As long as they don't call the help desk when they have issues I'm all for them doing their own upkeep. One of that hardest things for help desk's (or anyone really) to do is support systems that have any number of possible combinations.
I personally don't run the supported install at work, but I also don't expect help desk's help if I end up doing something stupid.
Python/Perl/Ruby are limited to Unix/Linux people so still they are more expensive. Python is actually fine across Mac OS X, Linux/Unix and Windows. In fact it's quite easy to write python applications that work across multiple platforms with very little work (a lot of times without extra work at all).
While I am far from a ruby expert I have heard about Ruby and Windows... though it seems like there has (and will be) work on that. A quick google search showed results such as
"Ruby is written for POSIX environments, which means that it can take advantage of all of the system calls and libraries that Unix programmers are familiar with."
I worked with Frank Wierzbicki in a previous position. Good guy, smart, and a true pythonista. I'm happy to see him in this new position and hopefully he will be able to provide some guidance to Python in the jvm... it makes me excited about jython again.
If your not allowed into 'the boardroom' because of how you dress instead of your abilities, decisions and merits then it's probably not a place you want to waste your talents at.
Now, if you smell like a 5 day old hot dog that is another story!
IT will be around for a long time. It seems the Carr believes IT is system administrators who run software they didn't write... which is not true. Most decently sized companies that have IT shops have software engineers, sysadmins, QA, etc.. The closest replacements we have for those groups are things like SalesForce which are, to be nice, frustrating, inefficient, and poorly implemented closed source applications.
You also end up with some of the same issues that have been plaguing SaaS providers: Who owns the data? What kind of liability is there for unplanned downtime or security breaches (are they an LLC??!?), How can lock in be avoided? etc...
Don't get me wrong... IT will use these services. EC2 is nice to have to bring up temporary systems during heavy load but the end result will be like a lot of other helpful systems/tools: They will be used by IT where it makes sense. Business people need (or at least think they need) custom software as their work (or at least they think their work) is different than everyone else's. As long as they believe that they will need custom work done and can't use one sized fits all products.
He also seems to be saying we will return back to the mainframe days in how users interact with systems. Come on, do people really want to stop their business if their dumb client(s) lose connection?
To be honest this is something that is partly being done today and not working out so well. It's called outsourcing. Lots of companies have attempted to outsource their code, infrastructure, testing, and business owners. The result has largely been disastrous. Making a one size fits all software "solutions" and structures and thinking it will overrun how companies get business done seems largely far fetched. I think lego programming will become a reality before the business user uses web browser/dumb terminals to do his or her work on a mainframe like cloud the same way their competitors do.
... it's double platformed (Win and OS X). Linux, or any other platforms are no where to be found for system requirements (http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/system-requirements.aspx).
Python has fantastic support for XML... but unlike some other languages (*cough*Java*cough*) it's much simpler to write your application than script your whole system with lots of XML files. Most apps needs configs (where XML can be nice) but code should be done in code:-).
Most folks poke fun at MS not for their marketing. I'd dare say they are amazing marketeers. What they don't do well is produce stable products which are a joy to work with. Apple OS X does a great job on the desktop and Linux does an amazing job server side. Microsoft's products tend to come in at number 2 at best (in stability and sexiness).
I think part of the problem is that colleges pop out 'this language only' students. Most of my fresh out friends know Java, and only Java. Any other language confuses the hell out of them, not to mention they 'learned' that Java is the best way to do things and other languages are all hacks (wtf?).
I've worked at a few firms in which a few have outsourced. In the places that did outsource it was very, very rare to get code back that was worth it and did not need to be rewritten.
Basically, if you have a CS degree then you will/are be in high demand in just about whatever country you live in.
It really depends on what your doing with it. If you come from the Java world and write Python code like you would Java code it is quite slow.
Also, keep in mind Python does not use a virtual machine at all in the same way Java does -- which means it is somewhat like comparing apples to oranges.
