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Bashing MS 'Like Kicking a Puppy,' Says Jim Zemlin
jbrodkin writes "Two decades after Linus Torvalds developed his famous operating system kernel, the battle between Linux and Microsoft is over and Linux has won, says Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin. With the one glaring exception of the desktop computer, Linux has outpaced Microsoft in nearly every market, including server-side computing and mobile, Zemlin claims. 'I think we just don't care that much [about Microsoft] anymore,' Zemlin said. 'They used to be our big rival, but now it's kind of like kicking a puppy.' From Android and the Amazon Kindle to embedded devices, consumer electronics and the world's largest websites and supercomputers, 'Linux has come to dominate almost every category of computing, with the exception of the desktop,' Zemlin argues as Linux approaches its 20th anniversary."
You can say that Linux has won when it hasn't beaten Microsoft in the market that makes it Microsoft. The only thing that Linux has won really in the desktop market is its right to exist. We fought long and hard to try to keep the desktop an open environment and competition going. I'm not talking about Linux vs. Windows really though, I'm talking about Open Source vs. Proprietary. But as long as salesmen breath, the battle to keep formats open will wage on. The new battle is how to deal with things like app stores.
So 2011 will be the year of the Linux desktop, right?
Linux has gained recognition. It's something that IT managers won't usually dismiss immediately. Sure, that's important, but the average user out there still doesn't know that Linux exists, let alone what it is. There's a long road ahead of us, even longer than the path we've just traveled. Wear good shoes.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
...right after the world ends in 2012.
This being /., it looks like we're in for a whole lot of puppy-kicking.
216.61 Billion. Those are US dollars. Market share revenue.
"Director of foundation says his foundation is doing very well. More at 11."
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
From a linux fan:
Yeah really? Did linux win? No I don't think so. Even if do like linux, I don' think it won. windows is everywhere (desktops), and the only challenger seems to be MACOSX. Sorry, but where's linux on the desktop? pretty much nowhere....
"Except for that, Mrs Lincoln, how did you like the play?"
Sorry, but the PC desktop is still the king, and until you have beat MS there, you have not beat MS.
But MS is still really big in the server market. Yes, Linux is big in webserver market. However that isn't the only server market out there.
Where MS is really big server (and desktop) wise is enterprise servers. Active Directory really works well and a lot of companies use it. No, OpenLDAP is NOT "just as good" or any of that jazz. I'm not saying AD is the One True Way(tm) but it is good and there's a reason a lot of companies like it.
This "Linux has beaten MS," crap is just that: crap. Linux is doing well and that is wonderful. However it hasn't "won" by any measure. Rather they are finding different markets. Linux is not popular on the desktop and it does not seem to be headed there. However embedded it has really found its niche and has become extremely popular.
Neither has won, neither has lost, they both continue to exist alongside one another.
'Linux has come to dominate almost every category of computing, with the exception of the desktop' The desktop still dominates every other category of computing combined. Zemlin's statement that Linux has won is disingenuous.
The XBOX 360 begs to differ. Where exactly is the open source video game console that is dominating the home market? Linux and FOSS more broadly has done some incredible things, but let's be real.
More like kicking an old, weak, sick, blind-in-one-eye, arthritic dog...
I will create a sig when innovation restarts in the U.S.
Windows Server may not be as dominate as Linux but it certainly is not dead. They compete in every server category and have decent market share while it is not dominate like desktops it is still a multi-billion dollar business that is certainly successful. Active Directory, SQL Server, ASP.Net, IIS these are all major products that run on WIndows Server, you can find thousands of jobs on any major job search engine. I think it is a mistake to say MS only has desktop operating systems, it is clearly still a player in the server market.
Kicking Microsoft is more like kicking the snake that just bit you.
It's hard to think of Microsoft as a puppy with a Linux distribution called Puppy Linux. I see them more as a confused bitter old goat at this point.
Chris Sheppard
Oh, look: more commentary from an unbiased non-partisan academician.... /sarcasm
Linux has had the technical capability for grabbing a significant foothold in the consumer desktop market for a while now. However, as long as companies continue pushing Windows-only hardware and the communities that actually continue encouraging the dichotomies that exist amongst them (like with the UI, the one thing that should be a unified effort), Linux will continue fighting an uphill battle. It also doesn't help that Windows is so much easier to deploy and administer company-wide than Linux is.
They may have "lost" but lets please not lose sight of the awful things they did just so they could make money.
- I've got bad karma because I won't parrot everyone else's opinion
I was somewhat gratified to see this. I've been feeling somewhat guilty about my growing tendency to feel sort of sorry for MS lately. See, I didn't even type "M$" like I certainly would have a few years ago. What with all the i-things and the Desktop is dead and we'll do everything on a little hand-sized touch-screen now they seem to be moving from the Great Defective Monster to simply Irrelevant. Rather than kicking a puppy, it's like kicking your grandfather. He can't remember who you are, but he's kind of upset by it.
The problem with giving the desktop market to Microsoft means that corporations are stuck with a Microsoft-heavy server environment too and it's hard to move to other server platforms.
Once you include Active Directory, print servers, fileservers, sharepoint, system center, exchange, sql server and other support servers to run it all, a mid-sized company might have 20 or more servers just to run their Microsoft infrastructure. (many of those applications *could* run on Linux, but MS products integrate together and have interdependencies that make it hard to break loose)
So since they are already paying for Windows Admins to run their Windows infrastructure, when it comes time to add a web or application server, the easy choice is to go with MS -- licensing doesn't cost much more on top of their existing MS licensing costs and they already have Windows expertise in house.
which market ? desktop computers is a bigger market than servers ? the minimum server lease is $50/month. that is even entry level server. linux dominates server market from entry level to load balanced clusters to ddos protected single servers in prices 800/mo to thousands of dollars (4 figure) a month and over. linux also dominates in the cloud.
really. the war is over server side. server = linux so far.
but its natural for a lot of corporate types in non i.t. corporations or corporations with their own infrastructure to not know about this - you need to be in web hosting business in order to know it first hand.
Read radical news here
the pursuit of detractive snidities has never been more useless. 'bashing' fuddles is much like critiquing john gotti, without the guns, but with the gansterious hostage taking/contract terminations etc..
so, we'll then expect to see you at any one of the million babys+ /us, beginning with disarmament?
play-dates, conscience arisings, georgia stone editing(s), & a host of
other life promoting/loving events. guaranteed to activate all of our
sense(s) at once. perhaps you have seen our list of pure intentions for
you
I'm confused. Why would you say something like that if you want to discourage kicking puppies? Kittens aren't good for anything that cobras can't do better and with less feeding and poop cleaning.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
If it's peeing on my leg or biting me non-playfully, the puppy deserves a kick. Its parents would nip at it to keep it in line.
It seems that where Linux has succeeded is where Linux is completely hidden behind the scenes, as far as the consumer is concerned. Even in the case of Android, with a stock device, it would be utterly impossible to know it was running Linux. In fact, there's an entire Java layer between the user and Linux. My point is that Linux, the brand, has failed when it comes to the masses. In other words, Linux has done well where companies can take their time and make an informed decision about which OS they wish to embed in their hardware. That is where Linux has succeeded, and a big part of that is simply that Linux is stable, supports ubiquitous hardware, and is free. But as far as end consumers choosing Linux, that hasn't happened yet.
Better known as 318230.
... which keeps doing its OS business all over the carpet.
