Gov't is preparing to and has already tried to mandate the use of censorware in schools and libraries. Still think we're getting a "choice" here?
And each time they try, they're knocked down ('ole First Amendment).   Hell... look at Larry Flynt.
This Mattel thing is not an issue of big gov't messing with Joe Q. Public but big corporations messing with Joe Q. Public, for their own personal agendas.   The "choice" here is to try to influence those who purchase such software, not to buy theirs.   Corporations can become as tyranical as gov't! (but I digress and don't wish to start a million thread flame war on which one is worse - big corporations or big gov't "treading on me" - EVERYONE OFF MY BACK!). -)
My theory is that it's to divert media (and pro-Linux posters') attention away from the story on WebTV's Melissa-like bug:
Hee hee... YES!   I did hear about that over the weekend but seems that Sony took the hit for it in the press rather than the makers of the OS that powers the backend...
IBM is a rival to Microsoft because it has the resources (hardware manufacturing and development, massive internal software development capabilities, etc.) and the motivation (no explanation needed) to both push its own hardware and to push linux (or any other OS) on that hardware.
Hmmmm...   It might be in IBM's best interest to be software-vendor neutral to get a bigger market share.   But I still don't see how, what is basically a hardware company, can compete with someone who has focussed solely (at least in recent times) on software.   Granted, in recent years IBM has become "lean and mean and focussed" towards bringing about a revival of themselves, but still...
IBM wants to make a profit from Win2k.
And I'll guarantee that Mr. William H. Gates III will not allow that to happen!   Not with the Win2K licensing fees that exist right now.
IBM just figured out that it is SO big, and has so much R&D, entrenched market share, etc., etc., that the best bet is to do what no one else really can: attack the entire market, broadside.
Uh... what "entrenched market share"?   Sure there's still some legacy mainframes out there but their desktop market share pretty much died out when the clones appeared.   And attacking the entire market broadside is a pretty lofty dream, IMHO.   We have watched Microsoft try to do that - be everything for everyone and you become a master at nothing! -)
IBM is the only Huge player that can play all these games at once, and it's a miracle for their bottom line that they've figured it out. It's a little frightening, actually. Whether this will be Good for Open Sourcetm remains to be seen.
I hate to say that IBM is also known for its expensive hardware too..   Which sent folks flocking to the Dells and Compaqs and Gateways (who inturn, as clones, are becoming costlier themselves).   Seems folks (at least hobbists) are finally gravitating towards the cheap "Net PC" type device for tinkering, like the "i-opener".   Perhaps if IBM can create something like that with Linux pre-loaded, THEN they'd get a market.   Otherwise, they price themselves out of the market!   (this spoken from one who thinks the Thinkpad is cool and would love to have one if it only cost a little less). -)
I've been following the Samba mailing lists and know about the difficulty of Samba TNG dealing with W2K.   I'm curious that when changing things to make TNG compatible with W2k, how much that will break compatibility in the mixed Windows environment (knowing that W2K itself breaks alot in the mixed Windows environment).
Mozilla looks horrible. They'd better start working on some nice themes, because the default looks are crap. And so tells every friend I show Mozilla. I know that it's cute and looks like Netscape's portal, but it's just not pretty.
I downloaded and installed M14 last week (decided to put my money where my mouth is).   Go here to pick up a new GUI for your Mozilla.   This is one of the new features with this browser - changeable "skins".   There are only 2 out there right now and I'm using the one called "Aphrodite" (which is alot less "loud" then the "Fruity gum"), but this is what supposedly makes Mozilla different from the rest - modular enough to change your interface!   More info on this can be found at Mozillazine.
Why is it shame that IBM has abandoned OS/2 Warp? I'd rather see IBM starting to support (and maybe develop) Linux than to try to do anything to/with dying/dead operating system (OS/2).
You're sortof preaching to the choir really... -) (I have 4 Linux boxen at home).   I'm just lamenting about that time, just before Windows 95 released, when IBM could have "seized the moment" with what is clearly a more stable and functional OS.   They didn't do it and now we have the result, a literal bugfest that many of us are forced to work with and support (forced in that where we work made MS the vendor of choice).
I do cheer IBM's efforts at supporting Linux and am actually surprised that they continue to aggressively move in that direction.   I say "suprised" in that when I first heard of this maybe a few months ago, I said "yeah right"... lip service.   All of the other hw manufacturers like Compaq and recently Dell, HP, etc. are "embracing" Linux too and are starting to ship pre-installed versions on their stuff.   But then recently, it has been sounding like Big Blue plans to really go whole hog on it, so things should get pretty interesting (eg., running it on a mainframe comes to mind, which I believe someone did accomplish).   Only problem is that nowadays, how many people are really buying IBM hardware anymore?
.... a quote from the article that basically summarizes why IBM is suddenly doing this (I won't complain).
It's a shame though, that IBM has basically abandoned it's OS/2 Warp product (which I used at work a few years back rather than NT 3.51 workstation), after previously abandoning OS/1 (which looked pretty cool back when it first released).
Sun's whole take on this is interesting too but bet you mil that they'll follow along in IBM's footsteps...   I mean, whaddya have?   A "free" (as in beer) OS (so you don't have to pay to write and support your own OS or pay to license someone else's) and you make your money off of your hardware!   This doesn't mean that they'll necessarily get rid of their Unixes, but for the low and mid-tier server market, it's a sure bet.
