Slashdot Mirror
Linux Feels Growing Pains
Carl Bialik from the WSJ writes "As Linux enters the mainstream, adopters 'are demanding many features found on commercial software, including a large variety of add-on application programs and management tools that are easy to use,' the Wall Street Journal reports. 'How quickly open-source programs can narrow the gap with commercial software is a hotly debated topic in the computer industry. The transition may determine whether the technology will continue its momentum, or stall in the face of tougher competition at the heart of corporate computer networks.' Eric Singleton, chief information officer at retailer Tommy Hilfiger Corp., which recently switched its e-commerce site 'Tommy.com' from Linux to Microsoft software, calls Linux 'a great product,' but adds, 'it's got to get the final tier of reliability and predictability that I'm going to bet a multi-billion dollar corporation's future on.'"
Properly patched and firewalled Windows box is at no higher risk then a Linux box.
Linux is NOT a product. Are these people born stupid ?
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r ceid=mozilla-search&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=ut f-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:officia l
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<i>it's got to get the final tier of reliability and predictability that I'm going to bet a multi-billion dollar corporation's future on.</i>
What a moron.
Interesting that Linux is good enough for the worlds biggest online retailer
http://www.google.co.za/search?q=amazon+linux&sou
I guess Bill Gates buys Hilfiger brown loafers
A slashdotting - you get the stick first and then the carrot !
I may not help orchestrate the IT department of a billion dollar company, but I do for a 350 million dollar and growing company, and we are moving to Linux across the board, desktop, POS, and all servers, as we are looking for stability, minimum footprint, lower licensing costs for all software (i.e., OpenOffice, Firefox, help desk software etc) all while avoiding the constant bombardment of virus attacks against our architecture. Windows has not done this for us in a manner that is acceptable moving forward...and please don't respond about maintenance and patch management, because we've had to worry about far less patches and updates since the move.
"Everything in the universe is clouded by the impositions of the mind"
Cluestick: Individuals can customize their own version of linux. Its not a big deal.
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
And the people who the WSJ talks to are the decision makers. The ones who make rational decisions based on business needs, not some idealogical mumbo-jumbo about "information wants to be free". These ARE the people that Open Source advocates need to convince if they want to advance their agenda. Prosletyzing to sysadmins only goes so far. As both a business owner AND a techie, I understand the technical and moral repurcussions of using Open Source, but as a business person, I'm still not convinced that it's a good fit for our business, and we only use one or two open source applications that are not for mission critical functions.
If there's confusion, then these open source companies need to get off their ass and offer business reasons (ie: This will save you $xx on this and $yy on that). It's wrong to assume that every company has people that will go out of their way to investigate new products. Marketing is part of doing business, and if open source companies aren't willing to compete in the marketing arena, then Open Source will continue to be something used only by techo-geeks, hobbyists, and the occasional renegade sysadmin.
WSJ doesn't need a "smack with a cluestick", the open source companies do.
I don't respond to AC's.
http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http:/ /www.tommyhilfiger.com
/ /www.tommy.com
.... let's see, ELEVEN DAYS!!!!
Am I on the wrong listing or has their MAIN site been hosted? And hosted on Solaris.
http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http:
Seems that they JUST switched over to Windows and that they had JUST switched to Linux.
Come on. They've been on Linux for SIX MONTHS and they've spent THREE YEARS on Apache and Solaris.
Great. They've been on Win2003 for the past
Talk about rushing a story.
If memory serves, Autozone is one of those multi-billion companies that have bet the operation on using Linux in their point-of-sale system. Last time, I checked they were doing fairly well.
Granted, they were sued by their former software vendor after switching to Linux, but that's another story.
This implies that you CAN get it properly patched...
- 2000-wide-open
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2140780/windows
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
MS has made HUGE strides in reliability, but like anything else results will vary depending on who is using it. Netcraft's hosting reliablity stats have had hosters using MS VERY high over the last year. Just checked the lastest and of the top 10 it broke down like this:
5 Windows (2 Win2k, 3 Win2k3)
2 Linux
2 FreeBSD
1 Solaris
We also do large ASP.NET apps on Win2k3 (IIS6) and the server hasn't been touched in almost 4 months (when we did disaster recovery testing). If you are having anything like multiple hangs per day you should REALLY audit your code. It REALLY sounds like it is more the applications fault than IIS's fault.
"reality has a well-known liberal bias" - Steven Colbert
Admittedly Amazon has an advantage because they develop all of their code in-house, but if you have the resources to do that and are in a situation where you have to then Linux is every bit as good as HP/UX, Solaris or AIX (and it's a lot easier to find Linux admins than it is to find HP/UX or AIX admins) and you don't end up being cornholed by Microsoft.
cheap labor conservatives - they want to keep you hungry enough to be thankful for minimum wage.