In money terms M$ is winning, isn't it? Linux has helped other firms (Oracle-Sun etc.) maintain their relevance. How much revenue they would actually ascribe to it is, probably artificially low but still not M$ amounts. Maybe that's the problem since it's free it's not recorded how much value it is supporting? Another angle is how many programmers earn their living writing for M$ v's Linux?
Well put. They're dominant on the desktop and they own office productivity. They're strong in the server market and they're strong in the gaming market. I'd guess they're not doing too shabby with set-top devices (all uverse devices is quite big in itself). And let's be realistic, you can't count them out of the 10,000 other markets they have their fingers in. They have a certain history of throwing money at some things until they win (xbox, anyone?).
That's hardly a sad-little-puppy situation.
It'll lick whoever it damn well pleases. And if it wants to hump your leg, not only will it do so with as much fervor and friction as it can create, you will damn well like it. At least you hope its your leg.
Feed the need: Digitaladdiction.net
Linux is free. Windows costs money, and it still reigns where it always did, the desktop.
Linux may have won a pirric battle elsewhere, but it's Bill and Steve the ones who stare at us from up there...
And the linux desktop has always been sad to say the least.
This is just an absurd conversation that has gone on far too long.
The way of measuring your own success should not be dependant on somebody else's market share, or even relative to it. It should be based on your own mission and your own goals. There's plenty of market for everyone in the world to be successful if they want it badly enough. Linux is certainly doing well, and revenues and profits at Microsoft seem healthy as well -- so I don't get this obession with MS.
I don't get the obsession with stamping out proprietary software either. It's a choice that some companies make for their business model, and a choice that some customers make for their software (not choosing proprietary so much as choosing software that is proprietary because it meets their needs). It's a proven and successful business model too -- just like FOSS. You can have failures/successes in FOSS and you can have that with proprietary software as well. People just seem to be on the lookout for something to get inflamed about all the time. Absolutely nothing of interesting here.
This kind of grandiose and untrue statement just makes "Linux People" look weird and niche. Linux achieved a lot and will still achieve a lot more in the future, but there is no way Linux has beaten MS - not for end users, not in enterprises and not in mindshare. The (unfortunate) reality outside of ./ is that few people know Linux and everybody knows Microsoft - and most of these people actually USE Microsoft products.
And again, why should we really care about this? The market is much more competitive than it was years ago. There are other huge companies growing and possibly displacing Microsoft, like Google and Apple. While MS is still a formidable company and will likely remain so for the foreseeable future, what about Apple products (a more valuable company than MS in market cap and as commercial and proprietary as they come)? Does Linux should try to beat that too? No, I say, Linux should strive to be the best it can be, focus on users and stop worrying about some nonsense ideological battle against big companies that provide useful products that many people actually love.
But puppies will piddle on your feet if you don't whack em with a rolled up newspaper.
You guys bitch and moan when some Microsoft shill pumps up Microsoft; well, this is some Linux shill pumping up Linux. I don't give this guy any more credence then I would Steve Ballmer.
linux has not won. imagine every business using linux being successfully sued for patent infringement by microsoft.
I know you think 'but that doesnt make any sense'. i hate to inform you that the US justice system also doesn't make any sense. Even if you have judges that are not corrupt, those judges only follow what the law tells them to do. And the law is made by congress. And congress is elected by campaign contributions. Campaign contributions are given by ... Microsoft. And Oracle. And Amazon. And the hedge fund people whose cocaine and hooker money is tied up in patent litigation securities or whatever they call the new 'financial products' built around slicing and dicing IP the way mortgages were in 05/06.
Linux is not on top of the mountain, it is headed for the end of the fucking waterfall, about to go straight down and be dashed on the rocks of capitalist reality. You think a trillion dollar industry like proprietary software is just going to sit back and die? You think all the investors sitting on hundreds of billions of dollars of debt of companies like Microsoft and Cisco are going to sit back and watch those bonds go to 0?
Look what happened when mortgage bonds died; the criminals all got bailed out, ordinary people got fucked out of their houses. Tack on a $2500 fee for no reason, declare the payment late, foreclose on the house, send an locksmith to change the locks while you are inside the fucking place. Was that fair? Hell no. Did it violate the fundamental principles of private property? Hell yes.
You thought HB Gary was some tiny flea sucking the teat of the federal government? More like a little piggy of a gigantic piggy army, a massive field of suckling oinkers, like pod blobs in some Matrix, sucking the blood of the real humans dry. What happens when you awaken ten thousand sleeping, pulsating blood bigs? Hint: They don't go "oh, bummer, guess I'll go get a real job".
They attack. They attack anything disturbing their way of life. They attack anyone attacking them; "the enemy". You thought it was bad when Team Themis (HB Gary, Berico Technologies, and Palantir Technologies) teamed up to try to 'neutralize' a couple of reporters, at the behest of the Department of Justice in collusion with Bank of America? Whose side do you think the government is on?
That is the tip of the iceberg. The tip of the fucking iceberg.
Linux is about to get whacked. A big time, world wide whacking. The hedge funds, the bond holders, the pension fund managers, the sovereign wealth funds, a cotiere of ideological capitalist zealots, vast minions of IT 'professionals' whose lifeblood depends on the inefficiency, stupidity, and corruption of large proprietary IT contracts, the milquetoast bureaucrats whose only joy in life are the kickbacks they get from their vendors, and the thrill they feel as they decide to use a shitty IT system over the protests of ten thousand users? These forces they will all come together against their common enemy.
You.
And your freedom.
I think he was saying that we should move on and not focus on giving the power to Microsoft that they now no longer deserve. Energy would be better focused elsewhere and on other obstacles and enemies. They won't win, have been beaten, and the year of the Linux desktop is coming, unless something else that is libre happens first.
Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.
I hope this is a lesson for all companies and individuals in power (although it's not like they're enlightened enough to read Slashdot) that it is far harder to unwind the damage you do than to compete hard but operate ethically in the first place.
Whatever happened for using the best tool for the job? I am happy to deploy Apache webservers when I'm running some Java stuff, just as happily as I deploy IIS servers for .NET stuff.
The problem is with this guy, and legions of others, is that they look at using one versus another as important. Enterprises don't. They look at what they want to accomplish, look at the TCO, look at how long it takes to get there, and make a decision. Yea, for enterprise deployment of things that means they run Windows, Active Directory, and related print/file/etc services. Linux might be out there as a fileshare or FTP or something, but it's used strategically.
In terms of the consumer device area well, Linux is free and having a bajillion shitty devices doesn't mean that it has "won". Look at the problems on Android right now. Granted, Windows Phone isn't doing well either but there are distinct benefits with going with one over the other. I'll let the consumer decide. And what's really winning? Apple, as closed source and proprietary a company as you can get.
So seriously if you are comparing Linux and Windows and hoping that one "wins", you can probably bet that you'll never be in the position to influence the decision. As I said, enterprises choose what makes sense, and they don't give a shit if it's closed, open, proprietary, etc... they have dollars on the line, and time counts heartily.
The price is always right if someone else is paying.
Well, thus far Linux isn't quite dominating the tablet market.
We'll see what the next year brings, but "desktop" isn't the only exception.
Let's see <
...You're seriously comparing *phones* to video game consoles?
YOTLD won't ever come, it'll be year of the google desktop long before that.
But much before that, desktops in general will go out of style and Android will be the operating system used by the vast majority.
Funny how people like to choose sides when it comes to Linux/M$. Wondering how many people understand that they are so far away from the actual decision makers that the decision makers don't actually care about the battle. Why? Any day you could read in the headlines that MS is in bed with Google or Redhat when the loss of business or the opportunity to make revenue is at steak.