I was a full time J2EE engineer for a while and a recent convert to Python for general programming. The things I noticed are:
- Java is great for large teams of programmers working together across the globe but as good as Python for smaller groups in the same place. - Python's web frameworks are amazingly fast and very powerful. - Java is almost text book perfect when it comes to programming. Unlike most other languages kids can come out of university and not have to change hardly anything to get started in the real world of Java. - It's very rare to see stock Tomcats or even stock JVM's meaning that most (commercial) Java apps send the entire 'Java OS' (VM) with their products. - Java web apps are very slow on startup, but scale well after the startup time. - Python has a better RORA system, though Java isn't to far behind. - Java terminology is very confusing compared to Pythons esp. since it is generally termed by marketers (Java2 is Java1.4 and then we hit Java 5 which is Java1.5...)
Here is how it seems companies leverage the languages....
1. Java Manager's reason for Java: "I have a large IT infrastructure and want to do enterprise applications with teams across the globe." Engineer Translation for Java: "I have an over all large group of engineers and want to make an application designed by the business with at least some of the team out sourced."
2. Python Manager's reason for Python: "I have a small IT budget and want to agile and business reactive application development." Engineer Translation for Python "I don't have a budget to get more engineers and the requirements state that we need to be able to change and update the application on the business whim."
In scenario number 1 it is a growing company who wants to hire lots of new engineers so the plus side of using Java is:
1. Just about every engineer (good or bad) knows it 2. It enforces C++ like development cycles 3. If done right, the objects are reusable and simple for an architect to understand 4. You can hire fresh outs
In scenario number 2 it's a growing company who is not investing more money in the IT department but expects better results for the buck put into it. The plus side of Python would be:
1. It's a RAAG language (read at a glance) which means you can skim through the code quite quickly without needing tracers or debuggers. 2. By design each engineer is a mini architect 3. If done right, the objects are reusable and simple for engineers to grasp quickly 4. The quality of engineers you get tend to be quite high since most Python engineers are converts from other languages with X years of experience in the field. (though it also means you can't hire as quickly).
Bottom line there is no right or wrong answer as to which is better or faster. Python is faster in some cases and Java is faster in others and it largely depends on how you run your business and the money that you want to spend in IT as to which one would help your company.
The 140$ USD for a windows license comes with no support. The updates from windows update are so-so and tend to be after the issue has been in the wild a bit.
You are mostly correct about paying the yearly fee for RHEL... but RHEL it self is not the payment, you are paying for a support stream.
On thing that a lot of comercial Open Source shops are guilty of is providing to high of quality support. Sure, RHEL is more expensive with an update/support contract than Windows, but have you ever called Microsoft before? Not only do you get friendly folks from india on the line but usually leave (afte ~ 6 hours of calls) with no real answer. If you tally up the time spend on the phone and then running diag yourself on the Win box you end up with much higher costs.
Don't get me wrong, there are some comercial OSS companies out there who over price and under serve, but the majority I've delt with have been really, really good compared to the traditional competition.
On the same token, not everyone needs a comercial version of XYZ app. I run Fedora 6 BETA as my production workstation at home... on an intel mac mini. Not only is it really stable, bugs are fixed without me lifting a finger (well, ok, so I run yum -y update).
The use of software should be gauged by the return on investement that the software and support provides. Have an internal IT Helpdesk team? Do they know XYZ app well? Why pay to double your support? Double support is something a lot of shops do so they can 'find a neck to choke' externally? The news is that choking doesn't fix the issue!
I've spent a decent amount of time working for Open and Closed companies and shops. The quality of code and support from the Open (or more Open) shops were much higher than the Closed source/black box shops.
I've used both Xen (personal use) and VMWare (comercial use). Of those two Xen is the way to go IMHO. I had FC5 running on FC5 with only 256MB RAM given to the virtual machine and the speed was amazing. It really felt like a sepereate, full powered machine!
On the other hand, VMWare is a bit sluggish. It's easier to set up virtual machines for but I've never used it where I didn't feel like it was sucking up system resources and slowing down both host and virtual machine. I also found that it seems to screw with the virtual machines clock a lot... A coworker left his VMWare vm running over the weekend and when he returned only 2 hours had passed for the VM...
