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Interview: Query Queen Elizabeth II's Webmaster
I e-mailed Mick and requested the inteview, really on a whim, the day we ran this story. To my surprise, unlike U.S. government officials and politicians who typically dither for weeks or months before answering their e-mail if they bother to answer it at all, Mick replied almost immediately with a message that said, in part, "Happy to oblige, if only to put the record straight on a few points. I can see from today's edition that there is a great deal of misunderstanding out there."
We're always happy to set things straight. And getting "the word" directly from the man himself is always better than getting it second-hand from The Sunday Times. So here we are, happily welcoming Mick Morgan to Slashdot.
Mick is a genial fellow, but please don't forget that he is also a highly-placed, trusted government official. He has laid down several necessary interview ground rules. He says, "I will not be drawn on specifics of system security (generalities I will answer at my sole discretion). Nor will I comment on UK Government policies on web usage, architectures etc. But since the questions are likely to be technical rather than policy oriented there should not be a problem."
The usual Slashdot interview rules apply: one question per post; moderators choose the most intriguing ones; editors make the final "cut" Tuesday afternoon; Mick's answers appear Friday.
its very simple, he chose linux because it is the best unix available.
1) it is more scalable than any other os on the market, and will continue to be
2) it is more stable than any other os on the market
3) it runs on the most scalable, reliable hardware platform today...way ahead of vendors like sun/sgi/hp who are playing catchup with their not ready for enterprise hardware/operating systems
4) it is the most secure unix variant to date
5) linux is the only future, insightful and clueful technologists know this and that is why the only choice is linux.
it's hard for some people to face the facts, but they are out there in plain view. linux users are open to these facts, fortunately some companies are also beginning to realize the truth.
The use of linux in government web servers is to be applauded, however, it would be nice to see linux used elsewhere within government.
I work for a large UK software services supplier, and have recently been involved in a number of proposals for government work. In all of these there is a stong emphasis on using Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) products, which unfortunately usually means WindowsNT.
Do you think this is likely to change in the near future with potential suppliers being encouraged to investigate open source alternative?
Is there any specific challenges or differences running a web site for Royality vs. another government site?
What criteria did you use to make your choice and how did you go about testing them, especially with regards to issues such as load testing and scalability?
Blimey
Linux rules
In the UK government, is Linux/Open-source software used only for web servers or is there more widespread adoption (internal servers/desktops, etc)?
sorry, I couldn't resist
sorry, I cpouldn't resist
Should run FreeBSD instead!
ooh first post?
Phirst Poast? Imagine her majesty's web server running on a Beowulf cluster! Linux rules! Microsoft sucks! Hemos the Hamster! Wait a minute, if I don't like Linux, then which BSD should I use? Go ahead and mark this post as flamebait, but I think JarJar must DIE!!!
its very simple really.
solaris does not scale, is not very stable, and is incredibly slow and insecure. not to mention the hardware does not come close to the latest intel offerings in scalability/reliability/quality.
linux just plain blows solaris out of the water for scalable enterprise computing.
The Queen doesn't want to use the King of America's OS..........
She ain't know human being.
Also my fine chap. On a slightly different note; is your wife a goer? Nudge, nudge, grin, grin. Know what I mean. Say no more. He asked knowingly.
Unless you're talking about RAID 'hardware' that isn't entirely hardware, then all you need to support RAID is a fast SCSI channel. That's somewhat of the point of RAID as 'hardware'.
As far as fallover goes, you're going to be spending more effort ensuring that you have a reliable connection to the net versus ensuring that your webserving box(es) stay up.
JWZ's work on Netscape speaks for itself. That and he's neither a Sun nor a Linux Webmaster.
Haaha . . . great press for the Royals too!
In the Apache / Linux / x86 choice, how much latitude had you been given exactly? In other words, what had you decided on or recommended yourself and what had been imposed on you? (Budget constraints, UNIX-like OS, Open Source software?)
Sorry, I'm way offtopic (and posting AC for my Karma's sake) but two points:
First, don't give the Trolls the benifit of a response. This is the second time I've seen it in this comment section.
