It does seem that bringing "children" into the debate is occurring with quite a bit of frequency these days, with no thought to the applicability of such argument or relevance to the actual topic at hand..
We already have the famed "Godwin's Law" regarding comparisons with Hitler, should we now coin a term for "Think of the Children" arguments? But whom to name it after...
A big part of it is that a lot of folks aren't following "platform" guidelines, or don't specifically understand how to properly use the look and feels. O'Reilly has a series of articles specifically dealing with these issues for making your Java apps "OS X" friendly (maybe someone can post a link, I can't seem to find it), but I've yet to see something in-depth and similar for GTK or Win32. It also adds another layer of code to test/maintain, and we all know developers are lazy to an extent (nor can we all afford to develop/target for many platforms), and frankly, for most of us (well, me), as long as it WORKS properly on all 3 major platforms (win, mac, linux), then I consider my job done. Look and feel considerations come last. Maybe that's a flaw in my working methodology, but it sure saves a bunch of time. Now, if I were developing for primarily OS X and not the other platforms, I'm sure my attitude would change (namely, if I ever buy a Mac).
I'm sure that the inconsistency of the appearance can be annoying (just like the plethora of Linux GUI apps that are just as inconsistent), but it certainly won't prevent me from working with the app..
/* Perhaps the general release pattern should include: Developer release - more powerful, crude like today End user release - friendly, hide the ugly. */
How about just hiding all the "power user" features behind an "advanced" tab? That works for a lot of software these days.
And here's something else: The RIAA/MPAA aren't BLEEDING Money out of their ass. No, they're still making MILLIONS, but their profits are DOWN. They're not "losing money", but are instead profiting less. People are still buying overpriced CD's by the metric-ton, just not in the volume that the industry is accustomed to.
One of the things that peeved me about a company I worked for was a reduction in employee benefits. The company was in a tighter position than usual, but they were still profitable. They announced the reduction of benefits and payscale freezes because they wanted to show "higher profits" on the books, to enhance share value. Now, 2 years later, the company isn't quite at what they were in the late 90s during the tech boom (who is?), but they are still making a great deal of money and.. they have not restored the employee benefits they "took away". It's not that the employee has a "right" to those benefits, mind you, but it's really shitty for a company to use a declining economy to reduce employee benefits, and then when it's recovered to fails to reinstitute those benefits. It's basically that scenario that reinforced my recently discovered cynicism regarding employment: Fuck them before they fuck me. But that's another topic..
That's pretty much what I was thinking. make some small submersibles, use radar "repelling" coatings, and start pointing them northwards from Columbia.. Or for sensimilla coming out of Vancouver, start sending down shipments to California.. Or more adventurous, Opium/Heroin from the far east to the west coast... But then again, it seems more cost efficient to ship a bunch of containers over.. You lose one or two to DEA/customs, the sheer cost of the goods more than makes up for it so I hear.
From a researcher's perspective, I used the web primarily as a quick "google" to get some ideas on where I might do further research. For instance, while a particular paper may have been taking offline regarding my search, many times the search will proffer an author's name. Take that name to the library's database (or googling it, too), and you might can get a list of more publications that the author has penned. Even better: sometimes, you can get a valid email address from other links and you can write and ask the original researcher himself about various publications, many times they have copies on hand and can send them to you. My research involves the web, but does not end with the web, which is where many people find themselves hung.
Hey, guys. See that big building with those obsolete books? Lots of chicks hang out there.:)
It's called a brain fart.:) "I'm by no means a military history buff" is probably what is intended.
Re:Best Management Book ever written?