Not true at all. UserLinux takes Debian and molds it into an easier to manage subset for buisness. Unlike RedHat and SuSE, support comes from a network who compete with eachother giving the user/company better prices and more choices. Since UserLinux had Debian roots, it is 100% compatable and offers all the packages Debian provides if the administrator so chooses to install them.
I have to pay for my connection my self, as well as any and all technological items that may be needed for my job as a programmer. I have my own laptop I take to work to work off of. The only thing that is paid for by the company is my cell minutes used when talking with people off-site.
Well it has more to do than just with Bush. I agree that Bush hasn't helped the situation, but it was Bill Clintons WTO and NAFTA that has really allowed this to happen. I do, however, think that this should be brought up in the debates to one degree or another. I have written a letter to Kerry about this and am awaiting his reply. The short letter, my take, and his response (hopefully) will be posted on my site.
In Tampa we have Bright House Netowrks (a division of Time Warner) and I have to say service is bad. I generally have an outage once a week for Cable TV, and at least once a week on Road Runner (cable internet). While I know that having 3 hour downtime a week isn't horrible, it's anoying when it happens during your favorite programming, or when you really have nothing to do.
One of Bruce's customers has asked for KDE out of the many he has. Because he wants their buisness he will support KDE on their system thoug hit is not the GUI of UserLinux. I fail to see how this has anything to do with the KDE plan in the least.
Bruce said before that anyone is fre to use what they want on UserLinux, but it doesn't mean it will be the default or even supported. It seems as if some people are trolling Bruce for his descision to chose a default.
In Tampa, RoadRunner standard home cable is $49.95 a month or $39.95 if you order cable TV as well. It's pretty bad compared to the prices a lot of other places get.
I tried to get DSL thinking I could get a deal comming from cable, but the cheapest DSL I could find that was comparable to standard home cable was $119.95 a month. To rich for my blood.
Slashdot Mirror
As long as they don't call the help desk when they have issues I'm all for them doing their own upkeep. One of that hardest things for help desk's (or anyone really) to do is support systems that have any number of possible combinations.
I personally don't run the supported install at work, but I also don't expect help desk's help if I end up doing something stupid.
While I am far from a ruby expert I have heard about Ruby and Windows
"Ruby is written for POSIX environments, which means that it can take advantage of all of the system calls and libraries that Unix programmers are familiar with."
I worked with Frank Wierzbicki in a previous position. Good guy, smart, and a true pythonista. I'm happy to see him in this new position and hopefully he will be able to provide some guidance to Python in the jvm ... it makes me excited about jython again.
If your not allowed into 'the boardroom' because of how you dress instead of your abilities, decisions and merits then it's probably not a place you want to waste your talents at.
Now, if you smell like a 5 day old hot dog that is another story!
IT will be around for a long time. It seems the Carr believes IT is system administrators who run software they didn't write ... which is not true. Most decently sized companies that have IT shops have software engineers, sysadmins, QA, etc.. The closest replacements we have for those groups are things like SalesForce which are, to be nice, frustrating, inefficient, and poorly implemented closed source applications.
... IT will use these services. EC2 is nice to have to bring up temporary systems during heavy load but the end result will be like a lot of other helpful systems/tools: They will be used by IT where it makes sense. Business people need (or at least think they need) custom software as their work (or at least they think their work) is different than everyone else's. As long as they believe that they will need custom work done and can't use one sized fits all products.
You also end up with some of the same issues that have been plaguing SaaS providers: Who owns the data? What kind of liability is there for unplanned downtime or security breaches (are they an LLC??!?), How can lock in be avoided? etc...
Don't get me wrong
He also seems to be saying we will return back to the mainframe days in how users interact with systems. Come on, do people really want to stop their business if their dumb client(s) lose connection?
To be honest this is something that is partly being done today and not working out so well. It's called outsourcing. Lots of companies have attempted to outsource their code, infrastructure, testing, and business owners. The result has largely been disastrous. Making a one size fits all software "solutions" and structures and thinking it will overrun how companies get business done seems largely far fetched. I think lego programming will become a reality before the business user uses web browser/dumb terminals to do his or her work on a mainframe like cloud the same way their competitors do.
