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Novell Still Runs Windows
daria42 writes "Despite Novell's internal migration to Suse and OpenOffice.org, the company admitted today that up to 3000 of its 5000 workers still had dual-boot installations with Microsoft Windows. These users are likely to be migrated to pure Linux boot systems in the next year or so." From the article: "Hovsepian's remarks indicate Novell will have at most a few months' experience as a complete Linux and open source desktop shop behind it when, according to the vendor's predictions, the software starts taking off in the mainstream." Update: 04/11 13:25 GMT by J : At the closing OSCON session, August 5, 2005, Miguel de Icaza talked about Novell's progress. My notes read: "novell's moving 5500 employees from windows to linux. first stage, office->openoffice, is complete. second stage, windows->linux, is 50% complete, proj. 80% by Nov."
fisrt prost!!!!!!!!!
Linux is *not* user friendly, and until it is linux will stay with >1% marketshare.
/tmp or the installer will dump core. After the installer is done, edit /etc/X11/XF86Config and add a section called "GL" and put "driver nv" in it. Make sure you have the latest version of X and Linux kernel 2.6 or else X will segfault when you start. OK, run the Quake 3 installer and make sure you set the proper group and setuid permissions on quake3.bin. If you want sound, look here [link to another obscure web site], which is a short HOWTO on how to get sound in Quake 3. That's all there is to it!"
Take installation. Linux zealots are now saying "oh installing is so easy, just do apt-get install package or emerge package": Yes, because typing in "apt-get" or "emerge" makes so much more sense to new users than double-clicking an icon that says "setup".
Linux zealots are far too forgiving when judging the difficultly of Linux configuration issues and far too harsh when judging the difficulty of Windows configuration issues. Example comments:
User: "How do I get Quake 3 to run in Linux?"
Zealot: "Oh that's easy! If you have Redhat, you have to download quake_3_rh_8_i686_010203_glibc.bin, then do chmod +x on the file. Then you have to su to root, make sure you type export LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.2.5 but ONLY if you have that latest libc6 installed. If you don't, don't set that environment variable or the installer will dump core. Before you run the installer, make sure you have the GL drivers for X installed. Get them at [some obscure web address], chmod +x the binary, then run it, but make sure you have at least 10MB free in
User: "How do I get Quake 3 to run in Windows?"
Zealot: "Oh God, I had to install Quake 3 in Windoze for some lamer friend of mine! God, what a fucking mess! I put in the CD and it took about 3 minutes to copy everything, and then I had to reboot the fucking computer! Jesus Christ! What a retarded operating system!"
So, I guess the point I'm trying to make is that what seems easy and natural to Linux geeks is definitely not what regular people consider easy and natural. Hence, the preference towards Windows.
I always wonder how you should manage the office of Linux computers without AD and policies.
But why the fuck would anyone need to dual boot?
can't Novell die yet?
Since a fair wodge of Novell's money comes from selling Windows software, I comfortably predict that this won't happen any time soon.
Windows will probably never completely go away, or at least not for a very long time, since they do still develop products for windows.
Inconceivable!
Just you wait until people are changing permissions and emerge -u world'ing their collegues computers.
"Oh boy"
I work for Novell, and of course I have a windows machine. I develop software that has to run on Linux, OS X and Windows. All of our developers are in the same boat. If they don't have Windows code, they have NetWare code that needs to be built on Windows. Very few developers don't have code that needs a Win32 box either for development or for testing.
But ask me what machine I use to read my email, surf the web, write code, etc. It's my Linux box. And most of the developers on my team are the same way. And Novell as a company has been WAY better than anywhere else I have worked about having every business app I need on Linux supported by the IT department, and I even used to work for a company whose main business was their Linux distro (no, it wasn't SuSE).
Is this proof that regardless how evangelic you are about linux, Windows is still a necessary evil in a commercial desktop environment? Switching to Open Office only gets you so far. After that your choices for replacement software become more and more limited. I think this is fairly obvious and although I'm a huge fan of Linux on servers, I still don't think it's ready for the mainstream desktop market regardless of the never-ending promises that "this is the year". My companies systems are all run on Linux (Debian) but I don't have ONE desktop which I could fully kick windows off.