Second, as for Root compromises in Linux.. There's more software, and way more of it under active development. Also, remember that you aren't secure just because you can't FIND the exploits.
That article referenced is real nice. I know RAM is expensive, but you'd think the Queen of England could affor more than 512k.
Do you like chocolate chip or oatmeal cookies better?
That said, I'm off to download Slackware 7.
Installing solaris is not that easy. (Even solaris 7). A C compiler is not even included in the base install. How on earth is a sun easier to setup than an linux box as a web server, which already comes with apache installed?
Linux can be installed in an hour by someone who knows next to nothing. Granted, it won't be tuned or secure, but it will be up.
Im curious what kind of load the Royal's server sees, ie, #hits/pageviews, # visitors, %of content is static vs. dynamic. Etc.
I love Linux, but you would be hard pressed to beat Solaris in the REALLY big sites. Obviously you felt Linux was the best choice in your scale, but what scale is that?
I absolutely agree agree with this. The Linux/Intel combination is a factor 6 times greater than Solaris/Sparc for systems under 10K$. I recently priced this out. I work for a University so I can get SOLARIS for free. Even so an entry level single ultra-SPARC CPU cost 6k$ for a shitty 64 MByte/ 4 GB 1280*1024 system. Instead I bought a dual 450 Mhz Pentium III, 256 Megabyte RAM 6 GB disk, 16 MB G400 and 19inch monitor (1600*1200) for 3.5K$. Each CPU is 3 times faster than SPARC. Redhat 6.1 installed in less 30 minutes with full SMP support. In was a total no-brainer. You would have to be nuts or a VERY specific SPARC only application to by a SUN system. Beats me how they sell so many. I guess MS isn't the only one with a good marketing arm. Martin Sevior
We all know about this stuff, we know about the gold bullion, the Anglican Church (secret ties to the Vatican -- after all, what is High Church Anglicanism but Catholicism Lite?), the Masons, the Bilderbergers, etc. And we know that Westminster Palace is the throbbing nerve center of evil and deceit that ties it all together.
But now you're going to try and tell us that these "web sites" you're running have nothing to do with sigint and all that. Right. Right.
So just give us the straight dope. For once.
Google.com and Deja.com are HIGH traffic sites using Linux. It is urban myth to believe Linux is incapable of supporting high-traffic sites like BSD supposedly is.
Security is only as good as the administer behind the operating system. The belief that OpenBSD or FreeBSD is more secure than Linux is total bullshit.
Was the fact that because security is easier to guarantee in OSS code, because of having the source code. One of the reasons you chose Linux?
Linux has good to great (hopefully 2.4 will hit 'excellent') SMP support, especially in the two CPU case. FreeBSD is about on par with Linux 2.0 and you have to use development code on a server. So while BSD is great for many server tasks, you would never see a large oracle DB, or something like slashdot running it. (Slashdot's web front end might be a good candidtate for freebsd, but certainly not the backend).
No, The USER owns the desktop. I don't tell you which car you will buy or who you will marry, but MS tries. Besides, if you just want to serve information, Linux is king, and you can get support at the drop of a hat. In London CBD, MCSE's would want a kings ransom. Linux techos, would be far more reasonable. Or BSD. But remember, IF the palace had gone the MS way, it would have been hacked to death. If you have Linux, then you assume the sysadmin has a brain, and attacks will be reported and followed up. For that reason, those with a 'public face', that some may want to spoil, should not pick the 'favorite', that has, historically, a documented set of security flaws. Like my car, I go for safe and secure, cheap to run, easy to service (Linux), whereas MS is more like a cross channel ferry, with the cargo door down. Good decision, sound logic. Oh yes, will probably create a few hundred extra British jobs. Where can I buy red had, royal edition. Better be bound and printed in UK.
Things like:
(I'm not sure if this post will be too late, considering time-zones...)
--
James Gasson
I am a frequent (very indirect) employee of HM contracting to a provincial government in Canada. It is no secret the government I worked for went completely over to a Micro$oft system a year before the last election (a political decision as I understand). Would you or HM have any advice (words of sympathy) for the new government? ;-)
Since the offical line in the civil service is Microsoft only, how did you manage to fit Linux ?
