You're an idiot. It's a self-extracting binary. No one wants to support Linux if it comes with pompous fanboys like you who just bitch about every little thing. Don't install it. Don't use it. Don't share your idiotic opinions with the rest of us.
Your insanely hostile environment mandates a solution in which all data is encrypted at all times except when it is being accessed on a single workstation.
The requirement for shared access mandates that the encryption key be shared. Smart cards provide this by giving each user an individual passkey that they use to access the shared encryption key. This prevents a person's lost smartcard from compromising the security of the files.
You also need software that accepts the passkey and smart card directly from the user and uses it to decrypt the file. The software should then present the file directly to the Operating System of the workstation on which it is used. This should be as transparent and ad hoc as possible. Also, ideally, it would not allow the unencrypted file to leave the workstation. I don't have any idea how to accomplish that one.
As to the 'at home' usage requirements, you might look into using a custom CD-based Linux distro or, if Windows is necessary for application software, there are a couple of places where you can get CD-based versions of Windows 98. As someone mentioned, the users home PC is the weak link in your scenario.
Many functions run unaccelerated on cards that have all kinds of cool acceleration features... Are you aware that gtk pushes everything as a bitmap through the X protocol for each expose event?
Thank You. No one knows that; or seems to care. I'm currently playing around with a P200 with an S3 Trio64 that gives better (single pixel) Xperf results with the VESA driver than with the (accelerated?) S3 driver. KDE seems to run faster with the unaccelerated driver, which is completely unexpected.
XFree has little to no information on problems like this because they discourage discussion of performance to avoid playing favorites among video card manufacturers. There needs to be someplace that Joe User can go to get realistic advice on graphics performance in Linux, something besides the usual "buy an ATI/nVidia" spiel.
I think it's a good thing that these type of articles get posted once a week because someone needs to start talking about this; it is a serious problem that most noobs think graphics performance on Linux sucks and everyone just tells them that it doesn't or that they should use something other than KDE/Gnome. It seems that graphics and, by extension, gaming are the only areas left to hinder Linux from widespread desktop adoption by the average Windows user.
I think the point of the system wouldn't just be to find out what you want. The point would be to use your interests as an indication of what most people would want. If you knew that you were the barometer, you could search for things that only you would want, or even that you don't want, and thereby subvert the purpose of the system, which is to sell things to everyone, not just you.
has twice as many gears Did you miss this part or do I need to dig up my gearing ratios and post them?
The fact remains that all the horsepower in the world won't get you anywhere if you can't overcome the static friction of whatever load it is you're trying to pull. I didn't say it would tow *quickly*; I said it would tow *more*:)
Also, whether you want to believe me or not, inline engines *do* produce more low end torque than V-twins because of their design.
I wonder if any of the search engines have actually begun to use search patterns as an insight into consumer demands and profit off of such foresight.
It wouldn't be hard at all for a search engine to identify particularly insightful individuals, ones who consistently search for things in advance of their general availability or in advance of the masses, and use them as a barometer of future consumer demand.
That person could, of course, never know that they were being monitored in such a way. Imagine the possibilities of subverting such a system: make frequent searches for whatever you want and *poof* it appears a few months later.
I always appreciated Animal Farm. It was the lighter, more candy-coated version of 1984. The general theme that technological improvements on the farm was supposed to lead to *less* work but instead was just used by the pigs to subjugate the rest of the animals really hits the mark.
I also liked how the pigs used the traitor pig (Trotsky) as a fear-mongering tactic to keep the rest of the animals in line. Any time anything went wrong in the 'utopia' of the farm, Trotsky (who had been gone for some time) was blamed for it and everyone had to always keep an eye out for him to try to catch him in the act.
The economy wasn't bad because of mis-management; it was because of terrorism... riiiight.
Never trust vague government proposals. The amount of buzzwords in this one is just too much to let go without comment:
interoperable- We want to be able to spy on everything from cars to refrigerators. These various systems should be able to coordinate their spying automatically.
intelligent- We're not very smart; we want the electronics to do the thinking for us and just tell us who the terrorists are, kinda like in Minority Report.
dynamic- We don't yet know exactly what we want, but whatever it is, it had better do everything we want.
flexible- This important spying technology will probably only be initially approved by citizen-voters as traffic-monitors or whatnot. Naturally, we want to be able to use it for other things (spying).
scalable- We want our spy systems to easily transition from spying on just a few ATMs or traffic intersections to tracking everyone 24/7.