They aren't migrating anytime soon.
Face facts folks, Linux still isn't ready for the desktop, and Novell, despite their loads of marketing, knows it.
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
as a windows user, you sure make the right choice of linux. redhat.
so, I did redhat once. Never again. I did windows long time ago. Not going back.
my personal opinion, redhat is as retarded as windows. when you have hundreds of linuxes to choose from not to mention all nice *BSD's...
They make Windows sound like a controlled substance. "Oh man, we're working night and day to get these employees off such a nasty habit. Please don't let this affect your opinion of Novell as a Windows-free workplace."
Windows is a million times less addictive than nicotine. I kicked the habit on my personal computers in junior high while my peers were just *starting* to smoke.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
You're trying to tell me that a large corporation with 5000 desktops, who develops Windows software might run Windows on a lot of them? I'm shocked I say, shocked.
-- Linux user #369862
No kidding. People at Redhat dual boot too for this reason. Development/testing.
Of course they're dual-booting windows - how else are employees supposed to play the latest games?
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
... Quake III Arena. There is a linux version of that available.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quake_III_Arena/
Sometimes I wish someone would put this strange, tortured company out of its agony. Just when so many folks had agreed never again to join "year of" and "the Linux desktop" up jumps this fellow to let the whole side down. If you ever crossed Inspector Clouseau with the Terminator, Novell is what you could easily get. Maybe tomorrow he'll be back, saying that 2007 will be the year of Mono which will see "explosive" growth from its present user base of three men and a lost dog.
Las qué passoun
tournoun pas maï
We've just had a vendor pitchfest for a replacement OS for an elderly unsupported RH release in use on about 4000 servers (my employer's a dotcom with piles of machines in many remote datacentres round the world.) We've had Sun pitching Solaris, Red Hat on RHEL and Novell/SuSE. I must say the Novell/SuSE pitch was the most unexpectedly impressive; Crispin Cowan's AppArmor is really, really good (I'm biased: I'm a security geek) and seems to be much more usable than SELinux. Xen also seems to be happier on SuSE than RH.
Sun had a good story now they can say Solaris is really Free, but they seemed very defensive (spent 30 mins showing us balance sheets marked "Sun confidential, internal use only" emphasising they make lots of money and aren't about to go bust. But we would definitely be a relatively small customer for Sun, whereas I'm more convinced that Novell would be prepared to go the extra mile to keep us happy.
Personally I'm going to be trying SLES out on at least one machine at home, alongside OpenBSD and Mandriva, regardless which OS our beancounters plump for.
Face facts folks, Linux still isn't ready for the desktop, and Novell, despite their loads of marketing, knows it.
If Linux isn't ready for the desktop, there's no such thing as "ready for the desktop". I see absolutely NO criteria of "desktop readiness" that (a)applies to Windows, (b) doesn't apply to Linux and (c) is an attribute solely of the operating system.
Where Linux adopters run into trouble is C. The problem is what economists call "network effects": if you need software X, and provider of X only targets Windows, then you need Windows.
The point of a company like Novell migrating to Linux is to help create a Linux market for X, or its competitor X'. But until X or X' is available on Linux, then you're stuck with dual boot.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Some software functions are hard to duplicate. For instance, many law firms still use WordPerfect. It differs from Office in many small ways that result in a huge saving in time in a law office. One example is the way that WP does a word count. It meets the requirements for legal documents. Office does its word count differently so if you're using it you actually have to do a manual word count. Getting the word count wrong could get you in trouble so, yes it matters.
Another issue is Excel macros. Lots of accountants rely on macros that are hard to port over.
I'm sure there are lots of similar examples that keep people on Windows. Of course for a substantial number of companies, the version might be 3.1. The same things that keep people from going to Linux also make them unwilling to upgrade their Windows.
If upgrading to Vista is a huge pain, people will stick with XP. We may find many companies going to Linux (single or dual boot with XP) for their new computers because it will be less painful than upgrading to Vista. It should also expand the market for VM.
I get it - they aren't fully converted. But then - they do DEVELOP software that runs on Windows. And their tools will only succeed if they can integrate into a Windows environment.
