Reason being, it appears to me that he built a PIX, for the purpose of studying the Cisco PIX IOS. Not mass reproduction and sales. I know several other people who have done the same thing for the purpose of having a Cisco lab at home to design and test a work related project, or to study for Cisco certification exams.
I do NOT know anyone who has built one of these and deployed it for production use. It doesn't make sense. You would be unable to get support for either software or hardware faults.
So maybe you should lighten up and consider that this guy is probably studying to get the Cisco security cert.
The story clearly stated that these people are newbs in the security field. Not someone I want protecting the security of computers belonging to the armed forces.
Additionally, they went about this the wrong way. The right way would have been to contact a responsible party and professionally report the issues they found, not grab a bunch of stuff and call a news team. I know that based on their actions, I wouldn't hire them.
That's just me. I choose to work with professionals.
Is that during a Linux install, you can rip out all of those things that you know you don't need, want, or will use.
On the other hand, look at Windows 2000 installation ( My favorite Windows if I have to use it), there's literally nothing to the install. You can't go in and disable things, and there is a very small number of things that you can deselect. You have to wait until after the install is finished, then go disable things via the Windows registry.
I'll take the granular Linux install over the take it all and like it Windows install any day.
I wish one of these days there would actually be a hard assed judge who would just make the breakup ruling, and then stick to it.
Then have a higher court that actually had a pair of balls between the members that made the ruling stick.
How many times does it take for the government to realize that M$ just isn't going to change their ways?
What? We can't do that? Oh ok...we won't do it again.
<snicker>
Every time I hear something like this I think back to one of Sam Kinison's
skits... (substitute the word Microsoft for love and you'll see what I mean).
Common....love wouldn't lie to you 13 times in a row fuckhead.
I admin a mail server, and I think the one thing that people here are fogetting is that on 50% of all SPAM and I'm sure an even higher percentage of SPAM claiming to have a hotmail address as the sender, the envelope sender address is forged anyway. The spammer has found some open relay that has a clueless admin that won't secure it, and they pump as much SPAM through it as they can before the relay hits the blacklists.
This means that it actually has nothing to do with hotmail, or microsoft, other than spammers assume (correctly in most cases) that mail admins won't block the entire hotmail.com domain as SPAM.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending anyone here, I'm just saying, be clear on what the problem is, and who the bad guy is before getting out the pitchforks and torches.
To be honest, I have to say that it depends on the company, and more specifically, the management.
Some managers may actually be genuine in matching the offer and hoping that you'll stay on. They already have a proven resource, and the time and expense of replacing you justifies giving you the raise.
Other management however, is going to see it as a breech of trust. Any offer they make will only be to keep you happy long enough to find a suitable replacement.
So I guess the real question is, what is your relationship with management like? Have you seen how they have dealt with others in your company in this situation in the past?
Those should be the factors you weigh when considering this counter-offer.
I didn't endorse any one vendor. I gave an example, and stated that any potential vendors support plans should be considered prior to the purchase.
I'm not in any way shape or form attempting to start a UNIX war. I believe that people should completely review their own unique situations and determine based on all factors which one is right for them.
Aside from having to watch two patch lists, and maintain a skillset for two platforms, there's another large consideration to be made.
Money.
You obviously already know that managing support contracts from multiple vendors is going to suck. I would also recommend taking a long hard look at ongoing support charges.
For example, we have both HP/UX and Sun platforms where I work. We have both servers and workstations. For the workstation support contracts on similarly sized machines, there was a world of difference in cost.
The annual fee for an HP C240 workstation was somewhere between $2500 and $3000. The same annual charge for a Sun Ultra of equal speed, was between $1000 and $1500. Multiply that by the number of workstaions you have to maintain, and it can add up very quickly.
The up front cost typically isn't where they get you. It's on the back end. I would research the back end on all of the platforms you are considering very carefully before making any final decisions.
One sentence in there just about admits that Microsoft writes crappy software, but that's ok, because they want to make a profit from crappy software.
Many argue that its programmers have turned out shoddy programs, but the
firm's objective is to make profit, not superlative programs per se. By the
profit criterion, Microsoft has been one of the greatest companies in the
history of this country.
What a great big bunch of crap! It actually turns my stomach sometimes
to even work in the same industry as those people.
Perhaps I'm being overly optimistic, but I do hope that as more and more mainstream companies adopt Linux, that this will become more and more viable.
Right now Linux is listed as a "Test/Pilot" status with J&J, meaning that we can't even consider deploying it for mission critical unless there was an absolutely bulletproof business case that we HAD to have it to run some app, blah blah blah...you get the idea.
