I'm -really- tired of people saying how well OpenOffice works when it doesn't. Just because it -is- an alternative doesn't mean it's superior, or even on an even footing with its competition. Basically, OpenOffice isn't completely an alternative, not in the "full" sense of the word.
It's about 90% compatible, but can crash with some.doc files, refusing to open them and forcing the user to go through through a "open as plain text + copy/paste + new doc + add paragraph formatting" experience, and I bet it also has problems with macros (do they work?) and complex excel sheets.
MS-Office is MS-Office, OpenOffice can read those docs, but it's *not* 100% compatible, and people who use it everyday should be aware of this.
Don't forget installation time. It's a matter of more that an hour for a pc (without actually reinstalling the whole OS), while it's a matter of minutes for a thin client. As for viruses, simply don't give users administrator privileges and viruses can have a hard time trying to infect your servers.
In a company like the one I work for, where users use anyway all the same applications, this would be great. No need to reinstall clients, no need to change broken fans and hard drives and search the whole office for a spare dvd player just to install the operating system into a machine.
Right now it takes me about 2 to 3 hours (4 in the worse cases) to get a client machine ready for the user, and we already have centralized/home directories. Switching to thin clients could cost a little bit more when it comes to servers, but surely it will be less time-consuming when installing clients (no need for installation) and supporting users (one-time server-side install for all OO.org dictionaries and other applications).
And, most of all, I wouldn't have all the "version inconsistencies" I have right now across the network clients, where one has application X version Y and the other a newer or older version (and plugin problems because of this). Oh, sure, people won't be able to install their own stuff, but they already can't do it anyway;-)
The fact that people click without thinking isn't a good reason for saying that something is "dangerous". I mean, if someone sends a linux user (at home, with root logged in, of course) a shell script with a simple "rm -rf/" and the user executes it, is the "rm" command dangerous? or are shell scripts dangerous?
I'll never defend people blind-clicking on every single "interesting" attachment or link they receive, sorry. Internet Culture is too low nowadays, and this is in my opinion the first cause for viruses spreading so fast.
I do have a blog, or at least people call it a blog. What I'm asking myself right now, reading this article is... "What's the difference between a blog and a website?" I mean, how could a proxy know it's a blog? It can't, unless you talk about blogs hosted on big blogger networks. But I'm not the only one having a blog on another hosting service, with my own domain and so on. The same could happen with "personal home pages", the problem is, as usual, people click on anything that seems interesting, without checking the website where they'll end.
It's always a matter of Social Engineering, users have to be educated I think...
Admins threaten corporate IT security by avoiding to fix vunerable machines
It's not avoiding to fix them, it's just trying not to have to install the machine again.
And I heard of people having BIG problems with SP2 installations.
It's better to get a firewall, an antivirus, change email client and browser.
Less things to worry about:)
I had to install SP2 here at work, because of the machine analysis program that examines all the machines connected to this network. I was just tired to see each and every monday the same email that was telling me it was *mandatory* to install the latest Service Pack on my machine. Since I'm not using that many programs here, SP2 works fine anyway.
With the recent survey saying Italy has the lowest broadband internet acceptance rate, I think your country might be down on the list a ways.
Yes, this is what I meant.
Sadly we have far too many people forced to connect with a 56k modem because broadband doesn't reach the areas where they live.
And I'd prefer not to talk about prices...
I live with my phone, always-on, always charged and (most of all) always at my belt. And losing my phone would be worse than losing my keys, actually:(
Sometimes I think Google is running too much and too fast. Google Maps and Google Local (thus Google Ride Finder too) are available only for US citizens. Services are fine, are good, are nice, and I'd like to see something similar for my area too (I live in Italy). My not-so-secret dream is that one day they'll extend all those great services to the rest of the world, maybe before launching tons of other services I would only look at saying "it would be nice to be able to use it..."
Of course, this assumes that you do NOT pay by the byte (as you might on a mobile phone). For a modem connection, it is OK. Also, it assumes that you have nothing going on in the background. If all you have running is Firefox, this is a good thing. On the other hand, if you have a torrent running in the background, then Firefox gets faster at the expense of the torrent.
Luckily I "flatted" myself for GPRS (I have 400MB for 30 days at a flat rate), but it would be better if I can chose search by search if it has to prefetch or not.
I don't have always bandwidth-sucking processes running, and I'd prefer to have a "prefetch" checkbox near the search box.
Am I only searching? Prefetch them!
Am I doing too many things at the same time? Leave it all alone, maybe the search isn't my primary task.