on
In Search of Stupidity
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Are you a military history buff? I'm by no means not, but you know, as straight-forward as you seem to make it sound, it appears that Sun-Tzu's teachings would have been sorely needed by many./* I mean, "Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected." Well. Thanks for that advice. And here I was doing the opposite, attacking where prepared and appearing where expected. Silly me. */
Imagine had Saddam's generals had thought to extend their line so the famed "hail mary" would have been actively opposed? Apparently, Saddam's generals were not thinking about those principles in their defense planning. And let's look at all those wars with straight lines of troops, battling on flat terrain and what not back in the 1700's and 1800s. And now witness the "resistance" in Iraq: We are totally unprepared to fight a guerilla war with conventional troops. Most of our technology and training is still heldover from the Cold War where we envisioned broad, sweeping formations and movements between huge masses of men in Eastern Europe. Which is great when you're fighting conventional formation warfare. But when your enemy instead becomes a couple people whipping up homemade bombs with readily available materials and blowing up your troops a couple at a time.. The "terrorists" are certainly attacking our Army where we are unprepared and not expected./* Hey. Worked well for Napolean in Russia, didn't it?*/
Actually, yes, it did. It was the Weather and lack of preparation (see fertile country comment). Napolean may have overestimated his force or underestimated the Russians understanding that all they had to do was stall his forces enough until Winter came. At which point, the foreign forces would have to deal with the weather AND locals used to the weather. Napolean came trudging back to France in defeat, however his forces were still loyal to him and from my recollection, came to his call when he reascended power./* Deep. Very deep. */
You'd be surprised. Many armies have sufficient manpower, but insufficient logistics to keep those lines supplied. Food, fuel, etc. The Chinese continually outpaced their supply lines during the Korean War. In the Winter. Which meant they had to stop and wait for food and what not (the Korean Peninsula is apparently very infertile during the winter, at least my mom told me that..). Because of modern warfare, it's not enough to just be able to steal your food, you've got to provision for fuel, etc. Why did it take as long as it did to advance to Baghdad? Because we couldn't risk outrunning our fuel trucks, and securing the routes that the convoys would travel./* I could see how this practical advice could be useful, for those of us who indeed make no mistakes. */
Your comment actually makes sense. Everyone makes mistakes. In fact, many mistakes that are made are not seen until after they are exposed as mistakes. See Gulf War I. I believe that in hindsight, those Generals in charge of defending Iraq saw the flaws in their defense that allowed the virtually unopposed American forces to enter Iraq.. However, I think the intention is: Strive for perfection. Doing it half-assed is a recipe for disaster. Think and double think your moves and assess and reasses your data. If it's worth doing, do it right. That sorta thing.
Just some nitpicks from the article 1) Money vs. Altruism - The journalist seems to think altruism and linux kinda go hand in hand. Not so. I think altruism is one of the worst policies one could have towards anything. Instead, when I choose and use Linux, its not out of "altruism" that I submit bug reports and alpha/beta test software; it's because I want better software and the only way developers can fix bugs is if they know they exist. (another reason is because in a lot of cases, I have no choice but to use alpha/beta software because mature non-alpha/beta software isn't available). I doubt most developers do it out of the love of "giving away" their hard earned time devoted to software development, they do gain something, even if it is just pride. IBM certainly doesn't contribute Billion$ to Linux development because it's a giant love fest, but because IBM sees billions more in potential revenues providing Linux based solutions. Sure, there are a lot of FSF hippies running around spouting off about "free software", but fortunately most of us keep religion out of our software and computers and like to use things that WORK. Being free (as in beer) only helps things out. I have no moral qualms with people who choose not to embrace Open Source methodology.
2) Geek fervor - Another poster nailed it on the head: an awful lot of "geeks" don't give a damn about Microsoft. Linux is an interesting project for them to work on. I think a world without Microsoft (and Apple, for that matter) would be poorer indeed because I think MS does provide a SUPERIOR desktop at the moment (to Linux). I use MS products everyday and don't think twice about it. Contrary to popular/. belief, Windows doesn't get in the way of the things I want/need to do, it doesn't crash 10 times an hour, etc. If you handed me a Linux box, I'd have to take about 10 steps back as my workflow revolves around Visual Studio quite heavily. MS produces some GREAT tools. However, when I want to use *NIX, I choose Linux (because BSD ain't got full Java 1.4. Dammit.). It's just a fucking OS, mkay?
What I really like about the Linux "scene", though, is the rampant experimentation. Things like Dashboard. As much as I deride Mono for various issues, things like Dashboard really get me excited about things for linux. There seems to be a lot of creativity flowing from Linux, however it seems most people make a living in a non-Linux world.:(
Wait a minute. 700 people. 700 people out of how many MILLIONS of customers? All that proves is that 700 people were too fucking stupid to know that hot coffee burns. Hell, I don't even DRINK coffee and I know not to pour hot coffee into my lap. Just because "the majority" does something one way, why does it mean that others have to do it that way? I'd say 90% of the population in my town are Christians, does that mean I have to be one too?