... it's double platformed (Win and OS X). Linux, or any other platforms are no where to be found for system requirements (http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/system-requirements.aspx).
Python has fantastic support for XML ... but unlike some other languages (*cough*Java*cough*) it's much simpler to write your application than script your whole system with lots of XML files. Most apps needs configs (where XML can be nice) but code should be done in code :-).
Most folks poke fun at MS not for their marketing. I'd dare say they are amazing marketeers. What they don't do well is produce stable products which are a joy to work with. Apple OS X does a great job on the desktop and Linux does an amazing job server side. Microsoft's products tend to come in at number 2 at best (in stability and sexiness).
Since when were throw away email addresses hard?
I think part of the problem is that colleges pop out 'this language only' students. Most of my fresh out friends know Java, and only Java. Any other language confuses the hell out of them, not to mention they 'learned' that Java is the best way to do things and other languages are all hacks (wtf?).
I've worked at a few firms in which a few have outsourced. In the places that did outsource it was very, very rare to get code back that was worth it and did not need to be rewritten.
Basically, if you have a CS degree then you will/are be in high demand in just about whatever country you live in.
It really depends on what your doing with it. If you come from the Java world and write Python code like you would Java code it is quite slow.
...)
....
Also, keep in mind Python does not use a virtual machine at all in the same way Java does -- which means it is somewhat like comparing apples to oranges.
I was a full time J2EE engineer for a while and a recent convert to Python for general programming. The things I noticed are:
- Java is great for large teams of programmers working together across the globe but as good as Python for smaller groups in the same place.
- Python's web frameworks are amazingly fast and very powerful.
- Java is almost text book perfect when it comes to programming. Unlike most other languages kids can come out of university and not have to change hardly anything to get started in the real world of Java.
- It's very rare to see stock Tomcats or even stock JVM's meaning that most (commercial) Java apps send the entire 'Java OS' (VM) with their products.
- Java web apps are very slow on startup, but scale well after the startup time.
- Python has a better RORA system, though Java isn't to far behind.
- Java terminology is very confusing compared to Pythons esp. since it is generally termed by marketers (Java2 is Java1.4 and then we hit Java 5 which is Java1.5
Here is how it seems companies leverage the languages
1. Java
Manager's reason for Java: "I have a large IT infrastructure and want to do enterprise applications with teams across the globe."
Engineer Translation for Java: "I have an over all large group of engineers and want to make an application designed by the business with at least some of the team out sourced."
2. Python
Manager's reason for Python: "I have a small IT budget and want to agile and business reactive application development."
Engineer Translation for Python "I don't have a budget to get more engineers and the requirements state that we need to be able to change and update the application on the business whim."
In scenario number 1 it is a growing company who wants to hire lots of new engineers so the plus side of using Java is:
1. Just about every engineer (good or bad) knows it
2. It enforces C++ like development cycles
3. If done right, the objects are reusable and simple for an architect to understand
4. You can hire fresh outs
In scenario number 2 it's a growing company who is not investing more money in the IT department but expects better results for the buck put into it. The plus side of Python would be:
1. It's a RAAG language (read at a glance) which means you can skim through the code quite quickly without needing tracers or debuggers.
2. By design each engineer is a mini architect
3. If done right, the objects are reusable and simple for engineers to grasp quickly
4. The quality of engineers you get tend to be quite high since most Python engineers are converts from other languages with X years of experience in the field. (though it also means you can't hire as quickly).
Bottom line there is no right or wrong answer as to which is better or faster. Python is faster in some cases and Java is faster in others and it largely depends on how you run your business and the money that you want to spend in IT as to which one would help your company.
The 140$ USD for a windows license comes with no support. The updates from windows update are so-so and tend to be after the issue has been in the wild a bit.
... but RHEL it self is not the payment, you are paying for a support stream.
0 03-56866169/prices-html) license!