At this point, I don't see how IBM can say that they're a rival to Microsoft since they basically let OS/2 hang for such a long time.   Their real rivals are the Dells and the Gateways.
Yes, so? Neither did Service Merchandise; what they had was a warehouse where the order ticket was printed out and stuck in a box, somebody went and pulled the items and stuck them in the box, and it went down a conveyor to the pickup point. People did the picking, the computer did the inventory tracking and routing. That's playing to the strength of each.
Of course.   I had no argument about that!
The real advantage will come to the plumber when s/he (why be sexist?) can know that the parts for the job are in stock before completing the phone call with the customer. When the customer can look at pictures of, say, new faucets and have one all picked out before the net.plumber gets in the truck, and the net.plumber can go directly to the supply store which has what the customer wants, and have it already waiting when s/he gets there.
But what I'm saying is that we are already there!   Now...   Take this to the next, ie., what the article actually purports - I believe the authors indicated that there were something like 88 million "Net Gens" or whatever the heck they called them (kids between the ages of 2 and 22 or something).   The suggestion was that this group should (nearly all) focus on becoming "knowledge workers".   And maybe I interpret "knowledge workers" differently than others but to me "become a knowledge worker" means "get a job in the knowledge or information technology profession" or die!  :-)   *I* say, "be knowledgeable about information technology and how it should be used, but you shouldn't have to force yourself to BECOME a technology worker if that is not your expertise or desire".
This is why we'll move to the electronic systems; they have so much potential for getting rid of useless waiting and pointless phone calls to the wrong people.
But we already HAVE electronics systems!   It seems that alot of the things being made "electronic" nowadays are a waste in that it often takes double or triple the time to process certain (not all) things electronically whereas a simple phone call would take care of it right away.   Perhaps that's due to poor design but it is a fact!   And it's interesting that you mention phone calls and on that note, I will point you to the almost useless voice menus - which are "electronic" by the way, running off some computer system.   And how many times have any of us pulled our hair out navigating web sites like Compaq's or Microsoft's????   Believe me, it's frustrating as hell - again due to poor design.   And along the line of phones - note that cellular phones have proliferated to almost "Star Trek" proportions!   I doubt that they'll be going away... hee hee.
they ported the USB support to 2.2.14, I'm running it.
Oh geez...   Now your gonna make me go download the sources and compile me a kernel for my Mandrake (kernel 2.2.13-4mdk).
Straying offtopic but how well does it work?   I have support for it on my NetBSD already (although haven't tried it yet) but I also have 2 machines at home with USB ports dying to be used.
By getting the word out as to the hidden agenda, those who can influence IT purchases can recommend against purchasing this product and get something else...   We (at least alot of us) do have a choice.
I hate to say that although many consider that ignorance is bliss, info like this is worthwhile.   I know that a large corporation like Mattel (who has seen better days) is trying to protect it's reputation but more speech is the only way to do this, not less.
I recall Corel indicating that they would probably ship this with their newer boxed versions of CorelLinux and it's interesting that they pushed this out the door so quickly (hopefully it ain't buggy), but I'm curious as to their press release claim of "USB support", having indicated that WP2000 would come with their OS running the 2.2.14 kernel.
Wasn't USB support (at least from the last I've read) enabled in or at least "somewhat working" in the 2.3.x+ kernel branch??   Are they doing some kind of wild kluge here or what?   Maybe I'm wrong and there is something that can be enabled in the newer 2.2.x....
I mean come one... NT 4.0 why is it that some stuf wil work with service pack X,but not with Service Pack X+1... or something equally annoying... It seems that MS cant even keep a tree clean and that one product for them can branch....
Since you mention NT...   ver. 4.0 is what?   Basically an updated 3.51 with a Windows 95 GUI.   But are they really compatible?   No.   And worse, why create yet another 32-bit operating system for Win95 ver. b/c and Win98 that is not recognizable by NTFS, MS's own earlier 32-bit operating system??   Fork.   But that's acceptable I guess and gee... maybe not really a fork and....
As long as Linus maintains the kernel, then a "fork" will not happen.   You will have differentiation between distributions based on what apps ship with them, how the distro gets installed, and what stuff shows up as icons on your X window manager, but "forking" (in the negative connotation that this article portrays) ain't gonna happen.
Interesting that this morning the FUD is going fast and furious - first "Linux is insecure" and then "Linux is forking".
I believe that several Linux-based IPOs (like Caldera's) are supposed to debut this week, if not today?   Think there's any relationship between that and the FUD-cranking???
Knowledge work is going to change everything, even those things we don't think of as knowledge work. It's going to be all over the place.
I don't think this is an issue.   Technology is ALREADY "all over the place", in everything we do.   That's the scary part.   We have become too dependent on it being there.   I have users who will literally sit at their desks with their hands folded, proceeding to whine that they "can't do their work" because their PC won't boot or they're getting and "Illegal Operation".   Yet a typewriter sits 10 feet away or the FAX machine is down the hall or a phone is sitting right there on their desk.   These are the same people who we had to drag kicking and screaming to use a computer in the first place!   It's really sad but true.
