It doesnt have to be like that: I use two ISP's - one claims outright to support Linux, the other doesn't. I run FreeBSD anyway. When I call tech support, the first thing I say is "I dont' run WIndows" and the reply is generally "Good - that probably means you understand the problem - tell us what it is, and we'll fix it".
Most ISPs run FreeBSD, or Linux themselves. Its hard to support N0,000 users on a few hundred machines with an OS that needs several updates a week. Anyone who can give proper tech support at an ISP is probably a Linux user anyway.
Exactly how long before there is a trusted virus? I can't see any daft US laws preventing the Virus writers from hacking DRM software. Are they going to send in the marines to Siera Leone because there is a virus writer there? Much worse things are happening there already and they don't seem bothered.
And how will they get rid of a trusted virus? Gitting rid of trusted computing is likely the solutiuon the techies will tell the PHBs is quickest and cheapest. (And techies dont go for the use of shotguns in the server room)
then it's written by the coders who can best pass job interviews.
Maybe sometimes, in the olden days. Today the general rule of thigs is: its written by the contractor who is desperate enough to do it for less than the going rate, or someone who was unemployed long enough to get an MSCE
The difference now is that Google accounts for so much of the searches on the net that getting a lower rank in Google can have a huge effect on a site's traffic and so people freak out about it.
And why does Google account for nearly all web searches? Because all the other search engines sold their soul to the devil (return the sites that pay, regardless of relevancy, and dont return relevant ones if they don't pay).
The lesson is If you sell your soul to the devil, you get a poor deal (with the possible exception of Robert Johnson).
"Tooting" is a place in South London, on the road to "Balham - Gateway to the South" - the home of the traditional craft of "toothbrush holesmanship" where the brightly coloured lights flash red, amber, green...
WTF goes through somebody's head when they decide to use MS Windows for an embedded project?! Hell, they don't come easier than that: phb to techie How quick can you get me a demo of the new embedded project? techie to phb I can do you a really crap one in 1 hour with Visual Basic, but we will need to code the proper one in C, and that will take 3 months phb to client The system will be ready tomorrow
we could just as easily get along with plug/socket|jack
I think not - those words originally had genital connotations! The terms male and female were introduced to be politically corect. Incidentally, have you ever looked at a 1/4" phone jack? - Where do you think the design came from?
Well not me - Oracle shafted me when Oracle for DOS was discontinued and my enterprise's direct mailing system was based on it. I was shafted by Oracle for OS/2 being discontinued when the inventry management system used in my enterprise was based on it, and shafted when Oracle Power Objects used for my factory management system died from Y2K problems.
I chose PostgreSQL over Oracle for my enterprise - Open source cannot die on you, be withdrawn, or have support withdrawn.
I would have chosen DB2, but it has no native FreeBSD support, and I have no access to AS400s in my present employment.
Why is there no benchmark for the number of clients shafted by withdrawl of product?
Oracle would win that one outright!
If you want to be sure your product is a secure base for an enterprise Open Source is the only choice
Do you want speed? Or would you prefer your data to be consistent and safe?
They are tools for different jobs:
MySQL is intended for systems where the data is uploaded, and thereafter never changes significantly - eg static data accessed via the web.
PostgreSQL is intended for things like payroll systems where some values persist for years, while others change daily.
Without triggers, you cannot expect to maintain data integrity with online data input and a wide range of input methods. ie any system with an expected live lifetime exceeding a few months
If your in box is like mine, you are as foolish as the people who respond to spam - regrdless of the e-mail headers, without exception, the person WHO STANDS TO PROFIT is in the USA
If you look at Google's Zeitgeist page, you'll see that only 1% of Google queries come from Linux boxes. I consider that a fairly good indicator of the popularity of Linux.
Well it isnt... Its a fairly good indicator that Joe Blow takes 50 searches to do what the average Penguin lover can do with one search. - the actual ratio is probably also skewed by (a) the number of Linux machines without Internet access, and (B) the number of Windows users who cant use Google cause their browser's homepage is an MS website, and they dont know how to redirect it.
40 years ago Cobol was the only horse in town. Cobol dates from the 1950s, C from the 1970s.
C is most definitely NOT any better than Cobol for what Cobol does. There is nothing actually wrong with Cobol for the applications in which it is used.
Cobol is actually capable of structured use. The problem is that SOME programs written in Cobol were written so log ago, that we didnt know then what we know now. Cobol is not the problem - the problem, such as it is, is that the code is very old. As for lack of Cobol programmers, I am damn sure that anyone who can learn Java can learn Cobol in half the time it them took to learn Java. If offered a suitable salary
As for "The mainframe it runs on is getting old" IBM
Dont knock it... Its been the best business plan ever! Loads of peple got rich quick with this one, and they didn't need to spoof Nigerian domain names.
If you want to compete with Free Software, the only way you can truly compete is at the cost of use level.
If you really want to compete, you have to explain how a closed file format that changes every 18 months is a good thing. That will take some serious explaining, or serious bribing. Particularly in government.
Its a poor business model, because the customer Knows he's been stitched up, and hates your guts for it. First chance he gets, he trades away to someone else.
The compute industry ahs a long history of companies going broke after a short period of 'lets squeese them till the pips squeek' strategy. - Hell, IBM barely survived this in the '80s Lexmark used ot be part of IBM, and should know better.
The lesson here, is get the hell out of Lexmark shares.
this is going to do some serious damage to the business models
I think not - Like many others, I have already had my fill of Lexmark's business practices. I dumped my Lexmark rather than buy any cartridge for it. I won't buy from them again.
Its just possible that the availability of third party carts MIGT improve their image, but they'd have to do a lot to ween me back after having contact with their "customer support".
