An excellent article from Performance Computing on this very subject and the cluelessness of/all/ the vendors in the market as these beasts become more common:
Also check out http://www.wintercorp.com. An interesting note from that site is that, even though MicroSoft participated in and helped sponsor the survey, they did not place in the top 10 in any of the important, published categories. Maybe some (all?) of the interested slashdot readers could send the Redmondites a missive, asking for comment on this survey.
BTW, the Performance Computing site is maddog's publishing home and an excellent source of well-thought, sane information for both the erudite Linux/Open Source professional and his PHB.
Re:Sore Spot in Microsoft World
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RE: "...MS has invested over 10^9 $$$ into this technology to make sure WinCE keeps the market...."
Let's see, 10^9=1,000,000,000 or 1 billion (with a/B/) dollars...the last I checked MicroSoft's corporate annual and quarterly 10-Q's and reports, the/most/ I saw dedicated to the new RT and embedded technologies (including their panic-stricken attempts to hi-jack the markets for Jini, JNI, EDI and E-commerce) was on the order of 2.4 million. Their marketing and partnering efforts (from their last 10-Q) can realistically be estimated at between 20 and 30 million. Therefore, at the outside the figure is 50 million (with an M), approximately 1/20th of your claimed outlays to "make sure WinCE keeps the market..." They've spent/far/ more developing DirectX and the game interfaces than they have incorporating wanted features into their products to compete in these new markets. That is because in essence, their/real/ competitors are not *nix and Sun, but Nintendo and Sega.
The market for WinCE devices will cool when MicroSoft begins to do the same to the RT/Net appliance startups as they did to the ISV's and boxshops: gouge them by changing the licensing agreements. Additionally, Microsoft, thanks to DOJ, is now more widely known to be the rapacious and unethical company those of us in the industry always experienced in our dealings with them. A startup will weight all this with the fact that there are now alternatives in the market to WinCE (remember, its been 5 years since WinCE 1.x was released and only 1 since the OSS community has been on most people's radar screens.).
However, this is only/one/ device of the many that are on the drawing boards using alternatives to MicroSoft products. The real/panic/ in Redmond will start when Sega, Nintendo, and others begin releasing game machines using non-MicroSoft OS's and outperforming them in their real market (even on NT): GAMES!
BTW, where did you say you got your graduate degree?
Re:Why use Linux? It's stupid
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RE: "...but I can't veiw my Word docs in it or what ever..."
Check out StarOffice 5.1 and KOffice (the Gnome project Office Suite RSN!). They have created filters that allow you to see all but the latest Microsoft Office (Office 2000) formatted docs/apps and run the macros (including, with a little work in StarOffice, Access).
Of course, you could/always/ share Office apps by using.html,.rtf, and.pdf, but some people just don't take the time to learn the tools they are using.
Re:Law of Supp/Demand
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PhD/MBA or MSCE? From the spelling and grammar here and elsewhere in this thread, I would say the latter, rather than the former...if not, how about a bit of proof? After all, to get your presumptive Phd, you had to submit yourself to 'rigorous peer and academic review' and publish.
At least tell us what college you teach at (or the 'brain-trust' you work for) so we can send it in to US News in time for the B-school ratings.
The only thing I don't see is the Firewire or SCSI port in the back of the box.../that/ would have accomplished the 'recording' function...
WRT QNX, the price-point of Linux vs. any proprietary-licensed OS is irresistible for a startup, especially one is rapid prototype mode...what/really/ speaks well for Linux is that Phillips did not see it to be necessary to change the prototype OS to a proprietary one for the production model...and, since these guys have admitted to kernel extensions, all of us otaku are gonna get a chance to see and review (and, hopefully, improve!) the changes, as mandated by the license!
Re:Why use Linux? It's stupid
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Digital VCRs
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Ummm...I'm going to assume you have your tongue/firmly/ planted in your cheek (or is it planted further SOUTH in your anatomy, say, somewhere on the anterior side, about 9-inches below your waist??).../ONLY/ those products that have paid Microsoft for the 'privilege' of licensing Plug-n-Play 'autoconfigure.' The rest, who either can't or won't pay for this piece of bug-ridden, hardware limiting brain-death, must continue to issue 'plug-n-pray' software that misses as often as it hits.