In the UK, is Linux/Open-source software used only for web servers or is there more widespread adoption (internal servers/desktops, etc)?
What distribution of Linux do you use?
Hi
You say that you switched to Linux to replace Sun boxes because they were old.
Wouldn't the change to one of BSD's been more natural since SunOS was based on BSD ?
Excellent question! Somebody moderate that up..
----
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Does the Queen surf on her own or is a servant moving the Royal mouse over common hyperlinks? :-)
So, is it Red Hat Linux by royal appointment?
--
Xenu loves you!
I think you're confusing Linux with Red Hat. In fact, Red Hat has no special "official" status: it is simply one Linux distribution amongst many, although a perfectly good one.
--
Xenu loves you!
AFAIK, .nsf file extensions are used by Lotus Domino. Maybe that's what they were using before, and that was a stale link?
--
Interested in XFMail? New XFMail home page
--
Interested in XFMail? New XFMail home page
How well do you think those challenges are met by the proprietary software model and by the open source model, respectively? Does either side have any particular advantage in your area, either today or in the foreseeable future?
In short, when you have a technical problem, where do you turn for help with the solution: to fellow government computing operations managers, to the GNU/Linux community, or to a paid consultant?
If I understand the original article correctly, you have 85 web sites going. How do you admin these in terms of reporting, monitoring, etc.?
"shop smart:shop s-mart" ash
Would you mind giving us a rundown on the hardware you're using, as well as how many/what kinds of hits you get, and how well the machine(s) stand up to it?
--Chouser
--Chouser
"To stay young requires unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods." -LL
Don't forget to factor in the time required to set up a Linux erver compared to a Solaris server. To some extent it depends on your experience which is faster, but I'd wager that it's easier to get a really solid HA Solaris box up and serving pages than a Linux box. Support for RAID hardware, failover and so on is in the early stages, and requires a good deal of tinkering to get working right.
As JWZ says, Linux is only free if your time has no value. Well, I wouldn't gop that far, but I do see where he's coming from.
--
W.A.S.T.E.
W.A.S.T.E.
What is your background? Are you a techie, an admin person, or an other? Do you use Linux personally? If so, did you come from a Unix, Windows or other background?
And a related question: What is the primary system around your department?
Paranoia isn't an infectious condition, it's a way of life
Nor will I comment on UK Government policies on web usage, architectures etc.
This is a shame as given BillG's recent highly publicised visits to the UK trying to push MSWare into schools this would be something we want to know about.
However, If you were asked by say a commons fact finding commitee, as a government employee and expert in the field, about software in UK schools would you:
a) Recommend general usage of open source software e.g. For client and Server?
b) Recommend it for specialised areas e.g File server, Web Server, Internet Gateway?
c) Not recommend it at all?
What sort of technology are you running other than Linux/Apache for dynamic content and content management?
.nsf is used which I hadn't seen before (which interestingly gave me a 404 style error when I clicked on it :)). I'm guessing that tells me you're using ftp for content management...
For example, are you running mod_perl, php, or some other solution (plain CGI perhaps?). I noted that something ending in
Matt. Want XML + Apache + Stylesheets? Get AxKit.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Assuming the British Government, and Her Majesty, aware that their public image on the Internet is being presented via software that is non-traditional and non-commercial, what do they think of it all?
Given the infamous traditionalist attitude of the Civil Service (Sir Humphrey Appleby is alive, well and encrypting everything into English), I can see the possibility of some "concerns" being expressed by people who know just enough to be dangerous.
On the other hand, the Civil Service, et al, hire experts to worry about technical issues, so that senior officials don't have to, which would imply that nobody not involved in the decision would know or even care if the web server used Linux or HP Sauce.