The accomplishment is that they are all dual boot and they use OpenOffice.org. Period.
I find it quite ambiguous when people debate whether Linux is "desktop ready" or not. What does that mean? I have the notion that it means something different to everyone. I've been exclusively running Linux on my desktop for over 3 years, and exclusively on my laptop for over one year. I have a Linux system at my workplace, and so does almost everyone else on my floor. Are there occasionally problems with running Linux on my desktop (including problems related to the fact that I'm not running Windows)? Yes, of course there are. The amount of problems may decrease, but will never be fully eliminated (IMHO). I can usually find a detour or alternative to the problems that I face now though, so its not a huge deal. And I can state for a fact that the amount of time I spend fixing problems with my Linux desktop is much less than the amount of time I used to spend solving similar problems on my former Windows machine.
:p
So I consider Linux is already "desktop ready" for me. I think that for the most part, regular people can do just fine if Ubuntu or another user-friendly distro is completely setup for them and they are given maybe a 30-minute tutorial on how to access the web, e-mail, etc. So who are we talking about here? Who does Linux have to be "ready" for to be called desktop ready? Those idiots that call in to tech support asking which key is the any key? The elderly who don't even know what a mouse is? Or just your normal, average computer user? And if so, who is a normal, aveage computer user anyway?
Sorry for the early morning rant, but this term has been bothering me for quite some time.
Hero of Allacrost, a FOSS RPG for *NIX/*BSD/OS X/Win
lol ... novell's own guinea pig farm.
Their upper management has really high expectations for NDL and SuSE and I really hope they succeed. Unfortunately, unless Novell has an ace up their sleeve, I really don't see how they can succeed. They did bring a SuSE SDK ( something that no other Linux company has ever done) and they have really revamped SuSE and NDL, even if beauty is only skin deep ( XGL excluded ).
Well like I said I wish Novell the best of luck and maybe in an year or 2 rather than migrating to Vista I will finally become a fulltime Linux user. ( tried that in the past and it was a serious pain with tons of time spent maintaining the system )
I can see why they haven't migrated yet. There are a few business apps, mostly vertical applications for ticketing, billing and invoice, that need to be run on Windows. For instance, where I work, we use a proprietary ticketing system that is unlikely to be ported to anything that isn't Windows. It enters problems on a customer's account, and assigns the problem to the appropriate technician, who then updates the ticket as needed.
But here's the deal... for all of its slowness, awkward GUI implementation, dubious reliability and stratospheric license and support contracts, all it really does is read and update database records. It's a LAMP application with out the L, A or P.
Here's a bigger deal... almost all vertical client/server apps can be replaced by a web-based application. Almost all of them do nothing but update and display database records.
Why not just hire a full-time RoR geek or two to crank out LAMP applications that will be robust, secure, customizeable to meet coprorate standards, easy to deploy and dirt cheap compared to a multi-zillion dollar per-seat license?
Why not indeed.
This is where the new growth in the IT industry is headed. Already, most of the tools I need to interact with the vast and varied store of corporate data are web-based utilities. Admittedly, I work on the technical side of a major ISP, and we tend to be more elightened about such things, but really... Linux on the desktop will be a reality sooner rather than later.
The trick isn't porting applications to the Linux desktop, but to the Linux server.
There are likely some departments within Novell that still are dependent on Windows for third party apps. Like an accounting or payroll department perhaps. Are there enterprise level Linux apps that would support them? Not trying to flame. Just a question.
We have tens of thousands of dollars (US) of Novell software that runs on Windows.
If Novell didn't run Windows, how could they support us and their products?
eDirectory for NT.
ZfDS6.5.
Middle Tier.
Netware Client for Windows.
ConsoleOne
iManager
Zenworks Imaging
OMG - a company that sells both Windows and Linux software has machines that dual boot to both Windows and Linux. Who would have thought such a thing?
The oft-hyped training issue is a complete myth in my experience.
My parents (age 70+) are happily running Fedora Core 5. training was neglible. They e-mail, surf, and play games with no problems at all.
My present company is completely linux-based using thin-clients. Training issues? None, nada. Complaints? None, nada. No issues teaching people to use Linux, no issues teaching people to use OpenOffice.org, or Gaim, or Evolution, or any of the other applications we use.
