People will do just fine with a choice of products/ideas, as long as they are fundamentally similar. No one has "bleat(ed) a path" to Coke's doorstep yet.
We just have to make sure that we have a (version of) Linux that looks and functions close enough to Windows that people really don't care one way or another.
I don't know if anyone can find it, but I remember reading an article that pretty much outlined the above as the cause of the dot-com bust. 1) small company grows into medium-sized one under original founder. 2) board decides that current CEO/management aren't "qualified" enough and replace them with their college friends in order to "grow the company". 3) new CEO/college friends hire more college friends at bloated salaries and spending quadruples. 4) company goes under. 5) everyone wonders why.
Like Windows 2000? You can't use it forever, Redmond won't let you. At some point you have to move on to Bill's latest offering, and you'll just *love* XP. As I see it, you have three options:
1) Use 2000 forever and M$ goes out of business.
2) Upgrade (downgrade) to XP.
3) Learn to use Linux.
I know #3 will take some effort, but at this point it is almost equal to option #2. I'd put money on the prediction that, as Linux grows, M$ product quality will either get worse or the price will go up. Their shareholders aren't particularly excited about the prospects of MSN and XBox in a post-MS-monopoly marketplace.
No matter what you choose now, #3 will eventually become the best choice. Personally, I'm going to try to use Win98 forever, or at least until I can play recent games in Linux.
I'm so used to web-admins misusing the term 'cluster' on slashdot that I almost wrote an angry reply to your post out of pure habit. This time it's the other way around, but he *was* very careful to qualify his advice, so give him a break. Besides, not every service can just be 'load-balanced' on the IP level and forgotten. Mosix is a great solution for those that can't.
Around here, it's the opposite. Cox Cable is a tiny, friendly monopoly when compared to the likes of Southwestern Bell (SBC).
not really all that practical for ISP of any size
on
VRRP
·
· Score: 2
I just installed a network for a small business (100 employees) that has redundant firewalls and DSL connections to multiple ISP's. Next year, the one that has had the most outages/downtime will silently be dropped and a replacement found. Protocols like VRRP allow me to do this. You can damn well bet that if it's important enough for me to do, my ISP's had better follow suit, or risk losing my business.
Make it a simple math program that graphs a parabola or something. Hell, give it a flashy GUI if you want. They don't have to learn how to code, just that it is *possible* and what it basically entails. BTW, I was doing this in the fifth grade so it's not above any of your students.
I've met sysadmins who have memorized every OS option available but couldn't program their way out of a paper sack. Most people don't know how to rationalize that the OS is a program that runs other programs because they don't have any comprehension of what a program is. This would be a great way to introduce them to the fundamental principle of the Open Source Movement.
Agree. I'd just like to point out that the same thing occurs with cars, yet no one cries about the "toxic chemicals" that are in them. In fact, this is pretty much the M.O. for the "developed" nations: constantly upgrade your crap and pass on your hand-me-downs to the rest of the world. Anyone who's taken even a basic economics class can see that it doesn't add up.
But, seriously, aside from retreating into the woods to grow your own food, there isn't much a person in the "civilized" world can do to lessen his impact on the environment.
Look at your refrigerator. See the petty amount of insulation on it? If it had twice that amount, it would use less energy and last twice as long.
How much would it cost you to buy one that has more insulation? Twice as much? Five times as much? Do they even exist?
What would happen if you and everyone else started using half as much electricity as you used to? Would the price stay the same? Would it be worth the investment?
Have you ever worked in corporate America? What would happen if you suggested to your boss that he shouldn't pollute the environment, that he should make products that last longer and are more efficient?
You can relax a little though, because the fact is that lots of your waste is recycled already. Many communities have waste-to-energy plants that burn your trash and recover some of it as energy. Many others are implementing recycling programs and even programs to convert sewage into methane fuel. Greedy companies are even being tricked into saving energy by purchasing cogeneration units that lower their overall energy bills.
I just finished reading this interesting thread on the Debian developers' mailing list. They discuss all aspects of the Intel compiler, including AMD support, possibly adding packages to Debian non-free, and (most interestingly) using icc to compile Debian binaries for distribution.
There are several speculative "requests" for a donation of a license to Debian for this purpose as well as a plea to Intel to release the suite in.deb format instead of just RPM. All in all it was an interesting read.
That should have said: I downloaded Slink, but ended up using Potato... for exactly the reasons you cite. It's late...
I just did this recently
on
Antique Distros?
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
with only 8 megs of RAM. I have finally gotten it to a usable point with FVWM and a custom, pared-down kernel.
I used Debian Slink, but I have access to a broadband internet connection. The X Configuration was a major pain. You should look into a mini distribution that comes with TinyX or something based on UCLibC if you really want the most bang for your download time. Remember, VesaFB is your friend.
I'm also looking for a distro specifically for old 486's, but I am yet to find one. I have run across this commercial OS, though, which is pretty cool.