On the third hand (a consequence of drinking large quantities of Typhoo :), given the press' love of so-called "cyper-terrorism" escapades, it wouldn't be unsurprising of Her Majesty, or the Rt Hon Tony to march down to the server room, give the senior manager a clip round the lughole, and tell them to shift from Microsoft by yesterday or be fed to the royal corgis.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Is there any coordination of linux and OSS use across the public sector or has use developed in a haphazard way across the government and educational sectors?
Would the public sector community benefit from some form of centralised co-ordination (distributions, patch repositories, support, listservs) or do you see the organic model as being more useful?
Nick
-- "It's a sad day for American capitalism when a man can't fly a midget on a kite over Central Park" - Jim Moran
Does the Queen read Slashdot?
Share bicycle touring info worldwide: http://wheretocycle.com
It has been suggested recently (sorry, no URLs) that the UK government is to introduce a policy to allow low income families inexpensive computers in order to get more British people 'on the net'. Now as I understood it this would be a rental deal involving refurbished computers, ie second hand.
Are you in a position to recomend that these computers get shipped with linux? The advantages of this I see are:
1. Linux is free. As in no money, making it cheaper for these low income families.
2. Linux is free. As in Nelson Mandela, meaning the source code is available. There were a lot of people in the early to mid eighties who started programming their spectrums and c64s etc in their bedrooms and went on to careers in the industry. With linux shipping with full source it once again promotes individuals to get down to programming. This can only do good for a nation's skill-base in a modern hi-tech world society.
3. Linux runs on less powerful machines very nicely. So lower spec and therefore cheaper machines can be used. And for the techies there is nothing like being machine limited to make you write more efficient code.
4. The powers that be can put together their own flavour of a distribution to give technophobes just what they want and no more. A word processor, email client and web browser is all that many people want, they don't even want to have to install it for themselves. This is certainly possible with several of the desktop environments available.
Richard Forster
I understand enough about British Government to know your bosses won't be telling you to drop Linux. ( Even if they care ). But what about people from outside ? Has anyone said "Switch to our system and we will ___" or "drop Linux or we will ___". Has someone even asked nicely ?
--= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
One would think that working for the Royal Family in almost any capacity
would be a high profile position. Is it possible that you could have any influence on the broader
acceptance and use of Linux and other Open Source/Free Software in the U.K. and Europe in general?
----------------
"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." - Albert Einstein
Co-founder and designer at Music Nearby: http://musicnearby.com
Actually, no. Data General's DG/UX has had a B2 rating for many years. In fact, I'm fairly sure it beat OSF1 / Digital Unix / True64 / whatever they're calling it today, and was they first B2 rated Unix.
"The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
In the original coverage of the unveiling of the Queen's website there was many a mention of the choice being made to use linux instead of solaris which was pretty much the second choice and the standard there before linux. The info there was at best vague and showed no real compelling reason to pick linux over solaris or why solaris was even the second choice. A few recent surveys of solaris 7, linux and NT have given solaris 7 the edge on web service over both linux and NT. And solaris seems to be holding its own against linux and NT in the marketplace. Since the press rarely gets these things right some advice or opinion from a real person having experience in both linux and solaris as well as runnning a high load web server would go a long way.
Could you spend some words explaining why linux is more compelling to you in this instance over solaris 7? Please delve into some technical depth.
I'd like to know what your title is. Is it something like 'webmaster to Her Highness The Queen'?
-jh
Why not stick with Solaris? Was it price, performance on low end hard ware, ease of administration?
Andrew Gardner
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside a dog, its too dark to read.
Being an American, I'm unclear with how products get those little seals that say "By appointment to Her Majesty" or something like that. Any chance of obtaining that status for Linux in general, for the distribution you use, or for Apache?
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
> The belief that OpenBSD or FreeBSD is more secure than Linux is total bullshit. Here's some anecdotal evidence about the level of security available from an out-of-the-box OpenBSD. http://www.daemonnews.org/199910/open bsd.html
I'm not a *BSD user but I think one can't ignore the auditing that has gone into the OS.