Doubt me? Then check the Reveal, ATI, USRobotics, Hewlett Packard or Microsoft Tech Support BBSes and see how much trouble it is to autoconfigure a Windows PC.
I use Linux and Unix work-alikes because I'm/smart/, not stupid...after all, I want to know what my hardware does, and push it to its limits, not just accept someone else's idea of what 'performance is (like as not with Windows, it's BSOD!)...
"Stop.." the government interfered to begin with in order to keep the rates low and keep you TV junkies from whining about $100 / month cable bills for Basic Service (as it was first proposed). Now the Cable Suits guys see another market and they want the same rights they have had to deliver cable for _our_ cable...the land, the service, hell, even the concept of a "franchised utility" all goes back to the people and the communities...The states and feds had nothing to do with awarding the "franchises" in the first place...who else would have jurisdiction?...remember: "All government is local."
You miss the whole point of the net...if DoD can do it with SIPRNET, who says we can't (who says we haven't, hmmmm?)...after all, one man's noise is another's info...just ask the folks that design GPS receivers...that is the power of kernel hacking...that is why Projects like BOA and BO and the LRP are so important...don't forget the X.25 standard...and, remember FIDONet
And if you can do that on the net, who's to say that with micro-transmitters and NRT transmissions with Very Large Package/MTU technologies, you might come up with the next DB technology...everyone sets their own limits to how far they will allow the corporate/governmental thuggery to continue...if you think hard enough, you can solve the problem, _if_ it is important enough to you, personally.
Seems to me that there were similar worries early in the satellite TV days with the crypto boxes for the big dishes...that was solved when someone exploited the back door and then put the solution out on USENet. Now you can buy a card/SmartCard that allows you access to every channel able to be demodulated from your geographic location...including HBO, etc.
Linux is a small kernel...the I/O drivers are Open and Free...just give the underground a chance...I guarantee you will be approached on the internet 2 days after your settop box/cable provider goes UCITA!
Remember guys, this was all preordained...you're dealing with companies that sell software. Money is their first priority. Sell-outs like this are to be expected.
Truly open-source software apps (XAmp, FreeAmp, etc) will begin to prevail (as they should!). Also, Sonique, Kjofol, and others that come from the hacker community will still be around.
It only remains to be seen how AOL will poison this as they poisoned ICQ.
This is the best thing that could happen for open source software. The publishers are closing ranks and restricting their users more and more. We have reached a critical mass with Apache, sendmail, emacs, etc. and don't need to worry about the 'reverse-engineering' provisions of this law.
Corporations will come our way in droves if we point out that not only don't we implement UCITA and its noisome 'self-help' strictures, they can see that we don't for themselves. Also, since they own the source, _no one_ can take their software away from them. We should be trumpeting this from the highest peaks. Can you imagine what fear this will strike into the PHB's and suits when they find out that if they don't accede to punishing 'licensing terms' __________ (--Oracle, Microsoft, SAP, Peoplesoft, Baan, etc.--) (fill in the blank) will remotely disable their software throughout their enterprise, from the desktops to the server farms, into the mainframes and down to the data warehouse. Most painfully, the courts and the legislatures will let them!!! Talk about a gun to your head!!! "Sure the data is yours. Try to get at it!"
However, we DO need to beat these fsckers at their own game and protect our 'prior art' at all times when it is obvious (IIS, Exchange, Notes, etc.) that they are the ones doing the reverse engineering. In these cases we need to insist that all these products conform to the liceses they were initially released under or these anal-retentive zipperheads will find themselves in court!!! Also, we need to DEMAND participation in the standards bodies, so they cannot lock the standards (as Rational and Microsoft have done and continue to do.)
The only threat I see here is from Adobe. Anyone know if they still have any claim to PostScript?
Doc, in calling my humorous observation "knee-jerk" YOU made it personal and elicited the "ad hominem" attacks. I don't "troll," but that was an opportunity too good to miss.
No, I don't reserve my "bile" and "venom" for the Dark Lords of Redmond. They do it to themselves, every time a departmental server has to be cold booted after a BSOD or to alleviate the leaks in memory.
