Original author of Window Maker, as well as the rest of the Window Maker developers. I haven't followed the development in recent years, but I've been using it since the original "stable" release, 0.6.3, or around 8 years ago.
It's great to see the GAIM program gain more features.
And it's ironic for Open Source programmers to let closed source proprietary standards be the source of "innovation" for desktop computing.
Support open source protocols and initiatives. The Jabber chat protocol already exists. Why not develop audio/video for that and encourage your Win-whipped friends to delve into open source programs by migrating popular application use to OSS?
It proves you can pass tests and jump through hoops. There doesn't have to be any learning involved whatsoever, unless learning how to beat the system is what you mean.
Be careful when using */ad/* and */ads/* with adblock. There are some sites out there that actually have content in directories named ad or ads. It's fairly rare, but I've found that on some gaming sites.
You and the other anti-ZoneAlarm people should post what versions have problems, and links to documented problems.
I have ZoneAlarm 3.7.202 and have found absolutely no problems whatsoever. It is extremely easy to install, configure and leave running in the system tray nice and quiet.
Someone mentioned a problem with IMAP - I'd like to know more details about that. I haven't had any problems with IMAP using ZoneAlarm, either.
But with the popularity of third party clients like Trillian, they lose revenue from the banner advertisements in their messenger program.
If the people who use third party programs like Trillian suddenly started using the MSN client, they still wouldn't make money off those banner ads.
I don't know about you, but I never click on banner ads in IM clients. Granted, I haven't used an ad-supported IM client since GAIM got stable enough to use, or when Trillian came out.
He's right, people who are tech savvy and get his music via trading music with friends or downloading mp3's aren't buying his new album.
Why?
Because they get a chance to hear and it and find out it is utter crap. I'm sure a lot of Moby fans don't like his new stuff since he sold out with Play.
But it takes an IT staff with a great deal of knowledge about Linux and an extremely great deal of patience.
I was a system administrator for a software development company that ran the entire office on Linux. The only windows based machines were one NT development box and the CEOs laptop, for his palm software since he didn't know about anything under Linux for it.
All desktops were installed with Redhat, running KDE. StarOffice was used for desktop application suite to provide compatibility with industry "standard" file formats. An NFS server provided file sharing and printing was done through LPD. Accounting applications were versions written for SCO Unix and ran on an old SCO box. Many support applications such as the customer support database, distribution creation software and such were custom written in house by one of the developers.
We had an administrative assistant with very little PC experience handling her day to day tasks easily. The marketing manager had some experience running Windows at home, but none with Linux. He was able to get by and even solve some of his day to day problems.
The Windowsless office *can* work, but it takes a certain kind of company. The company I worked for was a Unix / Linux software development company, and already had a lot of the infrastructure to support going to pure Linux desktops (SCO file/app server, etc). If your company isn't using speciality applications that are only available on Windows, it's possible to do the Windowsless office. If your company does use such applications then it really isn't feasible. Use Linux for the server side of the company - file, web, mail, DNS and use Windows for the desktops. Sure Windowsless office is hip and cool and all the geeks in the IT department will think its great, but your end users who don't have much experience working with computers may get frustrated.
I was a customer of MSN/Northpoint (Colorado) until this week when my service was shut off. I received a call Tuesday with the warning that I would lose service in the next 2-7 days... Thursday morning my line was dead.
Here's the kicker. I have attempted to obtain comparable service through Covad, but they claim my line is not capable of "the 1.5mbit/128kbit ADSL connection you ordered because you ordered voice/data line sharing." Funny, because that is the EXACT same service I had with Northpoint.
Nice.
Great to see that Covad is handling their prospective customers well.
I couldn't bring myself to support any artist that uses this kind of technology with their recorded music.
If I couldn't rip and copy CD music off the disc to MP3 or another CD, I'd lose one of my favorite hobbies. I actually pay for my music. In the last six months alone, I've purchased at least 50 CDs, at $15-25 a piece (counting double disc sets). I rip songs to make my own CDs with the "best of" and "favorites" and to make MP3's for continuous listening. I only have one CD player at home - a single disc portable. If I want to listen to music without changing the CD every 40-60 minutes then I fire up the MP3 player and load up my 10GB of ripped songs.
I know I'm not the only person that actually pays for music. And I know I'm not the only person that has 200+ CDs and doesn't have a jukebox changer. And I know I'm not the only person that likes having custom made CD mixes.