Slashdot: Where nerds gather to pool their ignorance
Would HM consider contacting her favourite web sites and allowing them to show a nice "By apointment" image?
what is you assesment of OSS(open source software) and its competion with commercial, closed source software?
three can keep a secret, if two are dead - benjamin franklin
What were the main benefits you expected to achieve from migrating to Linux and do you feel these have materialised?
What kind of redundancy do you build into the server system for such a large and important site,
ie. round-robin style servers or large, beefy superboxes, etc...
Check my Go-related blog for beginners: DGD
I understand security plays an important role in your decision - and I'll understand if you turn down this part of the question - I'm just curious as to why you picked linux specifically instead of, say, NetBSD?
--
Are you aware of any of the royal family who use linux, or maybe have some real hacking abilities?
Wich kind of metrics did you use to choose Linux as the "Crown" Web Server? Certainly, money is not a restriction when we speak of the British Crown.
Most of the posts so far have been involving the server side stuff. I'm wondering what kind of hardware / OS / connectivity / security goes into the royal residences. I'm assuming the royals all have computers in their studies / home offices, but i'm wondering what kind of systems they use, and what the connectivity and security going into the royal residences is. Something tells me they don't use AOL :) Something also hopes that they use imacs.
If you could add or change three things about Linux to make your job easier or more enjoyable, what would they be?
--
QDMerge 0.4!
how to invest, a novice's guide
From my experience:
Support for software RAID is almost irrelevant, as most serious platforms perform RAID in the SCSI controller.
Support for harware RAID controllers seems very good under Linux today. The driver for the Compaq SMART series works very well (for me.)
RedHat 6.0 installs *very* smoothly on multiprocessor, RAID compaq hardware.
Debian was much more difficult, including patching the kernel and lilo, and re-comiling. These steps were well documented and mostly straightforward.
Compaq hardware costs as much as Sun hardware (so I have heard) but you get more for the money. At the 20,000-30,000 US$ level you can get 2 to 4 processors, hardware RAID, hot swappable HDD's, rack mount, dual redundant power supplies, dual PCI busses etc.
...Just some thoughts on the matter.
Alongside the switch to Linux as a server os for the Royal web site, it has been reported that the Queen is in fact surfing the web.
:-)
The obvious question - is this true or not?
And if it is true, can you ask her to grant Slashdot an interview as well?
------------------
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You may like my a cappella music
i figured you would be better equipped than most to answer this...
do they surf open.gov.ok and ever comment on your work? have you gotten to meet them and talk about this kind of stuff? what about members of parliament? are any of them super-techies? will i run into prince willim or harry on IRC?
It was to be 'leet, of course.
How can people thin you're cool if you say you are running OpenBSD, when no one's heard of OpenBSD. Now, everyone's heard about Linux, that's cool.
-Brent--
How many people are working on the Royal web site, and the other Government sites?
Is your development done internally, or do you outsource much of the work?
Was Linux difficult to introduce, or were your developers and management amenable to the idea?
Hoorj!
Why does open.gov.uk carry advertising? What's the official policy, and how do you avoid it being seen as an endorsement of particular retailers?
Do you think it's right that a government-run, public service website, paid for by the taxpayer, should carry ads (think BBC)?
Gerv
After being gifted all the benefits and the same peace-of-mind enjoyed by so many of us relying on Linux, will you consider recommending Richard Stallman et al as a Knight of the British Empire?
I cannnot think of a finer moment than watching steaming video of a naked sword reflecting the sallow yet awesome visage of Stallman from each shoulder.
(There are so very few formal honors for the fewer intrepid and truly distinguished software engineers.)
Acknowledging privacy concerns, I am still interested in what sites she visits - that is, as a public figure what sites does she visit.
Or.
What are the sites that you like to visit?
ciao,
-rob
Who do you use for your Linux training and consulting?
--
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
I mean seriously, so what? To my knowlege, there are a few other sites that ar powered by Linux, I think there really isn't any reason for getting all exited. It's not like this is the first time some well know company/organisation/whatever is deploying Linux as a server.
Sorry about the trollish tone, but I just don't get it.