"Well, your honor, we killed him because he wasn't a Christian. If he did like everyone else and converted, well, we wouldn't have had to lynch him..."
Uh.. Okay.. Here's the rationale: McDonald's sees that most of their morning customers are buying their coffee en route to work. By making the coffee (and pies) so hot, that by the time the customers get to work, the coffee is merely hot, but not cold, where the customer can now drink it SAFELY. Now look at the results. Drivers juggling coffee, cell-phones, McMuffins all at the same time in their 6000 lb SUV's. Maybe I can sue them for creating a driving hazard.
But on the other topic, the biggest problem the woman had was that she didn't REACT to the spilled coffee. Sure, the initial spill scalded her. However, she was wearing fleece "tights" which held the hot coffee against her skin, basically cooking her, until she got to work. Instead of jumping out the car and trying to "fan" the hot coffee cool (or by taking off her clothing), she exacerbated the situation by "suffering" through it.
And frankly, I'd *like* a super heated apple pie because of the same reasons: I would rather wait until I got home and eat a warm pie than a cold one without going through the trouble of microwaving it.
Another poster had it correct. Millions of customers had zero problems with super-heated coffee. If an old lady was too stupid to understand that boiling water is hot, especially at her age, then she fucking deserved to get burned.
I am a selfish asshole. Most of my friends are as well. Being selfish, however, does not mean you have to be an asshole, asshole. Nor does being selfish involve "fucking your buddies". Maybe you should figure out what the fuck "rational self interest" is all about before you spout nonsense, fuckwad.
/* Selfishness is a character flaw, not a virtue */
Says you./* Unfortunately, it is also human nature. */
Indeed, we're genetically wired for it. See "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins. Which brings up "If it's in our nature, does that mean it's bad?" and that whole can of worms./* If not for selfishness and greed, we could have a true altruistic society; one where everyone worked for the good of the community instead of themselves */
Why is that good and who wants that? I certainly don't. I don't give a fuck about YOU or your mother or your sister or your starving babies./* In other words, selfishness is why communism is only good on paper. */
I don't think communism is that good on paper. Fucking whiners.
Turn key installation/configuration. A lot of times, the person doing the install may or may not know what packages are (not) needed. The idea is to eliminate all the crap that's not necessary for doing the basic job (and allows for customization later in case the basic configuation is a bit *too* basic). Here's where I think debian would be awesome for it's automatic dependency resolver abilities and what not for adding packages not included.
It may sound fun for those of us who like to keep ourselves occupied, but for someone doing it for a living and needs performance *now*, it's not ideal. For the vast majority of folks, turn-key solutions are needed.
Heck, I'm surprised no one's bothered creating some "tailored" Linux distributions for common server tasks. Think a nice LAMP distribution that's geared for doing web-serving. Just Linux + Apache + MySQL (or PostGRE) + PHP (PERL, Python, or RUBY), no annoying X or oddball packages. Just install, answer a few config questions, and you're up and running with minimum hassle. From a distribution maintainence point of view, it would be great from the sheer amount of work that it takes to keep packages up-to-date be kept to a minimum. The same goes for doing security: By creating a turn-key box with just a few services, administration would be made quite easy. I'm thinking something like Debian or LFS would be ideal here... The key is simplicity, not offering a ton of packages to choose from. The users who want that kind of choice will pick a distro right for them. This is about limiting options and then fine-tuning those options to work in the narrow confines of the sandbox you build.
But, in other words, it sounds as if Ellison is bemoaning the lack of an Apple in the server space where your apps are tightly connected to one another and the hardware itself...
Pardon me for the stupid question, but what does that comment regarding "few OSS distributions remaining" mean? I can see how "few remaining COMMERCIAL distros" would apply, but last I checked, there are thriving gentoo, debian, and even LFS communities out there, not to mention slackware, all those debian based LIVE CD distros, and hell, even FEDORA. What exactly is the poster's intent by that comment?