Once that status changes to "Deploy" I fully intend to push that, and I'll definitely be advocating signing support agreements with Redhat when we deploy servers.
But that's just my vision of utopia...yours may be different.
There are a number of reasons that I won't be using this distribution. This is #1 out of many. The fact that Redhat and Debian are not involved with this distro are another big reason. The way this UnitedLinux is moving, I'm not even convinced at this point that they're going to get it off the ground.
With these kind of announcements, it's beginning to look as though Caldera is making the decisions. What a shame. They got a shiny new toy for Christmas and they just can't wait to break it.
Can't they just be happy with taking their own company down the crapper?
But the day I heard SCO was acquired by Caldera, I knew it was over. It was only a matter of time.
I asked our CEO very shortly thereafter...So when are we migrating Oracle over to Linux? "Never!" was his reply. I suppose he didn't realize then that SCO was no longer going to be a viable option as a mission critical platform.
I certainly can't say it surprises me. I mean look at Caldera's track record. Maybe someone over at the new UnitedLinux should consider giving them the boot before they take that down the tubes too.
BTW...I'm not being a troll. I'm just a little over opinionated about this I suppose. It's just difficult to have any respect for a company that takes anything they have of any value and pisses it away.
I have to say that personally in theory, I agree with you. An ultra distribution combining the best of the breed would be something that everyone would benefit from.
But then to play devil's advocate, I have to come at it from a business standpoint as well. I work for one of the many subsidiaries of J&J. We don't necessarily care that this one distro is the absolute best of all distributions. We are concerned about one thing. Support. Who do we call at 2:30am when our production Oracle server coughs up a hairball? No one wants to hear any..."I'll submit to the forums and hope we hear something by morning". We want an answer, and we want it now, so that database will be back online when users roll into work.
If this new United Linux doesn't have that going for it, I don't see it making much headway in the corporate space.
And honestly....That's where I really want to see Linux thrive.
I can't say I agree with that statement. I mean, be serious for a minute. Who are the players here? Caldera, Conectiva, SuSE and Turbolinux. None of these companies are big players in the US except maybe SuSE. Turbolinux is a player in the far east. Connectiva is big in South America. Caldera doesn't seem to have any kind of grip on the market at all (Caldera stock can be had for a mere.97 cents).
In my opinion, so long as Redhat stays focused and continues catering to big business, I don't see them losing ground to this team.
I may be one of the few on this side, but I won't be trading in my Redhat CDs for United Linux for quite a while. I've been using Redhat for a couple years now, and for the most part, I'm a happy customer. It would take either a HUGE advance on someone elses part, or a big nose dive on Redhat's part to get me to switch.
If it would help the record execs pull their heads out of their asses. It would be nice if they would realize that not all of us are media theives. Some of us would like to know what we're buying before we buy it though.
Case in point...I know I wouldn't buy a DVD if I hadn't already seen the movie, and concluded that I liked it enough to watch it again.
I want to echo the statement of another poster, then go one better.
The certifications are what help you get your foot in the door. In many cases, the HR people that are advertising for, or seeking the skilled professionals, have no real knowledge of what this person should know, so keywords like MCSE, CCNP, MCSD, and RHCE in your resume, and on your Dice/Monster/InsertFavJobSiteHere page are extremely helpful in getting the calls and emails to get that initial interview.
Additionally, in some cases, an appropriate certification commensurate with your position is required. I would not have the job that I currently hold, if I didn't posses an MCSE. The pharma company I work for uses certs as a tool to show the FDA that appropriately trained and certified personnel are running the systems on site. Now that I have started working on Sun workstations and servers there, I have to go get certified so that my training record reflects that "I am qualified to fulfill the duties of my position".
Bottom line, choose whatever you enjoy more, networking, Windows SA, UNIX SA, development, whatever...then get a cert appropriate for the positions you'll be seeking.
I would have to say that it all depends. If you can afford the time and expense of going to college, I would definitely recommend it. A degree is something that doesn't expire like certs do.
I would additionally get certified in whatever field you intend to go into. Networking, get Cisco, UNIX, get Sun or HP cert, Windows, get MCSE.
Once you've accomplished that, do your best to stay on top of your game. That's what makes you more marketable and more desirable than the next guy.
Just as an example...I have two good industry certs already, and some very good experience. I plan on getting a new cert this year, then going back to college at night next year to finish up my degree just for my own well being, but I also know that the degree will do nothing but help next time I'm job hunting.
Personally I would take Redhat OR Mandrake over Windows XP. That's just my opinion. I don't feel Windows XP is ready for primetime yet. As with any other MS product, I'll be waiting for service pack 2 to come out before giving XP any serious consideration.
