Cygwin runs unix/linux applications on top of a windows operating system.
Wine runs windows applications on top of linux, freebsd, solaris, and OS X.
It requires effort to port applications to Cygwin, and it requires compiling binaries from source in cygwin. I don't think, for example, that Kile has been succesfully ported to windows, although "the KDE on Windows" people are working on it.
Wine can run SOME Win16 and Win32 binaries on supported platforms, but not everything works. Wine also provides a library you can compile against if you have source code. (in this case, you probably don't)
The Mono project also provides tools to compile / interpret some.NET framework programs on unix.
Here's one tie in that is "known not to work" according to the wine folks: "UPS worldship". Luckily, I don't need it for my home computer, but any small company that ships large volumes of products via UPS probably will have a different opinion.
It DOESN'T matter if you hate linux or not, there REALLY are some websites out there, in particular one of the website's my mom does banking on, that will not work unless you use internet explore, even if you tell firefox to alias itself as windows explorer. I don't know about Safari or Chrome, but that CAN be a problem, and CAN lock people to Windows. Hate or no hate.
(For the record: I like Linux, but hate OS X... well actually I just hate Apple)
This is really a matter of scale, isn't it?
If a small company has, say, 2 servers, one primary, one backup, uses them intensely during business hours, then not at all after hours, what's the point of having those servers still run? How's virtualization supposed to help?
Even if you had a bunch of servers, consolidated them through virtualization, in the situation where these machines are primarily serving databases, files, and/or applications that are only in use during business hours, won't these things still sit idle after hours? In this case, Virtualizition DOES help WITHOUT solving the problem.
Or at least that's how it seems to me, I've never really worked with a network more complex then the first case, so I could certainly be saying something stupid.
The "latest technology" is not neccissarily something most companies need, a lot of them are still using a large number of windows 2000 workstations, and heck, if it does what you want it to, who cares if it's 8 years out of date? What matters is it works. Which is generally the case with Debian. And if you want "the latest and greatest" then use Unstable or something like Arch. I've little experiance with Debian but Arch has never done anything funny on updates besides occassionally overwriting config files, easy enough to fix, I've seen Ubuntu completely break going from one release version to another, I had to get a new ISO CD and re-install.
I use windows 2000, too, incidentally, I dual boot w/ Arch Linux.
Nope, pirated windows isn't a threat in Africa, South America, China, or else-where, even if it's common:
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article2098235.ece
If you start out w/ pirated windows, you still accustom yourself to the UI and how the OS works, it makes it a default choice for you. I think that Microsoft will probably find some way to make money off pirated windows. They CAN'T make money off linux.
As regards linux on the desktop:
Linux works for my desktop. Post-install, I don't think it takes more training to use gnome/kde vs. windows as a UI. Application switch over? Not a problem, your students don't know how to use ANY applications! Tech / Support hardware support? Linux is generally pretty good on legacy hardware, and that's something you'll see a lot of in Africa, they can't AFFORD new fancy stuff that won't work. And netbooks, well, linux is definately in the game there. Linux HAS good wireless support NOW if you buy the right card. I assume people in African government agencies are smart enough to research hardware before purchasing it. The way I see it, you probably don't have a whole lot of trained IT support people in Africa familiar with ANY OS, and I don't really think it's more work to learn how to support linux than windows if you're starting from a blank slate.
I bet the reason why MS is pushing windows so hard in Africa is that pirated windows ISN'T catching on and Linux IS catching on in schools. And in a decade or so, when African students graduate, the ones fortunate enough to afford a computer (which will probably cost the same as a decent pair of shoes by then) will not see Windows as the default choice.
Certainly true, of course, in this case, for most benchmarks the slowdown is happening gradually, but happening at 6 month intervals instead of one massive performance drop about every four years (MS release cycle). You know the "if you stick a frog in boiling water it jumps out / if you slowly bring the water to a boil w/ the frog in it, the frog dies" effect? I think this is the proper Vista to Intrepid Ibix comparison.
This doesn't mean Office 2007 has a bad system, but the microsoft practice of, seemingly arbitrarily, redesigning their user interface every four years is a bad system. In fact, it's why I stopped using Microsoft products at all, becuase figuring out how to use Linux was a pain in the ass but you do it once and you're pretty much done with it (Well, maybe not in the KDE world).
Now, to be fair, maybe it made sense back in 1995 when Microsoft was trying to go after a new market that they though "needed" a more intuitive interface then DOS, fine. But now Microsoft has 90% market share or so, and computers are near ubiqutous in the united states, and I can't seriously imagine that redesigning their interfaces will do much besides piss people off, I mean when's the last time you heard mac fans complain about their UI? When OS X came out and really changed things. When dd you here KDE fans complain about the UI? When KDE 4 came out and changed the UI. You get the idea. I think this really ought to be a concern when you're in a position that pretty much all you can do is LOSE market share.
Slashdot Mirror
Damn, and I thought grad school was just another way to avoid getting a real job. -Grad student in mathematics
Cygwin runs unix/linux applications on top of a windows operating system. Wine runs windows applications on top of linux, freebsd, solaris, and OS X. It requires effort to port applications to Cygwin, and it requires compiling binaries from source in cygwin. I don't think, for example, that Kile has been succesfully ported to windows, although "the KDE on Windows" people are working on it. Wine can run SOME Win16 and Win32 binaries on supported platforms, but not everything works. Wine also provides a library you can compile against if you have source code. (in this case, you probably don't) The Mono project also provides tools to compile / interpret some .NET framework programs on unix.