I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on Linux vs. Solaris, not just in terms of price, but overall performance, reliability, maintainability, and ease of use. As a developer, I'm seeing Linux considered as an alternative to Solaris in many places, but there's little factual (or even anecdotal) information comparing the two.
----------
In a real emergency, we would have all fled in terror, and you would not have been notified.
What platforms are you running Linux on and why? x86, Alpha, PPC, mips, Sparc, ....
Thanks, and keep up the good work.
GRH
Previous /. posts suggest Linux is being used widely through the United Kingdom's civil service. How widely? Are some folks running servers (old legacy boxes or new applications) on Solaris, BSD, NT, or some other OS?
Stupid job ads, weird spam, occasional insight at
Do you get many cracker/script kiddie attacks on the various web sites you run?
----- Documentation is worth it just to be able to answer all your mail with 'RTFM' - Alan Cox.
How much traffic does the Royal Server get on a daily basis?
("B./." that is... before Slashdot linked to it!)
---
The statement below is true.
We've all heard the rumors, so there's no need to beat around the bush. The real question we all want to know is:
Has Her Majesty ever cracked root?
~~~~~~~~~
Did you use Linux before you started to use it for this job?
Have you contributed to any free software projects, either at work or in your free time?
I assume that these sites get hit often and hit hard... What made you think that Linux could hold up to the pressure, and has it performed as you had hoped?
I'd like to know specifically why you choose run the site on linux. What features of linux did you find most appealing? What other platforms did you evaluate? What did you look for in your future OS? Low cost? Stability? Availability? What was most important in choosing a new os?
Please give us your reasons for choosing linux over all those other OS'es.
-henrik
Many of us in the IT field believe that Linux is the most effective and efficient OS for the organizations we work for. At the same time, we have a hard time selling it and changing the status quo.
As someone who was "sold" on linux, can you tell us what specifically you liked and disliked--the major advantages and disadvantages you saw, as they related to your site. For example, did the lack of/meager support for the OS bother you?
witold.org
Did you assign a disk quota for the Queen (and the rest of the royal family), or do you just let them fill your drives with crap (heh....Her Majesty with a 20 gig drive full of MP3s...hee hee!)
-Andy Martin
-Andy Martin
If y'all don't like me, blow me.
Linux, and Open Software/Free Software in general, is often perceived to be everything from anarchic, Left, and communitarian to libertarian and meritocratic. Clearly, these categories are self-contradictory (I tend to believe that Free Software is the former rather than the latter), but it is almost never considered to be supportive of hierarchy, or conservative models of organization. There's no reason to believe that using the product of a Left-leaning community would threaten the Royal Family, but did this cause you any concern? Was there any resistance to your decision to use Linux on these grounds?
David
I've got what's probably a fairly odd question here;
:)
how does the royal family handle connectivity? Granted, they have a leased line for those webservers, to an upstream provider. But is it multi-homed? Is it redundant? Are they using Linux as a routing table broadcaster?
Just my curiosity at it again
-RISCy Business | Rabid unix guy, networking guru
your company here.
shelby != ford
Thanks!
According to the Netcraft probe, you're running RedHat pretty much right out of the box. It appears to be the standard Apache with very few, if any, modifications (based on my quick perusal of your site.) I just put Apache 1.3.9 on a Solaris box here in the states...after about three hours of tinkering.
I may be asking an off-topic question: "Was this a decision based on a strong desire to use Apache, or a strong desire to use Linux?"
Also, did you toil with anything unusual to get the box online, or is this pretty much the same type of install that we can expect out here in Linux-Land. (No specifics, please.)
I work on the fringe of a Windows NT environment and your input would make some great kindling for a us-vs.-them debate with the Micro-heads downstairs. People in other parts of our plant think the sun rises and sets over IIS/NT4.0. Your words of encouragement would mean a lot.
Tim Smith, Webmaster,
St. John's Health System,
Springfield, MO
#30 TLS
I see Linux as the most popular Open Source operating system right now. Did You chose Linux due to its current popularity, or due to it's usability and price.
As well, are you taking advantage of Open Source by making alterations to the code of the Open Source programs you are using?