A few of us don't have net access at home and my work would be quite peeved if I hauled in my desktop just to upgrade some "packages". Right now my stop-gap is judicious use of a USB-keychain and downloading the rpms to it and trying to guess the right dependencies and grabbing those, as well. sometimes I forget one and have to wait until the following day to get it, which may or may not have dependencies of its own.
Contrast that with my Win2K install. Go to best buy. Buy software. Come home, install, run. Or, for a better comparison, download software at work to my keychain, go home, install, run. It's rarely any more complicated than that.
Well, it sounds like a new model for business is in order. Here's a shocking revelation:
You don't have to go public with your company.
I know, Redhat already has, and as a public company, it must do things a private company wouldn't be forced to do, i.e., satisfy stockholder demands. However..
If you're just going to publish manuals, I seem to recall that FreeBSD folks "self-publish" manuals, as do the FSF (I know I've seen an EMACS, the Autoconf book, and I think one other at the local Borders.. they're rather pricey, but the fact remains that they're still there). If you can publish a good manual for cheap and sell it in small quantities at a profit, then you can probably make a decent living. You won't be Bill G. (or Kenny G. for that matter), but who says you have to be a bazillionaire to be happy? What I'm getting at is that you *can* offer tech support and write/publish books and not have to worry about satisfying stock holders. In fact, I know quite a few local people that do "house calls" for tech support that make a damn good living, although admittedly I doubt you'll ever see a linux home-user calling a linux-specialist because most linux home-users tend to be somewhat savvy and don't need the "tech support." But these same guys also do quite a bit of SOHO and small business IT consultancy, as well, and that's quite lucrative, too.
Slashdot Mirror
Hrm..
It does seem that bringing "children" into the debate is occurring with quite a bit of frequency these days, with no thought to the applicability of such argument or relevance to the actual topic at hand..
We already have the famed "Godwin's Law" regarding comparisons with Hitler, should we now coin a term for "Think of the Children" arguments? But whom to name it after...
Here it is:
Write Twice, Run Anywhere
A big part of it is that a lot of folks aren't following "platform" guidelines, or don't specifically understand how to properly use the look and feels. O'Reilly has a series of articles specifically dealing with these issues for making your Java apps "OS X" friendly (maybe someone can post a link, I can't seem to find it), but I've yet to see something in-depth and similar for GTK or Win32. It also adds another layer of code to test/maintain, and we all know developers are lazy to an extent (nor can we all afford to develop/target for many platforms), and frankly, for most of us (well, me), as long as it WORKS properly on all 3 major platforms (win, mac, linux), then I consider my job done. Look and feel considerations come last. Maybe that's a flaw in my working methodology, but it sure saves a bunch of time. Now, if I were developing for primarily OS X and not the other platforms, I'm sure my attitude would change (namely, if I ever buy a Mac).
I'm sure that the inconsistency of the appearance can be annoying (just like the plethora of Linux GUI apps that are just as inconsistent), but it certainly won't prevent me from working with the app..
/* Perhaps the general release pattern should include:
Developer release - more powerful, crude like today
End user release - friendly, hide the ugly.
*/
How about just hiding all the "power user" features behind an "advanced" tab? That works for a lot of software these days.
I've got spanking material for the night.
Seriously.
Hot *and* smart.
Happy Thanksgiving indeed.
And here's something else: The RIAA/MPAA aren't BLEEDING Money out of their ass. No, they're still making MILLIONS, but their profits are DOWN. They're not "losing money", but are instead profiting less. People are still buying overpriced CD's by the metric-ton, just not in the volume that the industry is accustomed to.
One of the things that peeved me about a company I worked for was a reduction in employee benefits. The company was in a tighter position than usual, but they were still profitable. They announced the reduction of benefits and payscale freezes because they wanted to show "higher profits" on the books, to enhance share value. Now, 2 years later, the company isn't quite at what they were in the late 90s during the tech boom (who is?), but they are still making a great deal of money and.. they have not restored the employee benefits they "took away". It's not that the employee has a "right" to those benefits, mind you, but it's really shitty for a company to use a declining economy to reduce employee benefits, and then when it's recovered to fails to reinstitute those benefits. It's basically that scenario that reinforced my recently discovered cynicism regarding employment: Fuck them before they fuck me. But that's another topic..