Horsepower.. it's.. important to look for if you want a truck that will tow heavy things.
It's not important at all. My inline 6-cylinder Jeep will tow more than any V8 regardless of the horsepower because it is designed for high torque and has twice as many gears. It might not go as quickly as a 454 with a turbo but it could pull a tractor-trailer if you could find a way to attach it. I think the fact that you don't even recognize the complete irrelevance of horsepower to your example makes it prime for categorization as a buzzword.
Studies have shown that most of the learning that people do happens before they reach the age of three or four. Most geniuses are recognized as such at a *very* early age. You can definitely learn ways to hone your thinking and comprehension: study formal logic, learn foreign languages, etc., but if you're not a genius by age five, I don't think you can teach yourself to be one.
Not 'not deserving', but not 'entitled' either. 'Entitlement' has a connotation that is very much different from what this is, which is more like an award.
Entitlement has a negative connotation in American English because of our not-so-recent history with the British nobility. They thought that they were 'entitled' to an absurd tax on tea imported to our country in the same way they thought they were 'entitled' to an exclusive monopoly on the sale of salt in India. They were wrong, so wrong in fact that titles were specifically prohibited to Americans in our Constitution.
The primary difference is in the root of the prefixes. 'E-' is from Latin 'ex', meaning 'out of'. 'A-' is from Latin 'ad' which means 'towards'.
'Affect' means you perform an action 'at' or 'towards' something that already exists. 'Effect' means 'to bring about' (you make something 'out' of thin air).
If you want something to happen, you 'ensure' it by doing something to bring it 'about'. If you want to give enhancement 'to' something that already exists, you 'assure' it.
This is pure speculation, but probably at some point, 'insure' was taken to mean the same as 'assure' in the same way that 'affect' generally has the same connotation as 'infect'.
You must not have thought it through. The last time this argument came up, I think./ decided that a collector the size of Alaska located near the equator would provide all the energy needs for the entire world. I haven't found the exact comment and I don't want to redo the calculations. Just take these points into account:
Equatorial regions receive sunlight 12hr/day 365 days/year. It's the best place (other than space) to put a solar collector.
All of the NIMBY arguments are null and void for floating platforms. There aren't even any environmental problems for anyone to complain about.
Power transmission isn't necessary, the electricity can be converted to H2 on site and tankered anywhere in the world. Water for electrolysis would be readily available.
The creation (and pricing) of H2 can be easily centralized and controlled by greedy businessmen. This is almost the most important point.
Which brings me to my last point: of course it will power cars! Did you think that the 'Hydrogen economy' was just a buzzword for wasting energy through needless conversion and standardization? (don't answer that)
Knowledge has always been irrelevant to intelligence. IQ tests don't quiz you on your recollection of history or your knowledge of foreign culture. 'Smartness' is the ability to understand and interpret abstract concepts quickly and logically. That skill is very relevant when finding and sorting through the crap on the internet, in everything from Google results to/. discussions. With resourcefulness, you will always be able to find the information you need.
beans rule. they are a pain to cook; you have to boil them *and* throw them in the crock pot for a *long* time. the wait is worth it, though.
buying huge amounts of hobo food is not for the timid. you'll get all sorts of strange looks buying large bags of beans no matter where you go. just compare the price of your beans to those tiny cans that go for $1 a piece and you should be the one laughing at *them*.
I'm sorry if it sounds stupid, but it's true. They're called discouraged workers, those who have given up trying to find a job. Maybe the next time you find yourself in the situation of either believing some random person on/. or blindly trusting your government to act reasonably, you'll think twice.
Yet another reason US history education sucks. Did you know that Kuwait was actually a part of Iraq before oil was discovered there? It is basically a British colony that exists to supply oil to the west. Why do you think the US and the UK are the only ones who participate in these absurd desert wars? Hitler wasn't exactly lying when he said he was 'reuniting Germany' by invading western Poland. Saddam was doing the same: 'liberating' Kuwait from the 'imperialists' and reuniting his nation.
And just to set the record straight, there are many Americans who aren't racist or anti-jewish, even in private.
Also to set the record straight, it is neither racist nor anti-Jewish to recognize the fact that the US media are, primarily, owned and operated by Jews.
You could try moving XDM/GDM/KDM to an earlier position in the init scripts. On my system, KDM is the last thing to start. I don't know if this is because it is dependent on other things being started first or what.
