My local DSL provider is USWest and my plan was to hook up with them for both the DSL and the ISP side for all the reasons you mentioned - one contact, one bill, etc etc etc. So I called them to ask about it.. they were real keen to sell both to me, and when I asked the one Q that most ISPs waffle on "will I have a dynamic or static IP?" they came right back and said "static" so I places the order and start building myself a suitable linux firewall/router to be ready for the install date... All the hardware arrives WELL ahead of schedule and I'm starting to be impressed with these guys when they send me the setup info. Whats this? dynamic IP? on an always-on DSL line? so I'm going to have to hack my firewall to cope with lease expiry and other such lovelies? (yes I know it isnt that hard but its more hassle) and more to the point it isnt what they told me I'd get when I placed the order. So I call them only to be told that yes of course I can have it but for MUCH more money.. I'm not going to eat that cost so I guess I have little choice but I promised 'em I'd bitch about it every chance I got and since the following week/. provided a hook for me to do just that, I just did:)
# human firmware exploit # Word will insert into your optic buffer # without bounds checking
I dont buy it. Keeping the WP example, with multiple progs that interoperate well all a corporate IT dept has to do is support and train one of them. Whats needed to get the diversity in place is a policy that (1) allows users or departments to bring in any compatible tool if they dont happen to like the one thats being fully supported, (2) restricts the IT departments support of such tools to troubleshooting installation and issues that can be traced to a system-level rather than application-level problem, (3) reserves the IT depts right to add any such tool to a list of WP progs you may not use here "because we already know they cause problems on the network" and by that I mean problems for other users, not just for the guys using it - if they want to use it and are prepared to live with those problems or find workarounds thats fine. its only when you start causing other folks difficulty that it becomes an issue.
so long as every user can get access to the prog that IS trained and supported, and all the file formats are compatible then they always have a way to get at their data and work even if their favourite prog goes ti... er... toes up. # human firmware exploit # Word will insert into your optic buffer # without bounds checking
Could be unix wars all over again but I dont think so. Heres why...
The biggest problem with unix wars was that you couldnt be sure that the tools you used on one dialect were there on the next one down the hall, their configurations were all done differently (or so it seemed) and all sorts of other little, and I repeat little, differences. 99% of the tools within different versions of linux are GPLed and unless theres a really big advantage to replacing them with something else, folks wont. I've got better things to spend my disk space on than some proprietary tool that does just what the ones I've already got can and that I cant tweak if I have to. The answer to systems where the tools you need or are used to using dont exist yet is easy.. install 'em! As a sysadmin I've never blown off a request from a user to install a GPL prog that they would rater use compared to what was already there (provided, of course that I download and compile it myself so that if I'm going to catch crap for letting a trojan loose it was really me that did it!) but I'd sure balk at doing likewise with a proprietary thing. They want to throw these "proprietary" tools in free well thats fine but if it becomes anything so central that it impacts the functionality of the system then the company concerned will be left with a product they cant shift. The biggest advocates of linux are the open source programmers and users any distro maker isnt going to want to alienate them all at a stroke. They'd be slashdotted into oblivion in minutes....
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My local DSL provider is USWest and my plan was to hook up with them for both the DSL and the ISP side for all the reasons you mentioned - one contact, one bill, etc etc etc. So I called them to ask about it.. they were real keen to sell both to me, and when I asked the one Q that most ISPs waffle on "will I have a dynamic or static IP?" they came right back and said "static" so I places the order and start building myself a suitable linux firewall/router to be ready for the install date... All the hardware arrives WELL ahead of schedule and I'm starting to be impressed with these guys when they send me the setup info. Whats this? dynamic IP? on an always-on DSL line? so I'm going to have to hack my firewall to cope with lease expiry and other such lovelies? (yes I know it isnt that hard but its more hassle) and more to the point it isnt what they told me I'd get when I placed the order. So I call them only to be told that yes of course I can have it but for MUCH more money.. I'm not going to eat that cost so I guess I have little choice but I promised 'em I'd bitch about it every chance I got and since the following week /. provided a hook for me to do just that, I just did :)
# human firmware exploit
# Word will insert into your optic buffer
# without bounds checking
I dont buy it. Keeping the WP example, with multiple progs that interoperate well all a corporate IT dept has to do is support and train one of them. Whats needed to get the diversity in place is a policy that (1) allows users or departments to bring in any compatible tool if they dont happen to like the one thats being fully supported, (2) restricts the IT departments support of such tools to troubleshooting installation and issues that can be traced to a system-level rather than application-level problem, (3) reserves the IT depts right to add any such tool to a list of WP progs you may not use here "because we already know they cause problems on the network" and by that I mean problems for other users, not just for the guys using it - if they want to use it and are prepared to live with those problems or find workarounds thats fine. its only when you start causing other folks difficulty that it becomes an issue.
so long as every user can get access to the prog that IS trained and supported, and all the file formats are compatible then they always have a way to get at their data and work even if their favourite prog goes ti... er... toes up.
# human firmware exploit
# Word will insert into your optic buffer
# without bounds checking
Could be unix wars all over again but I dont think so. Heres why...
The biggest problem with unix wars was that you couldnt be sure that the tools you used on one dialect were there on the next one down the hall, their configurations were all done differently (or so it seemed) and all sorts of other little, and I repeat little, differences. 99% of the tools within different versions of linux are GPLed and unless theres a really big advantage to replacing them with something else, folks wont. I've got better things to spend my disk space on than some proprietary tool that does just what the ones I've already got can and that I cant tweak if I have to. The answer to systems where the tools you need or are used to using dont exist yet is easy.. install 'em! As a sysadmin I've never blown off a request from a user to install a GPL prog that they would rater use compared to what was already there (provided, of course that I download and compile it myself so that if I'm going to catch crap for letting a trojan loose it was really me that did it!) but I'd sure balk at doing likewise with a proprietary thing. They want to throw these "proprietary" tools in free well thats fine but if it becomes anything so central that it impacts the functionality of the system then the company concerned will be left with a product they cant shift. The biggest advocates of linux are the open source programmers and users any distro maker isnt going to want to alienate them all at a stroke. They'd be slashdotted into oblivion in minutes....