We don't have to respect Microsoft, but we should discuss our differences in a respectful manner. I used to attend Comdex in Vegas regularly several years ago. I remember the first year they had a Linux area on display. Some of the "vendors" that were representing Linux and OSS were extremely unprofessional. They acted more like the anti-Vietnam protesters of the 70's. I did not have any issue with their point of view but as a believer in OSS I was embarrassed by their behavior and could see the negative impact that it was having on those who did not know a lot about OSS.
So my recommendation is that in professional work settings and business oriented discussion boards and forums, we should act like professionals and clearly articulate our point of views based on research and personal experiences. On sites like Slashdot, Digg, Delicious, etc. it is ok to flame although there is little to gain from it. Acting like a whiny child on a Computerworld.com or CIO.com website is really bad for OSS.
it looks like he's not one of the I/T guys. Yeah, let the IT guys take care of it. I am the IT guy. I am the architect for the company who is responsible for the strategic direction. I am trying to experiment with Linux and have some real information (not opinions like most of you all) in order to decide whether it is worth pursuing any further. If you actually would read the article you would see that I am not asking the company to abandon Windows. I think the company should explore alternatives for the time when MS doesn't support XP anymore. I see no business reason to move to Vista at this point. We would have to upgrade almost every PC and for what purpose? If we don't do our homework on alternatives then we will blindly go with Vista and spend zillions.
Wasting company time by installing Linux instead of doing whatever it is he was hired for I guess 45-55 hours a week is not enough for you.
Let the IT guys work out which OS you can use. IT guys actually do know what Linux is. It's their job to evaluate OS technology and suitability for the enterprise, not yours. Seriously, some Linux "users" who don't have jobs in IT are the worst counterarguments for the OS I have ever seen. Amazingly management is going to listen to the IT guys before they listen to someone who isn't in IT but found some Ubuntu disks stapled onto a magazine (this does not qualify you to work in IT or subvert your corporate IT policy). It IS my job to evaluate technology. I am in the process of putting together an open source strategy for the company. I would like to add the OS to that strategy but not without some testing. It's a touchy support because people get religious about the OS.
Wasting a lot of their time when they have to reimage his PC because he manages to find something Linux couldn't do after all (like, some proprietary corporate app, gee we didn't think about that when we slapped the Ubuntu disk in did we?) I don't run any corporate apps that aren't browser based. As far as tools go I used open source alternatives. Only Visio is an issue so I use Wine for that. BTW, I have already been reimaged several times in the past because Windows got hosed.
The purpose of the experiment was to prove to myself that it can be done so I can go to the next level. My next step is to try a 10-15 person pilot to see what hurdles we face beyond just my pc. After that I want to bring in a few users in other offices and outside of IT.
My mission isn't really to make the company Microsoft free. I just want IT to be in a position to make an intelligent decision about the OS when XP is no longer supported. Without having a Linux pilot for several months, I know that the perception will be that there is no way Linux can work for us on the desktop and we will blindly go to Vista. We may find out after the pilot that this is true. If it is I will be satisfied because we will have made the decision based on real data from our environment. If we don't do the pilot, some executive will declare Vista as the only option and then we will spend zillions of dollars upgrading all of our PCs and paying MS for tons of licenses.
That's it. That's the whole purpose of the experiment. And, BTW, nobody should be playing games at work so those using games as an excuse to stay with Windows should pipe down. This experiment is for the working environment.
I posted an article that discussed the bubble a month or so ago and the craziness of companies like Google who were buying these Web 2.0 companies like waterfront condos in the housing bubble. See post here.
http://advice.cio.com/michael_kavis/the_next_bubbl e_is_here
I agree. As AJAX and other technologies continue to improve, the web browser will become the norm for launching applications and the importance of the OS will continue to decline.
Slashdot Mirror
We don't have to respect Microsoft, but we should discuss our differences in a respectful manner. I used to attend Comdex in Vegas regularly several years ago. I remember the first year they had a Linux area on display. Some of the "vendors" that were representing Linux and OSS were extremely unprofessional. They acted more like the anti-Vietnam protesters of the 70's. I did not have any issue with their point of view but as a believer in OSS I was embarrassed by their behavior and could see the negative impact that it was having on those who did not know a lot about OSS. So my recommendation is that in professional work settings and business oriented discussion boards and forums, we should act like professionals and clearly articulate our point of views based on research and personal experiences. On sites like Slashdot, Digg, Delicious, etc. it is ok to flame although there is little to gain from it. Acting like a whiny child on a Computerworld.com or CIO.com website is really bad for OSS.
it looks like he's not one of the I/T guys.
Yeah, let the IT guys take care of it. I am the IT guy. I am the architect for the company who is responsible for the strategic direction. I am trying to experiment with Linux and have some real information (not opinions like most of you all) in order to decide whether it is worth pursuing any further. If you actually would read the article you would see that I am not asking the company to abandon Windows. I think the company should explore alternatives for the time when MS doesn't support XP anymore. I see no business reason to move to Vista at this point. We would have to upgrade almost every PC and for what purpose? If we don't do our homework on alternatives then we will blindly go with Vista and spend zillions.
Wasting company time by installing Linux instead of doing whatever it is he was hired for
I guess 45-55 hours a week is not enough for you.
Let the IT guys work out which OS you can use. IT guys actually do know what Linux is. It's their job to evaluate OS technology and suitability for the enterprise, not yours. Seriously, some Linux "users" who don't have jobs in IT are the worst counterarguments for the OS I have ever seen. Amazingly management is going to listen to the IT guys before they listen to someone who isn't in IT but found some Ubuntu disks stapled onto a magazine (this does not qualify you to work in IT or subvert your corporate IT policy).
It IS my job to evaluate technology. I am in the process of putting together an open source strategy for the company. I would like to add the OS to that strategy but not without some testing. It's a touchy support because people get religious about the OS.
Wasting a lot of their time when they have to reimage his PC because he manages to find something Linux couldn't do after all (like, some proprietary corporate app, gee we didn't think about that when we slapped the Ubuntu disk in did we?)
I don't run any corporate apps that aren't browser based. As far as tools go I used open source alternatives. Only Visio is an issue so I use Wine for that. BTW, I have already been reimaged several times in the past because Windows got hosed.
The professional graphics artist are primarily using the Mac.
The purpose of the experiment was to prove to myself that it can be done so I can go to the next level. My next step is to try a 10-15 person pilot to see what hurdles we face beyond just my pc. After that I want to bring in a few users in other offices and outside of IT. My mission isn't really to make the company Microsoft free. I just want IT to be in a position to make an intelligent decision about the OS when XP is no longer supported. Without having a Linux pilot for several months, I know that the perception will be that there is no way Linux can work for us on the desktop and we will blindly go to Vista. We may find out after the pilot that this is true. If it is I will be satisfied because we will have made the decision based on real data from our environment. If we don't do the pilot, some executive will declare Vista as the only option and then we will spend zillions of dollars upgrading all of our PCs and paying MS for tons of licenses. That's it. That's the whole purpose of the experiment. And, BTW, nobody should be playing games at work so those using games as an excuse to stay with Windows should pipe down. This experiment is for the working environment.
I posted an article that discussed the bubble a month or so ago and the craziness of companies like Google who were buying these Web 2.0 companies like waterfront condos in the housing bubble. See post here. http://advice.cio.com/michael_kavis/the_next_bubbl e_is_here
I agree. As AJAX and other technologies continue to improve, the web browser will become the norm for launching applications and the importance of the OS will continue to decline.