So, MS is trying to kill Mac OS X with XP? I dont really know... Those few Apple users that are left will probably not switch to MS just because they make their GUI look more like Apples (they've done that for like 10 years now;)
But of course, substantially less people might switch from Windows to OS X if XP looks as cool as OS X. Fortunately it does not:)
I guess many Windows users today do not like the unstrict, toylike and colorful XP GUI, so I think MS would be better off not directing its entire production line against Apple.
For many companies and institutions software subscription can be a pretty good thing. It is quite common to lease hardware for the simple reason that it is easier to control costs that way.
Software gets outdated fast. A subscription instead of a one-time license should make upgrading more simple. Site licenses already do this more or less (pay per server per year).
For individual persons the idea of having to pay again for using the same old software is less appealing. Individuals have no yearly budget for IT-expenses, and surely dont want one either.
ADSL/Cable etc are giving people flat-rate internet access (at least where I live) and this is much better than a cost per minute. Having to pay subscriptions for software is like moving in the other direction.
It will probably be difficult for MS to gain acceptance for software subscriptions among private customers, and I doubt most peaple will pay subscriptions. If MS enforces people to pay subscriptions in some way or another, I'd say most people would get very annoyed. Mostly because their software would stop working for "no good reason".
Since MS is offering services such as.NET for its customers and MS has continous costs for these services of course it makes sense for MS to charge not only at the time of purchase. But on the other hand: with the same kind of argument the delivery of the OS to a customer means very small costs for MS, so why should the charge for it at all then?
I've got ADSL and it is really nice. Static IP, 0.5/2.8 Mbit for about $25 a month. And it is very stable... But I guess everything but optical fibre is just an intermediate solution?
W2k AD syncronization between domains would probably be much faster (consume less bandwidth) if Microsoft used these. Unfortunately this thing came to late.
Could be that they are about to implement some feature that can handle subscriptions in Windows XP. Maybe they want Windows XP to be out before they start relying on subscriptions on other software.
I have been working part time as system administrator at a technical university for almost two years now. There are some important advantages and disadvantages one should consider if looking at such a solutions.
1) Responsibility/Authority: We are authorised to make small investments without asking anyone. In practice we (2 students) are the only people doing any hands-on work with the system. No one else knows shit about how it works. We therefor feel very responsible for its functionality - and sometimes it is very frustration to feel responsibility and not have the proper authority.
2) We have a pure Windows NT network with about 100 computers and the system is quite tweaked in order to work as a multi-user university system. It takes some months to learn the system and get used to most routines. We are supposed to work for at least 2 years so that we can spend most of our employed time improving the system. It is extra important to document everything very well so that the administrator coming after me dont have to decrypt obscure scripts, search in outdated user databases etc. I have much time doing that, and also redesigning things from scratch for different reasons. For these reasons it is very important that someone else (than the students) are making the strategic decisions (even quite operational ones) so that work is not done in vain and redone.
3) Students do this kind of job because they find it interesting, and they will do it their way. They will script/program in their own favourite language and they will try to use their own favourite OS (Linux:) when possible. One administrator might install lots of good applications to the system that will be a pain for the next administrator who dont have a clue what programs are installed, how they are licence, if anyone uses them and how to tweak them. Users dont really like to see features removed. Administrators prefer implementing their own favourite things in their own favourite way rather than mainaining old stuff.
4) As already pointed out in other posts; student operators know the students needs and care about them.
5) It might not be so easy to find new operators when to old ones finish their studies.
To sum up: if counting on students for running a university system good management is more important than otherwise. When working with such a complex task for a relatively short time it is hard to handle difficult decistions that will affect the system for several years.
Downloading mp3s and using DeCSS MIGHT be wrong, but I guess many of you here do it anyway because YOU think it is the right thing to do (I really dont want to start a discussion here, just pointing out that there are different views). I also believe many people would continue to use DeCSS even if it turned out to be completely illegal.
I think the slashdot community loses some credability when it makes this issue an excersise in law. We slashdotters like common sense, nice companies and free software. This Finish entrepreneur has contributed to open source - ssh is an important and good tool. It is obvious that he is one of the "good guys", and he is not trying to force any of us to pay him for using ssh or whatever clone we prefer.
Let us change the name of OpenSSH, and hopefully SSH will license their future product in a more generous way than otherwise.
The only dangerous thing I can think about is if this snowballs; what other projects can be in danger?
The idea when designing GUIs is; if a feature is not found it does not exist. A GUI with lots of pop-up-menus and stuff will be slow and confuse the user. So what is the result? You cant:
"Drag-and-drop" -F -R
and this IS a problem. Even if I know exactly what I want to do with with a large folder with different permissions, the GUI does not allow it. There is no way to do powerful stuff to files in windows the way you can with rm, mv, cp, chmod etc in UNIX. (copy, xcopy, scopy is a joke) Sometimes this can be fixed by scripting but what happens to performance...
And, have you ever been able to write a comment in a GUI program (for managing DHCP, users, WINS, network adapeters, whatever)? I write a lot of comments in my UNIX config files......of course a GUI can be easier to use for a beginner. I lack control when using linuxconf for configuring LILO.
Slashdot Mirror
So, MS is trying to kill Mac OS X with XP? I dont really know... Those few Apple users that are left will probably not switch to MS just because they make their GUI look more like Apples (they've done that for like 10 years now ;)
:)
But of course, substantially less people might switch from Windows to OS X if XP looks as cool as OS X. Fortunately it does not
I guess many Windows users today do not like the unstrict, toylike and colorful XP GUI, so I think MS would be better off not directing its entire production line against Apple.