I know people who sometimes connect with a 56k modem, and me myself, sometimes I connect with my mobile phone (GPRS, 10kb/sec max as far as I could see). It wouldn't be so nice to have bandwith sucked up by all those prefetching (and no, I don't want to change, neither the browser neither the Search Engine).
Slashdot Mirror
As far as I remember, the universe *could* last forever...
It's kind of another paradox, but it seems it won't collapse....
MS-Office is MS-Office, OpenOffice can read those docs, but it's *not* 100% compatible, and people who use it everyday should be aware of this.
Don't forget installation time.
It's a matter of more that an hour for a pc (without actually reinstalling the whole OS), while it's a matter of minutes for a thin client.
As for viruses, simply don't give users administrator privileges and viruses can have a hard time trying to infect your servers.
In a company like the one I work for, where users use anyway all the same applications, this would be great.
/home directories.
;-)
No need to reinstall clients, no need to change broken fans and hard drives and search the whole office for a spare dvd player just to install the operating system into a machine.
Right now it takes me about 2 to 3 hours (4 in the worse cases) to get a client machine ready for the user, and we already have centralized
Switching to thin clients could cost a little bit more when it comes to servers, but surely it will be less time-consuming when installing clients (no need for installation) and supporting users (one-time server-side install for all OO.org dictionaries and other applications).
And, most of all, I wouldn't have all the "version inconsistencies" I have right now across the network clients, where one has application X version Y and the other a newer or older version (and plugin problems because of this).
Oh, sure, people won't be able to install their own stuff, but they already can't do it anyway
I know plenty of smart people who have had spyware installed by websites.
And I know plenty of people who click on "yes" on every single dialog they see.
The fact that people click without thinking isn't a good reason for saying that something is "dangerous". /" and the user executes it, is the "rm" command dangerous? or are shell scripts dangerous?
I mean, if someone sends a linux user (at home, with root logged in, of course) a shell script with a simple "rm -rf
I'll never defend people blind-clicking on every single "interesting" attachment or link they receive, sorry.
Internet Culture is too low nowadays, and this is in my opinion the first cause for viruses spreading so fast.
I do have a blog, or at least people call it a blog.
What I'm asking myself right now, reading this article is...
"What's the difference between a blog and a website?"
I mean, how could a proxy know it's a blog?
It can't, unless you talk about blogs hosted on big blogger networks.
But I'm not the only one having a blog on another hosting service, with my own domain and so on.
The same could happen with "personal home pages", the problem is, as usual, people click on anything that seems interesting, without checking the website where they'll end.
It's always a matter of Social Engineering, users have to be educated I think...
Admins threaten corporate IT security by avoiding to fix vunerable machines
:)
It's not avoiding to fix them, it's just trying not to have to install the machine again.
And I heard of people having BIG problems with SP2 installations.
It's better to get a firewall, an antivirus, change email client and browser.
Less things to worry about
I had to install SP2 here at work, because of the machine analysis program that examines all the machines connected to this network.
I was just tired to see each and every monday the same email that was telling me it was *mandatory* to install the latest Service Pack on my machine.
Since I'm not using that many programs here, SP2 works fine anyway.
And I'd prefer not to talk about prices...
I don't sleep wearing my belt, usually ;-)
Not only the US congress, believe me :(
Err, actually I recharge it at night, when I'm sleeping... ;-)
;-)
Anyway, my sleeping room really seems some borg thing, too many electonic stuff in there
I live with my phone, always-on, always charged and (most of all) always at my belt. :(
And losing my phone would be worse than losing my keys, actually
(oh, yes, I need a therapist)
I'd prefer to be able to find them using my mobile phone :)
Sometimes I think Google is running too much and too fast.
:(
Google Maps and Google Local (thus Google Ride Finder too) are available only for US citizens.
Services are fine, are good, are nice, and I'd like to see something similar for my area too (I live in Italy).
My not-so-secret dream is that one day they'll extend all those great services to the rest of the world, maybe before launching tons of other services I would only look at saying "it would be nice to be able to use it..."
Oh, well, I feel like I live in the third world
I don't have always bandwidth-sucking processes running, and I'd prefer to have a "prefetch" checkbox near the search box.
Am I only searching? Prefetch them!
Am I doing too many things at the same time? Leave it all alone, maybe the search isn't my primary task.
I know people who sometimes connect with a 56k modem, and me myself, sometimes I connect with my mobile phone (GPRS, 10kb/sec max as far as I could see).
It wouldn't be so nice to have bandwith sucked up by all those prefetching (and no, I don't want to change, neither the browser neither the Search Engine).
You can also download from the Rio using WinNT... ;-)))
To do this, download RioShell (http://w3.to/rioshell/)...
Bye
DElyMyth