I don't go after Sun for Solaris, (although I _DO_ for Java! heh-heh) because they released the source code for me to examine in order to determine if it is safe to run my and my customers critical applications on (ever hear of "Free Solaris"?
I could care less about the licenses, GPL, LGPL, artistic, whatever. I want to see the source, to determine the stability of the system. I want to compile the kernel myself, with only the services I want and need. I don't want to have to guess at how to interface the tools I write and the apps my customer depends on to an impossibly convoluted mess of spaghetti that even the "manufacturer" admits few if any of their "artisans" understand.
As to "porting" Unix and Linux apps to NT, I ask you _WHY_? Why do you "...enable customers to recapture their long-term investment in applications written on UNIX systems for reuse on Windows NT. The INTERIX software platform allows customers to run these UNIX system applications on Windows NT." Why would I, as an ISV or corporate user use your product, instead of serving data in an agreed, standard format, over the network, to stable, dependable platforms, whose users do not have to worry about data loss due to constant GPF's? Why would I bother to gamble on your solution, when everyone who has tried this before (including Mortice Kerns) failed miserably? It's not their (or your) fault. NT is suitable for OpenGL games and small, departmental applications. It doesn't scale, it crashes frequently and it leaks like the Titanic after the iceberg hit.
If you want to hunt for new code mercenaries and pay them $1000 to "port" open source apps to your system, more power to you. Just don't gloat about getting off so cheap. At least not here.
A better use of your $1000 would have been to give it to maddog's Linux International (to which MY parent company belongs) or to one of the fine Project Teams seeking to expand Linux (yes, even Caldera, and let's not forget SUSE, RedHat, and all the rest who distribute "closed" apps in their distros, but have OPEN KERNELS).
I do read your comments: in defense of the IEEE, and (thankfully) of Rob's right to advertise here on/.
Again, _YOU_ made it personal...don't want to see comments like my initial one in this thread? Then use the 'Slash' the way Rob designed it and set your user profile to screen everything under "1". Either that, or don't accuse someone of "trolling" or "kneejerk" reactions and expect not to get called on it.
Now, will you answer my question about what is different in your solution from NutCraker? Will you tell me WHY I need to port to NT, when I can just share the data?
Sorry to take so long to respond, but I was doing REAL work on open source projects...here goes:
I DID read the website. Besides the fact that your marketing bozoids say nothing (without some digging) about anything other than, QUOTE (from YOUR HOME PAGE): "INTERIX is the high-performance software platform for running UNIX and LINUX applications, commands and shells on Windows NT." ENDQUOTE; YOUR words, not mine.
NOWHERE in your website do you mention the terms of YOUR license, other than to say that your parent, Softway, has filed with the Open Group for Unix certification...so the only reason you DON'T want to call it UNIX is because you don't want to tick off the OG.
From the above, I infer that you will seek and market a closed, proprietary solution, making YOU the fellow that's off topic (Topic is: "Getting Paid to Write Open Source Code," not, "Advertise Your Latest Attempt to Jump on the Free Software Bandwagon!")
Doc, you can "layer" ("lawyer?") all the "personality" on top of bloated, non-scalable, broken 60's POSIX-wannabe, me-too technology you want. "micro-kernel," "macro-kernel," whatever, it still lives on top of and requires the same 20-million lines of code and 500 megabytes of kernel and required services that Microsoft wants to sell me for a minimum of $700 and you want to add $299 or more on top of! You're just going down the same path that Datafocus/MKS went down with NutCracker. The ONLY difference (besides your code, and MAYBE your "technology,"...I don't know; the source is CLOSED, so I can't examine it!) is you and Softway want to be called an "OS," rather than a "porting solution."
My rule has always been, 'If it looks like a skunk, smells like a skunk, and has two white stripes down the back, I don't need to be squirted to know that it STINKS and I better stay away;' or as my late father might have said, "Son, I don't believe that little black-and-white striped doggie is gonna hunt." (SMILE)
As for "knee-jerk," "valid," and "troll:" well, I may have done bad things in my life, but I'VE NEVER ADVERTISED ON SLASHDOT BY POSTING TO THE FORUM. If you're gonna advertise, pay the blockstackerz and get a banner!