We are a medical facility. Our staff are trained to treat patients and are by no means computer people. They just want the computer to work so that they can get their jobs done. And you know what? That's exactly what it does.
Linux is not perfect, but neither is Windows. Each is better at some things than the other. Your comments are simply ignorant.
Just because Novell is offering Linux doesn't make it heresy that they have boxes with Windows dual-booted. If they've already bought their licences for Windows, MS is already paid. Not exercising the licences they own out of protest isn't going to make a dent. Meanwhile, their devs need to be able to run stuff on Windows, so it kinda makes sense that they have Windows at their disposal.
Speaking as someone who lost a number of potentially productive days trying to get Windows 2000 SP4-slipstreamed to install on a 250G harddrive without crapping out at boot-time when it saw a partition beyond the 128GB barrier, Linux is looking better every day. In fact, after spending five minutes in Fedora, Ubuntu, and SuSE, the chameleon won and is now installed on my hda4. But I still need Windows to run a few things...yes, mostly games, and a few college websites that just have to have IE6. But I already own Win2K, and I'd be silly not to use it just because MS is an idiot sometimes.
Keeping Windows around for the things Windows is good at makes my computer more powerful. I don't support MS, but I'm not going to rend my nose to spite Bill's face.
Windows, or at least, the Microsoft Operating System, is never going to go away. If Linux seriously erodes Microsoft's position, they'll sink their pentillions of dollars into making a solid, quality, viable OS product. So don't mind Novell, or myself, for installing SuSE and Windows next to each other. You need not be a zealot or a martyr to be a soldier.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Novell's still got Windows - big deal!
The good news is that the users in the company that sells Linux who are running Linux will be confronted with the #1 issue that most Linux users face: hardware driver hell.
I've installed all sorts of different distros on servers, desktops and laptops. The install is always the same: easy, fast and I'm up and running in no time. Except... In virtually every machine I've installed into, there's been one hardware hassle after another. Be it multi-function printers, USB Ethernet cards, winmodems, graphics cards, sound cards and camera docking stations just to mention a few. Don't even get me started on games. Oh, and what about built-in WiFi on laptops? - ARRRRGGG!!
The most important thing here is that Novell employees will be confronted with these self-same issues. The good thing about this is that Something Will Get Done. That is the wonderful thing about Linux. If you can think it, people are working on a solution.
The world isn't perfect, but it IS getting better. So, stop your mealy-mouthed belly-aching about how Novell is not 'pure' and just be glad that they're giving it a shot.
Now, if I could just get HP's new 2600N networked colour laser to work with FedoraCore5.... (Thanks, HP, for the Linux driver (NOT!!!) that you said you would provide for most of your hardware, you assholes!!)
*** Don't be dull.***
Did you see the 500 employees they added between the first sentence and the last?
A third of Novell's servers run Windows because those applications only run on a windows server...So much for removing windows from the desktop since they still need a device\user cal for anyone connecting to their windows servers.
Since Novell actively supports and develops Client32 for Windows, Groupwise for Windows, Zen for Windows, etc I hope they'll keep[ some Windows boxen around for developing and testing purposes. And since their PSE's support accounts that run Windows, those cats need to be using dual boot and/or virtualization setups as well. I say don't focus on how many desktops they didn't migrate to 100% Linux, focus instead on how many they did. I'm also willing to bet that if Novell weren't an IT company that had to develop and support software on Windows, they'd have migrated a much greater percentage of their desktops.
Yes, my only tool is a hammer. And you're starting to look like a nail.
Until wine is in decent shape, it is pointless to approach general public to switch. While it will never run 100% of the applications,
it is not necessary. It just a larger fraction of the applications than it currently does.
Having said I was surprised to see how far it has come. I tested several niche applications used in the insurance industry with codeweavers. None of them had a problem. While I am not ready to recommend wine as an option in our company, I have a hope that
in future it can become a reasonable recommendation.
I wonder if they are generating a report of the migration (positives and negatives).
And if so, will they publish it?
On a computer or under a hood.