---- this shit matters only to the end user but can u stop it? You actually think the big exec's care think again. If the technology works for you run with it.
----getting tired of these useless topics!!
Retired IT, worked heavily with Linux including desktop. Me personally these days I run MS because I like it! No, Linux has not won.
About ten years ago on Slashdot when the anti-MS sentiment was probably at its pinnacle, quite a few articles were posted that prompted this quote:
It almost always followed some ridiculous reaction or FUD from Microsoft. Now with Android (Linux) bum-rushing the cellphone market and MS seemingly haven given up on fighting Open Source, it's almost as if there's a light at the end of the tunnel.
And his sentiment reflects my own recently. I used to be one of those guys who hated the word Microsoft. Now I just think they're a bad joke. They're not even worth making fun of anymore. I keep looking back and wondering just when that happened, and I can't. It was a gradual thing.
So there ya go, guys. We won. :)
Read: Rabbit Rue - Free serial nove
A one OS culture? Ha!
I guess fanbois still have to keep beating the dead horse concept of 'one box/one OS' but the rest of us have moved on. Headlining articles like this are telling as to how irrelevant Slashdot is anymore.
Linux: 90% of the uses
Windows: 90% of the usage
I can recommend a good therapist...
The price is always right if someone else is paying.
But MS is still really big in the server market. Yes, Linux is big in webserver market. However that isn't the only server market out there. Where MS is really big server (and desktop) wise is enterprise servers.
Linux really beat the traditional unix vendors (Sun, SGI, SCO, etc) not so much Microsoft. Both Linux and Microsoft went after the traditional unix vendor's market and as you point out both got their piece of the pie. Its natural that Linux did well given that the market was already unix based. What is more remarkable is that Microsoft has been as successful as it is, when fighting on unix home turf Linux had the advantage.
Everyone forgets that linux absolutely dominates the supercomputer market, with well over 90% market share.
lmfao. i'm writing this from a laptop running ubuntu. its a nice technical solution and linus can pat himself on the back, but it's certainly not what your typical consumer wants. as far as linux, google got it right w/ android. as the saying goes, keep it simple stupid.
Certainly, Linux dominates in the android vs windows mobile market, and it dominates in the server appliance market over windows. But that's about it.
I don't think it is accurate to describe an Android win as a Linux win. To say Android based phones indicate Linux's success seems about as logical as saying Mac OS X's success demonstrates FreeBSD's triumph over Linux. As nearly all Mac users don't know or care about the FreeBSD underpinnings, nearly all Android users don't know or care about the Linux underpinnings.
I fucking love kicking puppies!
With posts like these isn't this how the flame ware of 2011 got started and burned down all the interwebs??
"With the one glaring exception of the desktop computer, Linux has outpaced Microsoft in nearly every market, including server-side computing and mobile, Zemlin claims. 'I think we just don't care that much [about Microsoft] anymore,' Zemlin said. 'They used to be our big rival, but now it's kind of like kicking a puppy.'", says Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin.
I'm sorry, but I like Linux and hate Microsoft, yet I still can't stomach this marketing'esque spew of BS. If Microsoft said the reverse of this this topic would hit 500+ comments.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Ballmer.
Duh!
Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats. -HLM
Linux is to servers and windows is to desktops.
On the servers, I based my assumptions from the data of http://www.top500.org/stats/list/36/osfam
On the desktops, I based my assumptions from the data of http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10
As a Linux user (both servers and desktop), I accept the reality that Linux dominates the server market and Windows on the desktop market. But on the occasion that somebody claims that Linux dominates the desktop market or WIndows dominates the server market, I usually ask for some citations or do some research a.k.a using google.
IMHO, it is good for us to have these two options. It creates competition. When there is competition, the competitors try to improve their product so that they can win the seat of their competitor while maintaining the achivements that they currently have. The end result is simple... USERS WIN!!!
oh wait, my indexed retirement mutual funds contain MSFT...
is that like kicking myself in the nutz?
I didn't know it was as fun as bashing MS!
Anybody want a peanut?
All this uppity attitude is quite annoying. Linux distros in general have become more and more bloated while Windows operating systems have surprisingly have become a lot more stable; Even more stable than my openSuSE, Ubuntu, and Fedora distros that I use.
on the other hand, the scenario i paint is taken directly from the several dozen books written about the decision making processes used by the most powerful people on the planet within the last 10 years. i.e. the hedge fund managers, the people who ran lehman brothers, goldman sachs, bear stearns, etc.
the people who funded amazon, netscape, google.
all those types.
By both volume and revenue, Linux has less than half the server market share. By volume, Windows Server runs on a majority of servers; by revenue, 30-40% are mainframes and UNIX machines, and Windows makes up the bulk of the remainder. I assume the big reason for this is AD and Terminal Services, both of which are better than their Linux counterparts.
Linux unquestionably runs on a majority of web servers, however.
A tad bit before: since the end of '70s.
I've seen M$ as a closed-eyes newborn puppy. They had a very curious product, a language easy as Python, not as powerful and very badly implemented (it linked the entire library of functions, making a one-liner have the same size as a 100-lines program). It was nevertheless very practical for ad-hoc programming.
Then they entered the h/w business, making an add-on for Apple computers -- to run CP/M, the OS which enabled them to sell some products they later offered. It was a nice product and made possible to get business-orientated apps to run on the Apple II (e.g. Wordstar, a word processor of yore). By then, I had a fairly high opinion about M$, as I viewed a co-processor card as one of the more sophiscated pieces of computer hardware to exist. I still see things that way when I see people using GPUs for parallel processing.
Then came the IBM-PC and that murky situation about DOS: where did it come from, how come it was to nearly 100% identical to CP/M (remember, that was when IT was very original, so replicating anything was weird) -- and what with the name, why is it copied from Apple (which marketed the original DOS 3.3, a very different OS with commands like "catalog" and a totally different internal structure)? All this made my concept of M$ plummet to new lows. The posterior obvious behaviour of intentional lack of interoperability with other OSes (like CP/M itself) made me understand what type of character the guys behind M$ had. My technical befuddlement led to a clear understanding of the political underpinnings of the OS and application market.
But then, it was convenient. The OS, though b0rken, was cheap. And it came together with the PC, so it probably cost even less than the already low price charged for the full version. Thus, as a result of tactics which would later make M$ convicted of anticapitalistic practices, DOS replaced CP/M as the most used OS on the market. As a young programmer, I too was too naïve and too busy to care about such minutiae.
The rest is widely known. M$ battled Apple over the right to sell a braindamaged version of the WIMP model, fought every inch of the way to dethrone competitors, first Wordperfect, then Lotus 1-2-3 and they have now the vast Empire.
To me they are the funny-looking puppy which grew into a pitbull. We created it and now it scares us.
If I would compare them to a pet, it would be a Drakh keeper on the shoulders of the IT people where I work. Yes, I want to kick such things.
Like many others, I now and then think M$ could see the light, specially when I see young blood being hired. But, alas, after all that happened, can they really mend their ways? That would be no small miracle and I would certainly like to see that, but like a vegan lion, I think that maybe that is not to be seen during my time on this planet.
I thought I'd write these things because people often call M$ hater; that is not exactly the case, though. I'm worried about M$ being an obstacle to innovation, to progress and to new small ventures.
If MS is a puppy, then someone needs to get it's attention and tell it to QUIT SNAPPING AT PEOPLE!
So, don't kick puppies, but how would you train a nasty one?
AB HOC POSSUM VIDERE DOMUM TUUM
Microsoft Won First, and Linux Won Second. That's how this goes.