The facts speak for themselves. If seeing violence has any effect on children's actions, it obviously makes them calm and peaceful.
I think this is inaccurate. The effect of the Internet and video games is that kids are at home surfing the net and playing games. They have something to captivate their interest enough that they aren't blowing each other's heads off.:) --josh
--sysadmin for ibm's ebusiness web farm
By including "GCC 2.96" in Red Hat Linux 7.0 they are creating a situation of vendor lock in for the users of any proprietary software that is released "for Red Hat Linux" and compiled on the latest version.
so update your libraries and compiler. or don't use that proprietary software. you are completely free to do what you want with your Linux box(es), so exercise that freedom. it isn't really that difficult. i know of people that run software "for redhat linux" on debian and slackware boxes without a problem by simply updating their libraries and such. --josh
--sysadmin for ibm's ebusiness web farm
I dont think i've posted anything quite this lengthy. woohoo. Anyway, you can get the gist of how I wrote it,/. readers are smart, they'll figure it out:-).
see bottom of comment for disclaimers.
Myth: Linux performs better than Windows NT
Reality: Windows NT outperforms Linux using highly skewed benchmarking environments by companies that are partnered with Microsoft, or paid by Microsoft.
Point - Linux supports only 2 gig of ram, where NT supports 4 gig. Rebuttal - Windows NT needs much more RAM to operate at a reasonable level.
Point - The linux community continues to promise major SMP and performance improvements. Rebuttal - so does Microsoft.:P
Myth: Linux is more reliable than Windows NT
Reality: Microsoft needs real world proof points rather than anecdotal stories.
Point - Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 has been proven in demanding customer environments to be a reliable operating system. Companies such as (blah blah blah). Rebuttal - Never heard of BellSouth? Berlington Coat Factory? GENERAL MOTORS?!
Point - Linux lacks a commercial quality Journaling Filesystem. Rebuttal - Where's the journaling filesystem for NT? And apparently Microsoft isn't keeping up with SGI... XFS under GPL? I think I heard a rumor about that...
Myth: Linux is Free
Reality: Microsoft completely misunderstands what free means.
Point - Its important to understand that licensing cost is only a small part of the overall decision-making process for customers. Rebuttal - Licensing costs for Windows NT based networks are astronomical. You need to buy the server software, a client access license for each client, no matter what OS they are running. Oh, you want office software? Ok, you need to buy a copy for each client. Gets expensive real quick. Lets see, someone remind me how much StarOffice costs again...
Point - Speaking of support services... Fee-based, blah blah, premium costs, blah blah. Rebuttal - What is their point here? Last I heard, Microsoft charged astronomical prices for their support contracts and support plans. Couldn't be any better than these so-called "premium prices" that the Linux support companies charge, that's for sure.
Point - Linux is a UNIX-like operating system and is therefore complex to configure and manage. Rebuttal - Apparently Microsoft is trying to use Slackware as their comparison model. (Forgive me for picking on Slackware, it makes a point in this discussioN). Last I checked, Caldera, RedHat (and of course Mandrake), SuSE and hell, all of 'em were making great effort to make Linux easier to install and manage than ever before.
Point - Linux is a higher risk option than Windows NT. For example, how many certified engineers are there for Linux? (1). How easy is it to find skilled development and support people for Linux? (2). First Rebuttal - Last week (I think it was) Computer Reseller News had a FRONT PAGE article describing the flood of "certified" NT "professionals" who didn't have any real world experience and thus were completely useless. Let's see, how long has Linux been around? 9 years or so... how long has it been popular? Erm, a few years at best, mostly in the last couple. Ok, now how long has Microsoft been around? How much money do they have to funnel into this sort of thing? Exactly. Its a big difference. There will be more certifications for Linux-centric professionals. And you can damn well bet that those people will KNOW the system. Not just click click click their way through blissful ignorance. Second Rebuttal - This question should just go away. I am going to make a glaring observation here: Microsoft has no clue. I know, obvious to some, but not everyone... Post a question about Linux on just about any Linux related newsgroup. Visit the #linux or #linuxhelp channels on IRC. Join a local user group mailing list and ask questions. Do a web search. Chrikey, I have an easier time finding answers to Linux questions than I do trying to find answers to questions related to any Microsoft platform or application.
Myth: Linux is more secure than Windows NT
Reality: linuxppc.com vs. windows2000test.com.
Need I say more?
Apparently I might... read on!
