The average person can do everything on any OS. What does the typical user do that requires Windows? Gamers are a minority (except on Slashdot).
The reasons are clear: households that own Macs are affluent and own multiple computers. If one member of the household wants windows then one of the other machines (most Mac owning households have three or more computers) will tun Windows.
My two computer household is entirely Linux, and I have yet to find anything that any of us cannot do.
Offshoring. They're going with a cheaper, although quite smart, set of folks.
Cheaper and smarter would be a fairer assessment given the quality of the products.
Furthermore, as other posters have pointed out, Accenture could easily off-shore support for the current system: this is not about costs savings, it is because Millennium have done a better job of making a trading platform than MS and Accenture did.
Millennium already has people in London, and supporting the LSE is likely to require more people there than the current customers (AFAIK just ICAP) did, so that will narrow the element of off-shoring cost savings further.
I agree, this isn't a big win for open source just yet. They could easily re-implement and run into all of the same problems.
They do not need to re-implement. Millennium IT has a trading platform that already runs other exchanges. From a technical point of view the LSE is just another customer (albeit the biggest).
On the other hand, why have Millennium and everyone else who has developed a reasonably good trading platform chosen too use something other than Windows (Millennium originally used Solaris btw).
Of course the LSE is not interested in using open source, but the fact is that an open source OS was the best solution they could find.
The next step from saying that journalists are functionally equivalent to terrorists, is to say that by exposing information the government wants hidden they are helping terrorists. Then they are practically terrorists.
Funny, that is one reason I use Linux. Hassle free software installs, secure with little effort, easy to install on desktops (I have had problems with laptop sound and video drivers).
Use Mepis these days, and I have put PCLinuxOS on the shared family desktop my wife and daughter use. I have also installed Linux for other people and have recently got a request (from a kid who likes by daughter's PC) for another install (trying to figure out how to install on a PowerPC based mac laptop with a defective CD drive....).
She is highly unlikely to be reliant on any industry vertical software or anything obscure like that (she probably just wants a web browser and email client), and would be much better off with a free OS.
The problem is that it is usually 3, and the person who got you the pirated Windows does not care, and you are a naive user who does not understand the problem.
Even is anti-virus is installed, the vast majority of people happily click past a warning, telling them that the virus database is out of date, every time them boot up.
Living in a country where no-one (not even corporate users) pays for Windows it is certainly true that its not only geeks who have pirated copies. I doubt most users even think about it.
Expecting end users to keep license keys is not reasonable. They do not understand what they are or how they work.
It helps if you limit something to paying customers. PCLinuxOS (stupid name, not a bad product) has a faster repo to which updates are rolled out first for those who pay. I quite like that model as a customer, but none of the other distros do.
He complains lost a disc he needed for Windows and had to download one which was 200 MB. Nevermind the fact that it's his fault he lost the CD, he also would have had to download the Linux ISO.
You are missing the point. For Linux he only needs the one install CD. For Windows he needs the OS CD and others with hardware drivers on them - multiple acquisitions (buy or download) rather than one.
I've had problems installing Windows, too, but I've done that so many times I basically don't even need to think anymore and it still comes out right or I'm familiar with how to fix all the common and uncommon problems which arise.
You are still undermining the arguments of Windows advocates who claim that Windows is easier to install,
Add in the time you spend doing registry hacks on Windows.
Then add the time you spend dealing malware.
You seem to be assuming that software is installed individually on each PC, so you also need to adjust for easier software installation on Linux.
Anyone who claims that Linux requires use of the command line should just be modded troll and ignored: the topic has been discussed plenty of times, everyone knows the claim is BS, so stop wasting everyone's time.
these mini-botnets tend to rely on popular DIY malware kids, like Ivy and Zeus
Surely there are far more malware kits for Windows? If there are few or none for Linux, then Linux will be much harder to attack: they could write everything from scratch, but its a lot more work so they would probably just move to the next target.
The argument will be that since they run Redhat it's not considered open source or freeware, even though it is a Linux distribution that is proprietary.
It is easy enough to prove that Red Hat is open source, the problem is that the "repeat the press release" standard of journalism of the article that accepts any assertion made by an interviewee or a press release as fact.
While it's true that many "enterprise" apps make use of ActiveX, it seems kind of stupid to design a Web app that depends on a spacific version of an application known to update every few years (like a browser)
MS could very smartly move its official HQ to somewhere cheap (Switzerland),
In which alternative reality is is Switzerland cheap??
watch the government cringe as it has to fight through years of losing court cases on whether imposing tariffs are legal
The US government would not need to impose tarrifs. It can impose withholding tax of royalty payments and it can tax profits made within the US at whatever level it likes.
I started using a Mac so I could get my nice unixy and open source goodness without having to play 20 questions every time I booted my damned laptop.
What on earth are you talking about? I answer precisely too questions to boot my laptopm: my LUKS passphrase and my password. You can obviously avoid both if you do not care about security.
Now they just look and say "oh, its a Mac, those are expensive" and walk away.
Slashdot Mirror
The average person can do everything on any OS. What does the typical user do that requires Windows? Gamers are a minority (except on Slashdot).
The reasons are clear: households that own Macs are affluent and own multiple computers. If one member of the household wants windows then one of the other machines (most Mac owning households have three or more computers) will tun Windows.
My two computer household is entirely Linux, and I have yet to find anything that any of us cannot do.
Offshoring. They're going with a cheaper, although quite smart, set of folks.
Cheaper and smarter would be a fairer assessment given the quality of the products.
