* A DB2 client * Maybe run WebSphere for the testing of in-house scripts * A Tivoli Storage Management agent. Or maybe not, there are other ways to have backups, like syncing to another machine.
The question is about adjusting management mindsets and dealing with IBM in what I expect to be a very small number of support calls. It's not about choosing the right technical solution, because I have ample justification for Debian being the right technical solution.
I didn't make it clear - the shoehorning is into the mindset of the operations organisation, not into the technical niche I'm trying to fill. Debian fits perfectly into that niche, but there's cultural cruft blocking the way.
I've used APT for RPM and to be honest it didn't work properly - the dependency information just wasn't right. I don't get this problem with Debian.
It's also about the number of packages in the release. Debian is several times the size of either RedHat or Suse. We don't want to spend time compiling software and building RPMs, we just want to get on with doing our job.
But in this case, Debian probably is the right tool for the job. We need a system that we can maintain with the least intervention. One that provides a wide range of software (perl modules, apache modules, etc) that don't need compiling.
The round hole is our operations organisation. The square peg is the task we are trying to complete. I see Debian as the sledgehammer that might get it all to work.
Our only issue here is support. That's it. In practice, I have no doubt Debian will live up to our requirements better than the competition. I have many years experience of Debian, RedHat and Suse and I know that Debian makes my life easier than the others.
They have in the past been comfortable with their software environment but now money no longer flows like water. They are now realising that proprietary Unix comes at a cost, and it's becoming hard to justify.
Whatsmore, the overhead of a highly regimented IT operations organisation is more and more apparent. There is a balance to be struck between every technology meeting the corporate checklist, rubber stamped by all and sundry, sticking to the tried and test, and actually being able to implement change quickly enough to keep up with business realities.
Please don't answer my question so tritely. I think it is a reasonable one.
I think you're wrong though. I think Linus started off "borrowing" GNU tools planning to write his own but discovered kernel development was a job in it's own right.
So I think he was comparing Linux (a would-be full system) to GNU (an already comprehensive system, lacking a kernel).
If Lucas hadn't made "Star Wars" THX would be long forgotten...
You think? I love THX-1138, I first saw it in the mid-80s on TV. I'm not a film buff so don't watch for who directed what, and didn't even know it was a LucasFilm(TM) until I saw this slashdot story.
Actually I am not a fan of anything Lucas has done apart from THX.
Maybe you would have forgotten it, but, as they say, speak for yourself.
It's always so hillarious when someone comes inches from death and escapes with only a fucked up computer.
I don't mean to downplay electric shock, but I've had loads (something like 10-15) of mains shocks - at 240V - and I have never died.
My scariest shock was from a TV. Those things have big capacitors and high tension transformers and it's possible to get brief kilovolt shocks.
However, still alive! I am told it's the current that kills, not the voltage, so the resistance of the human body plays a big part, along with the maximum power output of the current source. Perhaps I'm highly resistive.
Anyway, I got those shocks when I was young and stupid. The first couple made me brave and careless. I am now very careful with mains voltage, if only because it's not really a pleasant experience.
Or did you mean "Voila"? Which is french for (literally) "look there", or (less literally) "shazam".
I'm just interested, not being a spelling Nazi, because this isn't the first time I've seen the neologism "Wollah" in a similar context, and it looks like it may well derive from "Voila".
I'm talking about the trend of making banks into "relaxation centres". I'm in the UK. I have never been to Washington Mutual. But several years ago we started seeing traditional banks mutate from business-like environments into "pleasant spaces".
In Scotland, the Bank of Scotland was the first to go this way, getting rid of of tellers behind a counter and replacing them with tables where you could "sit down and relax".
At the same time, there are fewer and fewer staff in the banks. Queues get longer, but you're not supposed to mind because it's a "nicer environment".
It's a bank. I want to go in, conduct my financial business quickly and efficiently and get out. If that was what the banks were working towards then I could say they are for customer service. But they're not. They just want to distract you from the annoyance of waiting to be served.
