I use an old PC with a PIII at 900Mhz. Added a SATA controller and a 500GB SATA Disk. The thing runs OpenSuse 10.3 since 2 years 24/7 and I measure a constant power consumption of 35 Watts. It runs a LAMP stack + Samba. We are very happy with this configuration
I have 2 USB disks - both Truecrypted. One of them is at my parents home 20 miles way. Every day I use robocopy to sync the one I have and every time I visit my folks I swap the disks. It was a one time investment of 80€ and no subsequent cost. And I use the free Mozy with 2GB for my frequently changing core data. Why would I pay anyone a monthly fee to store my data ?
Paradigm: 1. backup daily as disks do fail. 2. store offsite in case you have a burglary or fire
If you have a broadband and a flatrate: Mirror your Linux box with the one of a trusted friend using rsync - and he mirrors to your box. "rsync -avz --delete -e "ssh -i/home/myaccount/myrsa.key"/myvolume myaccount@myfriend.dydndsn.org:/myvolume"
If you have no broadband or flatrate - use 2 USB disks (Truecrypted) - one of them stored at friends or at work. Do daily backup using rsync (linux) or robocopy (windows). Swap the 2 disks in regular intervals - say weekly or monthly. use www.mozy.com to backup your "crown jewels" that change daily - 5GB are free there and its all encrypted.
If I understand correct then Google-OS will do everything with web-apps and put my data in the cloud - no thanks ! My data is only safe on my encrypted disk and backup where I have full control. And there are just too many situations where I have no connectivity. Call me old fashioned but I want my data AND my apps on my local disk and work without dependence on connectivity.
I am over 50 and after 10 years in management returned to the tech arena. I see a change in many companies in that they start to appreciate deep technical experience again. Younger guys might run faster - but older guys know the shortcuts. I feel very accepted by my younger peers and we complement each other well. Most important - follow your passion
"people could forget the applications and concentrate on what the system itself does".
That points exactly to the twisted views many Slashdotters have. People have computers to do their job efficiently. They do not care what the "system itself does". The average user want a particular application because for its "ease of use" and a specific functionality.
Example: Technologically and politically OO might be better than MSO. But in day to day work, MSO-2000 still has an edge in both ease of use and functionality over OO-3.01.
And Patching ??? OO basically requires a re-install for each new release - a nightmare in a large organisation if you have to send 150MB to each PC. MSO patching is far superior here.
Of course you pay! Why does the/. community expect free lunches all the time? Programmers want a salary as much as car builder do. We can debate the price of M$ products, but I happily pay some $ every few years to get a working OS that simply does the job and is easy to use as much as I pay for a car that starts every morning and reliable get me to work.
I REALLY like Linux. But....
Suppose you give your mom a really well configured Linux box. All works fine. The she buys USB Flashdrive and plugs it in. It just won't work. She would have to do exotic things like "mounting"
In Windows I plug it in - and I use it.
Similar to most other devices.
Software installation ?
How do I explain a packet manager to my mom ? "Oh no mom, that software is Debian Package but you run SuSE - sorry"
Windows: click "setup.exe"
THAT is why Linux will not conquer the desktop for the masses.
it might be true that Google apps have better uptime than any internal application. My big fear is that anything in the cloud is physically exposed to the "the world" including some 1000 bad guys.
Any Software has bugs so its just a matter of time that these bad guys will steal/erase/modify my data in the cloud. It has happened so often and will never stop. Granted, Exchange also has bugs (of course) - but at least these are only exposed to the people in my company - a few 1000 rather than zillions.
So no matter ho trusted and reliable a cloud provider might be - I wont trust my data to the cloud.
I really love Linux and want to use it. Just last week I tried to convert my laptop to Linux for the n-th time - this time with OpenSuSE 11.0. All works nice until I want to make Netgear WLAN card to work - the OS just does not recognize it. I google for how to do it - get bombarded with strange messages that talk about NDIS wrapper, kernel modules, Atheros drivers and other stuff I just do not understand and certainly do not have the time to research.
So its back to WinXP where even my kids can install almost every peripheral themselves.
What I am saying: the Linux desktop will only take off once peripheral manufacturers include drivers and installation is as easy as under Windows. They key to mass market penetration of any product is ease of use. And people are willing to pay for ease of use. I gladly pay 100$ every few years to MS for a new OS and then can just work. no other software to purchase - I use OpenSource for all applications.
So my prediction: Linux will dominate the server market in 4 years and will continue to be a niche product on the desktop.
Call me old-fashioned, but I want to control where my data is stored and I want to make sure the programs I use to work my data is around years later. That is why I story my data locally (and a backup offsite) and keep my software locally on my PC. I decide when to migrate to a new version or application and only after I have verified it works with my data etc.
With Web-Apps I have absolutely no control when new releases are forced on me and potentially cannot deal with my 10 year old data. I still use Office 97 - works just fine - no need to upgrade. And the data itself ? Will it still be available 10 years from now when stored at Google or some other service provider.
What happens if the Google business model some day no longer works ? Will they then charge me to get to my data ?