/* Alternatively, you could do it for the kids... */
Michael Jackson does it to the kids, too, and look where it got him...
Oh, you said do it FOR the kids...
nevermind..
Yeah yeah, rush post. I meant "sonar".
That's pretty much what I was thinking. make some small submersibles, use radar "repelling" coatings, and start pointing them northwards from Columbia.. Or for sensimilla coming out of Vancouver, start sending down shipments to California.. Or more adventurous, Opium/Heroin from the far east to the west coast... But then again, it seems more cost efficient to ship a bunch of containers over.. You lose one or two to DEA/customs, the sheer cost of the goods more than makes up for it so I hear.
I found that out years ago.. :P
:)
From a researcher's perspective, I used the web primarily as a quick "google" to get some ideas on where I might do further research. For instance, while a particular paper may have been taking offline regarding my search, many times the search will proffer an author's name. Take that name to the library's database (or googling it, too), and you might can get a list of more publications that the author has penned. Even better: sometimes, you can get a valid email address from other links and you can write and ask the original researcher himself about various publications, many times they have copies on hand and can send them to you. My research involves the web, but does not end with the web, which is where many people find themselves hung.
Hey, guys. See that big building with those obsolete books? Lots of chicks hang out there.
It's called a brain fart. :)
"I'm by no means a military history buff" is probably what is intended.
Are you a military history buff? I'm by no means not, but you know, as straight-forward as you seem to make it sound, it appears that Sun-Tzu's teachings would have been sorely needed by many. /* I mean, "Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected." Well. Thanks for that advice. And here I was doing the opposite, attacking where prepared and appearing where expected. Silly me. */
/* Hey. Worked well for Napolean in Russia, didn't it?*/
/* Deep. Very deep. */
/* I could see how this practical advice could be useful, for those of us who indeed make no mistakes. */
Imagine had Saddam's generals had thought to extend their line so the famed "hail mary" would have been actively opposed? Apparently, Saddam's generals were not thinking about those principles in their defense planning. And let's look at all those wars with straight lines of troops, battling on flat terrain and what not back in the 1700's and 1800s. And now witness the "resistance" in Iraq: We are totally unprepared to fight a guerilla war with conventional troops. Most of our technology and training is still heldover from the Cold War where we envisioned broad, sweeping formations and movements between huge masses of men in Eastern Europe. Which is great when you're fighting conventional formation warfare. But when your enemy instead becomes a couple people whipping up homemade bombs with readily available materials and blowing up your troops a couple at a time.. The "terrorists" are certainly attacking our Army where we are unprepared and not expected.
Actually, yes, it did. It was the Weather and lack of preparation (see fertile country comment). Napolean may have overestimated his force or underestimated the Russians understanding that all they had to do was stall his forces enough until Winter came. At which point, the foreign forces would have to deal with the weather AND locals used to the weather. Napolean came trudging back to France in defeat, however his forces were still loyal to him and from my recollection, came to his call when he reascended power.
You'd be surprised. Many armies have sufficient manpower, but insufficient logistics to keep those lines supplied. Food, fuel, etc. The Chinese continually outpaced their supply lines during the Korean War. In the Winter. Which meant they had to stop and wait for food and what not (the Korean Peninsula is apparently very infertile during the winter, at least my mom told me that..). Because of modern warfare, it's not enough to just be able to steal your food, you've got to provision for fuel, etc. Why did it take as long as it did to advance to Baghdad? Because we couldn't risk outrunning our fuel trucks, and securing the routes that the convoys would travel.
Your comment actually makes sense. Everyone makes mistakes. In fact, many mistakes that are made are not seen until after they are exposed as mistakes. See Gulf War I. I believe that in hindsight, those Generals in charge of defending Iraq saw the flaws in their defense that allowed the virtually unopposed American forces to enter Iraq.. However, I think the intention is: Strive for perfection. Doing it half-assed is a recipe for disaster. Think and double think your moves and assess and reasses your data. If it's worth doing, do it right. That sorta thing.