Point - Linux security is all or nothing. Administrators cannot delegate administrative privileges. Rebuttal - Two words: groups. sudo. (sudo is an outstanding utility. I just wish distributions would include it by default. RedHat 6.0 doesn't, Caldera 2.3 doesn't, not sure which ones do, but I know they're out there:).
Point - Every member of the Windows NT family since Windows NT 3.5 has been evaluated at either a C2 level... Rebuttal - What I heard is that this is only valid if the NT system in question has no floppy drive and no network/modem connection.
Point - Linux system administrators must spend huge amounts of time understanding the latest Linux bugs and determining what to do about them. Rebuttal - Windows NT system administrators dont need to know anything about the system they are administrating. Thats what this Microsoft point says to me. And no central security repository? No, instead of relying on Microsoft, the Linux community can use... THE LINUX COMMUNITY! Wow. Imagine that. And the security bugs in Linux actually get fixed. Oh, and you dont have to download a 60 meg "service pack" to fix it either.
Point - Configuring Linux security requires an administrator to be an expert in the intricies of the operating system and how components interact. Rebuttal - Microsoft Windows NT system administrators shouldn't be experts, Microsoft makes it so easy that any fool can mess up, er configure the security for an Enterprise. I dont know about the rest of you, but if I'm hiring a system administrator, I would REQUIRE they be an expert with the System. ESPECIALLY in an enterprise. Mission critical? And you dont have experts administering the system? To quote Mr. T: "I pity da fool!"
Myth: Linux can replace Windows on the desktop.
Reality: Linux is replacing Windows as the server.
Point - A user would end up with a system that has fewer applications, is more complex to use and manage, and is less intuitive. Rebuttal - Okay, I'm going to institute a new rule. If you're going to BLATANTLY FUD, then "Do your homework". There are LOTS of applications and programs and other such available for Linux. http://freshmeat.net. http://www.linuxberg.com. Plus if you dig just a little (and not much mind you), you'll find hundreds of applications. And guess what, THEY WORK.:-P
Point - Linux does not support important ease-of-use technologies such as Plug and Play, USB, and Power Management. Rebuttal - Not to the extent that Windows supports them. However, since Microsoft had a hand in the development of these technologies so they would ONLY work on Windows, there could be a correlation... Linux supports MANY MANY MANY plug and play devices. Wow, lots. At least, the ones that are any good. Linux doesn't support WinModems. Well, thats because they're *WIN*Modems, not LinModems:-). USB? Well, up until recent history there weren't a whole lot of USB devices being MADE. Only in the last year or so, even though the promise of USB was made long ago (in the Computer Industry). Now as more USB hardware is available, Linux is starting to support USB better. I do not know anything about where the support is headed, what devices are even supported, etc, but I do know it's there. Power Management? Ok. Yeah. No Power Management. Thats why there's a whole section with 15 or so items in the Kernel configuration. Yeah. Go Microsoft.
Point - The complexity of the Linux operating system and cumbersome nature of existing GUI's would make retraining end-users a huge undertaking... Rebuttal - This is about the most valid (albeit limited at that) statement they make in the whole article. It isn't the complexity of the operating system though. The operating system (in the UNIX world) does not have bearing here. The OS doesn't control what left mouse click and Control-Alt-F4 do. The fault lies in INCONSISTANT (!!) user interfaces. Windows isn't consistent all the time everywhere, however, it does provide a lot of consistency in places such as Menus and short cuts. A user in the Windows world can almost be garunteed that Control-C will copy and Control-V will paste. That the File menu is next to the Edit menu. That pressing F1 will get (semi weak in my opinion) a Help Dialog. Sure, KDE and GNOME are trying to fix this, but they use different conventions. And not everyone uses KDE or GNOME. They're bloated. Yup, I said that. It costs less system resources to ignore a desktop environment and just use a slick window manager (Be it blackbox, icewm, window maker, or twm). But what consistency that is present in the Desktop environments is lost and you're in a worse problem. Blah blah blah, I could go on this for quite some rambling, but I won't. This topic has been beaten to death on every forum newsgroup mailing list and IRC channel known to the Linux community.
Summary - They sure like those sweeping generalizations... "not suitable for mainstream usage by business or home users" in particular. How many "home users" are running linux now? Millions? Must not be suitable to them. Or something. Not suitable for use by business? Better shut down all those ISPs running Linux based Web/Mail/DNS/News servers. Better tell IBM, Hewlett Packard, Compaq and all the rest to give up on the Linux idea.
