Check out EVMS. A commandline interface for hardcore hackers, an ncurses interface, and a GUI, all for partition/fs/lvm/raid/etc. management. And even when forced to a shell, the/dev/evms entries should calm even the most technophobic sysadmin.
Not to mention webmin, and tons of layers of "frontends"... Just because directly editing config files and controlling services from the commandline is preferred doesn't mean it's the only way.
Don't get me wrong, there is still work to be done. But right now, the only advantage I see of M$ alternatives is -- there are no alternatives. You get one nice, friendly GUI, no choices to make, no adventures into Bash -- and a serious lack of features.
But seriously, get any open-minded NT admin on Linux these days, show them webmin, show them evms-gui, show them 'make xconfig' for kernel builds, and show them Gentoo's kportagemaster.
I don't think it's that much of a big deal. What's a big deal is getting it all to work together. I boot my gentoo system with an initrd that would fit on a floppy (an emergency bootdisk), yet has busybox and a few other goodies...
Plus, with enough ram, I'd prefer at the very least some decent tools preloaded to tmpfs on boot, in case the CD drive stops working -- that's where the compression through cloop falls apart.
Speaking of gentoo, does anyone know of a gentoo bootable cd? I think I know how to do that... Of course, you'd compile everything before you put it to cd, and remove all the static libs, sort of a boot cd kit...
Yes, that's true. But I figure if this ever happened to me, I'd start several ad campaigns to raise public awareness, and eventually the entire country would be in an uproar over their first amendment rights.
This isn't the first time this has happened, where big business wins out against what is good and right. Monsanto sued Radiance Dairy, a small farm (or maybe several farms) that produce organic milk, for labeling their milk as coming from RBGH-free cows. Radiance settled because it wasn't worth it to them to keep defending themselves.
Don't let this happen! There should be an organization to deal with these things -- to provide funds for obvious cases like Microsoft vs. Lindows, Monsanto vs. Radiance Dairy, and Pets Warehouse vs. APD!
Problem with anything like that, where the ISP provides everything and you essentially get a huge package, is just plain stupid on the part of the ISP. They are limiting their user-base to newbies, as anyone who knows anything about their system should know how to install a browser and/or an email client. NO WAY will anyone convince me that Pine isn't a good email client, nor that Lynx isn't a good browser. And NO WAY will I ever commit to anything else, because I frequently experiment on my system. So if X goes down, and my ISP forces me to use Netscape/Balsa (yeah, right, but it could happen) then I'm stuck. I can't even visit a website to download a fix. Nooo, I'd have to call their tech support, and all techsupport except user groups, bulliten boards, and mailing lists sucks. Plain and simple.
Feel free to moderate (censor) this, but as things move more and more towards "integrated" packages (remember Internet Explorer vs. Netscape? We still need 3rd party software to uninstall Explorer from Windows) we are becoming facist pigs, just like Microsoft. And I'm not just talking about these particular ISPs. KDE software has the same problem -- "integrating" way too fucking much.
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Check out EVMS. A commandline interface for hardcore hackers, an ncurses interface, and a GUI, all for partition/fs/lvm/raid/etc. management. And even when forced to a shell, the /dev/evms entries should calm even the most technophobic sysadmin.
Not to mention webmin, and tons of layers of "frontends"... Just because directly editing config files and controlling services from the commandline is preferred doesn't mean it's the only way.
Don't get me wrong, there is still work to be done. But right now, the only advantage I see of M$ alternatives is -- there are no alternatives. You get one nice, friendly GUI, no choices to make, no adventures into Bash -- and a serious lack of features.
But seriously, get any open-minded NT admin on Linux these days, show them webmin, show them evms-gui, show them 'make xconfig' for kernel builds, and show them Gentoo's kportagemaster.
I doubt they'll ever look back.
I don't think it's that much of a big deal. What's a big deal is getting it all to work together. I boot my gentoo system with an initrd that would fit on a floppy (an emergency bootdisk), yet has busybox and a few other goodies...
Plus, with enough ram, I'd prefer at the very least some decent tools preloaded to tmpfs on boot, in case the CD drive stops working -- that's where the compression through cloop falls apart.
Speaking of gentoo, does anyone know of a gentoo bootable cd? I think I know how to do that... Of course, you'd compile everything before you put it to cd, and remove all the static libs, sort of a boot cd kit...
Yes, that's true. But I figure if this ever happened to me, I'd start several ad campaigns to raise public awareness, and eventually the entire country would be in an uproar over their first amendment rights.
This isn't the first time this has happened, where big business wins out against what is good and right. Monsanto sued Radiance Dairy, a small farm (or maybe several farms) that produce organic milk, for labeling their milk as coming from RBGH-free cows. Radiance settled because it wasn't worth it to them to keep defending themselves.
Don't let this happen! There should be an organization to deal with these things -- to provide funds for obvious cases like Microsoft vs. Lindows, Monsanto vs. Radiance Dairy, and Pets Warehouse vs. APD!
Problem with anything like that, where the ISP provides everything and you essentially get a huge package, is just plain stupid on the part of the ISP. They are limiting their user-base to newbies, as anyone who knows anything about their system should know how to install a browser and/or an email client. NO WAY will anyone convince me that Pine isn't a good email client, nor that Lynx isn't a good browser. And NO WAY will I ever commit to anything else, because I frequently experiment on my system. So if X goes down, and my ISP forces me to use Netscape/Balsa (yeah, right, but it could happen) then I'm stuck. I can't even visit a website to download a fix. Nooo, I'd have to call their tech support, and all techsupport except user groups, bulliten boards, and mailing lists sucks. Plain and simple.
Feel free to moderate (censor) this, but as things move more and more towards "integrated" packages (remember Internet Explorer vs. Netscape? We still need 3rd party software to uninstall Explorer from Windows) we are becoming facist pigs, just like Microsoft. And I'm not just talking about these particular ISPs. KDE software has the same problem -- "integrating" way too fucking much.