Streiff
Come see my website.
http://come.to/streiff
It seems to me that BSD is a rather low profile operating system, but it would certainly be my choice over Linux. Was the decision to use Linux made to increase awareness about operating system alternatives or even to increase awareness to the open source community?
This space for sale
How long have you been using Linux? and Do you use it at home?
While I know that he's not British, and currently resides in the US, is there any chance that QEII might knight Linus for his work, especially considering the lack of direct recompense for his (and everyone else's) work?
And, since it is provided freely, could Red Hat put By Appointment To Her Royal Majesty on their web page? This might be cool.
Will in Seattle
While I would also like to know how you handle fault-tolerance, switching (hub/router?), and other techie things, there is one question I really would like to ask:
Have any members of the Royal Family shown interest in coding, and if so, is it possible they may contribute code to one of the Linux (or other Open Access) distros?
Will in Seattle
What made you choose Linux over a standard so-called off-the-shelf solution like Solaris or NT? Or easy-ware like Macs? If you were already a convert to Open/Free software, did you consider the *BSDs?
And have you had occasion to regret your decision? In terms of scalability, stability, price, TCO, or your favorite marketroid jargon term?
That's all one question. Really! Just ignore the man behind the curtain :-)
"I will take the Ring," he said, "though I do not know the way."
I notice, for example, that the Scottish Parliament's web site, and my local Council's Web site, do not yet conform. Without wishing to point fingers at specific organisations, is it your intention to cajole all sites within .gov.uk to conform to these standards? Is it appropriate for members of the public to draw administrators of these sites attention to these standards?
Oh, and, by the way, keep up the good work!
I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
Does Her Magesity or any of the Royal Family use computers? Are any of them Web Surfers?
.sig this pop I as Watch
+--
stack. the off
+-- (Score:-1, Moderator on Power Trip)
What hardware are you running the server off of?
.sig this pop I as Watch
+--
stack. the off
+-- (Score:-1, Moderator on Power Trip)
How did you convince the English government to approve this switch? Any advice on how to convince one's manager?
.sig this pop I as Watch
+--
stack. the off
+-- (Score:-1, Moderator on Power Trip)
I am glad the Royal Family has the common sense to employ someone competent enough to choose linux for their website. I understand your work is more facing the public than managing their PCs. I hope you also have some influence on how they perceive the internet, with any luck Buckingham palace has a dedicated 24x7 leased line, and not a dial in to freeserve :-)
:-)
Many decisions today by our aging leadership are being made without a great deal of understanding of the scope or actual uses of the internet. Many children can explain how the internet works and what it is good for better than their parents. It causes the techno-savy crowd to complain when old fashioned laws are mis-applied to modern problems. Tony Blair just had his first contact with the web the other day.
Now that the royal family has had good access to the internet for a while, what do you feel is the competency level of the royal family, as regards to understanding the internet and its capabilities?
I hope that is not too sensitive a question, otherwise I will have to fall back on my second choice about load balancing, spanning multiple ISP connections with BGP4, and caching
the AntiCypher
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
What other choices, e.g. FreeBSD, did you consider? Were there non-open-source candidates, or was open-source-ness itself a critical feature?
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
Do you think it is easier for you to adopt Linux in such a high profile way in the UK as we are known for our support of the underdog and fairness so it is easier to go against established dogma / marketing hype as opposed to the US?
Any sufficiently advanced man is indistinguishable from God
Now that the british royal site has switched to linux, have you been contacted by webmasters/sysops from other royal houses about your experiences with linux?
//rdj
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
--Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587
1) Was your decision to host HRM's website on Redhat linux in part a political decision to support Open Source software?
2) What are your thoughts on the hotbed of capitalism's (USA) computing community finally coming back to the embrace the Open Source roots from whence the computing enviromnent originated?
Hates people who have stupid little sigs
Did you find any problems as you folks made the switch-over to Linux? Any bugs, or anything that made the system unexpectedly crash? Basically, was the turnover smooth?
-- BlueCalx | http://nickd.org/
Why did you go with RedHat instead of another distribution?