Just send a space ship. Blast big rocks into smaller rocks. Collect smaller rocks. A good model can be found here.
Just some nitpicks from the article
/. belief, Windows doesn't get in the way of the things I want/need to do, it doesn't crash 10 times an hour, etc. If you handed me a Linux box, I'd have to take about 10 steps back as my workflow revolves around Visual Studio quite heavily. MS produces some GREAT tools. However, when I want to use *NIX, I choose Linux (because BSD ain't got full Java 1.4. Dammit.). It's just a fucking OS, mkay?
:(
1) Money vs. Altruism - The journalist seems to think altruism and linux kinda go hand in hand. Not so. I think altruism is one of the worst policies one could have towards anything. Instead, when I choose and use Linux, its not out of "altruism" that I submit bug reports and alpha/beta test software; it's because I want better software and the only way developers can fix bugs is if they know they exist. (another reason is because in a lot of cases, I have no choice but to use alpha/beta software because mature non-alpha/beta software isn't available). I doubt most developers do it out of the love of "giving away" their hard earned time devoted to software development, they do gain something, even if it is just pride. IBM certainly doesn't contribute Billion$ to Linux development because it's a giant love fest, but because IBM sees billions more in potential revenues providing Linux based solutions. Sure, there are a lot of FSF hippies running around spouting off about "free software", but fortunately most of us keep religion out of our software and computers and like to use things that WORK. Being free (as in beer) only helps things out. I have no moral qualms with people who choose not to embrace Open Source methodology.
2) Geek fervor - Another poster nailed it on the head: an awful lot of "geeks" don't give a damn about Microsoft. Linux is an interesting project for them to work on. I think a world without Microsoft (and Apple, for that matter) would be poorer indeed because I think MS does provide a SUPERIOR desktop at the moment (to Linux). I use MS products everyday and don't think twice about it. Contrary to popular
What I really like about the Linux "scene", though, is the rampant experimentation. Things like Dashboard. As much as I deride Mono for various issues, things like Dashboard really get me excited about things for linux. There seems to be a lot of creativity flowing from Linux, however it seems most people make a living in a non-Linux world.
Wait a minute. 700 people. 700 people out of how many MILLIONS of customers? All that proves is that 700 people were too fucking stupid to know that hot coffee burns. Hell, I don't even DRINK coffee and I know not to pour hot coffee into my lap. Just because "the majority" does something one way, why does it mean that others have to do it that way? I'd say 90% of the population in my town are Christians, does that mean I have to be one too?
"Well, your honor, we killed him because he wasn't a Christian. If he did like everyone else and converted, well, we wouldn't have had to lynch him..."
I don't think so.
Uh.. Okay.. Here's the rationale:
McDonald's sees that most of their morning customers are buying their coffee en route to work. By making the coffee (and pies) so hot, that by the time the customers get to work, the coffee is merely hot, but not cold, where the customer can now drink it SAFELY. Now look at the results. Drivers juggling coffee, cell-phones, McMuffins all at the same time in their 6000 lb SUV's. Maybe I can sue them for creating a driving hazard.
But on the other topic, the biggest problem the woman had was that she didn't REACT to the spilled coffee. Sure, the initial spill scalded her. However, she was wearing fleece "tights" which held the hot coffee against her skin, basically cooking her, until she got to work. Instead of jumping out the car and trying to "fan" the hot coffee cool (or by taking off her clothing), she exacerbated the situation by "suffering" through it.
And frankly, I'd *like* a super heated apple pie because of the same reasons: I would rather wait until I got home and eat a warm pie than a cold one without going through the trouble of microwaving it.
Another poster had it correct. Millions of customers had zero problems with super-heated coffee. If an old lady was too stupid to understand that boiling water is hot, especially at her age, then she fucking deserved to get burned.
Hooray! Was this a debate? I thought it was /. .
I am a selfish asshole. Most of my friends are as well. Being selfish, however, does not mean you have to be an asshole, asshole. Nor does being selfish involve "fucking your buddies". Maybe you should figure out what the fuck "rational self interest" is all about before you spout nonsense, fuckwad.