Eventually, people will get tired of the fragmentation of Linux, or (god forbid) Linus will retire/die/go insane, and someone else will build a new kernel that is better, stronger, faster, and probably more relevant to the day-and-age in which it is created.
You bet it is! It's so hard to refuel a Swarovski Drive on this planet.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
More like kicking a feisty terrier. Oh, by the way... a Linux user saying FreeBSD sucks is like a miniature poodle kicking a rottweiler.
The problem about the desktop being the only place Linux hasn't had success is...... the desktop is (still) a huge market. There are a hell of a lot more desktops than servers or mainframes.
The places where Linux is thriving is behind the scenes.
It's thriving on mobile devices, only because it's behind the scenes, e.g. Android is a great stack, but the user is never exposed to Linux.
In these cases, Linux gets selected because of its flexibility and low cost, for technical reasons..... but for the most part, the user is none the wiser.
This dude is seriously smoking something.
Everyone knows Windows Server dominates the server market - even VMware has ditched their hold in Linux since 4.X - they were getting sued.
No one - and I mean no one - has more patents than Microsoft - period. ;)
Linux has crushed both Microsoft and Apple with the explosive growth: Android phones now have the crown of market share. Once some actual android running tablet hardware becomes available it'll crush the iPad too.
Desktop linux is now pretty slick, fast and reliable, with enough apps to mean you can live in it and not be without ability to do some tasks taken for granted on OSX/Win. So what happend? Why aren't we all just grabbing a live CD and never going back? Because it's too litttle to late, we needed that back in 2006, back then Ubuntu would take a minute and a half to boot and it was pure luck if all your hardware was supported. Might as well have installed Vista. If you could send a copy linux now back in time to 2006, it would slaughter anything around at the time.
Android is Linux done right. It's pretty good at all levels. Good design under the hood and it's now pretty slick on top too. Asside from the prettiness lately, it's been ahead of iOS in technology and features for a while, and has a pace of development thats mind boggling. It's a OS done right, it's easy to use and it actually does more than it's competitors. (better notification system, cloud integration, more of a standalone handheld computer: it isn't shackled to syncing to desktop software like iTunes).
Microsoft is listening though. WP7 was pretty good attempt. It was slick in a way iOS/android wasn't at the time.
Lets ignore Kinect, because that's truely groundbreaking and would spoil Microsoft bashing.
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
... in the last 3 large organizations I've worked for (which have all been VERY linux-friendly), the midrange space (which, globally, is substantially larger than the supercomputer space as requiring such a fleet is a necessity for any large organization nowadays irrespective of industry or specialized number-crunching needs)...
[a] The windows admin team was as large as the linux/UNIX team.
[b] 66% of the server (1000's of servers) fleet was NT-based. This Linux-Windows spread is governed by commercial vendor support matrixes, in some casses vendor software performance, and nearly always bottom lines (with per-project varying results), not a pro-/anti- open-source religion, so there's a sweet spot it's gravitating to that's neither 100/0 or 0/100.
[c] Specialist-quality in Windows-land (where the specialists are paid in the ballparks that we linux mob expect to be paid), they know their shit. They can script as well as we do, they understand LDAP, DNS, mail and file servers, they know their hardware, they know their comms, they can troubleshoot well and will pull a packet sniffer as quickly as we do, and they think the same (bad) things we do of ye olde server apps that run with a GUI in a logged-in console that needs to be checked every morning, they understand and can implement security on their platform, and if you throw something like ESX 3.x their way (with an underlying linux OS to manage the host) they don't shit a brick, they sit with the doco and figure the thing out. In my experience, with a pay-bracket as a basis for comparison, they're competent.
[d] The OS platform itself, from a driving-forward maintained-project perspective, is alive and kicking - Server 2008 introduced clustering (from having spent nearly a year with pacemaker on SLES11 in the last place I worked, I daresay MS's in-OS clustering offering may very well be better than Novell's half-baked offering), an infiniband stack, etc etc.
If you work in any reasonably-large organization (think any big retail brand in any industry you care to mention) Microsoft is anything BUT "a puppy", even if in some smaller shops, specifically the subset of which have ready access to lots of cheap linux/unix admin capability (universities, technology startups that employ coders, websites and misc other IT companies a-la ISP's come to mind), windows is very visibly absent. I daresay that between companies that sell credit-rating services, shampoo, shelf-space in a supermarket, banking, camper-vans, insurance, auditing services or batteries (and everything in between) these are a small minority. The rest hire PM's, a wintel team, a UNIX team, a dba team, a comms team and a SAN team, and rely heavily on supported vendor software.
I daresay MS get amply compensated for every one of those server licenses they sell.
May the fan-boy mod-me-down commence ;)
-
Please ignore Kinect, because it would ruin Microsoft bashing. It's a rather inconvienient disruptive advancement and has gone on to break records for sales of any consumer electronics ever.
/. groupthink.
But we'll leave that out because it kind of implies that while we've all been distracted by shiny multitouch gadgets and cloud computing Microsofts just taken a huge leap a ahead of everyone else.
This will create cognative dissonance in the
No one dare suggest Microsoft is losing the smartphone/tablet/desktop wars to Apple and Linux because they were busy slaughtering Nintendo and Sony.
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
Linux can't compete equally with Windows in the desktop marketplace until OEMs offer equal choice for consumers. Very few OEMs offer anything but Windows, particularly on laptops. This isn't a competitive marketplace; it's a monopoly. Maybe its the fault of the OEMs for the lack of choice. Microsoft supplies Windows to the OEMs, not end-users (when it comes to preinstalled systems anyway), so when an end-user purchases a new computer, their lack of choice of operating system is due to actions of the OEM, not their supplier. They may have signed an agreement with Microsoft, but maybe that agreement is illegal anyway. I wonder whether the Trade Practices Act (in Australia) might prevent this kind of business deal. Maybe the ACCC could muscle in and prevent OEMs from limiting choice to Windows, Windows or erm... Windows. Who would really care if the OEMs run the risk of losing their lucrative deal with Microsoft. What are these deals really worth to OEMs when they can get perfectly good OS'es for free anyway? I guess if Microsoft is using bully tactics (threats of lawsuits etc) it might be preventing the OEMs from dumping Windows, but at the end of the day how popular would MS be if they took an OEM to court for offering consumer choice?
"In one version, after a fruitless 10-year siege, the Greeks constructed a huge wooden horse, and hid a select force of 30 men inside. The Greeks pretended to sail away, and the Trojans pulled the horse into their city as a victory trophy. That night the Greek force crept out of the horse and opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army, which had sailed back under cover of night. The Greek army entered and destroyed the city of Troy, decisively ending the war.:
One came in the front door via corporate IT and the other came in the back door via the home users.
The trojan horse is VMware virtual servers and desktops. VMware has a free version of ESX for small businesses. VMware is in 1000 of the fortune 1000. VMware can run databases as fast as bare metal and there are only 5 in the world that are too big to run on VMware. When you run a virtual server you are running Windows on Linux, not stock linux but a version that has been tweaked to virtualize the hardware for windows.
Next is Virtual Desktop computers and then the nail in the coffin, Virtual Applications that execute like WINE for any OS that has the VMware client. Now you have to convince users why they need windows when VMware can run your x86 apps and present the display to any OS. This is the death of MS in the corporate market.
Home users started with a different trojan horse, the iPod, iPhone and iPad. The home users are also buying Mac computers, not good for MS.
VMware just has to get a way for developers to write code for new apps that just run on VMware with no regard for the OS, then you will see vb finally die.