As for "justifying Interix," you won't here, because you CAN'T. It is proprietary, closed and built on a failing operating system built for 286's. If you want to "support" and not suborn the community, pay for a REAL operating system, don't sponsor a "Bounty Hunt." Sponsor a Project, then release the source to the community.
Otherwise, just slink away and join the rest of the clueless PHB's and marketing know-nothings that joined our community only when Linus made the front page of Forbes. The rest of us have been laboring unnoticed here in the trenches since '92 and code for and operate with TRULY open minds...focused on OPEN SOURCE.
By the way, my original comment was meant as a humorous riposte to your obvious off-topic advertising of a closed, commercial product on a thread about Open Source Software and its future. I posted it with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek. The fact you couldn't read that into the post, shows that maybe you're spending too much time around the marketing and VC guys and not enough time coding, Quaking and enjoying life with the rest of us. Or, maybe there's no room in your "personality," on top of all that bloat for humour? (Ummm, Doc; calm down...another joke.)
The kernel IS Linux...everything else is just gravy on top of Linus', Alan's, et. al.'s gourmet dish!!!
The key to the Linux/OpenBSD/FreeBSD community is that it is open...if the PLC's get fast enough, the embedding of Linux will happen....already has happened: the Qube, WatchGuard, the Tiny, the MatchBochs WebServer, and Linux on the Palm are allwitness to this.
Because the system is open, you can compoile it as big or small as you like...Linux is not ANYTHING based! The oonly reason there's a marke for WinCE in hand-helds is to give Intel a place to sell low-end power-sucker x86's and the Japanese and Taiwanese to sell RAM...the bloated beast is so I/O bound, it will never fly as an embedded OS! Where does that leave M$? With the W2K bug, and 1/2 a gig for the kernel and required services! YAAAAY!
OH GOODY!!!! More noise on the net! Remember, bandwidth is FINITE!!!!!! You play into the hands of the very people you hope to defeat with this little trick!
Their mission (if "they" have one) is to MONITOR SIGNALZ...if you noise up the Net, they simply add adaptive filtering ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE better than anything you skript kiddiez can come up with! Then they use the filters to zero in on the suddenly very much lessened "intelligence" and true signals that are there.
Remember, we're wher we are today in the computer world BECAUSE of these folks. The "high powered, over-clocked, flame spewing, megazoid, 550Mhz, 256Mb" box on your desk with the 21" monitor is just one of the tiniest of tiny crumbs from their table...paid for by your tax dollarz, so you can sleep soundly every night.
According to a recent article, they use OpenBSD to check the routers for intrusion...as far as the Dictionary...I would guess some high-end parallel processing, journaled FS, withg about a jillion layers of authentication and an encrypted kernel
Re:SLASHDOT (GPL, LGPL, BSD, or TM?) Project? (#2)
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RE: "...and letting a few good perl hackers fix some of the minor things,..."
Why only "perl?"
Why not PHP3 (Zope?), python, TKL/TK, even some Java servlets...even (shudder) ASP/DCOM...
That's the real advantage of open software in a CVS setting...letting the source "fork" and the "tree" branch...letting the code "evolve" without regard for the underlying technology...
Who knows? A CVS-sourced/code tree might even motivate someone to write a WYSIWYG editor for *NIX web-page creation...maybe it would spell the death of all those stupid Apache/Linux ISP servers w/ FrontPage extensions...aaaaahhhhhh!
meanwhile the REAL work of Slashdot: building community, creative thought, and opposition to the Pointy-haired Ones...
The more I think about it....'scuse me, I gotta go write Rob!!!
Slashdot Mirror
An excellent article from Performance Computing on this very subject and the cluelessness of /all/ the vendors in the market as these beasts become more common:
9 05f1.shtml
http://www.performance-computing.com/features/9
Also check out http://www.wintercorp.com. An interesting note from that site is that, even though MicroSoft participated in and helped sponsor the survey, they did not place in the top 10 in any of the important, published categories. Maybe some (all?) of the interested slashdot readers could send the Redmondites a missive, asking for comment on this survey.