This is slightly offtopic....but
First to dispense with TFA: since they are developing stuff for Windows, they will never be rid of it, nor should they. So they will always run Windows in-house to some extent.
But why can't they sell their product to other people? They have all the right parts to replace a Windows/Active Directory infrustructure. They have a desktop (Suse), they have a respected directory server (eDirecotry/NDS), they have general purpose servers (Suse), Zenworks to mananage it all, and they have an entrenched legacy product (i.e. a foot in the door) for which they can provide an upgrade path. Most importantly, they have them integrated seemlessly in their Open Enterprise Server. But they still can't get the sale. Its because their pricing provides no advantage over Microsoft A Novell Open Enterprise Server per user license per year is $230 retail. A MS Win2K3 10 user CAL is $1199 retail (or $119.9 per user). That's retail. MS, being the bigger company, has the ability to come even lower in enterprise or site licensing. Sadly, Novell doesn't seem able to do the math.
They should take the chance that they could make up the difference in revenue by going with volume over price. More licneses for less each, instead of fewer licenses for more each. They have to realize that every Windows installation is going to lead to an Exchange installation instead of a Groupwise installation. If they could build the market share in the network products, the revenue in services and add-on products will follow.
Having said that, the transition at Novell had its high and low points. I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly the services on the company intranet shifted from supporting WIndows/IE only to generic browsers. I was disappointed in the quality of the GroupWise client on Linux (not that I was wild about the Windows version...), and the lukewarm support for the Evolution client on the GroupWise servers.
Oddly, the thing that made the Linux move easier for me than many of my co-workers was the fact that I am an OS X user by preference. Of course, the terminal was not a mystery, and I was more accustomed to accepting that similar things are sometimes managed very differently on different platforms.
One constructive criticism I would leave Novell with is that they could learn a lot from Apple about making *nix palatable to the desktop user (specific example: printing), but, from where I sat, it seemed as though Apple was completely invisible to Novell.
This has to be the biggest non-story I've ever seen on Slashdot.
Seriously, did ELSE anyone read that summary and just think, "Wow, who cares what Novell is doing OS-wise internally?".
Yes, I realize that this story is here for the purpose of reporting on another company converting to a pure-linux environment but the way the story reads, at least to me, is that Novell should be ashamed of itself for not doing it sooner or something.
Not trolling, just saying...
Great, how can HP call this an "N" model when it doesn't support LPR protocol or Postscript? From the specs, it looks like a nearly hopeless WinPrinter. The only hope is that there are OS X drivers, so it can't be 100% Win dependent. But it is clearly "host based".
I suspect you got sucked in by the "N" tag, and didn't research this. But thanks for warning the rest of us that a Laserjet "N" is no longer a safe bet for *nix users.
If that's true, it's good enough. Something that works better but costs the same will take market share. TCO is probably better on the Novell side and your data and employee's time is way to expensive to leave to Microsoft. By now, you have to have a hole in your head to use Exchange or any other M$ server.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
I can't imagine why they would even want to dual boot if they could run something like VMWare and just virtualize Windows. Rebooting just to run a piece of software seems a little odd, unless it is a game that doesn't run well in VMWare. Something is fishy about this claim, methinks.
-matthew
"THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death
The migration away from Windows and Microsoft Office was always a phased approach.
Office --> Open Office first (Novell is now standardised across the company on OpenOffice 2.0)
Windows --> Linux workstations for those that can; based on business function, application needs and the 'savviness' of the user
Right now I'd say that a large proportion of development, test and technical people are using Novell Linux Desktop as their primary desktop. I can see this just by working with people in meetings.
I can't comment on the overall number of people using single boot Linux, dual boot or just Windows; all I can share is what I see - lots of people using Linux on a daily basis.
The next phase is 'filling the gaps' - seeing how knowledge workers and those with specific applications can move. The release of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 in mid-year should help with a lot of these issues.
Remember - just like any project choose the visible, realistic goals - that's what Novell's IS&T team have done.
Evil ZEN Scientist
But how are Novell's middle managers going to play with their Gantt charts from Microsoft Project?
Terrorists can attack freedom, but only Congress can destroy it.