Of course, some of the less high-brow banks just got rid of the staff without making the atmospheric adjustments. I've seen queues out the door when it's been at it's worst. (Clydesdale Bank, can you hear me?)
If it hasn't gone this way yet in the states, then I'm surprised.
It is not about customer service. It is about keeping people occupied so they don't notice that there is only one fucking teller serving a queue of twenty people.
It's about increasing the profit margin by getting rid of people, who are expensive, and replacing them with things, which are cheap.
Anyway, it's actually about a fucking stupid patent office.
You make some valid points; even if some of them are dubious I don't have the time or energy to refute them as thoroughly as you've done for my post!
Anyway, I think we're agreed on the main point, you can't give leeway to Windows (over third-party drivers) that you don't also give to Linux, or some other kernel of comparison.
Bad form to reply to my own post but the other side of the coin just slapped me in the face.
The downside of broad adoption of encryption technologies is that it makes the job of protocol analysis (when finding bugs) nearly impossible.
There are several occasions when I've had to take tcpdumps to identify a bug in a vendor's product (IBM WebSphere! Shoddy! well, getting better now). When the traffic's encrypted, the games a bogey, unless application-layer tools exist to dump the protocol details.
Well, considering anyone can modify and distribute Linux, I can tell you now that some distributions of Linux are the shittiest operating systems in existence.
If I cat/dev/random > linux-2.4.26.tar.bz2 then it's not going to work.
But Linux as released by Linus tends to be pretty good.
Slashdot Mirror
Let me be specific.
This machine will need:
* A DB2 client
* Maybe run WebSphere for the testing of in-house scripts
* A Tivoli Storage Management agent. Or maybe not, there are other ways to have backups, like syncing to another machine.
The question is about adjusting management mindsets and dealing with IBM in what I expect to be a very small number of support calls. It's not about choosing the right technical solution, because I have ample justification for Debian being the right technical solution.
I didn't make it clear - the shoehorning is into the mindset of the operations organisation, not into the technical niche I'm trying to fill. Debian fits perfectly into that niche, but there's cultural cruft blocking the way.
I've used APT for RPM and to be honest it didn't work properly - the dependency information just wasn't right. I don't get this problem with Debian.
It's also about the number of packages in the release. Debian is several times the size of either RedHat or Suse. We don't want to spend time compiling software and building RPMs, we just want to get on with doing our job.
But in this case, Debian probably is the right tool for the job. We need a system that we can maintain with the least intervention. One that provides a wide range of software (perl modules, apache modules, etc) that don't need compiling.
The round hole is our operations organisation. The square peg is the task we are trying to complete. I see Debian as the sledgehammer that might get it all to work.
Our only issue here is support. That's it. In practice, I have no doubt Debian will live up to our requirements better than the competition. I have many years experience of Debian, RedHat and Suse and I know that Debian makes my life easier than the others.
They have in the past been comfortable with their software environment but now money no longer flows like water. They are now realising that proprietary Unix comes at a cost, and it's becoming hard to justify.
Whatsmore, the overhead of a highly regimented IT operations organisation is more and more apparent. There is a balance to be struck between every technology meeting the corporate checklist, rubber stamped by all and sundry, sticking to the tried and test, and actually being able to implement change quickly enough to keep up with business realities.
Please don't answer my question so tritely. I think it is a reasonable one.
Be fair, some of it IS downloaded ISOs. I know, because I have done it.
It all dependes on organisational culture and the attitude of local management.
Like the other poster said, a hammer would work, but you'd probably end up with a court appearance.
An easy non-destructive disabler would be good old fashioned duct tape.
Stalking is basically a pattern of putting someone in the apprehension of a battery.
Ah, thanks for clearing that one up! Now it makes sense...
In what way is "Oop!" an insult?
I think you're wrong though. I think Linus started off "borrowing" GNU tools planning to write his own but discovered kernel development was a job in it's own right.
So I think he was comparing Linux (a would-be full system) to GNU (an already comprehensive system, lacking a kernel).
I know you're a twat, but he didn't mention HURD; he said GNU, which is indeed big and professional.
