Just something I think a lot of people are missing. Future cost of ownership. We all know that Microsoft is increasingly moving to virtually forced upgrades (unless you want to lose the ability to buy upgrades at bulk discounts). That and maintaining a subscription service. The cost of a one year subscription is one third the cost of a normal payment. Herein lies the problem. Microsoft is also increasingly moving to integrate their products to make it difficult for you to seperate the bundle.
Say you set up a 500 student network using Windows. Under MS's new licensing agreements in the future you must buy every upgrade or lose your ability to obtain upgrades at bulk discounts (which is very important). Or if you go on subscription. What happens if you have a bad year with very little funding for computers (happens at schools quite a bit I imagine). You can't afford the subscription so your entire computer system will shut down. So a Linux/Unix or even a Mac setup allows you more control for exceptional financial circumstances.
The second is a lot of the new stuff in future MS products is geared towards multimedia. Whilst this is good for home users, school and business settings find these things annoying at best. But essentially you are paying for stuff you do not want or need. Schools and businesses want their users to do work, learn how to program etc. not burn CDs, play music or rip CDs or organise fancy picture collections. Heck, my institute buys computers w/o sound cards or fancy video cards if possible. And in fact with Windows XP for example admins may need to spend extra time clamping down on the use of Mediaplayer, Messenger etc.
Another thing is security and legal control over your computer. If for example one looks at the EULA of Mediaplayer one can see that it allows MS to force you to upgrade w/o your consent (for security reasons etc.) Whilst this is limited to MP for now, we all know that EULAs can be changed anytime for other things as well.
Finally downtime with viruses and other things. I acknowledge that Win2k and WinXP are more stable than Win9x but the point is most viruses are targetted at Microsoft platforms. And businesses and institutes tend to be hit very hard with these things. One must also factor downtime in the costs.
I would say 80% of "normal" users especially secretaries don't even know how to install a print driver in Windows. Nor do they know how to set up their proxy settings or how to change their IP address. All of the stuff you say that makes Linux "too hard" for normal users in a corporate environment they don't know how to do in Windows anyway. I should know as they keep on asking me questions like, "I want to open this file in x application rather than y. Yet everytime I click on the file it opens y. How do I open it in x?" or "IP address? What is an IP address?" "FTP? What is FTP?" "How do I print from a different printer?" One thing I find is that some of these people are so used to Unix that they can't use Windows well.
The point is most users in corporate environment. You give them a list of commands and they follow them verbatim. They have no idea what on earth those commands do, all they know is that if you type it in or push this button it will do this or do that. I have seen this in Unix users, Linux users, Mac users and Windows users. The admin sets up all the shares etc. and the user just uses them. The end user doesn't have to know how to compile a kernel or set up a Samba client. For heavens sake most of them are scared of the thought of reinstalling Windows by themselves and don't know how to set up their computer to use Network Neighbourhood.
I think for most users, with KDE/GNOME the migration from Windows won't be too harsh. They basically work the same way from the POV of clicking the file opens it in an application, clicking print will print etc. If you asked them to move to something like CDE that would be different.
As for your last point about Windows admins being cheaper. If you read the Gartner reports what they are saying is that that is the problem. Most Windows admins are less experienced and well trained than Unix admins. It is like buying a el cheapo motherboard and other parts compared to buying an Asus motherboard and other quality parts. The inital costs look better but in the end the TCO is much higher. This is not to insult ALL Windows admins. I am sure there are plenty of those who are very very good and I am sure there are plenty of Unix admins who are very very bad but in general Windows admins are not as good as Unix ones.
Lack of CNN Gulf War style coverage
on
The Hypermedia Hazard
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Actually one of the reasons why the US media is so "hyper" is because it is not a CNN managed style Gulf War. The Taliban arrest any journalist who sneaks in as a spy. The US army and government refuse to let them in the front lines. So they are making up for their lack of "footage" by speculation and frenzy. Of course there is an argument that the press should go anywhere but the stupid thing is that they want the military to protect them. Western journalists have been protected for so long that a lot of them think that their country will save them no matter what. I think that the Gulf War was probably the root of this belief.
Let us look at what demands the US media has been making:
1. When US Special forces did their hit and run strike a few days ago, journalists found out about it and published it WHILST the soldiers were still on the ground and fighting.
2. They want to replace army photographists on Special Forces missions with journalists. Not just normal missions where the soldiers parade around but a covert mission striking in the heart of Afghanistan with specially trained crack troops. I heard that when Rumsfield was first asked this request at a press conference he turned speechless with disbelief. For the first time in my life I agree with a Republican.
In light of their lack of CNN Gulf War style coverage they are turning to good old hype? Remember how everyone "knew" who was going to win on Election Night? Remember how when the judgements about the Election came out, the networks were so eager to be "first" that they didn't bother to even let their "experts" read the damn transcipt in the first place.