I have a slow computer with *lots* of memory that I leave on for long periods at a time. I hate waiting for KDE to load every time I log in. I'd bet that a lot of lab-type computers have the same dilemma.
which part of copyright law says that individuals aren't bound by it and businesses aren't?
Basic common law. Copyright isn't even a right. It's a privilege. Most definitely, though, it is absolutely not a power. It is the privilege to have a monopoly on a particular product. A monopoly is a commercial concept. The word 'monopoly' means 'to sell alone'. When originally proposing the concept of copyright, Jefferson even wanted to include restrictions on *all* monopolies besides the limited monopolies of patent and copyright in the Constitution. He also wanted the Constitution to include a specific limited timeframe, that of a generation, for the length of copyright.
The copyright 'bargain' is not that the public grant the power to censor an idea in exchange for the opportunity to buy said idea at monopoly prices. The copyright contract is this: you have the exclusive privilege to sell your idea; in exchange, you must tell your idea to the rest of us. Publication is an essential element of both patent and copyright.
All of this ignores the basic fact that the concept of a *limited* term of copyright has gone completely out the window. At the same time, the copyright cartel has raised prices and bundled products as their distribution costs and arguably the quality of their products have gone down. People have the absolute right, even the responsibility, to correct this blunder through exercising their end of the copyright bargain and working to negate the benefits of having a monopoly on selling an idea.
I'm willing to bet that 90% of those who switched from Windows to Linux and back were small time web hosting providers who tried RedHat.
These people are just about the farthest thing from educated computer professionals that exists. These are the people who saw the "make money now-- be a web designer!" ads on late night TV four or five years ago, bought a T1 and a copy of FrontPage and went to work making crappy, overpriced webpages for every uninformed mom-and-pop business in every town in the US. Nevermind the dot com bust; small businesses trail behind the large corporations and follow every trend, even the ones that didn't work out (Windows, e-commerce, etc..) Small businesses wanted webpages. These people provided them.
Since then, these small time providers might have learned a few things about computers and networks. They probably are fed up with patching their W2K or NT server or being hit with worms from leaving their SQL server open to the public net. They see sites like CNET talking about Linux and notice that just about every decent web provider runs Apache, almost always on some sort of Unix.
They think: I'll broaden my horizons. I'll cut costs. I'll eliminate tedious, repetitive work. I'll do it all with my $49.95 copy of RedHat Linux. Best of all, I'll do it myself and save even more money. These are the people who expect industrial-strength software with an idiot-proof interface at a home user price. They don't realize the absurdity of that request because that's what Microsoft has been telling them they're getting all these years.
The fact is that Linux will never appeal to this audience. This audience does not fit into the Open Source model. It doesn't really fit into any software model because it's nigh impossible to appease this type of user.
In the Open Source world, you are one of two things: a power user or a luser. If you are a luser, you get an idiot-proof interface and just enough features to use Linux as a tool for a few specific purposes. You can't mess anything up because you don't have access to anything that you could break. When you need help, you ask a power user and they can fix or provide whatever you need. You might have to actually pay the power user, though, because they don't grow on trees. You don't mind, though, because you have feature-filled, secure software that runs reliably.
If you are a power user, you get everything you could possibly want and more; but you have to work for it. You have to work to learn how to use it. You have to work to learn how to change it to fit your needs. With a little learning, though, there is no limit to what you can achieve with free software.
The only difference between the luser and the power user is the box. There is a box that surrounds the luser and separates him from the power user. It isn't an artificial box, created and maintained by a profit-motivated closed-source corporation. It is a box that the luser creates and that only he can destroy. It is a box borne of the luser's own ignorance and maintained by his refusal to expend any effort to remove it. It is the magic check-box that does everything for the luser and he is completely dependent upon it.
This particular type of user, the 'professional' one-man web hosting provider slash web designer, is also dependent upon the box. He doesn't want to know what the computer does or how it does it. To him, the objective is to use the computer to make money without doing work. Check the box. Don't worry about the rest. Microsoft takes care of that part.
In reality, though, the box is an illusion. The box requires maintenance. Is patching work? Is rebooting work? Are expensive licenses work? Is re-installing programs and operating systems due to viruses work? Is installing a firewall work? Is learning the intricacies of administering your system work? Is paying a qualified Linux power user to configure or admin your system work?
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The first time I read that, I thought that by 'our languages' you meant bash. Time to go outside.