BTW, the Performance Computing site is maddog's publishing home and an excellent source of well-thought, sane information for both the erudite Linux/Open Source professional and his PHB.
RE: "...MS has invested over 10^9 $$$ into this technology to make sure WinCE keeps the market...."
/B/) dollars...the last I checked MicroSoft's corporate annual and quarterly 10-Q's and reports, the /most/ I saw dedicated to the new RT and embedded technologies (including their panic-stricken attempts to hi-jack the markets for Jini, JNI, EDI and E-commerce) was on the order of 2.4 million. Their marketing and partnering efforts (from their last 10-Q) can realistically be estimated at between 20 and 30 million. Therefore, at the outside the figure is 50 million (with an M), approximately 1/20th of your claimed outlays to "make sure WinCE keeps the market..." They've spent /far/ more developing DirectX and the game interfaces than they have incorporating wanted features into their products to compete in these new markets. That is because in essence, their /real/ competitors are not *nix and Sun, but Nintendo and Sega.
/one/ device of the many that are on the drawing boards using alternatives to MicroSoft products. The real /panic/ in Redmond will start when Sega, Nintendo, and others begin releasing game machines using non-MicroSoft OS's and outperforming them in their real market (even on NT): GAMES!
Let's see, 10^9=1,000,000,000 or 1 billion (with a
The market for WinCE devices will cool when MicroSoft begins to do the same to the RT/Net appliance startups as they did to the ISV's and boxshops: gouge them by changing the licensing agreements. Additionally, Microsoft, thanks to DOJ, is now more widely known to be the rapacious and unethical company those of us in the industry always experienced in our dealings with them. A startup will weight all this with the fact that there are now alternatives in the market to WinCE (remember, its been 5 years since WinCE 1.x was released and only 1 since the OSS community has been on most people's radar screens.).
However, this is only
BTW, where did you say you got your graduate degree?
RE: "...but I can't veiw my Word docs in it or what ever..."
/always/ share Office apps by using .html, .rtf, and .pdf, but some people just don't take the time to learn the tools they are using.
Check out StarOffice 5.1 and KOffice (the Gnome project Office Suite RSN!). They have created filters that allow you to see all but the latest Microsoft Office (Office 2000) formatted docs/apps and run the macros (including, with a little work in StarOffice, Access).
Of course, you could
PhD/MBA or MSCE? From the spelling and grammar here and elsewhere in this thread, I would say the latter, rather than the former...if not, how about a bit of proof? After all, to get your presumptive Phd, you had to submit yourself to 'rigorous peer and academic review' and publish.
At least tell us what college you teach at (or the 'brain-trust' you work for) so we can send it in to US News in time for the B-school ratings.
muKernel works on Clio, too, with support for stylus and better color performance. Also leaves more RAM and disk space available.
/dog/ as compared to a decent 486 with the same amount of RAM...
Specs show, however that it is a
What's the progress on Broadcast 2000?
Ummm, it's /down/ 17% since April, been downgraded at least once by three of the five top analysts, and was /down/ 1 7/8 Friday...
Also, just barely made the top 10 of the BW Top 100 Techs (made it with reservations).
RE:..."thanks for the dope-slap"
You're welcome.
And it's not 99%, it's 73% (and shrinking).
On topic...
/really/ speaks well for Linux is that Phillips did not see it to be necessary to change the prototype OS to a proprietary one for the production model...and, since these guys have admitted to kernel extensions, all of us otaku are gonna get a chance to see and review (and, hopefully, improve!) the changes, as mandated by the license!
The only thing I don't see is the Firewire or SCSI port in the back of the box.../that/ would have accomplished the 'recording' function...
WRT QNX, the price-point of Linux vs. any proprietary-licensed OS is irresistible for a startup, especially one is rapid prototype mode...what
Ummm...I'm going to assume you have your tongue /firmly/ planted in your cheek (or is it planted further SOUTH in your anatomy, say, somewhere on the anterior side, about 9-inches below your waist??).../ONLY/ those products that have paid Microsoft for the 'privilege' of licensing Plug-n-Play 'autoconfigure.' The rest, who either can't or won't pay for this piece of bug-ridden, hardware limiting brain-death, must continue to issue 'plug-n-pray' software that misses as often as it hits.
