Re:Its about time they took a second look at LINUX
on
How Qwest Runs Things
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· Score: 1
Are you claiming that no one can download the OpenBSD code? They are distrubted just as easily as linux is, the source is just as available. The way I see it- linux is trying to accomidate as much hardware, feature sets, and users as possible, while OpenBSD is going for a rock-solid server, not worrying about things like SMB, USB, and the like. Just my thoughts.
There is actually an ongoing case about a sports betting place in Antiqua, a sovereign nation in the Bahamas, where these Americans opened a sports betting house, an Internet bookie of sorts. They are all now fugitives of the US even though they are completely legal on the island nation where the offices and servers are located. The US does not give two shits about other country's laws if you break a US one- in this case interstate gambling. Lucky for these blokes they are on an island paradise raking in the cash.
On a simlar note. About 5 or 8 years ago we bought my Grandfather a word processor- you know with the little 13" orange terminal screen and keyboard. He is one of the smartest men I know, but was about 80 at the time. He basically figured out the directions, but didn't know what a "cursor" was. Once we explained that it was the blinky light that located you on the screen; it all clicked and he has now moved on to an actual PC. If he had to call tech support it would have been an "annoying call" with some "dullard", but it really wasn't. I have a fair amount of respect for support folk, because I did it for a spell, a few more months and I would have gone off my rocker.
Re:Not a "whacked out idea"
on
Space Diving
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· Score: 1
Just a little note. The Challenger was toast. Once that o-ring blew out and the feul started to burn the vehical itself was totaled.
As for saving the occupants. Maybe. The current theory is that they survived the blast and died on impact. Those are 2 or 3 seconds to end a life that I never want to spend. Watching the ocean come up at you as you plumit? No thanks. So *if* it was designed to allow the people to eject and lower themselves, successfully, then these things would be on trip-sevs now:-)
You might not believe this but there are a lot of *very* smart people who believe in their work at MSFT. Just because *you* have an inbred hatred of an company doesn't mean that the employees do. BTW: You seem awful bitter, there has to be a reason. Did you get turned down for a job there?
FYI: I worked there for a spell, and left- not because they are "evil" but because I wanted a change.
There are 30,000 people who work for MSFT (ok, 30,000 - 1 since I quit:P) and I bet 95% *hate* the damn talking paperclip. That was a UI persons idea for someone who is basically inept.
I do think marketing has a *huge* roll in the products- which is unfortunate, it should be a big role, if you can't sell it why make it (ok, this is corperate America, not OSS). Individual developers don't have as much say as you might expect. MSFT is not a democracy. People can band together and points will be made, but as Larry Programmer you do what you are told to do.
Overall, MSFT employees are smart, go-getting types. They work long hours for not the best pay- recently the stock price has sucked as well. They don't want to ship something everyone will look at and go "what crap". But they do. Why is that? My thought comes down to selling it to consumers who would rather have crap in a box today over quality in a week. Keep in mind that not all MSFT software is complete crap. I can say I have never had Office2K crash on me. And Exchange 5.0 (I refuse to call it Exchange2000) is a pretty damn neat product. W2K has been nothing but good to me, on my laptop and my work boxes. But I still use Linux and FreeBSD for my server programming. Why? Because I am one of the seemingly few who will use the right tool for the job and not be forced into it by anyone.
It all comes back to choice. You don't like it, don't use it. And if you can change it- by all means go for it.
Microsoft has HUGE numbers of UI people, people with PHds in HCI and Human Factors. These changes are not developer descisions. In fact, most developers there don't use the UI feature (yes, I was a drone for a while). I can assure you that they do take in account what Joe User wants. You make the point yourself- *nix based windowing systems are not made for your or my mom, they are made for you and for me. I do agree though that most of the windowing things are more annoying as they change- the whole disappearing menu items and "phase in-phase out" are more eye-candy and anoying than anything else:P But the WM "iconifying stick-swirl" thing that I have on my BSD box is very much eye-candy as well. To each his own- isn't that what we are after?
How is anyone here surprised at this? This is a page on "microsoft.com". Are they really going to say- make sure they don't pirate our OS but let them do what they want? Why would they promote Linux or BSD? Would redhat.com promote Windows 2000? I would think not.
I for one run 2000 Pro and Linux on my Dell laptop. W2K is very much better than the 98 it shipped with and handles things like sleep mode better than NT4.
As for linux, I am not a kernel hacker but I got a CVS tree, web server, X with Gnome, and a host of other stuff on there and it never gives me trouble. Little quirks like the eth0 device coming up before PCMCIA does are a little irritating, but I have been too lazy to fix it:-)
Someone else mentioned having to use a boot disk- not me. Lilo does the trick booting into both W2K and Linux. No Probs. Just don't use Partition Magic to mess with your linux partition without a boot floppy- pain in the ass to get it back to a bootable state...
Dude, it doesn't just move them to the Recycle Bin. It does a CreateFile with the FILE_TRUNCATE flag and then does a CloseHandle. Net effect? 0 length files. Not only that, but it also seems to go out on the LAN do random IPC connects and delete things on shares that have read/write access. This thing is a nasty little bugger. I had two source files deleted (they were checked out of source control), and that was my only damage. I can assure you there are many developers here who want to draw and quarter the guy who did this.