They say that Linux "clearly has a long way to go to be competitive with Windows NT 4.0". If Linux isn't competitive with Windows NT 4.0 now, then
WHY ARE THEY WRITING ALL THIS FUD?!
Sorry. I had to.
This article is written by me, Joshua Timberman. I am in no way connected to Microsoft, IBM, or any other company mentioned in this article. Nor do I closely follow the Linux kernel development. I am a Linux user at home and work. Yes this is a disclaimer. Perhaps I should...
#include
Of course, I didn't do that at the beginning. But that's Okay. Nobody's perfect, not even me:-)
the gamecenter preview shows the geforce card running at 120/166, and the tnt2 at 150/183(i think thats close enough =). even with the lower clock rate, its faster, significantly in a couple tests.
indeed, it may be too early. maybe they'll pump the clock rate up and make it just silly-fast =).
all this talk of 3d 3d 3d, what about 2d? does it look as good as a g200 at 1280x1024x32bpp@75hz? my plain old TNT doesn't. i'll probably still get it anyway - i heard linux support is out of box =)
Of course they should have to learn "tarball" and "grep" and other terms. When someone "learns" (and I use the term loosely!) how to use Windows, they have to familiarize themselves with a set of terminology... "system crash", "fatal exception", "page fault" and of course "blue screen of death".
this is about vi/vim/gvim, so if you dont like vi (ie, are a emacs diehard), and dont want to learn more about the new version, read someone else's comment!:-)
the latest version of VIM (5.4 is stable, 5.5somethin is development) has a very nice gui (now uses gtk!) and syntax highlighting for more languages than i knew existed! (161 syntax definition files on my system). and of course, this includes perl, html, php3, as well as java, javascript, visual basic (for those who are stuck devloping in that, i am sorry), and many many more.
also, the new version has the ability to run make, i heard it supports cvs (haven't found this in the menus, probably a command mode option if there) supports ctags (which i'm not familiar with but i've heard is "A Good Thing"(tm)). as well as more options than ever before.
one niggly that i'm not too fond of is it doesn't properly use the X resources, so when you define for example Vim*reverseVideo True, it doesn't actually give you white on black. but other than that, my appreciation for the program has only increased.
the official site is http://www.vim.org. check out Sven's dot vimrc, its HUGE but well documented and i use pretty much all the default options in there.
if users opt for an amd based system for smp, then they would end up paying the pentiumIII equivalent prices anyway, since in order to get smp capable smp, they need to buy athlon. of course, i'd rather have the athlon system since it seems to be beating the pants off p3.
as for the celerons; they were designed to be a "stripped down" version of p2 (and with the new one, p3). thus the celeron shouldn't support things like smp. and imho, shouldn't support the simd extensions. by all means, use the.18 fab because it allows higher clock speeds and lower heat, but adding features that should only belong to the QUOTE High Performance/QUOTE processors.
My guess is, with this new "Janus" product, Windows will finally be stable enough to have uptimes that rival those of Unix systems. Of course, you have to have several machines to accomplish this, and the average company isn't going to have the money to buy the hardware, and from Microsoft's way of pricing, they won't have the money to buy the software.
Its a shame, really, that Unix and Linux have to be so good, since so many admin's need NT to "do it all for them with a wizard".
> Linux today is a toy techies play with
Taking this out of context, I'd say Linux Today is a Linux news site...
But in context, I'd say that if Linux is a toy, why are companies like IBM and Oracle investing time and money in it?
> Microsoft officials could not be reached for further comment.
Slashdot Mirror
Linux clients are due to be released next year, as early as first quarter.
Original author of Window Maker, as well as the rest of the Window Maker developers. I haven't followed the development in recent years, but I've been using it since the original "stable" release, 0.6.3, or around 8 years ago.
:D.
I'm even running it under cygwin on Windows
Now, if they fired Lucas and made the Zahn books into movies then they could rekindle the franchise, but Lucas would never allow that.
That would actually be worth the overinflated movie ticket prices.
Unlike Episodes 1-3 which are mostly a waste of money to see in the theater... but some things are best seen on the big screen.
Like Natalie Portman.
It's great to see the GAIM program gain more features.
And it's ironic for Open Source programmers to let closed source proprietary standards be the source of "innovation" for desktop computing.
Support open source protocols and initiatives. The Jabber chat protocol already exists. Why not develop audio/video for that and encourage your Win-whipped friends to delve into open source programs by migrating popular application use to OSS?