No no no.
It makes him executable, not executed.
To be executable one must be alive.
If Lucas hadn't made "Star Wars" THX would be long forgotten...
You think? I love THX-1138, I first saw it in the mid-80s on TV. I'm not a film buff so don't watch for who directed what, and didn't even know it was a LucasFilm(TM) until I saw this slashdot story.
Actually I am not a fan of anything Lucas has done apart from THX.
Maybe you would have forgotten it, but, as they say, speak for yourself.
It's always so hillarious when someone comes inches from death and escapes with only a fucked up computer.
I don't mean to downplay electric shock, but I've had loads (something like 10-15) of mains shocks - at 240V - and I have never died.
My scariest shock was from a TV. Those things have big capacitors and high tension transformers and it's possible to get brief kilovolt shocks.
However, still alive! I am told it's the current that kills, not the voltage, so the resistance of the human body plays a big part, along with the maximum power output of the current source. Perhaps I'm highly resistive.
Anyway, I got those shocks when I was young and stupid. The first couple made me brave and careless. I am now very careful with mains voltage, if only because it's not really a pleasant experience.
What's "Wollah"?
Or did you mean "Voila"? Which is french for (literally) "look there", or (less literally) "shazam".
I'm just interested, not being a spelling Nazi, because this isn't the first time I've seen the neologism "Wollah" in a similar context, and it looks like it may well derive from "Voila".
That's exactly what I thought, and I'm not even in a "position of influence". At least I wouldn't call it that, who knows what kids these days think.
I'm talking about the trend of making banks into "relaxation centres". I'm in the UK. I have never been to Washington Mutual. But several years ago we started seeing traditional banks mutate from business-like environments into "pleasant spaces".
In Scotland, the Bank of Scotland was the first to go this way, getting rid of of tellers behind a counter and replacing them with tables where you could "sit down and relax".
At the same time, there are fewer and fewer staff in the banks. Queues get longer, but you're not supposed to mind because it's a "nicer environment".
It's a bank. I want to go in, conduct my financial business quickly and efficiently and get out. If that was what the banks were working towards then I could say they are for customer service. But they're not. They just want to distract you from the annoyance of waiting to be served.
Of course, some of the less high-brow banks just got rid of the staff without making the atmospheric adjustments. I've seen queues out the door when it's been at it's worst. (Clydesdale Bank, can you hear me?)
If it hasn't gone this way yet in the states, then I'm surprised.
It is not about customer service. It is about keeping people occupied so they don't notice that there is only one fucking teller serving a queue of twenty people.
It's about increasing the profit margin by getting rid of people, who are expensive, and replacing them with things, which are cheap.
Anyway, it's actually about a fucking stupid patent office.
Are you saying that it might be a good idea to use a PostScript printer?
Thanks, very useful.
You make some valid points; even if some of them are dubious I don't have the time or energy to refute them as thoroughly as you've done for my post!
Anyway, I think we're agreed on the main point, you can't give leeway to Windows (over third-party drivers) that you don't also give to Linux, or some other kernel of comparison.
Bad form to reply to my own post but the other side of the coin just slapped me in the face.
The downside of broad adoption of encryption technologies is that it makes the job of protocol analysis (when finding bugs) nearly impossible.
There are several occasions when I've had to take tcpdumps to identify a bug in a vendor's product (IBM WebSphere! Shoddy! well, getting better now). When the traffic's encrypted, the games a bogey, unless application-layer tools exist to dump the protocol details.
Quite, most importantly because it's rare that you make a purely wireless connection to a remote host.
IPSEC means encrypted end-to-end, not just over the wireless segment of the network.
All this faffing with wireless-specific encryption is just a stopgap until we get broad adoption of IPSEC or similar.
1333 would have been 13373R.
some distributions of Linux
/dev/random > linux-2.4.26.tar.bz2 then it's not going to work.
Well, considering anyone can modify and distribute Linux, I can tell you now that some distributions of Linux are the shittiest operating systems in existence.
If I cat
But Linux as released by Linus tends to be pretty good.