Seeing as this is a very high profile use of Linux did anyone from Microsoft contact you ?
Vidi, vici, veni. (I saw, I conquered, I came)
Use of the WWW in the US continues to grow at amazing rates. I assume that the public in the UK have embraced the Web with a similar fervor. With that in mind, what are your long-term plans for expansion of your services (and the infrastructure needed to support them)? Thanks...
--
I am quite civilized, and I should be brought a beer immediately. -- Bruce Sterling
To what extent is the Royal Family involved with the site (e.g. content creation)
www.eFax.com are spammers
Does the higher prices of web access in the UK (as compared to the US and Canada) change any attributes of web site design or hosting?
I can't spell or type, but that doesn't mean I'm unusually stupid.
It's a shame policy is off limits. Since one of the big reason's he's being interviewed is the seemingly increasing use of linux by the British government. That would make him a great person to ask about what he thought trends in govt and what policy decisions he felt his govt would/is make over open source. oh well.
Hi Mick,
:-) and tell us what you are thinking of the french idea ?
We have learnt recently that 3 french senators proposed a law to require the use of open source software. AFAIK it's the first time officials are doing such a thing in the world. You have decided to use OSS in your daily work, can you give us the reasons of your choice (seems obvious
Did you dress up as Indians and throw all of the Windows cds into the Thames?
In light of the recent patent problems concerning GIF's and the Unisys corporation, do you have any plans to convert the site to use PNG's?
Seems like a simple question, but why Linux? It seems like all the other high powered sites are using BSD of one variant or another.
thanks!
This post brought to you by your friendly neighborhood MBA.
Does the monarchy's use of Linux mean that Linux CDs sold in the UK will be able to carry the "By Appointment to HM the Queen" mark?
A simple enough question...x86 chips, SPARCs, or Alphas? Also what's the scalability from one hardware platform to another for each OS you've considered in terms of web serving applications?
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Oscarfish.com: tropical fish with attitude. Way t
I'm just curious what college education or experience allows someone to acquire the position of webmaster for the Queen herself?
I know this question has been stated several times, but I want to get more technical and ask specifics. Why not use OpenBSD instead? Right out of the box, its one of the most stable Unices out there. Every line of code is audited before its released. Many a tale of someone installing OpenBSD on a highly vulnerable system and never having one successful crack made, years after. And theres also the bugtraq proof, many times I see "So and so exploit on X linux system" only with a reply, "Oh, OpenBSD solved that problem several months ago". Granted, the hardware support on other BSD platforms as well as all linux platforms is huge compared to BSD. And the Linux SMP support is wonderful. But for just a secure Web Server, email, etc. OpenBSD is the way to go, at least as far as Im concerned. In my mind, leave the Linux to the kiddies, OpenBSD is the only choice for a secure, dedicated server.
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Looking for hardware (Currently need: Large Etch-a-Sketch) Have one? See my journal!
Windows NT Server?
Would you recommend windows NT Server to anyone for any reason? Would you use windows NT yourself as a server?
Daniel
Carpe Diem
For those of you asking about various stats for the royal web site, you can see stats for the site here.
POC
What made you choose linux as opposed to *bsd? From what I've seen of each, bsd would be better to run for security reasons, as I would assume that the server would be under pretty much non-stop cracking attempts, DoS attacks, etc..
So does the Queen camp when you play Quake on the Royal LAN, or what?
--- Dirtside
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
How much of a time-drain does it put on you, having to stay ahead of all the latest security advisories ? Does the constant security responsibility make it quite a stressful day job ?
Are your customers becoming increasingly clued-up and demanding, as their experience and expectations develop ?
Will the Queen be participating in Burn all GIFs day?
Your organization must have conducted some sort of evaluation of other platforms before selecting Linux.
What other platforms were evaluated, and why each was rejected in favor of Linux.
Thanks
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2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
At the risk of starting a distribution flame-war, why was Red Hat 5.2 and Apache chosen? (IE: Convienience? Popularity? Support for that distribution? Performance?)
Eric Carlson MIS Director Midstate Manufacturing