You're an idiot. It's a self-extracting binary. No one wants to support Linux if it comes with pompous fanboys like you who just bitch about every little thing. Don't install it. Don't use it. Don't share your idiotic opinions with the rest of us.
Your insanely hostile environment mandates a solution in which all data is encrypted at all times except when it is being accessed on a single workstation.
The requirement for shared access mandates that the encryption key be shared. Smart cards provide this by giving each user an individual passkey that they use to access the shared encryption key. This prevents a person's lost smartcard from compromising the security of the files.
You also need software that accepts the passkey and smart card directly from the user and uses it to decrypt the file. The software should then present the file directly to the Operating System of the workstation on which it is used. This should be as transparent and ad hoc as possible. Also, ideally, it would not allow the unencrypted file to leave the workstation. I don't have any idea how to accomplish that one.
As to the 'at home' usage requirements, you might look into using a custom CD-based Linux distro or, if Windows is necessary for application software, there are a couple of places where you can get CD-based versions of Windows 98. As someone mentioned, the users home PC is the weak link in your scenario.
Less time than it takes to go to Blockbuster.
Let's not get carried away:
2 Mbit/s == 2,097,152 bits/s == 262,144 bytes/s
DVD == 9,663,676,416 bytes
9 gigabytes / 2 megabits/s = 36,864 seconds
36,864 seconds == 614.4 minutes == 10.24 hours
I don't think a trip to Blockbuster takes you ten hours.
Many functions run unaccelerated on cards that have all kinds of cool acceleration features... Are you aware that gtk pushes everything as a bitmap through the X protocol for each expose event?
Thank You. No one knows that; or seems to care. I'm currently playing around with a P200 with an S3 Trio64 that gives better (single pixel) Xperf results with the VESA driver than with the (accelerated?) S3 driver. KDE seems to run faster with the unaccelerated driver, which is completely unexpected.
XFree has little to no information on problems like this because they discourage discussion of performance to avoid playing favorites among video card manufacturers. There needs to be someplace that Joe User can go to get realistic advice on graphics performance in Linux, something besides the usual "buy an ATI/nVidia" spiel.
I think it's a good thing that these type of articles get posted once a week because someone needs to start talking about this; it is a serious problem that most noobs think graphics performance on Linux sucks and everyone just tells them that it doesn't or that they should use something other than KDE/Gnome. It seems that graphics and, by extension, gaming are the only areas left to hinder Linux from widespread desktop adoption by the average Windows user.
I think the point of the system wouldn't just be to find out what you want. The point would be to use your interests as an indication of what most people would want. If you knew that you were the barometer, you could search for things that only you would want, or even that you don't want, and thereby subvert the purpose of the system, which is to sell things to everyone, not just you.
has twice as many gears
:)
Did you miss this part or do I need to dig up my gearing ratios and post them?
The fact remains that all the horsepower in the world won't get you anywhere if you can't overcome the static friction of whatever load it is you're trying to pull. I didn't say it would tow *quickly*; I said it would tow *more*
Also, whether you want to believe me or not, inline engines *do* produce more low end torque than V-twins because of their design.
I wonder if any of the search engines have actually begun to use search patterns as an insight into consumer demands and profit off of such foresight.
It wouldn't be hard at all for a search engine to identify particularly insightful individuals, ones who consistently search for things in advance of their general availability or in advance of the masses, and use them as a barometer of future consumer demand.
That person could, of course, never know that they were being monitored in such a way. Imagine the possibilities of subverting such a system: make frequent searches for whatever you want and *poof* it appears a few months later.
I always appreciated Animal Farm. It was the lighter, more candy-coated version of 1984. The general theme that technological improvements on the farm was supposed to lead to *less* work but instead was just used by the pigs to subjugate the rest of the animals really hits the mark.
I also liked how the pigs used the traitor pig (Trotsky) as a fear-mongering tactic to keep the rest of the animals in line. Any time anything went wrong in the 'utopia' of the farm, Trotsky (who had been gone for some time) was blamed for it and everyone had to always keep an eye out for him to try to catch him in the act.
The economy wasn't bad because of mis-management; it was because of terrorism... riiiight.
Horsepower.. it's.. important to look for if you want a truck that will tow heavy things.