Here's one tie in that is "known not to work" according to the wine folks: "UPS worldship". Luckily, I don't need it for my home computer, but any small company that ships large volumes of products via UPS probably will have a different opinion.
It DOESN'T matter if you hate linux or not, there REALLY are some websites out there, in particular one of the website's my mom does banking on, that will not work unless you use internet explore, even if you tell firefox to alias itself as windows explorer. I don't know about Safari or Chrome, but that CAN be a problem, and CAN lock people to Windows. Hate or no hate. (For the record: I like Linux, but hate OS X ... well actually I just hate Apple)
Windows 7 costs $5000 !?!
I wonder if these could turn off those annoying TVs they have at supermarket checkout lines.
That would offend me if I were better at spelling.
Opera's weakness is that it actually follows standards.
This is really a matter of scale, isn't it? If a small company has, say, 2 servers, one primary, one backup, uses them intensely during business hours, then not at all after hours, what's the point of having those servers still run? How's virtualization supposed to help? Even if you had a bunch of servers, consolidated them through virtualization, in the situation where these machines are primarily serving databases, files, and/or applications that are only in use during business hours, won't these things still sit idle after hours? In this case, Virtualizition DOES help WITHOUT solving the problem. Or at least that's how it seems to me, I've never really worked with a network more complex then the first case, so I could certainly be saying something stupid.
The "latest technology" is not neccissarily something most companies need, a lot of them are still using a large number of windows 2000 workstations, and heck, if it does what you want it to, who cares if it's 8 years out of date? What matters is it works. Which is generally the case with Debian. And if you want "the latest and greatest" then use Unstable or something like Arch. I've little experiance with Debian but Arch has never done anything funny on updates besides occassionally overwriting config files, easy enough to fix, I've seen Ubuntu completely break going from one release version to another, I had to get a new ISO CD and re-install. I use windows 2000, too, incidentally, I dual boot w/ Arch Linux.
http://www.ubuntu.com/support/paid
Right, say before 2004.
Nope, pirated windows isn't a threat in Africa, South America, China, or else-where, even if it's common: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article2098235.ece If you start out w/ pirated windows, you still accustom yourself to the UI and how the OS works, it makes it a default choice for you. I think that Microsoft will probably find some way to make money off pirated windows. They CAN'T make money off linux. As regards linux on the desktop: Linux works for my desktop. Post-install, I don't think it takes more training to use gnome/kde vs. windows as a UI. Application switch over? Not a problem, your students don't know how to use ANY applications! Tech / Support hardware support? Linux is generally pretty good on legacy hardware, and that's something you'll see a lot of in Africa, they can't AFFORD new fancy stuff that won't work. And netbooks, well, linux is definately in the game there. Linux HAS good wireless support NOW if you buy the right card. I assume people in African government agencies are smart enough to research hardware before purchasing it. The way I see it, you probably don't have a whole lot of trained IT support people in Africa familiar with ANY OS, and I don't really think it's more work to learn how to support linux than windows if you're starting from a blank slate. I bet the reason why MS is pushing windows so hard in Africa is that pirated windows ISN'T catching on and Linux IS catching on in schools. And in a decade or so, when African students graduate, the ones fortunate enough to afford a computer (which will probably cost the same as a decent pair of shoes by then) will not see Windows as the default choice.
I never saw the show but I just assumed it was set in: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=17s&resnum=0&q=Eureka+CA&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&resnum=1&ct=title.
Certainly true, of course, in this case, for most benchmarks the slowdown is happening gradually, but happening at 6 month intervals instead of one massive performance drop about every four years (MS release cycle). You know the "if you stick a frog in boiling water it jumps out / if you slowly bring the water to a boil w/ the frog in it, the frog dies" effect? I think this is the proper Vista to Intrepid Ibix comparison.
Turns out the "Portable Document Format" isn't so portable after all...
Isn't this just a less elegant approach then having a versioning file system? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS#Snapshots_and_clones http://www.ext3cow.com/Welcome.html And if you really, really want to do it this way, just consistently use "save-as"
KDE has had this feature for awhile and unless the window's search has improved radically since Windows 2000 it's still just as bad.
This does not mean it's a bad system.
This doesn't mean Office 2007 has a bad system, but the microsoft practice of, seemingly arbitrarily, redesigning their user interface every four years is a bad system. In fact, it's why I stopped using Microsoft products at all, becuase figuring out how to use Linux was a pain in the ass but you do it once and you're pretty much done with it (Well, maybe not in the KDE world). Now, to be fair, maybe it made sense back in 1995 when Microsoft was trying to go after a new market that they though "needed" a more intuitive interface then DOS, fine. But now Microsoft has 90% market share or so, and computers are near ubiqutous in the united states, and I can't seriously imagine that redesigning their interfaces will do much besides piss people off, I mean when's the last time you heard mac fans complain about their UI? When OS X came out and really changed things. When dd you here KDE fans complain about the UI? When KDE 4 came out and changed the UI. You get the idea. I think this really ought to be a concern when you're in a position that pretty much all you can do is LOSE market share.