And regarding your "lowly" plumber, chances are he has some kind of desktop or maybe mini-network going in his business and may even keep his inventory in a spreadsheet.   However, someone needs to man the "stores" (or warehouses) where the parts he needs are stored.   Despite Sony's release of Aibo, we still don't have Rosie the Robot there to hand you your goods.   We're still very much "people-based" and will be so for some time.   Sure you have Japanese cars completely built by robots or places like Hershey's Foods, where not a human hand touches the product from start to finish, but these are still the unique exceptions to the rule.
Information technology is a tool to help us (supposedly) do our jobs more quickly and efficiently.   It hasn't yet become the be all, end all of our society.   Manual labor is still required to fix a riser pipe or install a garbage disposal (or even MANUFACTURE the garbage disposal).   Yes, the blue collar worker who doesn't get with the technology may fall by the wayside in managing his business but let's not forget the "underground economy" where money is exchanged for goods and services - no questions asked and no technology needed...   And as my mom always said, "pull the power plug and the technology is useless".
I think us "technology" or "knowledge workers" are the only ones who know how close we really are to being left completely helpless, more so than any user or customer who we may support.   I'm in no way "downing" technology.   I think this revolution has brought us gains in this society that are incalculable.   But I still urge caution and plain old common sense.
My paper and pencil contingency is ALWAYS within reach... -)
Well unfortunately, I think that the manual labor is going to start being pushed off into minorities, immigrants, and 3rd world countries. While this is a sort of bad view, it is the truth. While the wealth moves into the hands of the "knowledge workers" the grunt work will in turn get passed on to people not willing to adapt as quickly.
And this was going to be the rest of my point, but it would have made my comment go on a bit too long.
In the U.S., we have already "exported" alot of our manufacturing overseas - which does offer "help" to those up and coming but then doesn't give those here not interested in "computing" a chance.   This is part of what some have described as the "global economy", where you have "regions" of the world providing specific services for others.   Interestingly, in this scheme of things, the U.S. has steadily been identifying itself as the "information capitol of the world", and in fact, I just read an AP article this morning that indicated that the ceiling for the special "High Tech workers" visas (65,000, I believe) for bringing skilled technology foreigners into the U.S. has now been reached, and there is a push to have Congress increase the number.
Ironically, the U.S. is also considered the "bread basket of the world" as well, due to our amazing range of weather (artic to tropical) and open, flat land that is good for farming and grazing, yet the farms are disappearing at an alarming rate.
Quite an upheaval for us and scary to imagine what it will be like here in a hundred years...
Both agreed that commercial flavors of Linux are still fall from ready for the corporate environment
Uh excuse me?   If we're focussing strictly on security, then how (and please don't flame me Microsoft users/administrators, because I am one myself at work by requirement, whereas I choose something different at home), can any Microsoft product be "ready for the corporate environment", with at least a virus a week (and more and more - at least one a day being reported), whereas Linux is not????   The amount of time *I* and my staff have to spend making sure 800+ desktops running Microsoft products, as well as 30 servers running said MS products, are virus-free has gone beyond comprehension.
We do have some production Linux boxes at work as well (have had them for several years) - and have yet to run into any "security" problem.
Note too, that most of the powerful firewalls are running *nix products, eg., SunOS.
Some on other forums have posted an interesting ditty that I'll post here:
On Winning
First they ignore you Then they laugh at you Then they fight you Then you win.
Isn't this kindof like what Sun is trying to do, basically have a thin client access a desktop and apps via a browser to their application server?   I recall them wanting folks to run something like StarOffice 5.x over the net   --   all for a fee...
Social Capital (ie influence, power) Human Capital (ie people) Information Capital (ie knowledge, etc) Imaginary Capital (ie stocks, banknotes) Real Capital (ie buildings, gold)
Your last statement, ie., "Real Capital", is what concerns me about this entire article and its thrust.
For some reason, the authors (and those who have written similar articles and books - and I've read a number of them) tend to create a fictional "[fill in the blank] generation" group, making the assumption that "[fill in the blank] generation" should "all" (in quotes) be expected to perform a certain [fill in the blank] job or forever fail to live comfortably or be a contributing member to society.   In this case, the over-emphasis (my opinion) on "Knowledge Capital" forgetting that somehow one needs to live and/or work in a house or work in an office (ie., Real Capital - eg., buildings).   Who, might I ask, will fix the plumbing in these said buildings?   Who will build more houses (or do we live in tents that we put up ourselves, drinking from the polluted rivers and disposing of our waste out in the streets?).   Who will string the CAT5 or fiber or manufacture the circuit board for your computer or even build the chair that you sit in?
It's nice to fantasize about "everyone" becoming a "knowledge worker" but lets get real folks.
True, the days of "big steel" and the so-called traditional "blue collar" worker are most likely over, at least here in the U.S.   However there is an infrastructure in place right now that MUST be maintained and the so-called "knowledge workers" wouldn't have a clue how to do it.   Voc Ed has been lambasted recently but there MUST a be layer of workers with the knowledge and skills in carpentry, plumbing, electrical wiring, masonary, etc., to maintain one of our primary requirements for survival - the shelter.