It's not important at all. My inline 6-cylinder Jeep will tow more than any V8 regardless of the horsepower because it is designed for high torque and has twice as many gears. It might not go as quickly as a 454 with a turbo but it could pull a tractor-trailer if you could find a way to attach it. I think the fact that you don't even recognize the complete irrelevance of horsepower to your example makes it prime for categorization as a buzzword.
Studies have shown that most of the learning that people do happens before they reach the age of three or four. Most geniuses are recognized as such at a *very* early age. You can definitely learn ways to hone your thinking and comprehension: study formal logic, learn foreign languages, etc., but if you're not a genius by age five, I don't think you can teach yourself to be one.
Not 'not deserving', but not 'entitled' either. 'Entitlement' has a connotation that is very much different from what this is, which is more like an award.
Entitlement has a negative connotation in American English because of our not-so-recent history with the British nobility. They thought that they were 'entitled' to an absurd tax on tea imported to our country in the same way they thought they were 'entitled' to an exclusive monopoly on the sale of salt in India. They were wrong, so wrong in fact that titles were specifically prohibited to Americans in our Constitution.
The primary difference is in the root of the prefixes. 'E-' is from Latin 'ex', meaning 'out of'. 'A-' is from Latin 'ad' which means 'towards'.
'Affect' means you perform an action 'at' or 'towards' something that already exists. 'Effect' means 'to bring about' (you make something 'out' of thin air).
If you want something to happen, you 'ensure' it by doing something to bring it 'about'. If you want to give enhancement 'to' something that already exists, you 'assure' it.
This is pure speculation, but probably at some point, 'insure' was taken to mean the same as 'assure' in the same way that 'affect' generally has the same connotation as 'infect'.
The 3Com rep laughed at me when I asked if I could put Linux on the NBX100. Maybe now someone can fix that one user per phone 'bug'.
I just don't see it powering cars.
./ decided that a collector the size of Alaska located near the equator would provide all the energy needs for the entire world. I haven't found the exact comment and I don't want to redo the calculations. Just take these points into account:
You must not have thought it through. The last time this argument came up, I think
Equatorial regions receive sunlight 12hr/day 365 days/year. It's the best place (other than space) to put a solar collector.
All of the NIMBY arguments are null and void for floating platforms. There aren't even any environmental problems for anyone to complain about.
Power transmission isn't necessary, the electricity can be converted to H2 on site and tankered anywhere in the world. Water for electrolysis would be readily available.
The creation (and pricing) of H2 can be easily centralized and controlled by greedy businessmen. This is almost the most important point.
Which brings me to my last point: of course it will power cars! Did you think that the 'Hydrogen economy' was just a buzzword for wasting energy through needless conversion and standardization? (don't answer that)
Knowledge has always been irrelevant to intelligence. IQ tests don't quiz you on your recollection of history or your knowledge of foreign culture. 'Smartness' is the ability to understand and interpret abstract concepts quickly and logically. That skill is very relevant when finding and sorting through the crap on the internet, in everything from Google results to /. discussions. With resourcefulness, you will always be able to find the information you need.
beans rule. they are a pain to cook; you have to boil them *and* throw them in the crock pot for a *long* time. the wait is worth it, though.
buying huge amounts of hobo food is not for the timid. you'll get all sorts of strange looks buying large bags of beans no matter where you go. just compare the price of your beans to those tiny cans that go for $1 a piece and you should be the one laughing at *them*.
I'm sorry if it sounds stupid, but it's true. They're called discouraged workers, those who have given up trying to find a job. Maybe the next time you find yourself in the situation of either believing some random person on /. or blindly trusting your government to act reasonably, you'll think twice.
Yet another reason US history education sucks. Did you know that Kuwait was actually a part of Iraq before oil was discovered there? It is basically a British colony that exists to supply oil to the west. Why do you think the US and the UK are the only ones who participate in these absurd desert wars? Hitler wasn't exactly lying when he said he was 'reuniting Germany' by invading western Poland. Saddam was doing the same: 'liberating' Kuwait from the 'imperialists' and reuniting his nation.
And just to set the record straight, there are many Americans who aren't racist or anti-jewish, even in private.
Also to set the record straight, it is neither racist nor anti-Jewish to recognize the fact that the US media are, primarily, owned and operated by Jews.
You could try moving XDM/GDM/KDM to an earlier position in the init scripts. On my system, KDM is the last thing to start. I don't know if this is because it is dependent on other things being started first or what.