Slashdot Mirror
I use an old PC with a PIII at 900Mhz. Added a SATA controller and a 500GB SATA Disk. The thing runs OpenSuse 10.3 since 2 years 24/7 and I measure a constant power consumption of 35 Watts. It runs a LAMP stack + Samba. We are very happy with this configuration
I have 2 USB disks - both Truecrypted.
One of them is at my parents home 20 miles way.
Every day I use robocopy to sync the one I have and every time I visit my folks I swap the disks.
It was a one time investment of 80€ and no subsequent cost.
And I use the free Mozy with 2GB for my frequently changing core data.
Why would I pay anyone a monthly fee to store my data ?
Paradigm: 1. backup daily as disks do fail. 2. store offsite in case you have a burglary or fire
If you have a broadband and a flatrate: /home/myaccount/myrsa.key" /myvolume myaccount@myfriend.dydndsn.org:/myvolume"
Mirror your Linux box with the one of a trusted friend using rsync - and he mirrors to your box.
"rsync -avz --delete -e "ssh -i
If you have no broadband or flatrate - use 2 USB disks (Truecrypted) - one of them stored at friends or at work.
Do daily backup using rsync (linux) or robocopy (windows).
Swap the 2 disks in regular intervals - say weekly or monthly.
use www.mozy.com to backup your "crown jewels" that change daily - 5GB are free there and its all encrypted.
If I understand correct then Google-OS will do everything with web-apps and put my data in the cloud - no thanks !
My data is only safe on my encrypted disk and backup where I have full control.
And there are just too many situations where I have no connectivity.
Call me old fashioned but I want my data AND my apps on my local disk and work without dependence on connectivity.
I am over 50 and after 10 years in management returned to the tech arena. I see a change in many companies in that they start to appreciate deep technical experience again.
Younger guys might run faster - but older guys know the shortcuts.
I feel very accepted by my younger peers and we complement each other well.
Most important - follow your passion
"people could forget the applications and concentrate on what the system itself does".
That points exactly to the twisted views many Slashdotters have.
People have computers to do their job efficiently. They do not care what the "system itself does". The average user want a particular application because for its "ease of use" and a specific functionality.
Example: Technologically and politically OO might be better than MSO. But in day to day work, MSO-2000 still has an edge in both ease of use and functionality over OO-3.01.
And Patching ??? OO basically requires a re-install for each new release - a nightmare in a large organisation if you have to send 150MB to each PC. MSO patching is far superior here.
Every time you paid for a Windows license.
Of course you pay! Why does the /. community expect free lunches all the time? Programmers want a salary as much as car builder do. We can debate the price of M$ products, but I happily pay some $ every few years to get a working OS that simply does the job and is easy to use as much as I pay for a car that starts every morning and reliable get me to work.
Yes, agree - the Mac is wonderful too. USB automount - does not work on my SuSE 11.0.
I REALLY like Linux. But.... Suppose you give your mom a really well configured Linux box. All works fine. The she buys USB Flashdrive and plugs it in. It just won't work. She would have to do exotic things like "mounting" In Windows I plug it in - and I use it. Similar to most other devices. Software installation ? How do I explain a packet manager to my mom ? "Oh no mom, that software is Debian Package but you run SuSE - sorry" Windows: click "setup.exe" THAT is why Linux will not conquer the desktop for the masses.
it might be true that Google apps have better uptime than any internal application. My big fear is that anything in the cloud is physically exposed to the "the world" including some 1000 bad guys. Any Software has bugs so its just a matter of time that these bad guys will steal/erase/modify my data in the cloud. It has happened so often and will never stop. Granted, Exchange also has bugs (of course) - but at least these are only exposed to the people in my company - a few 1000 rather than zillions. So no matter ho trusted and reliable a cloud provider might be - I wont trust my data to the cloud.
I really love Linux and want to use it. Just last week I tried to convert my laptop to Linux for the n-th time - this time with OpenSuSE 11.0. All works nice until I want to make Netgear WLAN card to work - the OS just does not recognize it. I google for how to do it - get bombarded with strange messages that talk about NDIS wrapper, kernel modules, Atheros drivers and other stuff I just do not understand and certainly do not have the time to research. So its back to WinXP where even my kids can install almost every peripheral themselves. What I am saying: the Linux desktop will only take off once peripheral manufacturers include drivers and installation is as easy as under Windows. They key to mass market penetration of any product is ease of use. And people are willing to pay for ease of use. I gladly pay 100$ every few years to MS for a new OS and then can just work. no other software to purchase - I use OpenSource for all applications. So my prediction: Linux will dominate the server market in 4 years and will continue to be a niche product on the desktop.
Call me old-fashioned, but I want to control where my data is stored and I want to make sure the programs I use to work my data is around years later. That is why I story my data locally (and a backup offsite) and keep my software locally on my PC. I decide when to migrate to a new version or application and only after I have verified it works with my data etc. With Web-Apps I have absolutely no control when new releases are forced on me and potentially cannot deal with my 10 year old data. I still use Office 97 - works just fine - no need to upgrade. And the data itself ? Will it still be available 10 years from now when stored at Google or some other service provider. What happens if the Google business model some day no longer works ? Will they then charge me to get to my data ?