No shit that they have to keep windows boxes around to develop with - for the developers. Maybe, just maybe, they are talking about all their NON-development activities like accounting, CRM, the receptionist, etc... converting to Linux. This is SO not worth the elevated BP to debate any further.
I thought the whole point of an alternative to Windows was to have a choice. Why are they in such a hurry to eliminate Windows from their company? Keep it for the win32 developers and remove it for all the others. No big deal. If all your developers do win32 and POSIX development, then paying the "Microsoft tax" is the cost of doing business. But if you want to get down and dirty, you could take a play from the Microsoft playbook. Make the POSIX version of a program as good as the Win32 version, and then gradually improve the POSIX version over the Win32 version, and then make up some BS excuse like "Windows can't handle it and Linux can," which may be true, but it doesn't have to be.
Gnu/Linux is Now ready for some people , will be tomorrow for others , and was yesterday for others.
I for example dual boot Ubuntu and Windows , why? well games , just for it! If was not Ati crappy drivers and Win-only games i would have dumped Windows a long time ago , i would dumped it anyway if i had a better pc , that way i would use Cedega instead and ignored the performance lost in favour of having only my dear Gnu/Linux for human beings in my computer.
Problems with Ubuntu on a regular base? almost none :
A) After reading this wiki https://wiki.ubuntu.com//UbuntuHowCome (great for noobs getting started) i was ready for apt-get , learned to edit my own sources.list (for those interested there is always the chance to get one already "completed" from several links) , and use several related commands , after a few codecs and programs install i had already a fully functional OS.
B) Without wanting to be a troll , but people who say Windows as got a friendly gui than Gnome are simply morons , the applications are all organized under categories ( internet , games , sound and video , etc...) , images are automatically "previewed" at the Desktop , i can install themes and stuff just with drag and drop , etc...
C) My only problematic hardware so far was my Ati radeon 9250 , sound , internet , printer , etc.. all work out of the box or with minimal fuss , i know most people have some piece that gives them troubles , but that luckily is not my case , believe it or not windows actually gave me more work in the past using official drivers to get things working.
And now? well i just love it , multiple Desktops , apt-get to install stuff , if a break something at the next moment i already fixed it , at the current moment im dual-booting Breezy , Dapper Drake and XP , im also planning to try other distros.
Planes for the future? This summer im going to install Dapper Drake at a friend computer , he does nt know almost anything about computers , his hardware is "Gnu/Linux friendly" , and after configuring it for him (he is not capable of doing it by himself , both in windows as Gnu/Linux) i will teach him how use the basic stuff without break anything , and im pretty sure he is going to love it!
I also have plans to install it at my older sister laptop ( Acer Aspire 1691) , unfortunately as far as i know there are still some issues with Acers , and besides my sister has got Gigabytes of works made in Office 2003 which OOO at the moment is not capable of handling at 100% , so i decided to wait until OOO 3.0 comes out and see at the time.
Gnu/Linux is groing at the Desktop , just wait and see.
Novell will have to keep Windows around for as long as they have to:
- produce Windows software
- support existing product
- maintain support contracts with legacy clients (see previous point)
- need to interoperate with Windows (although based on SuSE 9.3 and 10, they did little testing of KDE/Samba integration with Active Directory in recent release, it took a fair bit of tweaking on my part to make it work)
- Need to make Evolution work smoothly with Exchange
- Need to work out migration paths for clients who wish to move away from Windows
In other words, their support reps, development staff, and quality assurance labs will always need to keep Windows kicking around, very likely everything dating back to Windows 98 up through the current Enterprise Server, along with associated peripheral products like SQL Server, Exchange, Sharepoint, and so forth.
Sales folks? Receptionists? Accountants? IT staff? They can very easily get away with running only Linux or UNIX variants.
Changing your focus of business away from an antiquated product like Netware, acquiring the rights to UNIX AND becoming a Linux solution provider takes guts and a lot of pain goes along with it. They're lucky staying with Netware as their primary focus for so long even after Microsoft used their monopoly status to gain entrance into the server environment (and made Netware integration a bit difficult) didn't kill them. Now their main threat is that they're going head-to-head with IBM in the marketplace now in several areas, and personally I hope that Novell wins because Novell has real products to offer, while IBM is surviving primarily on services now.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
I'd be surprised if Novell do manage the transition to Linux desktops. They sure as hell won't be using their own products on the servers: Many Novell web products only work with IE on the client. Last time I checked, M$ don't produce IE for Linux
Who does Linux have to be "ready" for to be called desktop ready? (...) The elderly who don't even know what a mouse is?