Furthermore, as other posters have pointed out, Accenture could easily off-shore support for the current system: this is not about costs savings, it is because Millennium have done a better job of making a trading platform than MS and Accenture did.
Millennium already has people in London, and supporting the LSE is likely to require more people there than the current customers (AFAIK just ICAP) did, so that will narrow the element of off-shoring cost savings further.
That is why traders co-locate servers is stock exchange data-centers
I agree, this isn't a big win for open source just yet. They could easily re-implement and run into all of the same problems.
They do not need to re-implement. Millennium IT has a trading platform that already runs other exchanges. From a technical point of view the LSE is just another customer (albeit the biggest).
On the other hand, why have Millennium and everyone else who has developed a reasonably good trading platform chosen too use something other than Windows (Millennium originally used Solaris btw).
Of course the LSE is not interested in using open source, but the fact is that an open source OS was the best solution they could find.
I used to work for Millennium. I have already blogged about what I thought of the deal.
The next step from saying that journalists are functionally equivalent to terrorists, is to say that by exposing information the government wants hidden they are helping terrorists. Then they are practically terrorists.
So why do these edited sources keep making factual mistakes, write misleading stories, bury stories that do not suit their political line etc?
Read Reuters for neutral factual coverage and blogs for opinion and analysis. That said I do read a few newspapers and the BBC online.
I want computers to work for me.
Funny, that is one reason I use Linux. Hassle free software installs, secure with little effort, easy to install on desktops (I have had problems with laptop sound and video drivers).
Use Mepis these days, and I have put PCLinuxOS on the shared family desktop my wife and daughter use. I have also installed Linux for other people and have recently got a request (from a kid who likes by daughter's PC) for another install (trying to figure out how to install on a PowerPC based mac laptop with a defective CD drive....).
She is highly unlikely to be reliant on any industry vertical software or anything obscure like that (she probably just wants a web browser and email client), and would be much better off with a free OS.
The problem is that it is usually 3, and the person who got you the pirated Windows does not care, and you are a naive user who does not understand the problem.
Even is anti-virus is installed, the vast majority of people happily click past a warning, telling them that the virus database is out of date, every time them boot up.
Most people are not gamers. The most popular computer game by far is Solitaire.
Living in a country where no-one (not even corporate users) pays for Windows it is certainly true that its not only geeks who have pirated copies. I doubt most users even think about it.
Expecting end users to keep license keys is not reasonable. They do not understand what they are or how they work.
I have paid for Mandriva in the past.
It helps if you limit something to paying customers. PCLinuxOS (stupid name, not a bad product) has a faster repo to which updates are rolled out first for those who pay. I quite like that model as a customer, but none of the other distros do.
What I would really like to do is to is to expel anyone who cares from the country.
Also, you do realise that that is precisely the reason that most people like London?
He complains lost a disc he needed for Windows and had to download one which was 200 MB. Nevermind the fact that it's his fault he lost the CD, he also would have had to download the Linux ISO.
You are missing the point. For Linux he only needs the one install CD. For Windows he needs the OS CD and others with hardware drivers on them - multiple acquisitions (buy or download) rather than one.
I've had problems installing Windows, too, but I've done that so many times I basically don't even need to think anymore and it still comes out right or I'm familiar with how to fix all the common and uncommon problems which arise.
You are still undermining the arguments of Windows advocates who claim that Windows is easier to install,
Add in the time you spend doing registry hacks on Windows.
Then add the time you spend dealing malware.
You seem to be assuming that software is installed individually on each PC, so you also need to adjust for easier software installation on Linux.
Anyone who claims that Linux requires use of the command line should just be modded troll and ignored: the topic has been discussed plenty of times, everyone knows the claim is BS, so stop wasting everyone's time.
...when Slashdot news beginning with "Australian Government" won't necessarily end with a rephrasing of "shows off its technological naivety".
....when Slashdot news about any government won't necessarily end with a rephrasing of "shows off its technological naivety".
Moving to Linux may help. The article says:
these mini-botnets tend to rely on popular DIY malware kids, like Ivy and Zeus
Surely there are far more malware kits for Windows? If there are few or none for Linux, then Linux will be much harder to attack: they could write everything from scratch, but its a lot more work so they would probably just move to the next target.
You are going to get that. Read the article: they want to sue the ribbon on Linux and MacOS as well.
The argument will be that since they run Redhat it's not considered open source or freeware, even though it is a Linux distribution that is proprietary.
It is easy enough to prove that Red Hat is open source, the problem is that the "repeat the press release" standard of journalism of the article that accepts any assertion made by an interviewee or a press release as fact.
It is obvious that you are a product of the public school system.
Is that public school in the British or American sense?
While it's true that many "enterprise" apps make use of ActiveX, it seems kind of stupid to design a Web app that depends on a spacific version of an application known to update every few years (like a browser)
IE did not update every few years!
MS could very smartly move its official HQ to somewhere cheap (Switzerland),
In which alternative reality is is Switzerland cheap??
watch the government cringe as it has to fight through years of losing court cases on whether imposing tariffs are legal
The US government would not need to impose tarrifs. It can impose withholding tax of royalty payments and it can tax profits made within the US at whatever level it likes.
He made the mistake of scanning a country of which his own is apparently (to judge by the terms of the extradition treaty) a dependency.
I started using a Mac so I could get my nice unixy and open source goodness without having to play 20 questions every time I booted my damned laptop.
What on earth are you talking about? I answer precisely too questions to boot my laptopm: my LUKS passphrase and my password. You can obviously avoid both if you do not care about security.
Now they just look and say "oh, its a Mac, those are expensive" and walk away.
Walking away from Mac users is a good idea.