If you need Microsoft Office, I would suggest trying the CodeWeaver Office. I have Redhat 7.2 with Gnome 1.4 running on my Dell Latitude, and Office 2000 works great using CodeWeavers. It isn't free, but it's well worth the price.
For the past few years, my money would go to a Dell. I've always gotten good support from them, and the products are top notch (not to mention that they run Linux like a champ).
I bought a C810 and I'm so glad I did. The Inspirons are a little better for multimedia, but my C810 isn't at all bad either with a 32MB Nvidia chip and a 15.1" screen.
Slashdot Mirror
http://www.webmasters.com/testimonial.php
If someone deletes a file from a RAID set, the file is gone. If you have a file become corrupt, now you have a redundant corrupted file.
There is no substitute for a strong backup system.
I wouldn't pay even $500 for a piece of crap like this, much less $1500.
If I felt like it, I could build a lot better, for a lot less...
What crack smoking weasel came up with this brilliant idea?
That's why I will buy (read - support the company that developed it) any Linux native game that's worth a rats ass.
I bought Quake III for linux, and Wolf for linux. I'm waiting for some more good FPS to be released for native linux clients.
Reason being, it appears to me that he built a PIX, for the purpose of studying the Cisco PIX IOS. Not mass reproduction and sales. I know several other people who have done the same thing for the purpose of having a Cisco lab at home to design and test a work related project, or to study for Cisco certification exams.
I do NOT know anyone who has built one of these and deployed it for production use. It doesn't make sense. You would be unable to get support for either software or hardware faults.
So maybe you should lighten up and consider that this guy is probably studying to get the Cisco security cert.
The story clearly stated that these people are newbs in the security field. Not someone I want protecting the security of computers belonging to the armed forces.
Additionally, they went about this the wrong way. The right way would have been to contact a responsible party and professionally report the issues they found, not grab a bunch of stuff and call a news team. I know that based on their actions, I wouldn't hire them.
That's just me. I choose to work with professionals.
On the other hand, look at Windows 2000 installation ( My favorite Windows if I have to use it), there's literally nothing to the install. You can't go in and disable things, and there is a very small number of things that you can deselect. You have to wait until after the install is finished, then go disable things via the Windows registry.
I'll take the granular Linux install over the take it all and like it Windows install any day.
I wish one of these days there would actually be a hard assed judge who would just make the breakup ruling, and then stick to it.
Then have a higher court that actually had a pair of balls between the members that made the ruling stick.
How many times does it take for the government to realize that M$ just isn't going to change their ways?
What? We can't do that? Oh ok...we won't do it again. <snicker>
Every time I hear something like this I think back to one of Sam Kinison's skits... (substitute the word Microsoft for love and you'll see what I mean).
Common....love wouldn't lie to you 13 times in a row fuckhead.
Oh Oh Ohhhhh! Love lied to me again!!!!
I dunno...maybe it's just me.
This means that it actually has nothing to do with hotmail, or microsoft, other than spammers assume (correctly in most cases) that mail admins won't block the entire hotmail.com domain as SPAM.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending anyone here, I'm just saying, be clear on what the problem is, and who the bad guy is before getting out the pitchforks and torches.
just my .02 cents (US)
Some managers may actually be genuine in matching the offer and hoping that you'll stay on. They already have a proven resource, and the time and expense of replacing you justifies giving you the raise.
Other management however, is going to see it as a breech of trust. Any offer they make will only be to keep you happy long enough to find a suitable replacement.
So I guess the real question is, what is your relationship with management like? Have you seen how they have dealt with others in your company in this situation in the past?
Those should be the factors you weigh when considering this counter-offer.
I didn't endorse any one vendor. I gave an example, and stated that any potential vendors support plans should be considered prior to the purchase.
I'm not in any way shape or form attempting to start a UNIX war. I believe that people should completely review their own unique situations and determine based on all factors which one is right for them.
There is no "One" answer to every question.
Money.
You obviously already know that managing support contracts from multiple vendors is going to suck. I would also recommend taking a long hard look at ongoing support charges.
For example, we have both HP/UX and Sun platforms where I work. We have both servers and workstations. For the workstation support contracts on similarly sized machines, there was a world of difference in cost.
The annual fee for an HP C240 workstation was somewhere between $2500 and $3000. The same annual charge for a Sun Ultra of equal speed, was between $1000 and $1500. Multiply that by the number of workstaions you have to maintain, and it can add up very quickly.
The up front cost typically isn't where they get you. It's on the back end. I would research the back end on all of the platforms you are considering very carefully before making any final decisions.
Hope that helps a little.