/smart/, not stupid...after all, I want to know what my hardware does, and push it to its limits, not just accept someone else's idea of what 'performance is (like as not with Windows, it's BSOD!)...
Doubt me? Then check the Reveal, ATI, USRobotics, Hewlett Packard or Microsoft Tech Support BBSes and see how much trouble it is to autoconfigure a Windows PC.
I use Linux and Unix work-alikes because I'm
Back to Redmond FUDboy
Just a point of info: 10-10-321 is MCI (Sprint?)
"Stop.." the government interfered to begin with in order to keep the rates low and keep you TV junkies from whining about $100 / month cable bills for Basic Service (as it was first proposed). Now the Cable Suits guys see another market and they want the same rights they have had to deliver cable for _our_ cable...the land, the service, hell, even the concept of a "franchised utility" all goes back to the people and the communities...The states and feds had nothing to do with awarding the "franchises" in the first place...who else would have jurisdiction?...remember: "All government is local."
You miss the whole point of the net...if DoD can do it with SIPRNET, who says we can't (who says we haven't, hmmmm?)...after all, one man's noise is another's info...just ask the folks that design GPS receivers...that is the power of kernel hacking...that is why Projects like BOA and BO and the LRP are so important...don't forget the X.25 standard...and, remember FIDONet
And if you can do that on the net, who's to say that with micro-transmitters and NRT transmissions with Very Large Package/MTU technologies, you might come up with the next DB technology...everyone sets their own limits to how far they will allow the corporate/governmental thuggery to continue...if you think hard enough, you can solve the problem, _if_ it is important enough to you, personally.
1. code-monkey
2. Eckel's "software craftsman" (http://www.BruceEckel.com)
3. memetic artisan
Seems to me that there were similar worries early in the satellite TV days with the crypto boxes for the big dishes...that was solved when someone exploited the back door and then put the solution out on USENet. Now you can buy a card/SmartCard that allows you access to every channel able to be demodulated from your geographic location...including HBO, etc.
Linux is a small kernel...the I/O drivers are Open and Free...just give the underground a chance...I guarantee you will be approached on the internet 2 days after your settop box/cable provider goes UCITA!
Remember guys, this was all preordained...you're dealing with companies that sell software. Money is their first priority. Sell-outs like this are to be expected.
Truly open-source software apps (XAmp, FreeAmp, etc) will begin to prevail (as they should!). Also, Sonique, Kjofol, and others that come from the hacker community will still be around.
It only remains to be seen how AOL will poison this as they poisoned ICQ.
This is the best thing that could happen for open source software. The publishers are closing ranks and restricting their users more and more. We have reached a critical mass with Apache, sendmail, emacs, etc. and don't need to worry about the 'reverse-engineering' provisions of this law.
Corporations will come our way in droves if we point out that not only don't we implement UCITA and its noisome 'self-help' strictures, they can see that we don't for themselves. Also, since they own the source, _no one_ can take their software away from them. We should be trumpeting this from the highest peaks. Can you imagine what fear this will strike into the PHB's and suits when they find out that if they don't accede to punishing 'licensing terms' __________ (--Oracle, Microsoft, SAP, Peoplesoft, Baan, etc.--) (fill in the blank) will remotely disable their software throughout their enterprise, from the desktops to the server farms, into the mainframes and down to the data warehouse. Most painfully, the courts and the legislatures will let them!!! Talk about a gun to your head!!! "Sure the data is yours. Try to get at it!"
However, we DO need to beat these fsckers at their own game and protect our 'prior art' at all times when it is obvious (IIS, Exchange, Notes, etc.) that they are the ones doing the reverse engineering. In these cases we need to insist that all these products conform to the liceses they were initially released under or these anal-retentive zipperheads will find themselves in court!!! Also, we need to DEMAND participation in the standards bodies, so they cannot lock the standards (as Rational and Microsoft have done and continue to do.)
The only threat I see here is from Adobe. Anyone know if they still have any claim to PostScript?