You are mostly correct about paying the yearly fee for RHEL
I dare you to call Microsoft up next time IIS isn't running correctly on your Windows 2K3 server and see what you get for only buying the base $500-1,500 (http://www.nextag.com/Microsoft-Windows-Server-2
On thing that a lot of comercial Open Source shops are guilty of is providing to high of quality support. Sure, RHEL is more expensive with an update/support contract than Windows, but have you ever called Microsoft before? Not only do you get friendly folks from india on the line but usually leave (afte ~ 6 hours of calls) with no real answer. If you tally up the time spend on the phone and then running diag yourself on the Win box you end up with much higher costs.
... on an intel mac mini. Not only is it really stable, bugs are fixed without me lifting a finger (well, ok, so I run yum -y update).
Don't get me wrong, there are some comercial OSS companies out there who over price and under serve, but the majority I've delt with have been really, really good compared to the traditional competition.
On the same token, not everyone needs a comercial version of XYZ app. I run Fedora 6 BETA as my production workstation at home
The use of software should be gauged by the return on investement that the software and support provides. Have an internal IT Helpdesk team? Do they know XYZ app well? Why pay to double your support? Double support is something a lot of shops do so they can 'find a neck to choke' externally? The news is that choking doesn't fix the issue!
I've spent a decent amount of time working for Open and Closed companies and shops. The quality of code and support from the Open (or more Open) shops were much higher than the Closed source/black box shops.
I've used both Xen (personal use) and VMWare (comercial use). Of those two Xen is the way to go IMHO. I had FC5 running on FC5 with only 256MB RAM given to the virtual machine and the speed was amazing. It really felt like a sepereate, full powered machine!
... A coworker left his VMWare vm running over the weekend and when he returned only 2 hours had passed for the VM ...
On the other hand, VMWare is a bit sluggish. It's easier to set up virtual machines for but I've never used it where I didn't feel like it was sucking up system resources and slowing down both host and virtual machine. I also found that it seems to screw with the virtual machines clock a lot
This is great news! We are now one step closer to the super saiyan fusion attack I've seen on Dragon Ball GT!
"and sent 18 million spam messages."
So does this mean Microsoft spent time aiding spamers in their spamming? Can't they get in trouble for that?
Here is one I found and am using. It's not too bad, 170kb/s so far ....
0 .0/
http://openoffice.mirrors.ilisys.com.au/stable/2.
Not true at all. UserLinux takes Debian and molds it into an easier to manage subset for buisness. Unlike RedHat and SuSE, support comes from a network who compete with eachother giving the user/company better prices and more choices. Since UserLinux had Debian roots, it is 100% compatable and offers all the packages Debian provides if the administrator so chooses to install them.
I have to pay for my connection my self, as well as any and all technological items that may be needed for my job as a programmer. I have my own laptop I take to work to work off of. The only thing that is paid for by the company is my cell minutes used when talking with people off-site.
Well it has more to do than just with Bush. I agree that Bush hasn't helped the situation, but it was Bill Clintons WTO and NAFTA that has really allowed this to happen. I do, however, think that this should be brought up in the debates to one degree or another. I have written a letter to Kerry about this and am awaiting his reply. The short letter, my take, and his response (hopefully) will be posted on my site.
In Tampa we have Bright House Netowrks (a division of Time Warner) and I have to say service is bad. I generally have an outage once a week for Cable TV, and at least once a week on Road Runner (cable internet). While I know that having 3 hour downtime a week isn't horrible, it's anoying when it happens during your favorite programming, or when you really have nothing to do.
One of Bruce's customers has asked for KDE out of the many he has. Because he wants their buisness he will support KDE on their system thoug hit is not the GUI of UserLinux. I fail to see how this has anything to do with the KDE plan in the least.
Bruce said before that anyone is fre to use what they want on UserLinux, but it doesn't mean it will be the default or even supported. It seems as if some people are trolling Bruce for his descision to chose a default.
He also adds that the GPL is a weak license which has never been tested in court.
And I take it their software licenses have been tested in court?
In Tampa, RoadRunner standard home cable is $49.95 a month or $39.95 if you order cable TV as well. It's pretty bad compared to the prices a lot of other places get.
I tried to get DSL thinking I could get a deal comming from cable, but the cheapest DSL I could find that was comparable to standard home cable was $119.95 a month. To rich for my blood.