I'd certainly use Unbreakable Linux before I would even consider UnitedLinux based on the things I've heard so far.
One sentence in there just about admits that Microsoft writes crappy software, but that's ok, because they want to make a profit from crappy software.
Many argue that its programmers have turned out shoddy programs, but the firm's objective is to make profit, not superlative programs per se. By the profit criterion, Microsoft has been one of the greatest companies in the history of this country.
What a great big bunch of crap! It actually turns my stomach sometimes to even work in the same industry as those people.
Right now Linux is listed as a "Test/Pilot" status with J&J, meaning that we can't even consider deploying it for mission critical unless there was an absolutely bulletproof business case that we HAD to have it to run some app, blah blah blah...you get the idea.
Once that status changes to "Deploy" I fully intend to push that, and I'll definitely be advocating signing support agreements with Redhat when we deploy servers.
But that's just my vision of utopia...yours may be different.
With these kind of announcements, it's beginning to look as though Caldera is making the decisions. What a shame. They got a shiny new toy for Christmas and they just can't wait to break it.
Can't they just be happy with taking their own company down the crapper?
I asked our CEO very shortly thereafter...So when are we migrating Oracle over to Linux? "Never!" was his reply. I suppose he didn't realize then that SCO was no longer going to be a viable option as a mission critical platform.
I certainly can't say it surprises me. I mean look at Caldera's track record. Maybe someone over at the new UnitedLinux should consider giving them the boot before they take that down the tubes too.
BTW...I'm not being a troll. I'm just a little over opinionated about this I suppose. It's just difficult to have any respect for a company that takes anything they have of any value and pisses it away.
But then to play devil's advocate, I have to come at it from a business standpoint as well. I work for one of the many subsidiaries of J&J. We don't necessarily care that this one distro is the absolute best of all distributions. We are concerned about one thing. Support. Who do we call at 2:30am when our production Oracle server coughs up a hairball? No one wants to hear any..."I'll submit to the forums and hope we hear something by morning". We want an answer, and we want it now, so that database will be back online when users roll into work.
If this new United Linux doesn't have that going for it, I don't see it making much headway in the corporate space.
And honestly....That's where I really want to see Linux thrive.
In my opinion, so long as Redhat stays focused and continues catering to big business, I don't see them losing ground to this team.
I may be one of the few on this side, but I won't be trading in my Redhat CDs for United Linux for quite a while. I've been using Redhat for a couple years now, and for the most part, I'm a happy customer. It would take either a HUGE advance on someone elses part, or a big nose dive on Redhat's part to get me to switch.
Case in point...I know I wouldn't buy a DVD if I hadn't already seen the movie, and concluded that I liked it enough to watch it again.
The certifications are what help you get your foot in the door. In many cases, the HR people that are advertising for, or seeking the skilled professionals, have no real knowledge of what this person should know, so keywords like MCSE, CCNP, MCSD, and RHCE in your resume, and on your Dice/Monster/InsertFavJobSiteHere page are extremely helpful in getting the calls and emails to get that initial interview.
Additionally, in some cases, an appropriate certification commensurate with your position is required. I would not have the job that I currently hold, if I didn't posses an MCSE. The pharma company I work for uses certs as a tool to show the FDA that appropriately trained and certified personnel are running the systems on site. Now that I have started working on Sun workstations and servers there, I have to go get certified so that my training record reflects that "I am qualified to fulfill the duties of my position".
Bottom line, choose whatever you enjoy more, networking, Windows SA, UNIX SA, development, whatever...then get a cert appropriate for the positions you'll be seeking.
That's just my $.02 cents...hope it helps.
I would additionally get certified in whatever field you intend to go into. Networking, get Cisco, UNIX, get Sun or HP cert, Windows, get MCSE.
Once you've accomplished that, do your best to stay on top of your game. That's what makes you more marketable and more desirable than the next guy.
Just as an example...I have two good industry certs already, and some very good experience. I plan on getting a new cert this year, then going back to college at night next year to finish up my degree just for my own well being, but I also know that the degree will do nothing but help next time I'm job hunting.
Hope that helps you.
Aaron
If you need Microsoft Office, I would suggest trying the CodeWeaver Office. I have Redhat 7.2 with Gnome 1.4 running on my Dell Latitude, and Office 2000 works great using CodeWeavers. It isn't free, but it's well worth the price.
For the past few years, my money would go to a Dell. I've always gotten good support from them, and the products are top notch (not to mention that they run Linux like a champ).
I bought a C810 and I'm so glad I did. The Inspirons are a little better for multimedia, but my C810 isn't at all bad either with a 32MB Nvidia chip and a 15.1" screen.
: )