Users should not have Administrator access. Period.
Somebody should fulfil the systems administrator role and install software for the user, once all applicable policies are followed (licensing, testing in a segregated machine for security issues, etc).
You don't do this, then you are open yourself to all kinds of nasties.
You need to configure a remote access solution (VPN, Citrix, Sun SGD) which ensures you can access any data or application you need in your office without holding any data at all in your own computer.
Any company not doing this nowadays has incompetent Systems Administrators. No ifs, no buts.
If I need to go to backups in any form, that is a waste of time.
Companies are not in the business of recovering data from backups, their business lays elsewhere, so every time recover from backup is requested, you are making your company less efficient.
I have seen instances in which FOSS programs bring to its knees full corporate networks.
In one occasion top, ported to Solaris, was literally creating a denial of service attack by swamping one name server in our network with loads of stupid requests.
It is not all about licensing. It is also about security, design and support costs.
You think you are too clever by two, in reality people like you are an IT accident waiting to happen.
IT support put restrictions in place for a reason and tend to be quite defensive because they are protecting everybody's bacon.
So what you are saying is that one of the parent companies knows about the issues surrounding piracy but that such vital information somehow does not get through to the subsidiary company?
I don't know about you, but that is even worst in my book.
Yep, 14 years after publication you were free to copy at your heart content any material and publish it.
Now it is death of copyright holder + 100 years. So for most productive people this translates in copyrights that extend for the best part of 150 years.
This is sick, insane, unethical and immoral.
The outrage is not that people in Slashdot seem more willing to endorse piracy more openly than most other people. The real outrage is that elected representatives everywhere have legislated to the current state of affairs (extending to international conventions), that private companies have corrupted copyright to such an extent, and that there are people like you demanding that others conform to a situation that is clearly not sustainable in a social system that prizes cooperation and inventiveness.
People are not pirating stuff because they are bad or unethical. People are pirating stuff because they know they have been screwed and are not willing to pay homage to the screwers.
Then what? there will be a point when Linux is up to scratch for more demanding tasks.
It is not if but when.
The reason Ballmer was blabbering about patents is because they know their normal modus operandi of embrace and extend is simply not going to work. Patent litigation is is plan B, and even that may not be a plan at all if US courts finally see the light and strike down software patents for what they really are: the cave of the Ali Babas of the IT industry.
They have to compete, since obviously Asus has no problems releasing Linux only.
I am sure other PC manufacturers are watching, and may try to market properly speced and functioning Linux offering even if only to get out of idiotic exclusivity agreements with MS (which they should not have signed in the first place).
Ladies and gents, maybe this time the year for Linux in the desktop has really arrived, thanks to a company that saw the bleeding obvious: the differential in price between Linux and Windows. This year of economic downturn will concentrate the minds of a lot of people that will wonder why they should keep paying for more expensive, buggier, standards shy software.
If I am hiring a programmer I don't really need to know he is a great truck mechanic.
Honestly, I do other stuff at a professional level, completely unrelated to computers and general geekery, I learned the hard way (in job interviews) that people are just not interested about that.
There are many big companies that have internal development teams to adjust FOSS to their internal needs (no, they don't release the code because they don't distribute the program).
Thinks like OpenSSH, sudo, perl, top and other programs are modified, it is always good to have on board somebody that is familiar with the program in some way.
You make a very well made point. Some times the stereotyping that goes in this site is really puerile.
As an example, I have worked in many industries in many places and I have never found geeks that lack such basic manners as not keeping themselves presentable.
Maybe it is a US thing and this site, being US centric, confers a feeling that all geeks are uncompromising pigs.
Sorry to say but banning guns in a country like Brazil (or Mexico) is futile since many levels of the government and the police are infiltrated with criminals of one kind or another.
The ban is a good thing, the ban is not creating a violent situation, the general state of Latinamerican societies makes impossible to enforce anything effectively.
In places like the UK (or Australia) where the rule of law applies, the ban is effective and the places are immensely safer than either the US, Brazil or parts of Mexico.
Slashdot Mirror
The creator of something is the only owner when it comes to copyright.
If there was no specific contract signed then the creator does not lose his rights by default to the employer.
Users should not have Administrator access. Period.
Somebody should fulfil the systems administrator role and install software for the user, once all applicable policies are followed (licensing, testing in a segregated machine for security issues, etc).
You don't do this, then you are open yourself to all kinds of nasties.
You need to configure a remote access solution (VPN, Citrix, Sun SGD) which ensures you can access any data or application you need in your office without holding any data at all in your own computer.
Any company not doing this nowadays has incompetent Systems Administrators. No ifs, no buts.
... has serious security problems. The worst part is that they are fully unaware of it....
If the only shares users can access are remote ones, then all that juggling is completely unnecessary.
If at the end you are using NAS, why not cut the middleman software and mount NAS volumes directly in users' machines?