I have purposely left out all the other things we take for granted, like trash haulers, transportation workers, road-builders and such, figuring that those in fantasy-land might project that we "knowledge workers", our infrastructure crumbling around us (eg., no plumbing or electricity), would somehow still get by, sitting out on the street or in our yards staring at our solar-powered palmtops that are spewing our knowledged-based electrons at dying satellites (with broken navigational panels) in a decaying orbit ('cause no one knows how to fix them because remember, we're all "knowledge workers"), our end "products" going nowhere because the endpoint's wireless dish fell off the pole and no one knows how to set it back up again.
Let us all look at articles such as these as interesting information but information that will generally only apply to maybe 10% - 20% at most, of a given population.   I have read some variations of this article that were a little more realistic in that the authors projected that you'd have a good chunk of your population working as "knowledge workers" and the others as "service and support workers" for the "knowledge workers".   Keep this in mind.   Yes this view is harsh but step outside the idealism of it and think practicality. -)
Re:What about heterogeneous environments?
on
Finding a Linux Job
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That's true -- we can't forget the BSD's, can we?
That's right... FreeBSD being the most prolific (I personally run NetBSD at home). -) And don't forget the VMSs and the Novells that are out there in many places as well, etc.
I would think that other than in ISPs and small to medium Linux saavy companies, one might be wise to have some experience in the other OS as well.   Reason being that many companies have had Linux hiding in the background in the backend, and the higher ups having discovered it, have often appreciated its usefullness.   Thus places such as these are slowly becoming more "Linux friendly" as well.   However, these companies often have a large user and/or server base of something else, and often need migration-saavy IT staff, knowledgeable in multiple OSes.
That's a pretty odd stance, considering I know of several friends with dual-proc boxes running 2.2, and you can easily check to see the processes running on each CPU (or a quick MT RC5 check, too)...
I'm running Red Hat 6.1 on a dual-Pentium II 200 (kernel 2.2.12-20smp) at work so I'll confirm you on that.   And you can see what each processor is doing in X + a window manager with a cute little app called xosview too... 
But then I guess there's a ghost in the machine because "SMP support isn't available until kernel 2.4".   One acronym - FUD.   And please don't tell me it's just "inaccurate reporting" because if the author(s) had been running these *nixes as long as they suggest, then SMP for Linux should have been known to them.
I've always considered Mandrake a derivative of Red Hat. I know it is its own distro, but wasn't it (or maybe still is) derived from RH?
Mandrake IS a Red Hat.   Much of the difference between the two has to do with which kernel each ships with (eg., RH 6.0 shipped with kernel 2.2.12-20 whereas Mandrake 6.5, a "RH 6.0", shipped with 2.2.13-4), what packages each ship with (eg., RH 6.x ships with GNOME as a default, whereas Mandrake 6.x/7.x ships with KDE).   The installers between the two were pretty much the same, although I haven't seen Mandrake 7.0's new installer.   And don't forget Mandrake's magic wand and top hat logos that replaced that guy with the little red hat... -)
I'm curious how they decided which five were top. Maybe my personal experience isn't indicitave of the general population, but I've personally met many more people running Debian than TurboLinux. Are they selecting based on the size of the corporation that owns that distro? Number of copies in use (and if so, how do they measure)
Let me say that the article's mention of a "top 5" was very "USA-o-centric".
If you look at the "most popular" (or better "most prolific") Linux distros around the world, you will see that Red Hat (and it's derivatives like Mandrake) are most popular in North America, SuSE is most popular in Europe, and TurboLinux in Asia.   Alot of this has to do with where these companies have offices, although you can get easily download these distros from anywhere in the world.   For example, having originally purchased the official boxed version of SuSE 6.1 last summer, this past Monday, I upgraded to SuSE 6.3 (then they just announced the availability of 6.4 in 2 weeks - ugh!) via FTP to their N. American site.   I also run Red Hat 5.2, Mandrake 6.5, and Caldera 1.3 (plus NetBSD 1.4.1).
It probably would have been clearer if the article had specified "top 5 in U.S" or "top 5 around the world".
So are you saying the science has *only* made things better, faster, more effecient, and more functional?
No...   what I said was:
"Well...   if you look at alot of the "science" that has been put forth..."
I am a chemist with a degree...   Doesn't make me an "expert" in science but it does make me a scientist with a unique perspective, having not only studied the "natural" world but the history of scientific achievements...   And one of the first things one is taught is to never make such an all-emcompassing statement as "all" or "only", blah.   And I say again, "alot of" the science that has been forth has been re-inventing the wheel...
Is it just me or does anyone else stop every once in a while and marvel at what science has been able to accomplish for mankind?
Well...   if you look at alot of the "science" that has been put forth, it's still the literal "reinventing of the wheel", eg., carriage --> car, glider --> plane, silk --> nylon, willow bark --> aspirin tablets, adding machine --> computer (and earlier posters mentioned even more fundamental harnessing of nature in the name of science and technological advances).
Another poster mentioned that nanotechnology is already here with the manipulation of virii and bacteria.   Nanobots would merely be making artificial versions of those natural entities (and they'd have to be pretty damn good versions too, otherwise your body would immediately identify them as a foreign substances, reject them, and then try to nuke them!).
Slashdot Mirror
Gov't is preparing to and has already tried to mandate the use of censorware in schools and libraries. Still think we're getting a "choice" here?