People use computers for applications, not for the OS. Users do not care about OSes. Windows 95 was a big deal because the user could run 32 bit apps and not have to deal with the 8 bit dos drivers and memory issues. Not a single home user needs 64 bit. Sloppy CAD systems need it but that is because the users are stupid and the developers of the software are idiots as well, i.e. catia, ProE and SolidWorks.
Your Average Joe
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Kicking Microsoft is more like kicking a bear than kicking a puppy. Sorry Jim, you got it wrong one more time.
Have you got your LWN subscription yet?
Specialist-quality in Windows-land (where the specialists are paid in the ballparks that we linux mob expect to be paid), they know their shit. They can script as well as we do, they understand LDAP, DNS, mail and file servers, they know their hardware, they know their comms, they can troubleshoot well and will pull a packet sniffer as quickly as we do, and they think the same (bad) things we do of ye olde server apps that run with a GUI in a logged-in console that needs to be checked every morning, they understand and can implement security on their platform, and if you throw something like ESX 3.x their way (with an underlying linux OS to manage the host) they don't shit a brick, they sit with the doco and figure the thing out. In my experience, with a pay-bracket as a basis for comparison, they're competent.
I guess most Windows admins are not paid very much then because the ones I have met generally have few skills beyond clicking dialog buttons, rebooting and reinstalling.
Have you got your LWN subscription yet?
Linux has beat Microsoft, in every market they never tried to dominate.. Kudos
"With the one glaring exception of the desktop computer" sounds a lot like "Besides that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"
Last time I checked more iPads have been sold then all other the sum of all tablets combined seems a little bit more like Linux dominates in the categories I pick and choose.
Don't forget Ford Sync either. First in-car computer system to take off.
You had *better* kick the puppy or else you will soon be licked....
With notably rare exceptions, the battle between Linux and Microsoft is over, and Linux has won.
I have the same issue. Try
alsa force-reload
each time you want to use jackd based apps. But, you won't be able to listen to Youtube until you shut down jackd again.
A butt ugly workaround? Yes.
What's the point and what's the real message being sent by saying that this or that "dominates"?
I use software as a tool; I really don't have any stake in it dominating markets, or users, or anything. The domination language obscures the ultimate fact that this stuff is supposed to serve us.
First in-car computer system to take off.
Uh, no. Sync has only been around for a few years. BMW's iDrive has been around for a decade now (and for the record, it initially used Windows CE and currently uses QNX). I'm not sure if iDrive was the first, but it's definitely been prevalent for a lot longer than Sync.
Maybe that's because it's "free"? Or maybe because it isn't at all hard to write better operating systems than MS? If Linux weren't "free", where would it be?
It's not, really. But I've said too much already. You're smart. Figure it out.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Im running Windows 7, please tell me... what is this thing called Linux? is it a troll?
Time to put poor ol' MS down.
What is the point of fanboyism and attention whoring? Does it make your favorite product any better?
So linux wins except for the several hundred million people using windows, office, sharepoint, exchange...
Comparing financials of Microsoft vs Redhat is like comparing the US economy with the island nation of Fiji.
well guess what? if your content is produced on microsoft platforms, using microsoft-hosted tools, you're still fucked if microsoft decide to introduce proprietary format X. The battle is not yet won, not by a long shot.
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
By revenue MS outpaces linux in the server market by a margin of 3:1. By units (web servers) the two are tied if you believe Netcraft. If you don't, then Linux enjoys a sizable advantage in terms of public web servers. Those are, of course, only one kind of server.
MS also owns notebooks.
I would argue that it is the first in-car computer system that was marketed separately from the model of car that had it to take off. Cars have had computers in them for a very long time now.
Yeah let's not bother to mention that Kinect is basically technology that they purchased from the MIT Media Lab.
Let's not bother to mention that Kinect is just like every other Microsoft product: someone else's technology.
Puppies are cute and do bad things because they don't know any better. Microsoft has been deliberately evil, and they still have plenty of poison left in them as a patent troll even if all their software fails.
The stmt says it all. "Linux won most battles, still lost out on the War". Microsoft never seriously competed for super-computer & server space. Their palace was desktop, which linux failed to dislodge
It's an unintentional side effect. - Linus
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Linux on the desktop weepers forget what linux has achieved. It may not rule the desktop, but popularity of linux and open source model is the thing which has made open source software so popular on windows platform(eg firefox).
So while linux may not have made inroads into the desktop, it has definitely shaped the desktop of today.
Let me also tell you that most laptops in developing countries have windows because
1. Its preinstalled, and a DOS laptop costs just 50$ less in third world countries. Average cost of medium end laptop is 1000$. So 50$ more or less is not a very strong argument on cost basis
2. Most people who buy 50$ cheaper laptops often do it to install pirated MS_ware later. MS knows this and does not go after them. If it started doing so, linux will start making a lot more inroads.
My Aurora : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o91ZsGwJYyg
FB : https://www.facebook.com/TanveersPhotography
Microsoft only exists because of it's monopoly status. Once that's gone, they'll start losing desktop shares and it will completely vanish from the server market. Same goes for the gaming section, where it's even dicier because they have a lot of strong competitors.
They did not get where they are today because of the "technological superiority of their products".
Specialist-quality in Windows-land (where the specialists are paid in the ballparks that we linux mob expect to be paid), they know their shit. They can script as well as we do, they understand LDAP, DNS, mail and file servers, they know their hardware, they know their comms, they can troubleshoot well and will pull a packet sniffer as quickly as we do, and they think the same (bad) things we do of ye olde server apps that run with a GUI in a logged-in console that needs to be checked every morning, they understand and can implement security on their platform, and if you throw something like ESX 3.x their way (with an underlying linux OS to manage the host) they don't shit a brick, they sit with the doco and figure the thing out. In my experience, with a pay-bracket as a basis for comparison, they're competent.
I guess most Windows admins are not paid very much then because the ones I have met generally have few skills beyond clicking dialog buttons, rebooting and reinstalling.
And I have met a lot of them, including at Google where the disparity in skill level was all the more obvious. In fact, the only decent Windows admins I have ever met are Linux admins first, Windows as a sideline.
Have you got your LWN subscription yet?
All their dominant positions are on artificial life support. They mantain their desktop supremacy by shady deals with OEMs, their office supremacy by FUD campaigns and corrupting standard bodies and their gaming console market participation by throwing money at it. With network effect and ad campaigns sprinkled on top.
The "religious fundamentalism" you deride is responsible for developing the system that millions are using on desktops, media boxes, phones, etc., for free. The only reason people work for free is when they are working for an ideal.
As far as your specific concern about video drivers, Ubuntu doesn't (and can't) distribute nVidia's proprietary graphics driver. But downloading and enabling it is as easy as clicking System> Administration> Hardware Drivers.
The last time I checked, fundamentalist preachers don't have "click here for a keg" signs in their churches.
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
Really !? Because I see it more akin to taking back the neighborhood by standing up to your local crime boss who killed the puppy to make a point...
All these examples are devices where Linux is hidden away in a sealed containment that users never get to see. In these devices, Linux isn't open source anymore, because you can't change the source and still operate them successfully. Or in the few cases where you can, doing so is considered a crime. These devices give Linux a bad name.
This post is a text book example of a flamebait. It offers no real information and instigates. The truth is simple: there was never a competition between Linux and _Windows_. And Microsoft is a company, not an operating system, you can't compare it with Linux.
See subject-line above, & these "prime examples" below via links to the originals of WHY hairyfeet shouldn't have gone to "ITT Tech", in his TECHNICAL BLUNDERS, & more (regarding HOSTS files):
---
Static vs. Dynamic Adbanner addressing (lol, "according to hairyfeet"):
(Which even BestBuy Techs know!)