Then you have snapshots (much better than backup from the user's point of view) and manage backups there...
If I need to go to backups in any form, that is a waste of time.
Companies are not in the business of recovering data from backups, their business lays elsewhere, so every time recover from backup is requested, you are making your company less efficient.
I have seen instances in which FOSS programs bring to its knees full corporate networks.
In one occasion top, ported to Solaris, was literally creating a denial of service attack by swamping one name server in our network with loads of stupid requests.
It is not all about licensing. It is also about security, design and support costs.
You think you are too clever by two, in reality people like you are an IT accident waiting to happen.
IT support put restrictions in place for a reason and tend to be quite defensive because they are protecting everybody's bacon.
There are plenty of commercial tools for all OSes that make sure you only have software installed for which you have paid for.
Responsible companies don't allow a 2 bit System Administrator to do nonsense, and if he does, he is caught. Pronto.
So what you are saying is that one of the parent companies knows about the issues surrounding piracy but that such vital information somehow does not get through to the subsidiary company?
I don't know about you, but that is even worst in my book.
Do you know how much copyright used to last?
14 years.
Yep, 14 years after publication you were free to copy at your heart content any material and publish it.
Now it is death of copyright holder + 100 years. So for most productive people this translates in copyrights that extend for the best part of 150 years.
This is sick, insane, unethical and immoral.
The outrage is not that people in Slashdot seem more willing to endorse piracy more openly than most other people. The real outrage is that elected representatives everywhere have legislated to the current state of affairs (extending to international conventions), that private companies have corrupted copyright to such an extent, and that there are people like you demanding that others conform to a situation that is clearly not sustainable in a social system that prizes cooperation and inventiveness.
People are not pirating stuff because they are bad or unethical. People are pirating stuff because they know they have been screwed and are not willing to pay homage to the screwers.
Then what? there will be a point when Linux is up to scratch for more demanding tasks.
It is not if but when.
The reason Ballmer was blabbering about patents is because they know their normal modus operandi of embrace and extend is simply not going to work. Patent litigation is is plan B, and even that may not be a plan at all if US courts finally see the light and strike down software patents for what they really are: the cave of the Ali Babas of the IT industry.
That is why in the UK you can't get one at all, unless you are willing to wait 3 or 4 months.
They have to compete, since obviously Asus has no problems releasing Linux only.
I am sure other PC manufacturers are watching, and may try to market properly speced and functioning Linux offering even if only to get out of idiotic exclusivity agreements with MS (which they should not have signed in the first place).
Ladies and gents, maybe this time the year for Linux in the desktop has really arrived, thanks to a company that saw the bleeding obvious: the differential in price between Linux and Windows. This year of economic downturn will concentrate the minds of a lot of people that will wonder why they should keep paying for more expensive, buggier, standards shy software.
.... lets say 20 or 30, I don not need to know about what is not relevant for a position. My time is precious, please don't waste it.
I need a programmer. Once I have one I may be interested to talk about his truck mechanics abilities over a beer at a later stage.
If I am hiring a programmer I don't really need to know he is a great truck mechanic.
Honestly, I do other stuff at a professional level, completely unrelated to computers and general geekery, I learned the hard way (in job interviews) that people are just not interested about that.
Many big companies look at that positively.
There are many big companies that have internal development teams to adjust FOSS to their internal needs (no, they don't release the code because they don't distribute the program).
Thinks like OpenSSH, sudo, perl, top and other programs are modified, it is always good to have on board somebody that is familiar with the program in some way.
You make a very well made point. Some times the stereotyping that goes in this site is really puerile.
As an example, I have worked in many industries in many places and I have never found geeks that lack such basic manners as not keeping themselves presentable.
Maybe it is a US thing and this site, being US centric, confers a feeling that all geeks are uncompromising pigs.
Lets subsidize a private school that can't be bothered to hire a proper technician.
Crime is not going up in the UK. Period.
And even if it was, gun violence is minuscule compared to what happens in the US, and constrained mostly to intergang warfare.
Sorry to say but banning guns in a country like Brazil (or Mexico) is futile since many levels of the government and the police are infiltrated with criminals of one kind or another.
The ban is a good thing, the ban is not creating a violent situation, the general state of Latinamerican societies makes impossible to enforce anything effectively.
In places like the UK (or Australia) where the rule of law applies, the ban is effective and the places are immensely safer than either the US, Brazil or parts of Mexico.
All countries with strict gun controls are safer than the US (at least when it comes to diying of a gun related injury).
In the US the gun lobby has managed to convince a majority that having a gun is a right.
In Switzerland owning a gun is a duty, a duty for which you bear entire responsibility.
He knew everything there is to know about guns, arms, riffles and many other artifacts created with the only purpose of killing people.
He would have slapped you for being so stupid.
How do you say no to a monopoly or a cartel?
To be there to protect the interests of the little men.
The bastards!