You're joking, right? You're comparing an OS upgrade like SP2 to running another application on your PC? Microsoft's half-assed "service-packs" aren't just software programs, and they do tend to fuck everything in the OS. Running other apps concurrently with whatever you have developed is a completely different scenario.
Slashdot Mirror
Coke Pepsi
Left Right
People will do just fine with a choice of products/ideas, as long as they are fundamentally similar. No one has "bleat(ed) a path" to Coke's doorstep yet.
We just have to make sure that we have a (version of) Linux that looks and functions close enough to Windows that people really don't care one way or another.
you can never go wrong with a post that compares operating systems to cars...
Maybe he'll send his first officer instead.
Cygwin inside Wine
I don't know if anyone can find it, but I remember reading an article that pretty much outlined the above as the cause of the dot-com bust.
1) small company grows into medium-sized one under original founder.
2) board decides that current CEO/management aren't "qualified" enough and replace them with their college friends in order to "grow the company".
3) new CEO/college friends hire more college friends at bloated salaries and spending quadruples.
4) company goes under.
5) everyone wonders why.
Toshiba Pocket PC
1) Use 2000 forever and M$ goes out of business.
2) Upgrade (downgrade) to XP.
3) Learn to use Linux.
I know #3 will take some effort, but at this point it is almost equal to option #2. I'd put money on the prediction that, as Linux grows, M$ product quality will either get worse or the price will go up. Their shareholders aren't particularly excited about the prospects of MSN and XBox in a post-MS-monopoly marketplace.
No matter what you choose now, #3 will eventually become the best choice. Personally, I'm going to try to use Win98 forever, or at least until I can play recent games in Linux.
I'm so used to web-admins misusing the term 'cluster' on slashdot that I almost wrote an angry reply to your post out of pure habit. This time it's the other way around, but he *was* very careful to qualify his advice, so give him a break. Besides, not every service can just be 'load-balanced' on the IP level and forgotten. Mosix is a great solution for those that can't.
Around here, it's the opposite. Cox Cable is a tiny, friendly monopoly when compared to the likes of Southwestern Bell (SBC).
I just installed a network for a small business (100 employees) that has redundant firewalls and DSL connections to multiple ISP's. Next year, the one that has had the most outages/downtime will silently be dropped and a replacement found. Protocols like VRRP allow me to do this. You can damn well bet that if it's important enough for me to do, my ISP's had better follow suit, or risk losing my business.
Ask and ye shall receive.
I've met sysadmins who have memorized every OS option available but couldn't program their way out of a paper sack. Most people don't know how to rationalize that the OS is a program that runs other programs because they don't have any comprehension of what a program is. This would be a great way to introduce them to the fundamental principle of the Open Source Movement.
It was developed at Los Alamos.
You might try running RAID over something like iSCSI (if it can be done), and re-exporting that filesystem from a central server.
LOL. That should be a bumper sticker :)
Agree. I'd just like to point out that the same thing occurs with cars, yet no one cries about the "toxic chemicals" that are in them. In fact, this is pretty much the M.O. for the "developed" nations: constantly upgrade your crap and pass on your hand-me-downs to the rest of the world. Anyone who's taken even a basic economics class can see that it doesn't add up.
Look at your refrigerator. See the petty amount of insulation on it? If it had twice that amount, it would use less energy and last twice as long.
How much would it cost you to buy one that has more insulation? Twice as much? Five times as much? Do they even exist?
What would happen if you and everyone else started using half as much electricity as you used to? Would the price stay the same? Would it be worth the investment?
Have you ever worked in corporate America? What would happen if you suggested to your boss that he shouldn't pollute the environment, that he should make products that last longer and are more efficient?
You can relax a little though, because the fact is that lots of your waste is recycled already. Many communities have waste-to-energy plants that burn your trash and recover some of it as energy. Many others are implementing recycling programs and even programs to convert sewage into methane fuel. Greedy companies are even being tricked into saving energy by purchasing cogeneration units that lower their overall energy bills.
There are several speculative "requests" for a donation of a license to Debian for this purpose as well as a plea to Intel to release the suite in .deb format instead of just RPM. All in all it was an interesting read.
That should have said: I downloaded Slink, but ended up using Potato... for exactly the reasons you cite. It's late...
I used Debian Slink, but I have access to a broadband internet connection. The X Configuration was a major pain. You should look into a mini distribution that comes with TinyX or something based on UCLibC if you really want the most bang for your download time. Remember, VesaFB is your friend.
I'm also looking for a distro specifically for old 486's, but I am yet to find one. I have run across this commercial OS, though, which is pretty cool.
you mean something like this
pico + gpm is a simple, powerful combination.
People don't vote because they don't trust the system. If the system were more open, Democracy might actually mean something.
You're joking, right? You're comparing an OS upgrade like SP2 to running another application on your PC? Microsoft's half-assed "service-packs" aren't just software programs, and they do tend to fuck everything in the OS. Running other apps concurrently with whatever you have developed is a completely different scenario.
A little googling came across Small Linux. It looks like it includes a few pre-compiled programs and TinyX as well.