You looking to be hired?
The advantage of the CVS tree is that with source the IDEA stays with the blockstackerz, but the technology grows.
> no word from the King o' Slash tho...Hemos? Rob? You guys out there?
Doc, in calling my humorous observation "knee-jerk" YOU made it personal and elicited the "ad hominem" attacks. I don't "troll," but that was an opportunity too good to miss.
/.
No, I don't reserve my "bile" and "venom" for the Dark Lords of Redmond. They do it to themselves, every time a departmental server has to be cold booted after a BSOD or to alleviate the leaks in memory.
I don't go after Sun for Solaris, (although I _DO_ for Java! heh-heh) because they released the source code for me to examine in order to determine if it is safe to run my and my customers critical applications on (ever hear of "Free Solaris"?
I could care less about the licenses, GPL, LGPL, artistic, whatever. I want to see the source, to determine the stability of the system. I want to compile the kernel myself, with only the services I want and need. I don't want to have to guess at how to interface the tools I write and the apps my customer depends on to an impossibly convoluted mess of spaghetti that even the "manufacturer" admits few if any of their "artisans" understand.
As to "porting" Unix and Linux apps to NT, I ask you _WHY_? Why do you "...enable customers to recapture their long-term investment in applications written on UNIX systems for reuse on Windows NT. The INTERIX software platform allows customers to run these UNIX system applications on Windows NT." Why would I, as an ISV or corporate user use your product, instead of serving data in an agreed, standard format, over the network, to stable, dependable platforms, whose users do not have to worry about data loss due to constant GPF's? Why would I bother to gamble on your solution, when everyone who has tried this before (including Mortice Kerns) failed miserably? It's not their (or your) fault. NT is suitable for OpenGL games and small, departmental applications. It doesn't scale, it crashes frequently and it leaks like the Titanic after the iceberg hit.
If you want to hunt for new code mercenaries and pay them $1000 to "port" open source apps to your system, more power to you. Just don't gloat about getting off so cheap. At least not here.
A better use of your $1000 would have been to give it to maddog's Linux International (to which MY parent company belongs) or to one of the fine Project Teams seeking to expand Linux (yes, even Caldera, and let's not forget SUSE, RedHat, and all the rest who distribute "closed" apps in their distros, but have OPEN KERNELS).
I do read your comments: in defense of the IEEE, and (thankfully) of Rob's right to advertise here on
Again, _YOU_ made it personal...don't want to see comments like my initial one in this thread? Then use the 'Slash' the way Rob designed it and set your user profile to screen everything under "1". Either that, or don't accuse someone of "trolling" or "kneejerk" reactions and expect not to get called on it.
Now, will you answer my question about what is different in your solution from NutCraker? Will you tell me WHY I need to port to NT, when I can just share the data?
Sorry to take so long to respond, but I was doing REAL work on open source projects...here goes:
I DID read the website. Besides the fact that your marketing bozoids say nothing (without some digging) about anything other than, QUOTE (from YOUR HOME PAGE): "INTERIX is the high-performance software platform for running UNIX and LINUX applications, commands and shells on Windows NT." ENDQUOTE; YOUR words, not mine.
NOWHERE in your website do you mention the terms of YOUR license, other than to say that your parent, Softway, has filed with the Open Group for Unix certification...so the only reason you DON'T want to call it UNIX is because you don't want to tick off the OG.
From the above, I infer that you will seek and market a closed, proprietary solution, making YOU the fellow that's off topic (Topic is: "Getting Paid to Write Open Source Code," not, "Advertise Your Latest Attempt to Jump on the Free Software Bandwagon!")
Doc, you can "layer" ("lawyer?") all the "personality" on top of bloated, non-scalable, broken 60's POSIX-wannabe, me-too technology you want. "micro-kernel," "macro-kernel," whatever, it still lives on top of and requires the same 20-million lines of code and 500 megabytes of kernel and required services that Microsoft wants to sell me for a minimum of $700 and you want to add $299 or more on top of! You're just going down the same path that Datafocus/MKS went down with NutCracker. The ONLY difference (besides your code, and MAYBE your "technology,"...I don't know; the source is CLOSED, so I can't examine it!) is you and Softway want to be called an "OS," rather than a "porting solution."