Well, why not. Indeed, a french company has developped a linux based computer aimed at those who have nether touched a computer in their life, and especially the elderly. It's called Ordissimo ("ordinateur" means "computer" in french). It's sold only as a piece of hardware running their custom distro (eliminating instal and driver problem), run a simplified version of mozilla, features basic word processing, file management and even extra unsuported feature such as skype or gaim. It is secure, features online update and the company provides paid remote support. The only obvious drawback is that you can't install additionnal software of your choice, but in our days of online Web 2.0 services covering most of the needs, why bother.
The cost is 400 (320 $) without the screen. I grabbed one for my spouse grand mother, and being a Windows user myself, I feel more secure knowing that she runs a stripped down version of linux that she can't break, and a limited set of tools aimed at doing simply and efficiently what she needs (check email, occasionnal surfing and word processing, manage digital photos).
Booting from hard disks, how primitive!
5000 terminals with hard disks ensures plenty of hardware failure.
Diskless terminals (not thin clients) *should* have been the future.
Sadly the Lunix crowd is stuck with NFS, never mind.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Windows is a great operating system, despite all its problems. Let's not forget how many machines run Windows. Linux is cool, and if you are a programmer, maybe it is better, but for everyday use, Windows is fine.
You ought to take a look at IBM's actual annual reports. IBM Software Group has a large portfolio of software products, and pulls in billions of dollars of sales every year. (And yes, it's profitable.) Less than IGS, but not exactly peanuts.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
My experience with an IDE was with QuickBASIC. You could/can get help on any feature of the language just by placing the cursor on a word in your program and pressing F1. If you put the cursor on a variable and pressed F! it told you what type it was. If you pressed F1 on a user defined type, you would see all of the elements of that type.
yes. My father is running FC3 as well. He was interested in free software and liked where it was coming from, and thus willing to put up with transition costs. Also, a series of poor experiences with windows for the last eight years added incentive to move.
He seems fine. I do need to upgrade to FC5 though, if only because of NetworkManager and thus easier hot-spot detection. That was problematic before.
Now, really... I doubt your manager reads Slashdot... would you believe I was a fan? Or maybe a well-informed customer? How about someone from a rival group just looking to throw some anonymous public jibes? :)
;)
But, then, reading and responding to all these messages on Slashdot yourself sort of re-enforces my previous point, doesn't it?
(And, can I just say that it's very liberating posting as an AC... )
I was teasing and joking with you when I made the quip (Hey Mods, look at the smilie next time!
I've got raftloads of karma from prosaic and interesting commentaries on posts and other comments- so my posts typically come out of the gate at 2...
Anyhow, it seems you actually DO see what I was getting at for the most part, but you lack something else that I happen to have- if things go right with my company's funding, I've got inside info that's relevent to all of this- let's just say that things are about to experience a sea change, much like the one from DOS to Windows or from all the CP/M machines over to DOS.
Linux is either going to be going ballistic or going slowly into those areas. I'm thinking more the latter than the former- but it's going to hinge on a few key things happening. If my company gets funded, that'd be one of those key things.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
Mormonic anagramics aside
The world keeps on spinning around
Inter-layer enhancements
Middleman
Jazz
Hot CA Novell brothel gasp sigh stew
What's a little Mormon boy to do?
Genius misdirected but
Locked in by guilt and shame
Set that bastard free I say
Give me printership by USB
Don't diddle with your daddy
Don't think so much about money
Take a lesson from the Red Man
Screw 'em with their own hand
Milk the bull
All coffers full.
When all is said and done
And patents racked and rolled
It's a proprietary scheme
That's gotten old and stale.
Roll out your bed partners
Close your accounts
This is divorce, fool
And Utah is on the outs.
rofl, sorry bud, didn't mean to get you modded as flamebait... guess the mods didn't see my smilie either :)