I remember reading an article (in an Australian newspaper): "Pentagon battles the US Media"
Slashdot Mirror
Just something I think a lot of people are missing. Future cost of ownership. We all know that Microsoft is increasingly moving to virtually forced upgrades (unless you want to lose the ability to buy upgrades at bulk discounts). That and maintaining a subscription service. The cost of a one year subscription is one third the cost of a normal payment. Herein lies the problem. Microsoft is also increasingly moving to integrate their products to make it difficult for you to seperate the bundle. Say you set up a 500 student network using Windows. Under MS's new licensing agreements in the future you must buy every upgrade or lose your ability to obtain upgrades at bulk discounts (which is very important). Or if you go on subscription. What happens if you have a bad year with very little funding for computers (happens at schools quite a bit I imagine). You can't afford the subscription so your entire computer system will shut down. So a Linux/Unix or even a Mac setup allows you more control for exceptional financial circumstances. The second is a lot of the new stuff in future MS products is geared towards multimedia. Whilst this is good for home users, school and business settings find these things annoying at best. But essentially you are paying for stuff you do not want or need. Schools and businesses want their users to do work, learn how to program etc. not burn CDs, play music or rip CDs or organise fancy picture collections. Heck, my institute buys computers w/o sound cards or fancy video cards if possible. And in fact with Windows XP for example admins may need to spend extra time clamping down on the use of Mediaplayer, Messenger etc. Another thing is security and legal control over your computer. If for example one looks at the EULA of Mediaplayer one can see that it allows MS to force you to upgrade w/o your consent (for security reasons etc.) Whilst this is limited to MP for now, we all know that EULAs can be changed anytime for other things as well. Finally downtime with viruses and other things. I acknowledge that Win2k and WinXP are more stable than Win9x but the point is most viruses are targetted at Microsoft platforms. And businesses and institutes tend to be hit very hard with these things. One must also factor downtime in the costs.
I would say 80% of "normal" users especially secretaries don't even know how to install a print driver in Windows. Nor do they know how to set up their proxy settings or how to change their IP address. All of the stuff you say that makes Linux "too hard" for normal users in a corporate environment they don't know how to do in Windows anyway. I should know as they keep on asking me questions like, "I want to open this file in x application rather than y. Yet everytime I click on the file it opens y. How do I open it in x?" or "IP address? What is an IP address?" "FTP? What is FTP?" "How do I print from a different printer?" One thing I find is that some of these people are so used to Unix that they can't use Windows well.
The point is most users in corporate environment. You give them a list of commands and they follow them verbatim. They have no idea what on earth those commands do, all they know is that if you type it in or push this button it will do this or do that. I have seen this in Unix users, Linux users, Mac users and Windows users. The admin sets up all the shares etc. and the user just uses them. The end user doesn't have to know how to compile a kernel or set up a Samba client. For heavens sake most of them are scared of the thought of reinstalling Windows by themselves and don't know how to set up their computer to use Network Neighbourhood.
I think for most users, with KDE/GNOME the migration from Windows won't be too harsh. They basically work the same way from the POV of clicking the file opens it in an application, clicking print will print etc. If you asked them to move to something like CDE that would be different.
As for your last point about Windows admins being cheaper. If you read the Gartner reports what they are saying is that that is the problem. Most Windows admins are less experienced and well trained than Unix admins. It is like buying a el cheapo motherboard and other parts compared to buying an Asus motherboard and other quality parts. The inital costs look better but in the end the TCO is much higher. This is not to insult ALL Windows admins. I am sure there are plenty of those who are very very good and I am sure there are plenty of Unix admins who are very very bad but in general Windows admins are not as good as Unix ones.
Actually one of the reasons why the US media is so "hyper" is because it is not a CNN managed style Gulf War. The Taliban arrest any journalist who sneaks in as a spy. The US army and government refuse to let them in the front lines. So they are making up for their lack of "footage" by speculation and frenzy. Of course there is an argument that the press should go anywhere but the stupid thing is that they want the military to protect them. Western journalists have been protected for so long that a lot of them think that their country will save them no matter what. I think that the Gulf War was probably the root of this belief. Let us look at what demands the US media has been making: 1. When US Special forces did their hit and run strike a few days ago, journalists found out about it and published it WHILST the soldiers were still on the ground and fighting. 2. They want to replace army photographists on Special Forces missions with journalists. Not just normal missions where the soldiers parade around but a covert mission striking in the heart of Afghanistan with specially trained crack troops. I heard that when Rumsfield was first asked this request at a press conference he turned speechless with disbelief. For the first time in my life I agree with a Republican. In light of their lack of CNN Gulf War style coverage they are turning to good old hype? Remember how everyone "knew" who was going to win on Election Night? Remember how when the judgements about the Election came out, the networks were so eager to be "first" that they didn't bother to even let their "experts" read the damn transcipt in the first place. I remember reading an article (in an Australian newspaper): "Pentagon battles the US Media"