Slashdot Mirror
Home Depot tests Linux for remote mangament of PCs
A Slashdotter wrote to us with the story about Home Depot testing Linux for an all-store roll-out. Due to the chain's massive growth, they are desperately in need of top notch remote management for all of their machines. Pilot-testing with Linux boxes is being down this summer.
I don't understand why they have so many problems with remote administration of Windows machines. Didn't some guys called Cult of the Dead Cow develop a kickass Windows remote administration kit a while back?
This is very interesting, Home Depot sounds like it could be a pretty large reference account for IBM. I wonder if we have them to thank for the IBM Linux JDK that was released last week.
The difference between Canada and the USA is that in Canada healthcare is a right and gun ownership is a privilege.
I don't usually mess with computers at work, but we use AT&T Unix to operate the phone system. Never had a problem with it in the three years since it was installed. If Windows NT or 95 was in that locked closet, I would need a key to keep rebooting our phone system. I do not like outages of any kind. You do not expect outages on your phone and you cannot have outages on point of sale machines! Linux Is Not UniX, but it can be made damn near bulletproof.
Trees. Sounds like politics to me. I live in Mississippi where many people own hudreds or thousands of acres of nothing but trees. Its good money to supply the paper mills out here. Cut all your trees and you just killed the value of your property. What people do is cut half in rows while the other half grows back. No one cuts all their trees! That person may be listening to political mudslinging. Damn the polititions that never have been raised on a farm.
Speaking of cutting down whole squares of trees in California. I used to live in Costa Mesa when there was nothing but beautiful orange groves and farms. The 70's changed all that. Its the slums with high density housing the last time I saw it. That was the reason why our family left California for Kansas City. I don't know how a person can grow up in CA anymore. $500,000 for a 4 bedroom house? And they cut all the trees? Its insane. Not only is there minimum wage jobs for the high schooler, you have legalized illegal labor in CA and TX. When you talk about cutting all the trees, don't assume everyone is like California!
You are right. Most people would not understand the cleverness behind technical details of naming, etc. I seem to forget slashdot is highly mixed company.
From what I hear from the old Unix die hards, when it comes to comparing Unixen, Linux has the best feel.
I hope they use Win95... I'm biased :)
:-)
bash# lynx http://www.slashdot.org >>/dev/geek
I own a Home center/Hardware Store in NJ. We have 4 (!) Home Depot's in our immediate area. And actually we're doing quite well.
We help and support all our customers.
We dont make you wait on line for 10 minutes.
We have almost everything you need, and can order the rest.
And... We run on Linux!
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Matt on IRC, Nick: Tuttle
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bash# lynx http://www.slashdot.org >>/dev/geek
Matt on IRC
Because it's cheaper and it works better, apparently. As fast as it seems IT is dumping the idea of 'thin' clients, it's picking up on the realization that a Real OS (TM) is much better suited to reducing TCO than any amount of hacking at Windows. Especially where your computers are Java-based ERP apps, there's no reason to run Windows. The under-$1000 PC coupled with linux has all the advantages of a dedicated 'information appliance,' without any of the disadvantages -- and you don't need as heavy a network infastructure to handle them.
-_Quinn
Reality Maintenance Group, Silver City Construction Co., Ltd.
You might as well say that Australians don't speak English, or that Mexicans don't speak Spanish. That argument evaporates when you confront the Aussie with Spanish or the Mexican with English. Spanish is non-English, and vice versa.
Likewise, if you try to tell joe-random hapless W2K victim that Linux isn't Unix, he'll either just laugh at you, or else get highly confused. To these Prisoners of Bill, Linux certainly is Unix in every meaningful sense. Linux and BSD are not non-Unix. CP/M, W2K, MacOS, and all the other abominations foisted off on consumers are non-Unix.
Why must we continue to be Pharisaic about all this? Call a spade a spade.
Yes! We see a lot of articles out there that have the usual crap about how "More and more businesses are switching to Linux. Why? Um, cuz they think it's, like, better?" I prefer to read stories that talk about 1) a well-known company, 2) exactly what they intend to use Linux for, and 3) exactly what was lacking from Windows that made them switch. On the other hand, Home Depot hasn't switched to Linux, they're just considering it. But I'll be watching.
grep -ri 'should work'
I really hope Home Depot makes the switch. Running Linux would be so much better than Win95.
Its funny that under their current Win32 model, they have to ship in a new hard drive for repairs. Wow. That seems like a huge waste to me. Hmm... maybe I should go to Home Depot and ask for some hard drives...
-Clmup
I think it's great that a company the size of Home Depot is considering a move to Linux. We have to remember that even though Windows doesn't cost that much copy, it can add up to BIG BUCKS for a company of Home Depot's size.
We also have to consider the secondary effects of this move by Home Depot. Just think, that means they will be HIRING Linux gurus. This is good news for the Linux job market, and it's also great for people deciding whether or not to learn Linux. If a robust job market for Linux people is created, it can spell nothing but good news for the Linux community.