Personally., I believe the solution lies in all those cruise misiles that are going to reach their "best before" date unless they arrive at a spammer real soon.
However, grinding them into big macs does have a certain appeal.
If you are going for the jail option, it needs to be one month per spam sent. Plus a month's community service of polishing the screens of people who have to read spam.
Slashdot Mirror
Most ISPs run FreeBSD, or Linux themselves. Its hard to support N0,000 users on a few hundred machines with an OS that needs several updates a week. Anyone who can give proper tech support at an ISP is probably a Linux user anyway.
Exactly how long before there is a trusted virus? I can't see any daft US laws preventing the Virus writers from hacking DRM software. Are they going to send in the marines to Siera Leone because there is a virus writer there? Much worse things are happening there already and they don't seem bothered.
And how will they get rid of a trusted virus? Gitting rid of trusted computing is likely the solutiuon the techies will tell the PHBs is quickest and cheapest. (And techies dont go for the use of shotguns in the server room)
Maybe sometimes, in the olden days. Today the general rule of thigs is: its written by the contractor who is desperate enough to do it for less than the going rate, or someone who was unemployed long enough to get an MSCE
And why does Google account for nearly all web searches? Because all the other search engines sold their soul to the devil (return the sites that pay, regardless of relevancy, and dont return relevant ones if they don't pay).
The lesson is If you sell your soul to the devil, you get a poor deal (with the possible exception of Robert Johnson).
This applies to more than just search engines.
Hell, they don't come easier than that:
phb to techie How quick can you get me a demo of the new embedded project?
techie to phb I can do you a really crap one in 1 hour with Visual Basic, but we will need to code the proper one in C, and that will take 3 months
phb to client The system will be ready tomorrow
I think not - those words originally had genital connotations! The terms male and female were introduced to be politically corect. Incidentally, have you ever looked at a 1/4" phone jack? - Where do you think the design came from?
Well not me - Oracle shafted me when Oracle for DOS was discontinued and my enterprise's direct mailing system was based on it. I was shafted by Oracle for OS/2 being discontinued when the inventry management system used in my enterprise was based on it, and shafted when Oracle Power Objects used for my factory management system died from Y2K problems.
I chose PostgreSQL over Oracle for my enterprise - Open source cannot die on you, be withdrawn, or have support withdrawn.
I would have chosen DB2, but it has no native FreeBSD support, and I have no access to AS400s in my present employment.
Why is there no benchmark for the number of clients shafted by withdrawl of product? Oracle would win that one outright!
If you want to be sure your product is a secure base for an enterprise Open Source is the only choice
They are tools for different jobs:
MySQL is intended for systems where the data is uploaded, and thereafter never changes significantly - eg static data accessed via the web.
PostgreSQL is intended for things like payroll systems where some values persist for years, while others change daily.
Without triggers, you cannot expect to maintain data integrity with online data input and a wide range of input methods. ie any system with an expected live lifetime exceeding a few months
This is just ignorance ... "Sequel" was an IBM product that SQL replaced. (In the early 1960's AFAICR.)
Its fairly simple - they actually want to employ a dishonest person.
And don't think Hogan's Heroes will rescue him, either.
Well it isnt ... Its a fairly good indicator that Joe Blow takes 50 searches to do what the average Penguin lover can do with one search. - the actual ratio is probably also skewed by (a) the number of Linux machines without Internet access, and (B) the number of Windows users who cant use Google cause their browser's homepage is an MS website, and they dont know how to redirect it.
C is most definitely NOT any better than Cobol for what Cobol does. There is nothing actually wrong with Cobol for the applications in which it is used.
Cobol is actually capable of structured use. The problem is that SOME programs written in Cobol were written so log ago, that we didnt know then what we know now. Cobol is not the problem - the problem, such as it is, is that the code is very old. As for lack of Cobol programmers, I am damn sure that anyone who can learn Java can learn Cobol in half the time it them took to learn Java. If offered a suitable salary
As for "The mainframe it runs on is getting old" IBM
Which would you prefer, a fully working program, debugged for 20 years, that is portable to any machine every likey to be worth running it on?
Or a program newly ported to an untested environment from a company with a tradition of redefining the rules every 18 months?
The family all used to complain that the Winboxen keep crashing, but mine don't - they thought I was hogging the good hardware!
Easy fix - exchangable HDs - the M/Cs with FreeBSD dont crash, and OpenOffice doesn't go berserk when you try to reformat tables, like MSWord.
Of course, none of our computers has a DVD player or sound card - they are COMPUTERS - we have a hifi to play music, and a TV to watch films.
The more quanta involved in signalling one bit, the more certain you are. With one quantum, you are probably only about 50% sure!
If you really want to compete, you have to explain how a closed file format that changes every 18 months is a good thing. That will take some serious explaining, or serious bribing. Particularly in government.
The compute industry ahs a long history of companies going broke after a short period of 'lets squeese them till the pips squeek' strategy. - Hell, IBM barely survived this in the '80s Lexmark used ot be part of IBM, and should know better.
The lesson here, is get the hell out of Lexmark shares.
I think not - Like many others, I have already had my fill of Lexmark's business practices. I dumped my Lexmark rather than buy any cartridge for it. I won't buy from them again.
Its just possible that the availability of third party carts MIGT improve their image, but they'd have to do a lot to ween me back after having contact with their "customer support".
However, grinding them into big macs does have a certain appeal.
If you are going for the jail option, it needs to be one month per spam sent. Plus a month's community service of polishing the screens of people who have to read spam.
You have critical data in .mdb files? Either you have nerves of steel, or the brain of a jellied eel.