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2061048&cid=35681060
---
DNS Client Cache turn off for HOSTS, a TECHNICAL Blunder by Hairyfeet:
(Which even BestBuy Techs know also (just like the one above!))
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2061048&cid=35686054
---
Hairyfeet's single solutions SECURITY FAILURES? See inside:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2064694&cid=35690260
---
Your sources on "security" vs. mine (actual security people) (AND myself, a source on it):
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2064694&cid=35690328
---
Lastly, as to your LIBEL of myself (w/ arstech):
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2061048&cid=35668740
---
The defeat of hairyfeet by APK (video analogy - hilarious, BUT, apt):
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2064694&cid=35690536
---
They say it all, & usually vs. hairyfeet's own words quoted! I wouldn't pay him too much heed, especially after you read the above b.s., lies, changing figures, & even LIBEL of others that hairyfeet likes to do. After all - he's from "ITT Tech" (student)...
Worst part of ALL, here?
Hairyfeet just clearly doesn't even understand how HOSTS files benefit you for:
---
1.) ADDED Reliabiility (vs. DNS going down, or being 'poisoned', & even DNSBL (DNS Block Lists))
2.) ADDED "layered" Security online (vs. known bad sites &/or servers (botnet C&C) + maliciously scripted adbannners by BLOCKING them out)
3.) ADDED Speed (not loading adbanners, and hardcoding your fav. sites into it)
4.) Even more ADDED 'anonymity' online (vs. DNS request logs)
(Even server admins might NOT mind having the load on their DNS servers lightened up also, bonus!)
---
APK
P.S.=> Personally though - because hairyfeet is only a "techie"? I suspect he doesn't want people to know about HOSTS files' added LAYERED SECURITY benefits to the end-user: Why?? Because if users stop getting so much "malware-in-general" which layered security (and HOSTS) give you added layered protection against, he's out money...apk
See subject-line above, & these "prime examples" below via links to the originals of WHY hairyfeet shouldn't have gone to "ITT Tech", in his TECHNICAL BLUNDERS, & more (regarding HOSTS files):
---
Static vs. Dynamic Adbanner addressing (lol, "according to hairyfeet"):
(Which even BestBuy Techs know!)
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2061048&cid=35681060
---
DNS Client Cache turn off for HOSTS, a TECHNICAL Blunder by Hairyfeet:
(Which even BestBuy Techs know also (just like the one above!))
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2061048&cid=35686054
---
Hairyfeet's single solutions SECURITY FAILURES? See inside:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2064694&cid=35690260
---
Your sources on "security" vs. mine (actual security people) (AND myself, a source on it):
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2064694&cid=35690328
---
Lastly, as to your LIBEL of myself (w/ arstech):
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2061048&cid=35668740
---
The defeat of hairyfeet by APK (video analogy - hilarious, BUT, apt):
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2064694&cid=35690536
---
They say it all, & usually vs. hairyfeet's own words quoted! I wouldn't pay him too much heed, especially after you read the above b.s., lies, changing figures, & even LIBEL of others that hairyfeet likes to do. After all - he's from "ITT Tech" (student)...
Worst part of ALL, here?
Hairyfeet just clearly doesn't even understand how HOSTS files benefit you for:
---
1.) ADDED Reliabiility (vs. DNS going down, or being 'poisoned', & even DNSBL (DNS Block Lists))
2.) ADDED "layered" Security online (vs. known bad sites &/or servers (botnet C&C) + maliciously scripted adbannners by BLOCKING them out)
3.) ADDED Speed (not loading adbanners, and hardcoding your fav. sites into it)
4.) Even more ADDED 'anonymity' online (vs. DNS request logs)
(Even server admins might NOT mind having the load on their DNS servers lightened up also, bonus!)
---
APK
P.S.=> Personally though - because hairyfeet is only a "techie"? I suspect he doesn't want people to know about HOSTS files' added LAYERED SECURITY benefits to the end-user: Why?? Because if users stop getting so much "malware-in-general" which layered security (and HOSTS) give you added layered protection against, he's out money...apk
MS isn't a puppy until I can buy any spec laptop I want without MS Windows bundled along with it, dammit. Until then, they're doing nothing and getting paid for it, which doesn't sit well with me (unless I'm the one getting paid).
Perceptions play a major role, hence, to claim victory base upon the public's mass use of ubiquitous of Linux variants hidden in devices will not be perceived as a victorious. That is, when that Public is blissfully ignorant. Moreover, with ready cash in hand and hired help in all fields these victories could so easily be overturned. Premature claims of victory lead to humiliation.
I would suggest several tags be added to this story alone with arrogance and hubris. out-of-touch, unreality, ...
Given the sleazy tactics microsoft are still using against their competitors, I don't really objet to kicking microsoft (or the even worse apple), as many times as it takes to effect an end to their recalcitrant behaviour.
"while Microsoft has sold 300 million Windows 7 licenses and reported record second-quarter revenue of nearly $20 billion, Zemlin said Linux people aren't giving up on the desktop market just yet" link
The desktop is totally owned by MS. Whenever anything innovative appears it invariably pops up in the next version of Windows and given away, in the process sucking the lifeblood out of whatever third party company MS has decided to eliminate off its Desktop. You notice that where Open Source or other non_windows systems have made advances is where Microsoft hasn't managed to achieve an effective monopoly similar to the Microsoft desktop monoculture .. er ... ecosystem.
both Autodesk Inventor and Solidworks run only on Microsoft Windows and also require Microsoft Excel for full functionality. Double lock-in.
How do you (or others) handle the stuff that Windows admins use Active Directory for? Policy-setting, synchronization, trust, user accounts, single sign-on, etc.
For me, running Linux on 1 or 2 servers for a website is a no-brainer. For 10 or 20, it seems harder, without having to reinvent the wheel with a huge bunch of shell scripts, and then testing them.
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
Actually, going with Linux is what killed SGI in the server market (and it was Apple and Microsoft who knocked them out of the workstation market prior to that, but only because SGI screwed up first by opening up IRIS GL, and then by making Maya available on other platforms), and Sun/Oracle is still very strong in their tradition upper-midrange and high end enterprise tier markets, where Linux is largely a non-sequitor.
Also, do remember that there's more to the server market than web servers and LAMP.
Go fuck yourself.
I'm a Linux user, I have been for 15 or so years, UNIX about another 10 years before that. I use Linux almost exclusively at home and work with it every day. In my view, it's a great operating system platform that I am still learning more and more about.
If someone wants to come ask me about Linux, I will tell them about it.
If they want help learning it, I will help them.
If they run Windows, that's their choice and if they need help with it, then I'll help them also because I know a lot about computers & a bit about Windows also.
There is *no* Linux vs. Windows war and there never has been. Linux exists *despite* Windows, not because of it and if you knew anything about UNIX history, you'd understand that for a very long time programmers were giving UNIX and UNIX tools away freely long before Microsoft realised they could make money from operating systems.
But I'm no zealot. An OS is a tool to get stuff done in and what I consider to be a good tool may be different from what someone else considers to be a good tool.
And we don't need more zealots.
So please kindly climb up your own anus until you disappear with a pop.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
You stop wanting to fight problems for hours on end. You simply expect things to "just work", and to keep "just work"ing until something changes.
See, in IT administration, when you grow up you figure out that IT is less about tinkering with fun bits of tech, and more about making each dollar spent on IT return value to the company.