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Are you claiming that no one can download the OpenBSD code? They are distrubted just as easily as linux is, the source is just as available. The way I see it- linux is trying to accomidate as much hardware, feature sets, and users as possible, while OpenBSD is going for a rock-solid server, not worrying about things like SMB, USB, and the like. Just my thoughts.
There is actually an ongoing case about a sports betting place in Antiqua, a sovereign nation in the Bahamas, where these Americans opened a sports betting house, an Internet bookie of sorts. They are all now fugitives of the US even though they are completely legal on the island nation where the offices and servers are located. The US does not give two shits about other country's laws if you break a US one- in this case interstate gambling. Lucky for these blokes they are on an island paradise raking in the cash.
On a simlar note. About 5 or 8 years ago we bought my Grandfather a word processor- you know with the little 13" orange terminal screen and keyboard. He is one of the smartest men I know, but was about 80 at the time. He basically figured out the directions, but didn't know what a "cursor" was. Once we explained that it was the blinky light that located you on the screen; it all clicked and he has now moved on to an actual PC. If he had to call tech support it would have been an "annoying call" with some "dullard", but it really wasn't. I have a fair amount of respect for support folk, because I did it for a spell, a few more months and I would have gone off my rocker.
Just a little note. The Challenger was toast. Once that o-ring blew out and the feul started to burn the vehical itself was totaled.
:-)
As for saving the occupants. Maybe. The current theory is that they survived the blast and died on impact. Those are 2 or 3 seconds to end a life that I never want to spend. Watching the ocean come up at you as you plumit? No thanks. So *if* it was designed to allow the people to eject and lower themselves, successfully, then these things would be on trip-sevs now
You might not believe this but there are a lot of *very* smart people who believe in their work at MSFT. Just because *you* have an inbred hatred of an company doesn't mean that the employees do. BTW: You seem awful bitter, there has to be a reason. Did you get turned down for a job there?
FYI: I worked there for a spell, and left- not because they are "evil" but because I wanted a change.
There are 30,000 people who work for MSFT (ok, 30,000 - 1 since I quit :P) and I bet 95% *hate* the damn talking paperclip. That was a UI persons idea for someone who is basically inept.
I do think marketing has a *huge* roll in the products- which is unfortunate, it should be a big role, if you can't sell it why make it (ok, this is corperate America, not OSS). Individual developers don't have as much say as you might expect. MSFT is not a democracy. People can band together and points will be made, but as Larry Programmer you do what you are told to do.
Overall, MSFT employees are smart, go-getting types. They work long hours for not the best pay- recently the stock price has sucked as well. They don't want to ship something everyone will look at and go "what crap". But they do. Why is that? My thought comes down to selling it to consumers who would rather have crap in a box today over quality in a week. Keep in mind that not all MSFT software is complete crap. I can say I have never had Office2K crash on me. And Exchange 5.0 (I refuse to call it Exchange2000) is a pretty damn neat product. W2K has been nothing but good to me, on my laptop and my work boxes. But I still use Linux and FreeBSD for my server programming. Why? Because I am one of the seemingly few who will use the right tool for the job and not be forced into it by anyone.
It all comes back to choice. You don't like it, don't use it. And if you can change it- by all means go for it.
Microsoft has HUGE numbers of UI people, people with PHds in HCI and Human Factors. These changes are not developer descisions. In fact, most developers there don't use the UI feature (yes, I was a drone for a while). I can assure you that they do take in account what Joe User wants. You make the point yourself- *nix based windowing systems are not made for your or my mom, they are made for you and for me. I do agree though that most of the windowing things are more annoying as they change- the whole disappearing menu items and "phase in-phase out" are more eye-candy and anoying than anything else :P But the WM "iconifying stick-swirl" thing that I have on my BSD box is very much eye-candy as well. To each his own- isn't that what we are after?
How is anyone here surprised at this? This is a page on "microsoft.com". Are they really going to say- make sure they don't pirate our OS but let them do what they want? Why would they promote Linux or BSD? Would redhat.com promote Windows 2000? I would think not.
I for one run 2000 Pro and Linux on my Dell laptop. W2K is very much better than the 98 it shipped with and handles things like sleep mode better than NT4.
:-)
As for linux, I am not a kernel hacker but I got a CVS tree, web server, X with Gnome, and a host of other stuff on there and it never gives me trouble. Little quirks like the eth0 device coming up before PCMCIA does are a little irritating, but I have been too lazy to fix it
Someone else mentioned having to use a boot disk- not me. Lilo does the trick booting into both W2K and Linux. No Probs. Just don't use Partition Magic to mess with your linux partition without a boot floppy- pain in the ass to get it back to a bootable state...
Dude, it doesn't just move them to the Recycle Bin. It does a CreateFile with the FILE_TRUNCATE flag and then does a CloseHandle. Net effect? 0 length files. Not only that, but it also seems to go out on the LAN do random IPC connects and delete things on shares that have read/write access. This thing is a nasty little bugger. I had two source files deleted (they were checked out of source control), and that was my only damage. I can assure you there are many developers here who want to draw and quarter the guy who did this.