I have a slow computer with *lots* of memory that I leave on for long periods at a time. I hate waiting for KDE to load every time I log in. I'd bet that a lot of lab-type computers have the same dilemma.
which part of copyright law says that individuals aren't bound by it and businesses aren't?
Basic common law. Copyright isn't even a right. It's a privilege. Most definitely, though, it is absolutely not a power. It is the privilege to have a monopoly on a particular product. A monopoly is a commercial concept. The word 'monopoly' means 'to sell alone'. When originally proposing the concept of copyright, Jefferson even wanted to include restrictions on *all* monopolies besides the limited monopolies of patent and copyright in the Constitution. He also wanted the Constitution to include a specific limited timeframe, that of a generation, for the length of copyright.
The copyright 'bargain' is not that the public grant the power to censor an idea in exchange for the opportunity to buy said idea at monopoly prices. The copyright contract is this: you have the exclusive privilege to sell your idea; in exchange, you must tell your idea to the rest of us. Publication is an essential element of both patent and copyright.
All of this ignores the basic fact that the concept of a *limited* term of copyright has gone completely out the window. At the same time, the copyright cartel has raised prices and bundled products as their distribution costs and arguably the quality of their products have gone down. People have the absolute right, even the responsibility, to correct this blunder through exercising their end of the copyright bargain and working to negate the benefits of having a monopoly on selling an idea.
Terrorism- a mode of government by terror or intimidation. --Thomas Jefferson.
Just something to think about when the spooks start wanting to 'think like terrorists'.
I'm willing to bet that 90% of those who switched from Windows to Linux and back were small time web hosting providers who tried RedHat.
These people are just about the farthest thing from educated computer professionals that exists. These are the people who saw the "make money now-- be a web designer!" ads on late night TV four or five years ago, bought a T1 and a copy of FrontPage and went to work making crappy, overpriced webpages for every uninformed mom-and-pop business in every town in the US. Nevermind the dot com bust; small businesses trail behind the large corporations and follow every trend, even the ones that didn't work out (Windows, e-commerce, etc..) Small businesses wanted webpages. These people provided them.
Since then, these small time providers might have learned a few things about computers and networks. They probably are fed up with patching their W2K or NT server or being hit with worms from leaving their SQL server open to the public net. They see sites like CNET talking about Linux and notice that just about every decent web provider runs Apache, almost always on some sort of Unix.
They think: I'll broaden my horizons. I'll cut costs. I'll eliminate tedious, repetitive work. I'll do it all with my $49.95 copy of RedHat Linux. Best of all, I'll do it myself and save even more money. These are the people who expect industrial-strength software with an idiot-proof interface at a home user price. They don't realize the absurdity of that request because that's what Microsoft has been telling them they're getting all these years.
The fact is that Linux will never appeal to this audience. This audience does not fit into the Open Source model. It doesn't really fit into any software model because it's nigh impossible to appease this type of user.
In the Open Source world, you are one of two things: a power user or a luser. If you are a luser, you get an idiot-proof interface and just enough features to use Linux as a tool for a few specific purposes. You can't mess anything up because you don't have access to anything that you could break. When you need help, you ask a power user and they can fix or provide whatever you need. You might have to actually pay the power user, though, because they don't grow on trees. You don't mind, though, because you have feature-filled, secure software that runs reliably.
If you are a power user, you get everything you could possibly want and more; but you have to work for it. You have to work to learn how to use it. You have to work to learn how to change it to fit your needs. With a little learning, though, there is no limit to what you can achieve with free software.
The only difference between the luser and the power user is the box. There is a box that surrounds the luser and separates him from the power user. It isn't an artificial box, created and maintained by a profit-motivated closed-source corporation. It is a box that the luser creates and that only he can destroy. It is a box borne of the luser's own ignorance and maintained by his refusal to expend any effort to remove it. It is the magic check-box that does everything for the luser and he is completely dependent upon it.
This particular type of user, the 'professional' one-man web hosting provider slash web designer, is also dependent upon the box. He doesn't want to know what the computer does or how it does it. To him, the objective is to use the computer to make money without doing work. Check the box. Don't worry about the rest. Microsoft takes care of that part.
In reality, though, the box is an illusion. The box requires maintenance. Is patching work? Is rebooting work? Are expensive licenses work? Is re-installing programs and operating systems due to viruses work? Is installing a firewall work? Is learning the intricacies of administering your system work? Is paying a qualified Linux power user to configure or admin your system work?
Which requires less 'wo