Funnily enough, this is why I prefer Unix-y operating systems: I have found them to be much more deterministic and stable than Windows.
I also (generally) don't have to worry about countless security patches and regular reboots, as well as keeping anti-virus definitions up-to-date on Unix systems. While Unix may be just as vulnerable in a 'theoretical' way, when there's a browser vulnerability I don't have to worry about my servers being attacked--because why would I have a browser on a (headless) server?
Microsoft has a lot of useful tools, but as Jon Udell said many years ago: Windows may get you from 0 to 60 much faster, but you need Unix to go from 60 to 100. I still believe and see that on a regular basis where I work in IT.
You have to use the correct tools... try puppet as the number of server increase
for AD like, try likewise or esoeproject.org
AD works for windows, but only windows... if you have MacOSX, Linux, Solaris, etc you need more tools or at least more cross-platform ones... the AD LDAP part can be replaced easily and most of the time you can still use the same windows tools... with samba 4 you will be able to replace the AD totally
finally, you can use policy setting in most linux apps, just set the config and change the permission of the config file
Higuita
Well, from a business point of view, I think you'll find that whilst you were fighting it out, Apple won.
Repositories and the like have been around for many years before the advent of app stores. All app stores did was make a slicker presentation for those apps and monetize the process.
It's up to the Linux distributions now to create an interface which rivals those of Apple and Android.
I hope he made this statement with a gigantic MISSION ACCOMPLISHED banner behind him.
They completely own the Enterprise, by which I am referring to Active Directory, Exchange, and the like. There is really no substitute for AD and group policy management. Not particularly once you learn that you can join Linux and a plethora of Unix flavors to AD and manage those by group policy as well.
C//
No, Kirk. The game's not over. To the last I will grapple with thee.
I dunno about that. While there is truth to what you say, the Linux desktop has been getting worse these last couple of years. And I'm saying that as an oldtimer who switched their primary desktop from WfW 3.11 to Yggdrasil. I don't have too many hardware problems because I have been making every purchase decision based on Linux suitability for several hardware refreshes.... until my Thinkpad stopped undocking with a kernel update back on F12 and I have been stuck there since after reverting. But F15 appears to finally solve that based on trying the F15 Alpha live disc.
Pulseaudio comes in for a lot of the flaming, and rightfully so. Just when things were looking good, Vista was a disaster from Hell and we could have taken significant marketshare away, every major distro adopted PulseAudio two years before it was ready for primetime and made it such that I couldn't recommend Linux to a new user because I *KNEW* I'd be spending hours handholding them with sound problems on top of the normal teething problems of installing Linux on random Windows hardware. On days when I'm extra cynical I wonder if Pottering isn't on Microsoft's payroll, sent as an agent of chaos to exploit the one weakness in the Open Source development process, obsession with half broken shiny bits. I do know he almost singlehandedly saved Microsoft from their Vista mistake even if by accident.
But we can't stop there. The mindless churning in the *Kits, *Managers, etc. as they blindly scurried up blind alley after blind alley before finally settling on the current arrangement made almost all documentation useless other than the source code for whatever version was on your machine that day. For years. And today you still can't find a dead tree from O'Reilly applicable to any of the current Linux desktops.
Or worse, you can't find a solid book to recommend to a programmer wanting to learn to write for the Linux desktop. One that will teach the current best practices to get a working GNOME or KDE app up while using all of the core technologies to have an app that responds to all of the themes, internationalization, accessability, system tray widgets, etc. made available by the desktop environment. In any programming language, but since we are discussing a new programmer lets prefer something easier than C/C++. Better, something a university could teach from instead of being forced to teach C# or Java on Windows. Why doesn't something like that exist? Because nobody qualified to write such a book is stupid enough to do it knowing it will be obsolete before it sees print. And we wonder why C#/Java is so popular in education when, as any Linux user is quick to point out, Linux is Free and comes with a full suite of programming tools.
Democrat delenda est
Android IS Linux. It isn't GNU/Linux, but it is Linux.
That said, if anything at all wants to win on a marketshare basis, it will have to win in the people that doesn't care about it. That's just because if you choose any random subject, the majority of people simply doesn't care about it.
Rethinking email
n/t
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Now you have to convince users why they need windows when VMware can run your x86 apps and present the display to any OS. This is the death of MS in the corporate market.
OK, but now you also have to explain to the same users why they need to buy a faster computer to get the same performance they used to.
Not a single home user needs 64 bit.
Oh please, tell us more about what we need and don't need.
Sloppy CAD systems need it but that is because the users are stupid
Yes, unbridled arrogance is a wonderful way to draw people your side.
Linux on mobile phones is fake, Android is the Google Monster, not open especially with the god damn mobile providers in the mix. I had hopes for Intel+Nokia with MeeGo, damn shame Nokia kneeled to Microsoft. Microsoft & computer manufacturers dominate...worthless trialware nagscreens are almost as bad as salespeople in places such as BestBuy, where they try to up-sell you crap every 15feet, and their special extended warranty bullsheet.
I'll head over and flag "Fix Released" on Bug #1 then...
Windows Server may not be as dominate as Linux but it certainly is not dead. They compete in every server category and have decent market share while it is not dominate like desktops it is still a multi-billion dollar business that is certainly successful. Active Directory, SQL Server, ASP.Net, IIS these are all major products that run on WIndows Server, you can find thousands of jobs on any major job search engine. I think it is a mistake to say MS only has desktop operating systems, it is clearly still a player in the server market.
Don't forget Exchange. I'd wager that most of all productivity within a business is based on Active Directory, Exchange, and Office; all running on a Windows OS. And I say this as someone who works at a company with several times the number of *nix admins as Windows admins. You could run a large enterprise business without any Microsoft products, but why would you want to? Your efficiency would go out the window for everyone outside the IT department, and for many of those within it too.
I think it must be coming up to my 4th year anniversary of having "quit" open source and when I come back to places like Slashdot I can't help but wonder if this mustn't be what people returning to communist countries must feel like. I quit open source when I realized that those who ran this industry had at their core a mentality of "the code is free, why aren't you?". I jumped ship over to enterprise C# and let me tell you my former brothers, it's a land of fat pay cheques, a tidy bonus and most importantly, get ready for this, it will come as a shock, respect. Come my repressed brothers, leave this walled garden, you know that straight after this story will be another talking about $1.50 php coders in China or Apache admins working for instant noodles. Leave this depressing, tall-poppy, work-for-nothing, zero respect, oppressed peon existence and come join all the people who left long ago to the land of Professional (Microsoft) IT.
This shows CLEARLY otherwise, per this quote from you ITT Tech Boy:
"And please ignore APK, aka trollie. He got butthurt several months ago when I pointed out 16Mb HOSTS files wouldn't magically protect you from a dynamic target like malware and he has been following me ever since. Mind the drool, he isn't very clean." - by hairyfeet (841228) on Wednesday April 06, @03:22PM (#35736836)
To Wit/E.G. (hairyfeet's list of FAIL level accomplishments, lol):
ROTFLMAO: Witness these "prime examples" below via links to the originals of WHY hairyfeet shouldn't have gone to "ITT Tech", in his TECHNICAL BLUNDERS, & more (regarding HOSTS files):
---
Static vs. Dynamic Adbanner addressing (lol, "according to hairyfeet"):
(Which even BestBuy Techs know!)
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2061048&cid=35681060
---
DNS Client Cache turn off for HOSTS, a TECHNICAL Blunder by Hairyfeet:
(Which even BestBuy Techs know also (just like the one above!))