;-)
And each time they try, they're knocked down ('ole First Amendment).   Hell... look at Larry Flynt.
This Mattel thing is not an issue of big gov't messing with Joe Q. Public but big corporations messing with Joe Q. Public, for their own personal agendas.   The "choice" here is to try to influence those who purchase such software, not to buy theirs.   Corporations can become as tyranical as gov't! (but I digress and don't wish to start a million thread flame war on which one is worse - big corporations or big gov't "treading on me" - EVERYONE OFF MY BACK!).  
My theory is that it's to divert media (and pro-Linux posters') attention away from the story on WebTV's Melissa-like bug:
Hee hee... YES!   I did hear about that over the weekend but seems that Sony took the hit for it in the press rather than the makers of the OS that powers the backend...
IBM is a rival to Microsoft because it has the resources (hardware manufacturing and development, massive internal software development capabilities, etc.) and the motivation (no explanation needed) to both push its own hardware and to push linux (or any other OS) on that hardware.
;-)
;-)
Hmmmm...   It might be in IBM's best interest to be software-vendor neutral to get a bigger market share.   But I still don't see how, what is basically a hardware company, can compete with someone who has focussed solely (at least in recent times) on software.   Granted, in recent years IBM has become "lean and mean and focussed" towards bringing about a revival of themselves, but still...
IBM wants to make a profit from Win2k.
And I'll guarantee that Mr. William H. Gates III will not allow that to happen!   Not with the Win2K licensing fees that exist right now.
IBM just figured out that it is SO big, and has so much R&D, entrenched market share, etc., etc., that the best bet is to do what no one else really can: attack the entire market, broadside.
Uh... what "entrenched market share"?   Sure there's still some legacy mainframes out there but their desktop market share pretty much died out when the clones appeared.   And attacking the entire market broadside is a pretty lofty dream, IMHO.   We have watched Microsoft try to do that - be everything for everyone and you become a master at nothing!  
IBM is the only Huge player that can play all these games at once, and it's a miracle for their bottom line that they've figured it out. It's a little frightening, actually. Whether this will be Good for Open Sourcetm remains to be seen.
I hate to say that IBM is also known for its expensive hardware too..   Which sent folks flocking to the Dells and Compaqs and Gateways (who inturn, as clones, are becoming costlier themselves).   Seems folks (at least hobbists) are finally gravitating towards the cheap "Net PC" type device for tinkering, like the "i-opener".   Perhaps if IBM can create something like that with Linux pre-loaded, THEN they'd get a market.   Otherwise, they price themselves out of the market!   (this spoken from one who thinks the Thinkpad is cool and would love to have one if it only cost a little less).  
I've been following the Samba mailing lists and know about the difficulty of Samba TNG dealing with W2K.   I'm curious that when changing things to make TNG compatible with W2k, how much that will break compatibility in the mixed Windows environment (knowing that W2K itself breaks alot in the mixed Windows environment).
Mozilla looks horrible.
They'd better start working on some nice themes, because the default looks are crap. And so tells every friend I show Mozilla. I know that it's cute and looks like Netscape's portal, but it's just not pretty.
I downloaded and installed M14 last week (decided to put my money where my mouth is).   Go here to pick up a new GUI for your Mozilla.   This is one of the new features with this browser - changeable "skins".   There are only 2 out there right now and I'm using the one called "Aphrodite" (which is alot less "loud" then the "Fruity gum"), but this is what supposedly makes Mozilla different from the rest - modular enough to change your interface!   More info on this can be found at Mozillazine.
Why is it shame that IBM has abandoned OS/2 Warp? I'd rather see IBM starting to support (and maybe develop) Linux than to try to do anything to/with dying/dead operating system (OS/2).
;-) (I have 4 Linux boxen at home).   I'm just lamenting about that time, just before Windows 95 released, when IBM could have "seized the moment" with what is clearly a more stable and functional OS.   They didn't do it and now we have the result, a literal bugfest that many of us are forced to work with and support (forced in that where we work made MS the vendor of choice).
You're sortof preaching to the choir really...  
I do cheer IBM's efforts at supporting Linux and am actually surprised that they continue to aggressively move in that direction.   I say "suprised" in that when I first heard of this maybe a few months ago, I said "yeah right"... lip service.   All of the other hw manufacturers like Compaq and recently Dell, HP, etc. are "embracing" Linux too and are starting to ship pre-installed versions on their stuff.   But then recently, it has been sounding like Big Blue plans to really go whole hog on it, so things should get pretty interesting (eg., running it on a mainframe comes to mind, which I believe someone did accomplish).   Only problem is that nowadays, how many people are really buying IBM hardware anymore?
Oh well... only time will tell.
.... a quote from the article that basically summarizes why IBM is suddenly doing this (I won't complain).
It's a shame though, that IBM has basically abandoned it's OS/2 Warp product (which I used at work a few years back rather than NT 3.51 workstation), after previously abandoning OS/1 (which looked pretty cool back when it first released).
Sun's whole take on this is interesting too but bet you mil that they'll follow along in IBM's footsteps...   I mean, whaddya have?   A "free" (as in beer) OS (so you don't have to pay to write and support your own OS or pay to license someone else's) and you make your money off of your hardware!   This doesn't mean that they'll necessarily get rid of their Unixes, but for the low and mid-tier server market, it's a sure bet.