It proves you can learn, but not much more
It proves you can pass tests and jump through hoops. There doesn't have to be any learning involved whatsoever, unless learning how to beat the system is what you mean.
Who said this wasn't the year of desktop Linux?
Anyone who thinks that Linux isn't ready for prime-time yet? Just think of all those calls you'll get after users switch to Linux:
"I can't load this page, it says flash is required."
"I can't watch this movie trailer."
and other such complaints...
Are you using Mozilla or Mozilla Firebird?
Get the extension 'AdBlock', which has the option to block flash content from certain sites based on regular expressions.
Firebird version
Be careful when using */ad/* and */ads/* with adblock. There are some sites out there that actually have content in directories named ad or ads. It's fairly rare, but I've found that on some gaming sites.
You and the other anti-ZoneAlarm people should post what versions have problems, and links to documented problems.
I have ZoneAlarm 3.7.202 and have found absolutely no problems whatsoever. It is extremely easy to install, configure and leave running in the system tray nice and quiet.
Someone mentioned a problem with IMAP - I'd like to know more details about that. I haven't had any problems with IMAP using ZoneAlarm, either.
But with the popularity of third party clients like Trillian, they lose revenue from the banner advertisements in their messenger program.
If the people who use third party programs like Trillian suddenly started using the MSN client, they still wouldn't make money off those banner ads.
I don't know about you, but I never click on banner ads in IM clients. Granted, I haven't used an ad-supported IM client since GAIM got stable enough to use, or when Trillian came out.
He's right, people who are tech savvy and get his music via trading music with friends or downloading mp3's aren't buying his new album.
Why?
Because they get a chance to hear and it and find out it is utter crap. I'm sure a lot of Moby fans don't like his new stuff since he sold out with Play.
But it takes an IT staff with a great deal of knowledge about Linux and an extremely great deal of patience.
I was a system administrator for a software development company that ran the entire office on Linux. The only windows based machines were one NT development box and the CEOs laptop, for his palm software since he didn't know about anything under Linux for it.
All desktops were installed with Redhat, running KDE. StarOffice was used for desktop application suite to provide compatibility with industry "standard" file formats. An NFS server provided file sharing and printing was done through LPD. Accounting applications were versions written for SCO Unix and ran on an old SCO box. Many support applications such as the customer support database, distribution creation software and such were custom written in house by one of the developers.
We had an administrative assistant with very little PC experience handling her day to day tasks easily. The marketing manager had some experience running Windows at home, but none with Linux. He was able to get by and even solve some of his day to day problems.
The Windowsless office *can* work, but it takes a certain kind of company. The company I worked for was a Unix / Linux software development company, and already had a lot of the infrastructure to support going to pure Linux desktops (SCO file/app server, etc). If your company isn't using speciality applications that are only available on Windows, it's possible to do the Windowsless office. If your company does use such applications then it really isn't feasible. Use Linux for the server side of the company - file, web, mail, DNS and use Windows for the desktops. Sure Windowsless office is hip and cool and all the geeks in the IT department will think its great, but your end users who don't have much experience working with computers may get frustrated.
i dont have time to mess around with changing silly command prompts. no matter what the OS, it's the default.
I was a customer of MSN/Northpoint (Colorado) until this week when my service was shut off. I received a call Tuesday with the warning that I would lose service in the next 2-7 days... Thursday morning my line was dead.
Here's the kicker. I have attempted to obtain comparable service through Covad, but they claim my line is not capable of "the 1.5mbit/128kbit ADSL connection you ordered because you ordered voice/data line sharing." Funny, because that is the EXACT same service I had with Northpoint.
Nice.
Great to see that Covad is handling their prospective customers well.
I couldn't bring myself to support any artist that uses this kind of technology with their recorded music.
If I couldn't rip and copy CD music off the disc to MP3 or another CD, I'd lose one of my favorite hobbies. I actually pay for my music. In the last six months alone, I've purchased at least 50 CDs, at $15-25 a piece (counting double disc sets). I rip songs to make my own CDs with the "best of" and "favorites" and to make MP3's for continuous listening. I only have one CD player at home - a single disc portable. If I want to listen to music without changing the CD every 40-60 minutes then I fire up the MP3 player and load up my 10GB of ripped songs.
