MCSE here... logging in to shoot down a couple of misconceptions about Microsoft, as well as about Microsoft users/admins.
M1. Microsoft is the devil/satan incarnate/ naughty jungle of love.
A1. They are in business. To make money.
M2. Microsoft products suck
A2. For the most part, I would rather support MS software than just about any other. There is a large community of MS admins like myself who share answers to common and not-so-common problems. Through Newsgroups. Mailing Lists. email. (sound familiar?)
M3. Microsoft admins/users buy into the M$ Hype.
A3. Nope.
Predatory marketing practices?
Check.
Windows Errors/Problems that totally baffle your mind sometimes?
Check.
Wonder what kind of logic they used when designing the stuff one moment, and smiling at that wierd quirky thing that is just 'right'
Check
Believe in the power of what works, and screw the hype?
Check.
Believe that there are systems that do some jobs better than Windows?
Damn Straight!!! (Particularly NDS. NDS has an elegance and purpose of design and function that can make any geek, that will take the time to understand it, smile...)
M4. You 'have' to upgrade M$ software.
A4. Not at all. As a matter of fact, we are upgrading all of our systems to Windows 2000 Pro on the desktop, and Windows 2000 Server for one simple reason. It works better than what we have. That is the ONLY reason to upgrade software. XP isn't shaping up to be a heck of a lot better than 2000, and hence... we will NOT be 'crossgrading'
M5. An M$ product that lasts Years? At best I give anything one year until the service release is out, then the next upgrade...
A5. Software is created by humans. Humans make mistakes. (ie, bugs) Software developers release bug fixes. Happens all the time. Anyone subscribed to BugTraq knows that it's not just M$ that has bugs...
M6. Microsoft's treatment of standards is proprietary and bullying.
A6. OK, you got me there...:)
M7. The licensing issue.
A7. I know that I won't stand for it. I have too much crap to do without having to sit on the phone waiting for an authorization number. But I think that the home user is more in danger of this. I am SURE that there will be a way around it for corporate/large volume installations. (Office 2000 is supposed to have this check, but I have installed it MANY times with the same SN, on our network, and have YET to be asked for it.
A quick comment: I'm surprised with the amount of passed-along RUMINT that gets spouted on this list as truth. One person says that M$ has broken a standard, and next thing, it's stated as gospel in here.
BTW, I have been messing around with LINUX for a couple of years now... even had a ipchains firewall running at my last job. Didn't even tell them, and they didn't notice. One of the things that I plan to do along with my upgrade to 2000 is to set up an SAN using LINUX/SAMBA storage... geek fun!
Crap... I do ramble, don't I? (And No... I was NOT waiting for my NT server to reboot...):)
Slashdot Mirror
Read it. It was so good, I finished it in a few hours, then turned around and read it AGAIN!!!
Hon. Mention: Had a friend pass along 'The Blue Nowhere' by Jeffery Deaver (Author of 'The Bone Collector', etc)
Not usually my style of books, but he's amazing, and didn't make tech sound completely retarded as most authors do.
Since then, I've read everything he's written. All of them were quite good.
Jim
MCSE here... logging in to shoot down a couple of misconceptions about Microsoft, as well as about Microsoft users/admins.
:)
:)
M1. Microsoft is the devil/satan incarnate/ naughty jungle of love.
A1. They are in business. To make money.
M2. Microsoft products suck
A2. For the most part, I would rather support MS software than just about any other. There is a large community of MS admins like myself who share answers to common and not-so-common problems. Through Newsgroups. Mailing Lists. email. (sound familiar?)
M3. Microsoft admins/users buy into the M$ Hype.
A3. Nope.
Predatory marketing practices?
Check.
Windows Errors/Problems that totally baffle your mind sometimes?
Check.
Wonder what kind of logic they used when designing the stuff one moment, and smiling at that wierd quirky thing that is just 'right'
Check
Believe in the power of what works, and screw the hype?
Check.
Believe that there are systems that do some jobs better than Windows?
Damn Straight!!! (Particularly NDS. NDS has an elegance and purpose of design and function that can make any geek, that will take the time to understand it, smile...)
M4. You 'have' to upgrade M$ software.
A4. Not at all. As a matter of fact, we are upgrading all of our systems to Windows 2000 Pro on the desktop, and Windows 2000 Server for one simple reason. It works better than what we have. That is the ONLY reason to upgrade software. XP isn't shaping up to be a heck of a lot better than 2000, and hence... we will NOT be 'crossgrading'
M5. An M$ product that lasts Years? At best I give anything one year until the service release is out, then the next upgrade...
A5. Software is created by humans. Humans make mistakes. (ie, bugs) Software developers release bug fixes. Happens all the time. Anyone subscribed to BugTraq knows that it's not just M$ that has bugs...
M6. Microsoft's treatment of standards is proprietary and bullying.
A6. OK, you got me there...
M7. The licensing issue.
A7. I know that I won't stand for it. I have too much crap to do without having to sit on the phone waiting for an authorization number. But I think that the home user is more in danger of this. I am SURE that there will be a way around it for corporate/large volume installations. (Office 2000 is supposed to have this check, but I have installed it MANY times with the same SN, on our network, and have YET to be asked for it.
A quick comment: I'm surprised with the amount of passed-along RUMINT that gets spouted on this list as truth. One person says that M$ has broken a standard, and next thing, it's stated as gospel in here.
BTW, I have been messing around with LINUX for a couple of years now... even had a ipchains firewall running at my last job. Didn't even tell them, and they didn't notice. One of the things that I plan to do along with my upgrade to 2000 is to set up an SAN using LINUX/SAMBA storage... geek fun!
Crap... I do ramble, don't I? (And No... I was NOT waiting for my NT server to reboot...)