At this point, I don't see how IBM can say that they're a rival to Microsoft since they basically let OS/2 hang for such a long time.   Their real rivals are the Dells and the Gateways.
Yes, so? Neither did Service Merchandise; what they had was a warehouse where the order ticket was printed out and stuck in a box, somebody went and pulled the items and stuck them in the box, and it went down a conveyor to the pickup point. People did the picking, the computer did the inventory tracking and routing. That's playing to the strength of each.
:-)   *I* say, "be knowledgeable about information technology and how it should be used, but you shouldn't have to force yourself to BECOME a technology worker if that is not your expertise or desire".
Of course.   I had no argument about that!
The real advantage will come to the plumber when s/he (why be sexist?) can know that the parts for the job are in stock before completing the phone call with the customer. When the customer can look at pictures of, say, new faucets and have one all picked out before the net.plumber gets in the truck, and the net.plumber can go directly to the supply store which has what the customer wants, and have it already waiting when s/he gets there.
But what I'm saying is that we are already there!   Now...   Take this to the next, ie., what the article actually purports - I believe the authors indicated that there were something like 88 million "Net Gens" or whatever the heck they called them (kids between the ages of 2 and 22 or something).   The suggestion was that this group should (nearly all) focus on becoming "knowledge workers".   And maybe I interpret "knowledge workers" differently than others but to me "become a knowledge worker" means "get a job in the knowledge or information technology profession" or die!  
This is why we'll move to the electronic systems; they have so much potential for getting rid of useless waiting and pointless phone calls to the wrong people.
But we already HAVE electronics systems!   It seems that alot of the things being made "electronic" nowadays are a waste in that it often takes double or triple the time to process certain (not all) things electronically whereas a simple phone call would take care of it right away.   Perhaps that's due to poor design but it is a fact!   And it's interesting that you mention phone calls and on that note, I will point you to the almost useless voice menus - which are "electronic" by the way, running off some computer system.   And how many times have any of us pulled our hair out navigating web sites like Compaq's or Microsoft's????   Believe me, it's frustrating as hell - again due to poor design.   And along the line of phones - note that cellular phones have proliferated to almost "Star Trek" proportions!   I doubt that they'll be going away... hee hee.
they ported the USB support to 2.2.14, I'm running it.
Oh geez...   Now your gonna make me go download the sources and compile me a kernel for my Mandrake (kernel 2.2.13-4mdk).
Straying offtopic but how well does it work?   I have support for it on my NetBSD already (although haven't tried it yet) but I also have 2 machines at home with USB ports dying to be used.
By getting the word out as to the hidden agenda, those who can influence IT purchases can recommend against purchasing this product and get something else...   We (at least alot of us) do have a choice.
I hate to say that although many consider that ignorance is bliss, info like this is worthwhile.   I know that a large corporation like Mattel (who has seen better days) is trying to protect it's reputation but more speech is the only way to do this, not less.
I recall Corel indicating that they would probably ship this with their newer boxed versions of CorelLinux and it's interesting that they pushed this out the door so quickly (hopefully it ain't buggy), but I'm curious as to their press release claim of "USB support", having indicated that WP2000 would come with their OS running the 2.2.14 kernel.
Wasn't USB support (at least from the last I've read) enabled in or at least "somewhat working" in the 2.3.x+ kernel branch??   Are they doing some kind of wild kluge here or what?   Maybe I'm wrong and there is something that can be enabled in the newer 2.2.x....
Just curious.
I mean come one... NT 4.0 why is it that some stuf wil work with service pack X,but not with Service Pack X+1... or something equally annoying... It seems that MS cant even keep a tree clean and that one product for them can branch....
Since you mention NT...   ver. 4.0 is what?   Basically an updated 3.51 with a Windows 95 GUI.   But are they really compatible?   No.   And worse, why create yet another 32-bit operating system for Win95 ver. b/c and Win98 that is not recognizable by NTFS, MS's own earlier 32-bit operating system??   Fork.   But that's acceptable I guess and gee... maybe not really a fork and....
As long as Linus maintains the kernel, then a "fork" will not happen.   You will have differentiation between distributions based on what apps ship with them, how the distro gets installed, and what stuff shows up as icons on your X window manager, but "forking" (in the negative connotation that this article portrays) ain't gonna happen.
Interesting that this morning the FUD is going fast and furious - first "Linux is insecure" and then "Linux is forking".
;-)
I believe that several Linux-based IPOs (like Caldera's) are supposed to debut this week, if not today?   Think there's any relationship between that and the FUD-cranking???
Knowledge work is going to change everything, even those things we don't think of as knowledge work. It's going to be all over the place.
;-)
I don't think this is an issue.   Technology is ALREADY "all over the place", in everything we do.   That's the scary part.   We have become too dependent on it being there.   I have users who will literally sit at their desks with their hands folded, proceeding to whine that they "can't do their work" because their PC won't boot or they're getting and "Illegal Operation".   Yet a typewriter sits 10 feet away or the FAX machine is down the hall or a phone is sitting right there on their desk.   These are the same people who we had to drag kicking and screaming to use a computer in the first place!   It's really sad but true.