I know I'm not the only person that actually pays for music. And I know I'm not the only person that has 200+ CDs and doesn't have a jukebox changer. And I know I'm not the only person that likes having custom made CD mixes.
i had no problem answering "No" to that poll..
but i use IE since 90% of the websites i visit lately are designed to work only when viewed by IE.
this post is incredibly off-topic. moderate accordingly.
The facts speak for themselves. If seeing violence has any effect on children's actions, it obviously makes them calm and peaceful.
:)
I think this is inaccurate. The effect of the Internet and video games is that kids are at home surfing the net and playing games. They have something to captivate their interest enough that they aren't blowing each other's heads off.
--josh
--sysadmin for ibm's ebusiness web farm
By including "GCC 2.96" in Red Hat Linux 7.0 they are creating a situation of vendor lock in for the users of any proprietary software that is released "for Red Hat Linux" and compiled on the latest version. so update your libraries and compiler. or don't use that proprietary software. you are completely free to do what you want with your Linux box(es), so exercise that freedom. it isn't really that difficult. i know of people that run software "for redhat linux" on debian and slackware boxes without a problem by simply updating their libraries and such.
--josh
--sysadmin for ibm's ebusiness web farm
I dont think i've posted anything quite this lengthy. woohoo. Anyway, you can get the gist of how I wrote it, /. readers are smart, they'll figure it out :-).
:P
:).
:-P
:-).
:-)
see bottom of comment for disclaimers.
Myth: Linux performs better than Windows NT
Reality: Windows NT outperforms Linux using highly skewed benchmarking
environments by companies that are partnered with Microsoft, or paid by
Microsoft.
Point - Linux supports only 2 gig of ram, where NT supports 4 gig.
Rebuttal - Windows NT needs much more RAM to operate at a reasonable
level.
Point - The linux community continues to promise major SMP and performance
improvements.
Rebuttal - so does Microsoft.
Myth: Linux is more reliable than Windows NT
Reality: Microsoft needs real world proof points rather than anecdotal stories.
Point - Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 has been proven in demanding customer
environments to be a reliable operating system. Companies such as
(blah blah blah).
Rebuttal - Never heard of BellSouth? Berlington Coat Factory?
GENERAL MOTORS?!
Point - Linux lacks a commercial quality Journaling Filesystem.
Rebuttal - Where's the journaling filesystem for NT?
And apparently Microsoft isn't keeping up with SGI... XFS under
GPL? I think I heard a rumor about that...
Myth: Linux is Free
Reality: Microsoft completely misunderstands what free means.
Point - Its important to understand that licensing cost is only a small
part of the overall decision-making process for customers.
Rebuttal - Licensing costs for Windows NT based networks are astronomical.
You need to buy the server software, a client access license for each
client, no matter what OS they are running. Oh, you want office
software? Ok, you need to buy a copy for each client. Gets expensive
real quick. Lets see, someone remind me how much StarOffice costs
again...
Point - Speaking of support services... Fee-based, blah blah, premium
costs, blah blah.
Rebuttal - What is their point here? Last I heard, Microsoft charged
astronomical prices for their support contracts and support plans.
Couldn't be any better than these so-called "premium prices" that
the Linux support companies charge, that's for sure.
Point - Linux is a UNIX-like operating system and is therefore complex
to configure and manage.
Rebuttal - Apparently Microsoft is trying to use Slackware as their
comparison model. (Forgive me for picking on Slackware, it makes a
point in this discussioN). Last I checked, Caldera, RedHat (and of
course Mandrake), SuSE and hell, all of 'em were making great effort
to make Linux easier to install and manage than ever before.
Point - Linux is a higher risk option than Windows NT. For example, how
many certified engineers are there for Linux? (1). How easy is it to
find skilled development and support people for Linux? (2).
First Rebuttal - Last week (I think it was) Computer Reseller News had a
FRONT PAGE article describing the flood of "certified" NT
"professionals" who didn't have any real world experience and thus
were completely useless. Let's see, how long has Linux been around?
9 years or so... how long has it been popular? Erm, a few years at
best, mostly in the last couple. Ok, now how long has Microsoft been
around? How much money do they have to funnel into this sort of
thing? Exactly. Its a big difference. There will be more
certifications for Linux-centric professionals. And you can damn well
bet that those people will KNOW the system. Not just click click
click their way through blissful ignorance.