My rule has always been, 'If it looks like a skunk, smells like a skunk, and has two white stripes down the back, I don't need to be squirted to know that it STINKS and I better stay away;' or as my late father might have said, "Son, I don't believe that little black-and-white striped doggie is gonna hunt." (SMILE)
As for "knee-jerk," "valid," and "troll:" well, I may have done bad things in my life, but I'VE NEVER ADVERTISED ON SLASHDOT BY POSTING TO THE FORUM. If you're gonna advertise, pay the blockstackerz and get a banner!
As for "justifying Interix," you won't here, because you CAN'T. It is proprietary, closed and built on a failing operating system built for 286's. If you want to "support" and not suborn the community, pay for a REAL operating system, don't sponsor a "Bounty Hunt." Sponsor a Project, then release the source to the community.
Otherwise, just slink away and join the rest of the clueless PHB's and marketing know-nothings that joined our community only when Linus made the front page of Forbes. The rest of us have been laboring unnoticed here in the trenches since '92 and code for and operate with TRULY open minds...focused on OPEN SOURCE.
By the way, my original comment was meant as a humorous riposte to your obvious off-topic advertising of a closed, commercial product on a thread about Open Source Software and its future. I posted it with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek. The fact you couldn't read that into the post, shows that maybe you're spending too much time around the marketing and VC guys and not enough time coding, Quaking and enjoying life with the rest of us. Or, maybe there's no room in your "personality," on top of all that bloat for humour? (Ummm, Doc; calm down...another joke.)
The kernel IS Linux...everything else is just gravy on top of Linus', Alan's, et. al.'s gourmet dish!!!
The key to the Linux/OpenBSD/FreeBSD community is that it is open...if the PLC's get fast enough, the embedding of Linux will happen....already has happened: the Qube, WatchGuard, the Tiny, the MatchBochs WebServer, and Linux on the Palm are allwitness to this.
Because the system is open, you can compoile it as big or small as you like...Linux is not ANYTHING based! The oonly reason there's a marke for WinCE in hand-helds is to give Intel a place to sell low-end power-sucker x86's and the Japanese and Taiwanese to sell RAM...the bloated beast is so I/O bound, it will never fly as an embedded OS! Where does that leave M$? With the W2K bug, and 1/2 a gig for the kernel and required services! YAAAAY!
OH GOODY!!!! More noise on the net! Remember, bandwidth is FINITE!!!!!! You play into the hands of the very people you hope to defeat with this little trick!
Their mission (if "they" have one) is to MONITOR SIGNALZ...if you noise up the Net, they simply add adaptive filtering ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE better than anything you skript kiddiez can come up with! Then they use the filters to zero in on the suddenly very much lessened "intelligence" and true signals that are there.
Remember, we're wher we are today in the computer world BECAUSE of these folks. The "high powered, over-clocked, flame spewing, megazoid, 550Mhz, 256Mb" box on your desk with the 21" monitor is just one of the tiniest of tiny crumbs from their table...paid for by your tax dollarz, so you can sleep soundly every night.
Quit worrying about "big Bro" and get a life!
According to a recent article, they use OpenBSD to check the routers for intrusion...as far as the Dictionary...I would guess some high-end parallel processing, journaled FS, withg about a jillion layers of authentication and an encrypted kernel
RE: "...and letting a few good perl hackers fix some of the minor things, ..."
/code tree might even motivate someone to write a WYSIWYG editor for *NIX web-page creation...maybe it would spell the death of all those stupid Apache/Linux ISP servers w/ FrontPage extensions...aaaaahhhhhh!
Why only "perl?"
Why not PHP3 (Zope?), python, TKL/TK, even some Java servlets...even (shudder) ASP/DCOM...
That's the real advantage of open software in a CVS setting...letting the source "fork" and the "tree" branch...letting the code "evolve" without regard for the underlying technology...
Who knows? A CVS-sourced
meanwhile the REAL work of Slashdot: building community, creative thought, and opposition to the Pointy-haired Ones...
The more I think about it....'scuse me, I gotta go write Rob!!!