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Unisys: We No Longer Have A Way Out
rbochan writes "Some of you may recall a couple of years back when Microsoft and Unisys decided that a multi-million dollar ad campaign against *nix was in order, dubbed 'We Have A Way Out.' The results weren't what they'd hoped. ZDNet is now reporting that Unisys has done an about face and is now touting Linux as 'a mature technology and the right cost-effective option for many companies.'"
You may label this as a rant.....
I worked on Unisys Sperry Mainframe equipment for almost 7 years. I can tell you categorically that Unisys tried every possible way to kill products it's customer wanted. When IBM was bleeding money Unisys had the better Mainframe OS (OS2200). Since then IBM has done more to innovate the mainfame market (moved to CMOS, embrased UNIX/LINUX, enabled OS390 for the Internet world). Meanwhile Unisys tried to get in bed with Microsoft and changed their product line so that anything that was not MS centric was basically a "legacy" platform where they just wanted the old Sperry/Burroughs customer base to dump their investment in older technologies and move to WinNT/Win2k servers.
The history of Unisys is that they put their finger in the wind see which way it's going and join the crowd YEARS after the initial party is over.
The only GOOD thing I can say about Unisys is that my contract (I was a Lead computer operator/batch scheduler) ended as a result of them promising equipment to the customer at cut rates that they then dragged their feet delivering...and as a result I quit and found a better job, doing LINUX!....thank you UNISYS!
You can get certified Unix that is carrier telecom grade certified reliable (99.999%). Same for Linux and Linux embedded. No version of Microsoft operating system has been carrier telecom grade certified. Even though Microsoft in their old 1998 print advertising claim that their NT operating system was 99.999%. So far, Microsoft has never tried to get its current operating system certified for carrier telecom grade use, because it will fail.
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;75408 4996;fp;16;fpid;0
It's unofficial: Microsoft bets business on Linux
Rodney Gedda
04/11/2005 08:31:35
The next time Bill Gates sends an e-mail through Microsoft's shiny new Wireless LAN it will be passed through a behind-the-scenes Linux-based network appliance.
Earlier this year Microsoft and Aruba Networks jointly announced the two companies will work to replace Microsoft's existing Cisco wireless network with Aruba's centrally-managed infrastructure, which eliminates the need for individual changes on the access points.
Aruba Networks was selected to provide the networking equipment for what is considered to be one of the world's largest next-generation wireless LANs, serving more than 25,000 simultaneous users a day in some 60 countries. According to an Aruba press statement, Microsoft's new WLAN will be deployed in 277 buildings covering more than 17 million square feet using Aruba mobility controllers, mobility software and some 5000 wireless access points.
What the press statement didn't mention is that Aruba mobility controllers run the Linux operating system which Microsoft has aggressively targeted as being inferior to Windows as part of its "Get the Facts" marketing campaign.
Mark Robards, Aruba Network's Asia-Pacific vice president, said the company's mobility controller switches provide integrated security, including a firewall, VPN, and hardware encryption, and they are "all Linux-based".
Robards said the network rollout with Microsoft is going well and is likely to take two years to complete and will contain as many as 7000 access points. Indeed, Aruba is recruiting Linux developers to work on its mobility controller software. In an advertisement on the company's Web site, Aruba is seeking a senior Linux software engineer with "expert knowledge of Linux and extensive Linux kernel experience".
Sunjeev Pandey, senior director of Microsoft IT, said the company is "pleased to be partnering with Aruba in the upgrade of Microsoft's next-generation wireless LAN".
"This partnership will allow Microsoft to leverage a cutting-edge wireless and mobility platform that provides us the scalability, performance and security that our environment demands," Pandey said.
Pandey's appraisal of Aruba's technology is in stark contrast to Microsoft's "Get the Facts" rhetoric which places Windows as a more secure, and higher-performing choice over Linux.
I thought people had already forgotten this. What they did with the GIF format is plain evil and quite frankly unforgivable. Anyone who owns Unisys shares deliberately ie, not through a mutual fund) is owning a share with the devil. At least RSA did the right thing and released their patent into the public domain as a gesture just before the patent expired although quite frankly their patent should have been rescinded when it came to light that the idea was non unique because it had been invented previously by British Intelligence / NSA). Unisys however, acting bitter, did no such thing.
By using Linux, that's how.
Yeah, I'm a Linux fanboy. Sue me.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
We just got rid of 4 of the new Unisys Dorados and a couple of Unisys ES7000s. The Dorados were running OS2200 I assume but the ES7000 is loaded with Microsoft stuff. There was Server 2003 on it and a couple of XP instances. At my job I am labeled the Microsoft stooge (just because I don't think that MS and/or Gates is responsible for every bad thing that has ever happened in the history of the world) but I have to admit those ES7000 were total garbage. They replaced some older ClearPaths but everybody yearned for the ClearPaths back. The Dorados were absolute garbage right out of the box. The Unisys field engineers were constantly in to replace boards and stuff. The exec level folks were not happy.
I have several personal friends who work Unisys and I used to sub-contract for them but the paths they take seem to always be wrong. This brings back memories of me providing Exec, MCB, DPS and TIP support for Unisys.
Well... it kind of is
-illumina+us "I put on my robe and wizard hat..."
Scanning the main site with lots of un-cacheable dynamicly generated pages:
But try one of the image servers:
I mod down anyone who says "I will be modded down for this", regardless of the rest of their comment
Did no one notice that the original campaign was against Unix, then the current article was Unisys praising Open Source, and Cowboy Neal interpreted that as an original campaign against everything-nix and a current article pro-Linux? There is just no logical flow to all that.
Unix, *nix, Linux, and open source are all different subject, and if Unisys hates Unix but likes open source in general, that does not mean they now like Linux. I'm pro-open sourced software because it's good and cheap. That does not mean I love the obfuscated CLI of Unix.
--Colin Jensen
colinandbethany.com