Second Rebuttal - This question should just go away. I am going to make
a glaring observation here: Microsoft has no clue. I know, obvious
to some, but not everyone... Post a question about Linux on just about
any Linux related newsgroup. Visit the #linux or #linuxhelp channels
on IRC. Join a local user group mailing list and ask questions.
Do a web search. Chrikey, I have an easier time finding answers to
Linux questions than I do trying to find answers to questions related
to any Microsoft platform or application.
Myth: Linux is more secure than Windows NT
Reality: linuxppc.com vs. windows2000test.com.
Need I say more?
Apparently I might... read on!
Point - Linux security is all or nothing. Administrators cannot delegate
administrative privileges.
Rebuttal - Two words: groups. sudo.
(sudo is an outstanding utility. I just wish distributions
would include it by default. RedHat 6.0 doesn't, Caldera 2.3 doesn't,
not sure which ones do, but I know they're out there
Point - Every member of the Windows NT family since Windows NT 3.5 has
been evaluated at either a C2 level...
Rebuttal - What I heard is that this is only valid if the NT system in
question has no floppy drive and no network/modem connection.
Point - Linux system administrators must spend huge amounts of time
understanding the latest Linux bugs and determining what to do about
them.
Rebuttal - Windows NT system administrators dont need to know anything
about the system they are administrating. Thats what this Microsoft
point says to me. And no central security repository? No, instead of
relying on Microsoft, the Linux community can use... THE LINUX
COMMUNITY! Wow. Imagine that. And the security bugs in Linux
actually get fixed. Oh, and you dont have to download a 60 meg
"service pack" to fix it either.
Point - Configuring Linux security requires an administrator to be an
expert in the intricies of the operating system and how components
interact.
Rebuttal - Microsoft Windows NT system administrators shouldn't be experts,
Microsoft makes it so easy that any fool can mess up, er configure the
security for an Enterprise. I dont know about the rest of you, but if
I'm hiring a system administrator, I would REQUIRE they be an expert
with the System. ESPECIALLY in an enterprise. Mission critical?
And you dont have experts administering the system? To quote Mr. T:
"I pity da fool!"
Myth: Linux can replace Windows on the desktop.
Reality: Linux is replacing Windows as the server.
Point - A user would end up with a system that has fewer applications,
is more complex to use and manage, and is less intuitive.
Rebuttal - Okay, I'm going to institute a new rule. If you're going to
BLATANTLY FUD, then "Do your homework". There are LOTS of applications
and programs and other such available for Linux. http://freshmeat.net.
http://www.linuxberg.com. Plus if you dig just a little (and not much
mind you), you'll find hundreds of applications. And guess what,
THEY WORK.
Point - Linux does not support important ease-of-use technologies such as
Plug and Play, USB, and Power Management.
Rebuttal - Not to the extent that Windows supports them. However, since
Microsoft had a hand in the development of these technologies so they
would ONLY work on Windows, there could be a correlation...
Linux supports MANY MANY MANY plug and play devices. Wow, lots. At
least, the ones that are any good. Linux doesn't support WinModems.
Well, thats because they're *WIN*Modems, not LinModems
USB? Well, up until recent history there weren't a whole lot of USB
devices being MADE. Only in the last year or so, even though the
promise of USB was made long ago (in the Computer Industry). Now as
more USB hardware is available, Linux is starting to support USB
better. I do not know anything about where the support is headed, what
devices are even supported, etc, but I do know it's there.
Power Management? Ok. Yeah. No Power Management. Thats why there's
a whole section with 15 or so items in the Kernel configuration. Yeah.
Go Microsoft.
Point - The complexity of the Linux operating system and cumbersome nature
of existing GUI's would make retraining end-users a huge undertaking...
Rebuttal - This is about the most valid (albeit limited at that) statement
they make in the whole article. It isn't the complexity of the
operating system though. The operating system (in the UNIX world) does
not have bearing here. The OS doesn't control what left mouse click
and Control-Alt-F4 do. The fault lies in INCONSISTANT (!!) user
interfaces. Windows isn't consistent all the time everywhere, however,
it does provide a lot of consistency in places such as Menus and short
cuts. A user in the Windows world can almost be garunteed that
Control-C will copy and Control-V will paste. That the File menu is
next to the Edit menu. That pressing F1 will get (semi weak in my
opinion) a Help Dialog. Sure, KDE and GNOME are trying to fix this,
but they use different conventions. And not everyone uses KDE or
GNOME. They're bloated. Yup, I said that. It costs less system
resources to ignore a desktop environment and just use a slick
window manager (Be it blackbox, icewm, window maker, or twm). But what
consistency that is present in the Desktop environments is lost and
you're in a worse problem. Blah blah blah, I could go on this for
quite some rambling, but I won't. This topic has been beaten to death
on every forum newsgroup mailing list and IRC channel known to the
Linux community.
