux daily in my work at EDS, just to be clear on the subject, and rarely touch Solaris.
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
i) EDS are a fucking joke. Check their track record on UK Government projects if you don't believe me.
ii) anyone who thinks linux offers security and stability unavailable elsewhere has never seen Unix before.
They didn't receive the promised cheque from Microsoft, and, as such, has a spontaneous bout of truth-telling.
EDS's heart is in the right place, but their remark "The new Linux environment provides a level of security and stability unavailable elsewhere.", is incorrect.
{Free,Open,Net}BSD provide no less security and reliability than Linux. You certainly cannot forkbomb them to death, for instance, whereas that's true of some Linux distros.
http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_
And I posted about it here.
And it wasn't a day later, their case study was up when the article first hit slashdot.
-- Don't Tase me, bro!
Eventually Deliver Something.
The operating system is responsible for the direct control and management of hardware and basic system operations. If you look up any decent definition of what an operating system is, you'll find that it is a lower layer that includes the kernel (say for instance William Stallings book on Operating Systems). Application software uses the operating system.
You're thinking of a distribution. I suggest you check your facts next time.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with this. I know a guy that works in a pet store, and he doesn't eat the dog food he sells either.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
Give me a break, I was a Systems Engineer at EDS in the late 90's till 00's in the "Internet and New Media" division (also known as C20, Chaos to Order) and I had written a proposal to upper managment about how Linux would be the next breaking wave and we should start some initiative into it. I got shot down and told "Linux was a fad and would never amount to anything". Of course this was the same company that said "IP would never amount to anything, mainframes are where all the money and buisness is at, midrange is just a fad...". Go figure they endorse Linux years after it is mainstream.
If the US isn't run by feckless meglomaniac nutters, then pleases explain what this is all about. Read their "statement of principles".
the .aspx extension should give you a clue :)
Well I work for EDS in the UK and keep suggesting we use GNU/Linux in our server estate (especially for hosting various bits of intranet stuff) and the message that comes down from on high is a straight forward "we're an MS only shop".
:)
In the past we've also been told we can't use Open Source software for Windows because "There's no one to send a bill to". Yet we're also supposed to save money wherever possible ? durrghh... it's a good job I'm not a robot or the logic conflict would cause a short circuit in my brian matrix
However you can rest assured that the true techies amongst us absolutely LOVE GNU/Linux and would merrily remove all traces of MS in the server rooms.
And at this point I shan't mention that the team I work for actually have got a couple of GNU/Linux boxes doing stuff (on a small private network) because we're not allowed to have them so they don't really exist and I'm hallucinating right now. Look pink elephants. No over there. See ? See ?
I suspect the same is true of most big companies in that the techies want Linux/*BSD/OSX etc. but the PHBs simply don't get it and think this will mean the end of the world.
Another great factor is that by using proprietary software there's a whole bunch of people needed to have meetings with suppliers, negotiate contracts, manage accounts, file receipts, write financial reports, do audits etc. etc. In other words provide jobs for the nice middle class kids who went to university and got a degree but are actually fuck all use for anything (yes I deal with plenty of these on a day to day basis)
C'est la vie.