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2061048&cid=35686054
---
Hairyfeet's single solutions SECURITY FAILURES? See inside:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2064694&cid=35690260
---
Your sources on "security" vs. mine (actual security people) (AND myself, a source on it):
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2064694&cid=35690328
---
They say it all, & usually vs. hairyfeet's own words quoted! I wouldn't pay him too much heed, especially after you read the above b.s., lies, changing figures, & even LIBEL of others that hairyfeet likes to do. After all - he's from "ITT Tech" (student)...
Worst part of ALL, here?
Hairyfeet just clearly doesn't even understand how HOSTS files benefit you for:
---
1.) ADDED Reliability (vs. DNS going down, or being 'poisoned', & even DNSBL (DNS Block Lists))
2.) ADDED "layered" Security online (vs. known bad sites &/or servers (botnet C&C) + maliciously scripted adbannners by BLOCKING them out)
3.) ADDED Speed (not loading adbanners, and hardcoding your fav. sites into it)
4.) Even more ADDED 'anonymity' online (vs. DNS request logs)
(Even server admins might NOT mind having the load on their DNS servers lightened up also, bonus!)
---
APK
P.S.=> Personally though - because hairyfeet is only a "techie"? I suspect he doesn't want people to know about HOSTS files' added LAYERED SECURITY benefits to the end-user: Why?? Because if users stop getting so much "malware-in-general" which layered security (and HOSTS) give you added layered protection against, he's out money...apk
I dumped Microsoft software 3 years ago because I became fed up with having to go home fixing Windows, when that's all I did at work. And boy am I glad I did. Microsoft software is garbage, and the way that they keep customers dependent on them is just appalling. Unfortunately, vendors are so locked in to Windows, that a majority of your top quality software is in Windows. But, software in Linux is also very very good, and is slowly but surely replacing proprietary software. Everybody just needs to bit the bullet and make the switch to Linux and open source. It is good stuff, and very very reliable as well as free as in freedom, not to mention the price is always right at $0.
In terms of the most known security vulnerabilities left unpatched (Linux has more + even a remote vulnerability unpatched also), & for months now, no less? Linux has been lagging lately... see here:
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Vulnerability Report: Microsoft Windows 7:
http://secunia.com/advisories/product/27467/?task=advisories
Unpatched 10% (6 of 59 Secunia advisories)
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vs.
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Vulnerability Report: Linux Kernel 2.6.x:
http://secunia.com/advisories/product/2719/?task=advisories
Unpatched = 7% (19 of 260 Secunia advisories)
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That's 3x++ as many KNOWN vulnerabilities unpatched in Linux (keep in mind, that's the KERNEL ONLY, mind you (not the rest of what a full Linux distro entails, which only compounds that number further) than there is in Windows 7 (which IS a "full distro" in essence, with GUI shell, Window mgt. subsystems, an internet browser & FAR more)...
(And the "Std. 'Pro-*NIX' mantra" around here on /. for a decade++ or more has been "Linux is more secure than Windows is"... well, take a read up there, & "READ 'EM & WEEP"...)
APK
P.S.=> Bear in mind also, that Microsoft is about to close @ least 3 of those 6 remaining unpatched security vulnerabilities issues in Windows 7 too (IF not more, because 64 fixes are issuing in total summation across their product lines), on next Tuesday 04/12/2011, per this bulletin as "proof thereof" -> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms11-apr.mspx , which will mean that Linux will be even farther "ahead" (behind is more like it actually) in terms of unpatched security issues... apk
I has a kindle.It can see books about linux , I like my kindle.
DOWN TO 5 UNPATCHED SEC. VULNS IN THE ENTIRE MS PRODUCT LINE (almost) I NOTED IN MY LAST REPLY:
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Vulnerability Report: Microsoft Office 2010: (04/12/2011)
http://secunia.com/advisories/product/30529/?task=advisories
Unpatched 0% (0 of 4 Secunia advisories)
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Vulnerability Report: Microsoft SQL Server 2008: (04/12/2011)
http://secunia.com/advisories/product/21744/
Unpatched 0% (0 of 4 Secunia advisories)
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Vulnerability Report: Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.x: (04/12/2011)
http://secunia.com/advisories/product/17543/
Unpatched 0% (0 of 6 Secunia advisories)
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Vulnerability Report: Microsoft Visual Studio 2010: (04/12/2011)
http://secunia.com/advisories/product/30853/?task=advisories
Unpatched 17% (0 of 6 Secunia advisories)
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Vulnerability Report: Microsoft Internet Explorer 9.x: (04/12/2011)
http://secunia.com/advisories/product/34591/
Unpatched 0% (0 of 0 Secunia advisories)
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Vulnerability Report: Microsoft Windows 7: (04/12/2011)
http://secunia.com/advisories/product/27467/?task=advisories
Unpatched 8% (5 of 59 Secunia advisories)
AND, of those 5 vulnerabilities, yes... 2 are still "remote". HOWEVER, they have EASY work-arounds, OR, are caused/utilized by faulty 3rd party apps (e.g., & of ALL things? Apple stuff triggers one, ITunes another, iirc, etc. but no other apps are KNOWN to - go figure, eh?). The remaining can be avoided by not just downloading & running "anything" etc. (being utterly stupid in other words, or just ignorant (which in the case of a child, I could excuse (not an adult))).
I.E.-> "NO PROBLEMO!" & ALMOST 4x LESS THAN IS PRESENT ON THE LINUX 2.6x KERNEL ALONE (toss on the rest of what goes into a Linux distro? That # goes "up, Up, UP & AWAY...", bigime, "increasing that lead, that Linux has", lol, in more unpatched known security bugs present that is (a dubious honor/win, lol, to say the least!)
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So, that "all said & aside"?
Microsoft's doing a HELL OF A GOOD JOB on the security front!
APK
P.S.=> Compare a "*NIX/Open SORES" OS in Linux's "latest/greatest"?:
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Vulnerability Report: Linux Kernel 2.6.x (04/12/2011)
http://secunia.com/advisories/product/2719/?task=advisories
Unpatched 7% (19 of 259 Secunia advisories)
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THAT? That's more than 4x as many as Windows 7 has that are unpatched, & has a REMOTE BUG UNPATCHED in the "ROSE" subsystem... PLUS, I'd wager there aren't EASY workarounds for them (or as many as MS has shown above)...
AGAIN - THAT'S ONLY THE LINUX KERNEL MIND YOU, not the entire 'gamut/array' of what actually comes in a Linux distro (such as the attendant GUI, Windows managers, browsers, etc. that ship in distros too that have bugs, and yes, THEY DO), THAT ADDS EVEN MORE BUGS that COMPOUNDS THAT # EVEN MORE!
So, so much for "Windows is less secure than Linux" stuff you see around here on /., eh?
(It gets even WORSE for 'Linuxdom' when you toss on ANDROID (yes, it's a LINUX variant too), because it's being shredded on the security-front lately, unfortunately)
BOTTOM-LINE:
What this all comes down to, is all the "Pro-*NIX propoganda straight outta pravda" practically doesn't stand up very well against concrete, v
An incident in my small hometown in india kind of changed every thing . This was a internet cafe who previously ran windows 98 despite years of windows Xp . The reason why they didnt move was that they don't like to move . I went there to take a printout with USB key from my machine . The net centre guy was about to start a anti virus scan . I told him that its from a GNU/Linux machine .
The net centre guy stopped the scan saying that "virus wont exist in lihnux "and started asking me if he should migrate to"lihnux" .I obviously said yes but before that I started thinking how I used to suggest them to go to GNU/Linux . Now they are considering to go to GNU/Linux all by themselves .