And regarding your "lowly" plumber, chances are he has some kind of desktop or maybe mini-network going in his business and may even keep his inventory in a spreadsheet.   However, someone needs to man the "stores" (or warehouses) where the parts he needs are stored.   Despite Sony's release of Aibo, we still don't have Rosie the Robot there to hand you your goods.   We're still very much "people-based" and will be so for some time.   Sure you have Japanese cars completely built by robots or places like Hershey's Foods, where not a human hand touches the product from start to finish, but these are still the unique exceptions to the rule.
Information technology is a tool to help us (supposedly) do our jobs more quickly and efficiently.   It hasn't yet become the be all, end all of our society.   Manual labor is still required to fix a riser pipe or install a garbage disposal (or even MANUFACTURE the garbage disposal).   Yes, the blue collar worker who doesn't get with the technology may fall by the wayside in managing his business but let's not forget the "underground economy" where money is exchanged for goods and services - no questions asked and no technology needed...   And as my mom always said, "pull the power plug and the technology is useless".
I think us "technology" or "knowledge workers" are the only ones who know how close we really are to being left completely helpless, more so than any user or customer who we may support.   I'm in no way "downing" technology.   I think this revolution has brought us gains in this society that are incalculable.   But I still urge caution and plain old common sense.
My paper and pencil contingency is ALWAYS within reach...  
Well unfortunately, I think that the manual labor is going to start being pushed off into minorities, immigrants, and 3rd world countries. While this is a sort of bad view, it is the truth. While the wealth moves into the hands of the "knowledge workers" the grunt work will in turn get passed on to people not willing to adapt as quickly.
And this was going to be the rest of my point, but it would have made my comment go on a bit too long.
In the U.S., we have already "exported" alot of our manufacturing overseas - which does offer "help" to those up and coming but then doesn't give those here not interested in "computing" a chance.   This is part of what some have described as the "global economy", where you have "regions" of the world providing specific services for others.   Interestingly, in this scheme of things, the U.S. has steadily been identifying itself as the "information capitol of the world", and in fact, I just read an AP article this morning that indicated that the ceiling for the special "High Tech workers" visas (65,000, I believe) for bringing skilled technology foreigners into the U.S. has now been reached, and there is a push to have Congress increase the number.
Ironically, the U.S. is also considered the "bread basket of the world" as well, due to our amazing range of weather (artic to tropical) and open, flat land that is good for farming and grazing, yet the farms are disappearing at an alarming rate.
Quite an upheaval for us and scary to imagine what it will be like here in a hundred years...
....Once again.   A quote from the article:
Both agreed that commercial flavors of Linux are still fall from ready for the corporate environment
Uh excuse me?   If we're focussing strictly on security, then how (and please don't flame me Microsoft users/administrators, because I am one myself at work by requirement, whereas I choose something different at home), can any Microsoft product be "ready for the corporate environment", with at least a virus a week (and more and more - at least one a day being reported), whereas Linux is not????   The amount of time *I* and my staff have to spend making sure 800+ desktops running Microsoft products, as well as 30 servers running said MS products, are virus-free has gone beyond comprehension.
We do have some production Linux boxes at work as well (have had them for several years) - and have yet to run into any "security" problem.
Note too, that most of the powerful firewalls are running *nix products, eg., SunOS.
Some on other forums have posted an interesting ditty that I'll post here:
On Winning
First they ignore you
Then they laugh at you
Then they fight you
Then you win.
Isn't this kindof like what Sun is trying to do, basically have a thin client access a desktop and apps via a browser to their application server?   I recall them wanting folks to run something like StarOffice 5.x over the net   --   all for a fee...
Social Capital (ie influence, power)
;-)
Human Capital (ie people)
Information Capital (ie knowledge, etc)
Imaginary Capital (ie stocks, banknotes)
Real Capital (ie buildings, gold)
Your last statement, ie., "Real Capital", is what concerns me about this entire article and its thrust.
For some reason, the authors (and those who have written similar articles and books - and I've read a number of them) tend to create a fictional "[fill in the blank] generation" group, making the assumption that "[fill in the blank] generation" should "all" (in quotes) be expected to perform a certain [fill in the blank] job or forever fail to live comfortably or be a contributing member to society.   In this case, the over-emphasis (my opinion) on "Knowledge Capital" forgetting that somehow one needs to live and/or work in a house or work in an office (ie., Real Capital - eg., buildings).   Who, might I ask, will fix the plumbing in these said buildings?   Who will build more houses (or do we live in tents that we put up ourselves, drinking from the polluted rivers and disposing of our waste out in the streets?).   Who will string the CAT5 or fiber or manufacture the circuit board for your computer or even build the chair that you sit in?
It's nice to fantasize about "everyone" becoming a "knowledge worker" but lets get real folks.
True, the days of "big steel" and the so-called traditional "blue collar" worker are most likely over, at least here in the U.S.   However there is an infrastructure in place right now that MUST be maintained and the so-called "knowledge workers" wouldn't have a clue how to do it.   Voc Ed has been lambasted recently but there MUST a be layer of workers with the knowledge and skills in carpentry, plumbing, electrical wiring, masonary, etc., to maintain one of our primary requirements for survival - the shelter.