Summary -
They sure like those sweeping generalizations... "not suitable for
mainstream usage by business or home users" in particular. How many "home
users" are running linux now? Millions? Must not be suitable to them. Or
something. Not suitable for use by business? Better shut down all those ISPs
running Linux based Web/Mail/DNS/News servers. Better tell IBM, Hewlett
Packard, Compaq and all the rest to give up on the Linux idea.
They say that Linux "clearly has a long way to go to be competitive with
Windows NT 4.0". If Linux isn't competitive with Windows NT 4.0 now, then
WHY ARE THEY WRITING ALL THIS FUD?!
Sorry. I had to.
This article is written by me, Joshua Timberman. I am in no way connected to
Microsoft, IBM, or any other company mentioned in this article. Nor do I
closely follow the Linux kernel development. I am a Linux user at home and
work. Yes this is a disclaimer. Perhaps I should...
#include
Of course, I didn't do that at the beginning. But that's Okay. Nobody's
perfect, not even me
the gamecenter preview shows the geforce card running at 120/166, and the tnt2 at 150/183(i think thats close enough =). even with the lower clock rate, its faster, significantly in a couple tests.
indeed, it may be too early. maybe they'll pump the clock rate up and make it just silly-fast =).
all this talk of 3d 3d 3d, what about 2d? does it look as good as a g200 at 1280x1024x32bpp@75hz? my plain old TNT doesn't. i'll probably still get it anyway - i heard linux support is out of box =)
Of course they should have to learn "tarball" and "grep" and other terms. When someone "learns" (and I use the term loosely!) how to use Windows, they have to familiarize themselves with a set of terminology... "system crash", "fatal exception", "page fault" and of course "blue screen of death".
:-)
this is about vi/vim/gvim, so if you dont like vi (ie, are a emacs diehard), and dont want to learn more about the new version, read someone else's comment! :-)
the latest version of VIM (5.4 is stable, 5.5somethin is development) has a very nice gui (now uses gtk!) and syntax highlighting for more languages than i knew existed! (161 syntax definition files on my system). and of course, this includes perl, html, php3, as well as java, javascript, visual basic (for those who are stuck devloping in that, i am sorry), and many many more.
also, the new version has the ability to run make, i heard it supports cvs (haven't found this in the menus, probably a command mode option if there) supports ctags (which i'm not familiar with but i've heard is "A Good Thing"(tm)). as well as more options than ever before.
one niggly that i'm not too fond of is it doesn't properly use the X resources, so when you define for example Vim*reverseVideo True, it doesn't actually give you white on black. but other than that, my appreciation for the program has only increased.
the official site is http://www.vim.org. check out Sven's dot vimrc, its HUGE but well documented and i use pretty much all the default options in there.
animated banners using java aren't scary unless you can't disable java in your browser.
more than likely the "replacement" will be extensions to another graphic format, an entirely new format, or (here's where you should shudder) flash.
if users opt for an amd based system for smp, then they would end up paying the pentiumIII equivalent prices anyway, since in order to get smp capable smp, they need to buy athlon. of course, i'd rather have the athlon system since it seems to be beating the pants off p3.
.18 fab because it allows higher clock speeds and lower heat, but adding features that should only belong to the QUOTE High Performance /QUOTE processors.
as for the celerons; they were designed to be a "stripped down" version of p2 (and with the new one, p3). thus the celeron shouldn't support things like smp. and imho, shouldn't support the simd extensions. by all means, use the
My guess is, with this new "Janus" product, Windows will finally be stable enough to have uptimes that rival those of Unix systems. Of course, you have to have several machines to accomplish this, and the average company isn't going to have the money to buy the hardware, and from Microsoft's way of pricing, they won't have the money to buy the software.
Its a shame, really, that Unix and Linux have to be so good, since so many admin's need NT to "do it all for them with a wizard".
> Linux today is a toy techies play with
Taking this out of context, I'd say Linux Today is a Linux news site...
But in context, I'd say that if Linux is a toy, why are companies like IBM and Oracle investing time and money in it?
> Microsoft officials could not be reached for further comment.
Are we suprised?
You know the answer.