When the majority of Slashdot readers get their way and Microsoft is blasted from the planet and ALL software is open source and free GREAT NEWS, %70 of the high paying tech jobs will be eliminated as well.
Be careful what you wish for because it might actually come true.
the best rapper is a white guy, the
best golfer is a black guy, The Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is
accusing the US of arrogance, and GERMANY DOESN'T WANT TO GO TO WAR.
99.9% of the population do not use the currently level of computing power available. As a consultant I get the question all the time "Do I need to upgrade to a faster machine" when all the person is doing is a little word processing and surfing the net.
I find it unbelievable that SPAM is still profitable for those sending it. On my last count I receive over 100 SPAM mails a day (I own multiple registered domains). If I did NOT use a filter I would forget email all together. With the shear number of unsolicited mails being sent out it just amazes me that anyone out there looks at them long enough to consider responding making it profitable for the senders.
I have dazzled many enterprises in an emergency by delivering Perl scripts in hours or days that do amazing things. BUT once the emergency was addressed and they began to look under the hood and saw it was Perl script they had me re-engineer it in C++ or Java (weeks to develop...) because they had no one on staff (besides me) that could support the Perl. They spent the money for the increased amount of time for development to reduce cost in long term support.
"Now if only computer manufacturers could make equipment even remotely this sturdy."
I will pull my IBM 8088 with dual 5 1/2 inch floppy drives (yes NO HARD DRIVE) out of the closet in another 15 years and you tell me if you want to use it.
Some will find it hard to believe but the MOST reliable platform out there is the IBM mainframe environment. Here are the guidelines the largest oil company in the world uses to determine where it's applications reside. 24x7x365 No downtime NO EXCUSES = Mainframe + DB2 ------ 24x7x365 Scheduled outages, and room for an OH SHI** = Unix + Oracle ------ Data that I would like regular access to but the world does NOT stop if it is unavailable = WinTel + SQL Server.
Cost: Included in the Premier Support contract, INCLUDED in the Total Operating Cost I mentioned. Redhat: "EVERY Fortune 50 company I have worked for REFUSES to run Linux on Intel". Like it or not it is a fact.
Sanctioned no. BUT I have worked problems where the actual Microsoft developers (SQL Server) were on a plane to our site within one hour of problem escalation and in the building within 4 hours of problem escalation. Try and get that with open source.
Being a long time/. reader I know it is going to kill all you *nix BIGOTS but it is true: Windows IS Cheaper. In a REAL enterprise (you know where we ACTUALLY pay for licensing, hardware and support costs) the Windows platform is roughly 25% the TOTAL OPERATING cost of the same functionality on *nix platform. Now BEFORE all you before mentioned *nix BIGOTS explode: EVERY Fortune 50 company I have worked for REFUSES to run Linux on Intel BECAUSE they want somebody on the phone and somebody's ass on the line if a system is down. So you are facing the hardware and licensing costs of either HP, Sun or IBM to get *nix. This BY FAR outweighs the cost of a couple of CHEAP WINDOWS ADMINS to keep the buggy Microsoft platform running. Face it, most applications can afford a little down time at %25 of the cost.
/. seems to be filled with people that LOVE to bash Microsoft and harp on how *nix and it supporting software is so much more secure.
What you fail to take into account is that these &^%$^#$ writing ad-ware and spy-ware are going to target the community with the largest user base. Are you surprised to hear that it is Microsoft??? Hence the largest amount of time in the hacker community is spent on Windows, Explorer and Office.
If even HALF the amount of time was spent on hacks for your beloved *nix systems and supporting software that is spent hacking MS your glass walls would come crashing down because MAJOR security holes would be found and exploited. I need only point to recent hacks in Apache....
So BEWARE your tower is not quite as secure as you think it is. You are simply being ignored.
Slashdot Mirror
When the majority of Slashdot readers get their way and Microsoft is blasted from the planet and ALL software is open source and free GREAT NEWS, %70 of the high paying tech jobs will be eliminated as well.
Be careful what you wish for because it might actually come true.
the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, The Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is accusing the US of arrogance, and GERMANY DOESN'T WANT TO GO TO WAR.
You would think the Windows is the ONLY unsecure platform and the Linux it the great white tower.
99.9% of the population do not use the currently level of computing power available. As a consultant I get the question all the time "Do I need to upgrade to a faster machine" when all the person is doing is a little word processing and surfing the net.
I find it unbelievable that SPAM is still profitable for those sending it. On my last count I receive over 100 SPAM mails a day (I own multiple registered domains). If I did NOT use a filter I would forget email all together. With the shear number of unsolicited mails being sent out it just amazes me that anyone out there looks at them long enough to consider responding making it profitable for the senders.
I have dazzled many enterprises in an emergency by delivering Perl scripts in hours or days that do amazing things. BUT once the emergency was addressed and they began to look under the hood and saw it was Perl script they had me re-engineer it in C++ or Java (weeks to develop...) because they had no one on staff (besides me) that could support the Perl. They spent the money for the increased amount of time for development to reduce cost in long term support.
"Now if only computer manufacturers could make equipment even remotely this sturdy."
I will pull my IBM 8088 with dual 5 1/2 inch floppy drives (yes NO HARD DRIVE) out of the closet in another 15 years and you tell me if you want to use it.
Some will find it hard to believe but the MOST reliable platform out there is the IBM mainframe environment. Here are the guidelines the largest oil company in the world uses to determine where it's applications reside. 24x7x365 No downtime NO EXCUSES = Mainframe + DB2 ------ 24x7x365 Scheduled outages, and room for an OH SHI** = Unix + Oracle ------ Data that I would like regular access to but the world does NOT stop if it is unavailable = WinTel + SQL Server.
Cost: Included in the Premier Support contract, INCLUDED in the Total Operating Cost I mentioned. Redhat: "EVERY Fortune 50 company I have worked for REFUSES to run Linux on Intel". Like it or not it is a fact.
Sanctioned no. BUT I have worked problems where the actual Microsoft developers (SQL Server) were on a plane to our site within one hour of problem escalation and in the building within 4 hours of problem escalation. Try and get that with open source.
Being a long time /. reader I know it is going to kill all you *nix BIGOTS but it is true: Windows IS Cheaper. In a REAL enterprise (you know where we ACTUALLY pay for licensing, hardware and support costs) the Windows platform is roughly 25% the TOTAL OPERATING cost of the same functionality on *nix platform. Now BEFORE all you before mentioned *nix BIGOTS explode: EVERY Fortune 50 company I have worked for REFUSES to run Linux on Intel BECAUSE they want somebody on the phone and somebody's ass on the line if a system is down. So you are facing the hardware and licensing costs of either HP, Sun or IBM to get *nix. This BY FAR outweighs the cost of a couple of CHEAP WINDOWS ADMINS to keep the buggy Microsoft platform running. Face it, most applications can afford a little down time at %25 of the cost.
/. seems to be filled with people that LOVE to bash Microsoft and harp on how *nix and it supporting software is so much more secure. What you fail to take into account is that these &^%$^#$ writing ad-ware and spy-ware are going to target the community with the largest user base. Are you surprised to hear that it is Microsoft??? Hence the largest amount of time in the hacker community is spent on Windows, Explorer and Office. If even HALF the amount of time was spent on hacks for your beloved *nix systems and supporting software that is spent hacking MS your glass walls would come crashing down because MAJOR security holes would be found and exploited. I need only point to recent hacks in Apache.... So BEWARE your tower is not quite as secure as you think it is. You are simply being ignored.