For many companies and institutions software subscription can be a pretty good thing. It is quite common to lease hardware for the simple reason that it is easier to control costs that way.
.NET for its customers and MS has continous costs for these services of course it makes sense for MS to charge not only at the time of purchase. But on the other hand: with the same kind of argument the delivery of the OS to a customer means very small costs for MS, so why should the charge for it at all then?
Software gets outdated fast. A subscription instead of a one-time license should make upgrading more simple. Site licenses already do this more or less (pay per server per year).
For individual persons the idea of having to pay again for using the same old software is less appealing. Individuals have no yearly budget for IT-expenses, and surely dont want one either.
ADSL/Cable etc are giving people flat-rate internet access (at least where I live) and this is much better than a cost per minute. Having to pay subscriptions for software is like moving in the other direction.
It will probably be difficult for MS to gain acceptance for software subscriptions among private customers, and I doubt most peaple will pay subscriptions. If MS enforces people to pay subscriptions in some way or another, I'd say most people would get very annoyed. Mostly because their software would stop working for "no good reason".
Since MS is offering services such as
Unfortunately we cant get AOL in Europe :( I am waiting for EOL...
I've got ADSL and it is really nice. Static IP, 0.5/2.8 Mbit for about $25 a month. And it is very stable... But I guess everything but optical fibre is just an intermediate solution?
W2k AD syncronization between domains would probably be much faster (consume less bandwidth) if Microsoft used these. Unfortunately this thing came to late.
10 mbit hubs are quite cheap nowadays. Just buy one and connect all your $$$-switches to it...
Could be that they are about to implement some feature that can handle subscriptions in Windows XP. Maybe they want Windows XP to be out before they start relying on subscriptions on other software.
Shouldnt it be Mac OS X.1? That would make more sense.
If Apple delays their release even more chanses are I have got MOL and OMS running in Debain... they might lose a customer here... Hurry!
So, the problem with GPL is that MS cannot steal it and use it in their own products...
I have been working part time as system administrator at a technical university for almost two years now. There are some important advantages and disadvantages one should consider if looking at such a solutions. 1) Responsibility/Authority: We are authorised to make small investments without asking anyone. In practice we (2 students) are the only people doing any hands-on work with the system. No one else knows shit about how it works. We therefor feel very responsible for its functionality - and sometimes it is very frustration to feel responsibility and not have the proper authority. 2) We have a pure Windows NT network with about 100 computers and the system is quite tweaked in order to work as a multi-user university system. It takes some months to learn the system and get used to most routines. We are supposed to work for at least 2 years so that we can spend most of our employed time improving the system. It is extra important to document everything very well so that the administrator coming after me dont have to decrypt obscure scripts, search in outdated user databases etc. I have much time doing that, and also redesigning things from scratch for different reasons. For these reasons it is very important that someone else (than the students) are making the strategic decisions (even quite operational ones) so that work is not done in vain and redone. 3) Students do this kind of job because they find it interesting, and they will do it their way. They will script/program in their own favourite language and they will try to use their own favourite OS (Linux :) when possible. One administrator might install lots of good applications to the system that will be a pain for the next administrator who dont have a clue what programs are installed, how they are licence, if anyone uses them and how to tweak them. Users dont really like to see features removed. Administrators prefer implementing their own favourite things in their own favourite way rather than mainaining old stuff.
4) As already pointed out in other posts; student operators know the students needs and care about them.
5) It might not be so easy to find new operators when to old ones finish their studies.
To sum up: if counting on students for running a university system good management is more important than otherwise. When working with such a complex task for a relatively short time it is hard to handle difficult decistions that will affect the system for several years.
OpenSSH should be called:
- OpenSSH
- SSH
- ASS
- ESH
- XXH
- FRESH
- OSTAKAS
- CowboyNeal
I really agree on this!
Downloading mp3s and using DeCSS MIGHT be wrong, but I guess many of you here do it anyway because YOU think it is the right thing to do (I really dont want to start a discussion here, just pointing out that there are different views). I also believe many people would continue to use DeCSS even if it turned out to be completely illegal.
I think the slashdot community loses some credability when it makes this issue an excersise in law. We slashdotters like common sense, nice companies and free software. This Finish entrepreneur has contributed to open source - ssh is an important and good tool. It is obvious that he is one of the "good guys", and he is not trying to force any of us to pay him for using ssh or whatever clone we prefer.
Let us change the name of OpenSSH, and hopefully SSH will license their future product in a more generous way than otherwise.
The only dangerous thing I can think about is if this snowballs; what other projects can be in danger?
The idea when designing GUIs is; if a feature is not found it does not exist. A GUI with lots of pop-up-menus and stuff will be slow and confuse the user. So what is the result? You cant: "Drag-and-drop" -F -R and this IS a problem. Even if I know exactly what I want to do with with a large folder with different permissions, the GUI does not allow it. There is no way to do powerful stuff to files in windows the way you can with rm, mv, cp, chmod etc in UNIX. (copy, xcopy, scopy is a joke) Sometimes this can be fixed by scripting but what happens to performance... And, have you ever been able to write a comment in a GUI program (for managing DHCP, users, WINS, network adapeters, whatever)? I write a lot of comments in my UNIX config files... ...of course a GUI can be easier to use for a beginner. I lack control when using linuxconf for configuring LILO.