Welcome our new micronized mechanical...
*SWAT*
Damn bugs.. oh erm.. well.. nevermind...
/* Selfishness is a character flaw, not a virtue */
/* Unfortunately, it is also human nature. */
/* If not for selfishness and greed, we could have a true altruistic society; one where everyone worked for the good of the community instead of themselves */
/* In other words, selfishness is why communism is only good on paper. */
Says you.
Indeed, we're genetically wired for it. See "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins. Which brings up "If it's in our nature, does that mean it's bad?" and that whole can of worms.
Why is that good and who wants that? I certainly don't. I don't give a fuck about YOU or your mother or your sister or your starving babies.
I don't think communism is that good on paper. Fucking whiners.
Turn key installation/configuration. A lot of times, the person doing the install may or may not know what packages are (not) needed. The idea is to eliminate all the crap that's not necessary for doing the basic job (and allows for customization later in case the basic configuation is a bit *too* basic). Here's where I think debian would be awesome for it's automatic dependency resolver abilities and what not for adding packages not included.
It may sound fun for those of us who like to keep ourselves occupied, but for someone doing it for a living and needs performance *now*, it's not ideal. For the vast majority of folks, turn-key solutions are needed.
Heck, I'm surprised no one's bothered creating some "tailored" Linux distributions for common server tasks. Think a nice LAMP distribution that's geared for doing web-serving. Just Linux + Apache + MySQL (or PostGRE) + PHP (PERL, Python, or RUBY), no annoying X or oddball packages. Just install, answer a few config questions, and you're up and running with minimum hassle. From a distribution maintainence point of view, it would be great from the sheer amount of work that it takes to keep packages up-to-date be kept to a minimum. The same goes for doing security: By creating a turn-key box with just a few services, administration would be made quite easy. I'm thinking something like Debian or LFS would be ideal here... The key is simplicity, not offering a ton of packages to choose from. The users who want that kind of choice will pick a distro right for them. This is about limiting options and then fine-tuning those options to work in the narrow confines of the sandbox you build.
But, in other words, it sounds as if Ellison is bemoaning the lack of an Apple in the server space where your apps are tightly connected to one another and the hardware itself...
Pardon me for the stupid question, but what does that comment regarding "few OSS distributions remaining" mean? I can see how "few remaining COMMERCIAL distros" would apply, but last I checked, there are thriving gentoo, debian, and even LFS communities out there, not to mention slackware, all those debian based LIVE CD distros, and hell, even FEDORA. What exactly is the poster's intent by that comment?
A few of us don't have net access at home and my work would be quite peeved if I hauled in my desktop just to upgrade some "packages". Right now my stop-gap is judicious use of a USB-keychain and downloading the rpms to it and trying to guess the right dependencies and grabbing those, as well. sometimes I forget one and have to wait until the following day to get it, which may or may not have dependencies of its own.
Contrast that with my Win2K install. Go to best buy. Buy software. Come home, install, run. Or, for a better comparison, download software at work to my keychain, go home, install, run. It's rarely any more complicated than that.
Well, it sounds like a new model for business is in order. Here's a shocking revelation:
You don't have to go public with your company.
I know, Redhat already has, and as a public company, it must do things a private company wouldn't be forced to do, i.e., satisfy stockholder demands. However..
If you're just going to publish manuals, I seem to recall that FreeBSD folks "self-publish" manuals, as do the FSF (I know I've seen an EMACS, the Autoconf book, and I think one other at the local Borders.. they're rather pricey, but the fact remains that they're still there). If you can publish a good manual for cheap and sell it in small quantities at a profit, then you can probably make a decent living. You won't be Bill G. (or Kenny G. for that matter), but who says you have to be a bazillionaire to be happy?
What I'm getting at is that you *can* offer tech support and write/publish books and not have to worry about satisfying stock holders. In fact, I know quite a few local people that do "house calls" for tech support that make a damn good living, although admittedly I doubt you'll ever see a linux home-user calling a linux-specialist because most linux home-users tend to be somewhat savvy and don't need the "tech support." But these same guys also do quite a bit of SOHO and small business IT consultancy, as well, and that's quite lucrative, too.