I have purposely left out all the other things we take for granted, like trash haulers, transportation workers, road-builders and such, figuring that those in fantasy-land might project that we "knowledge workers", our infrastructure crumbling around us (eg., no plumbing or electricity), would somehow still get by, sitting out on the street or in our yards staring at our solar-powered palmtops that are spewing our knowledged-based electrons at dying satellites (with broken navigational panels) in a decaying orbit ('cause no one knows how to fix them because remember, we're all "knowledge workers"), our end "products" going nowhere because the endpoint's wireless dish fell off the pole and no one knows how to set it back up again.
Let us all look at articles such as these as interesting information but information that will generally only apply to maybe 10% - 20% at most, of a given population.   I have read some variations of this article that were a little more realistic in that the authors projected that you'd have a good chunk of your population working as "knowledge workers" and the others as "service and support workers" for the "knowledge workers".   Keep this in mind.   Yes this view is harsh but step outside the idealism of it and think practicality.  
That's true -- we can't forget the BSD's, can we?
;-) And don't forget the VMSs and the Novells that are out there in many places as well, etc.
;-)
That's right... FreeBSD being the most prolific (I personally run NetBSD at home).  
I would think that other than in ISPs and small to medium Linux saavy companies, one might be wise to have some experience in the other OS as well.   Reason being that many companies have had Linux hiding in the background in the backend, and the higher ups having discovered it, have often appreciated its usefullness.   Thus places such as these are slowly becoming more "Linux friendly" as well.   However, these companies often have a large user and/or server base of something else, and often need migration-saavy IT staff, knowledgeable in multiple OSes.
That's a pretty odd stance, considering I know of several friends with dual-proc boxes running 2.2, and you can easily check to see the processes running on each CPU (or a quick MT RC5 check, too)...
I'm running Red Hat 6.1 on a dual-Pentium II 200 (kernel 2.2.12-20smp) at work so I'll confirm you on that.   And you can see what each processor is doing in X + a window manager with a cute little app called xosview too... 
But then I guess there's a ghost in the machine because "SMP support isn't available until kernel 2.4".   One acronym - FUD.   And please don't tell me it's just "inaccurate reporting" because if the author(s) had been running these *nixes as long as they suggest, then SMP for Linux should have been known to them.
I've always considered Mandrake a derivative of Red Hat. I know it is its own distro, but wasn't it (or maybe still is) derived from RH?
;-)
Mandrake IS a Red Hat.   Much of the difference between the two has to do with which kernel each ships with (eg., RH 6.0 shipped with kernel 2.2.12-20 whereas Mandrake 6.5, a "RH 6.0", shipped with 2.2.13-4), what packages each ship with (eg., RH 6.x ships with GNOME as a default, whereas Mandrake 6.x/7.x ships with KDE).   The installers between the two were pretty much the same, although I haven't seen Mandrake 7.0's new installer.   And don't forget Mandrake's magic wand and top hat logos that replaced that guy with the little red hat...  
I'm curious how they decided which five were top. Maybe my personal experience isn't indicitave of the general population, but I've personally met many more people running Debian than TurboLinux. Are they selecting based on the size of the corporation that owns that distro? Number of copies in use (and if so, how do they measure)
Let me say that the article's mention of a "top 5" was very "USA-o-centric".
If you look at the "most popular" (or better "most prolific") Linux distros around the world, you will see that Red Hat (and it's derivatives like Mandrake) are most popular in North America, SuSE is most popular in Europe, and TurboLinux in Asia.   Alot of this has to do with where these companies have offices, although you can get easily download these distros from anywhere in the world.   For example, having originally purchased the official boxed version of SuSE 6.1 last summer, this past Monday, I upgraded to SuSE 6.3 (then they just announced the availability of 6.4 in 2 weeks - ugh!) via FTP to their N. American site.   I also run Red Hat 5.2, Mandrake 6.5, and Caldera 1.3 (plus NetBSD 1.4.1).
It probably would have been clearer if the article had specified "top 5 in U.S" or "top 5 around the world".
So are you saying the science has *only* made things better, faster, more effecient, and more functional?
;-)
No...   what I said was:
"Well...   if you look at alot of the "science" that has been put forth..."
I am a chemist with a degree...   Doesn't make me an "expert" in science but it does make me a scientist with a unique perspective, having not only studied the "natural" world but the history of scientific achievements...   And one of the first things one is taught is to never make such an all-emcompassing statement as "all" or "only", blah.   And I say again, "alot of" the science that has been forth has been re-inventing the wheel...
Is it just me or does anyone else stop every once in a while and marvel at what science has been able to accomplish for mankind?
Well...   if you look at alot of the "science" that has been put forth, it's still the literal "reinventing of the wheel", eg., carriage --> car, glider --> plane, silk --> nylon, willow bark --> aspirin tablets, adding machine --> computer (and earlier posters mentioned even more fundamental harnessing of nature in the name of science and technological advances).
Another poster mentioned that nanotechnology is already here with the manipulation of virii and bacteria.   Nanobots would merely be making artificial versions of those natural entities (and they'd have to be pretty damn good versions too, otherwise your body would immediately identify them as a foreign substances, reject them, and then try to nuke them!).