You do not have to spend a lot of money for a good setup. I spend about 12 hours a day mostly porting and reading newspapers in several languages for relaxation and information. For programming I use a whole bunch of white background xterms (tiled and overlapped) on 21 inch monitors. I got two used SGI monsters for $150.- apiece (used). After learing the advantage of multiprocessors on a dual MAC G4 (800 MHz) (used for $800.-); but the 200 GByte disk is slow for compiling large packages. Therefore, my development machine now is a Poweredge server with four 550 MHz pentium III, 2 Gbyte error correcting memory and 6 SCSI 36 GByte disks. I can work on two packages at the same time without feeling constrained (again $800.- used) On the same 100 Mbit network are another three single CPU pentium III, two Pentium II (little used) an UltraSparc 5, a i486 Firewall and a Lasejet 4MV (16 pages per minute (11x17 in capability)($400.- used ). Keyboards and Monitors are switchable. After playing aroud with different chairs I am back on straight dining room chair; the light is daylight or indirect fluorescent.
This hits the nail on the head. I am a 20 year plus UNIX user and wherever possible I avoid a GUI interface; to the point of using "links" on the web. Unfortunately, more and more graphic interfaces on motherboards force me to "xterm" on X windows to display high density ascii information. In the end, he who pays calls the tune. Remember, UNIX was created by programmers for programmers; and you have to pass a drivers test to use public roads as a driver. Otherwise, use public transportation or a taxi.
Due to the perversity of the Law of Unintended Consequences and as amply corrobated by Gnu/Linux adoption notices (e.g. Munich, Estremadura, Brazil,etc) Microsoft might just move to the category of game providers, spoil-sports, security incompetents and has-beens. We might even get a higher percentage of more knowledgeable users. Let us not only hope for the best but provide help and appreciation to people and entities like GrokLaw.
In his anxiety to promote structured testing (which he admits fails even in the corporate world) curtlewis misses two fundamental points:
1. the effect of tens or hundreds of thousand eyeballs. I usually do diffs between releases and am allways amazed by the amount of substantive changes, while still preserving a working product. Over ten years I only had accasion twice to be first to report a bug and suggest a patch.
2. Nobody is even encouraged to use prereleases for any critical work. for example linux 2.2.x is available and the kernel community encourages use of GCC 2.95.x even for kernel 2.6.0pr8.
If anybody wants handholding and somebody to blame the commercial vendors are more than happy to accept that persons money.
Microsoft is feeling the heat only now because finally their products are being used for bottom-line affecting work.
Thanks for remembering the name Phil Katz. Is there any authorative thread to read up and to bring it into context with the SCO farce. I admit having never researched it and having gotten my info via disjointed BBS postings. It was definitely before general public access to the Internet. Without much hope I will try the search engines on Phil Katz and SEA. It is this potential for fruitful interaction that makes Slashdot valuable and way compensates for the many inane postings.
Remember System Enhancements Associates (SEA). As I remember they took public domain code for the then quite popular and advanced *.arc library package and then sued the recognized original author into financial ruin. It traumatized me and, from what I remember, the then incipient open source community. Later came AT&T's corporate (not the creators of UNIX at Bell Labs) legal action against BSDI and Berkeley. Another trauma. SCO's action are the latest attempt to appropriate the work of others (it does not matter if from Linus Torvalds, IBM, or SGI) via perversions (IMHO) of the legal system. What is at risk is the painfully constructed safeguards(BSD and GNU licences inter alia) truly dedicated and creative people have used to protect their output for the common good. We can not help but be distracted from more productive work. And, this distraction and the diversion of resources to utter waste is the real price society is paying.
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You do not have to spend a lot of money for a good setup. I spend about 12 hours a day mostly porting and reading newspapers in several languages for relaxation and information. For programming I use a whole bunch of white background xterms (tiled and overlapped) on 21 inch monitors. I got two used SGI monsters for $150.- apiece (used). After learing the advantage of multiprocessors on a dual MAC G4 (800 MHz) (used for $800.-); but the 200 GByte disk is slow for compiling large packages. Therefore, my development machine now is a Poweredge server with four 550 MHz pentium III, 2 Gbyte error correcting memory and 6 SCSI 36 GByte disks. I can work on two packages at the same time without feeling constrained (again $800.- used) On the same 100 Mbit network are another three single CPU pentium III, two Pentium II (little used) an UltraSparc 5, a i486 Firewall and a Lasejet 4MV (16 pages per minute (11x17 in capability)($400.- used ). Keyboards and Monitors are switchable. After playing aroud with different chairs I am back on straight dining room chair; the light is daylight or indirect fluorescent.
This hits the nail on the head. I am a 20 year plus UNIX user and wherever possible I avoid a GUI interface; to the point of using "links" on the web. Unfortunately, more and more graphic interfaces on motherboards force me to "xterm" on X windows to display high density ascii information. In the end, he who pays calls the tune. Remember, UNIX was created by programmers for programmers; and you have to pass a drivers test to use public roads as a driver. Otherwise, use public transportation or a taxi.
Due to the perversity of the Law of Unintended Consequences and as amply corrobated by Gnu/Linux adoption notices (e.g. Munich, Estremadura, Brazil,etc) Microsoft might just move to the category of game providers, spoil-sports, security incompetents and has-beens. We might even get a higher percentage of more knowledgeable users. Let us not only hope for the best but provide help and appreciation to people and entities like GrokLaw.
In his anxiety to promote structured testing (which he admits fails even in the corporate world) curtlewis misses two fundamental points: 1. the effect of tens or hundreds of thousand eyeballs. I usually do diffs between releases and am allways amazed by the amount of substantive changes, while still preserving a working product. Over ten years I only had accasion twice to be first to report a bug and suggest a patch. 2. Nobody is even encouraged to use prereleases for any critical work. for example linux 2.2.x is available and the kernel community encourages use of GCC 2.95.x even for kernel 2.6.0pr8. If anybody wants handholding and somebody to blame the commercial vendors are more than happy to accept that persons money. Microsoft is feeling the heat only now because finally their products are being used for bottom-line affecting work.
Thanks for remembering the name Phil Katz. Is there any authorative thread to read up and to bring it into context with the SCO farce. I admit having never researched it and having gotten my info via disjointed BBS postings. It was definitely before general public access to the Internet. Without much hope I will try the search engines on Phil Katz and SEA. It is this potential for fruitful interaction that makes Slashdot valuable and way compensates for the many inane postings.
Remember System Enhancements Associates (SEA). As I remember they took public domain code for the then quite popular and advanced *.arc library package and then sued the recognized original author into financial ruin. It traumatized me and, from what I remember, the then incipient open source community. Later came AT&T's corporate (not the creators of UNIX at Bell Labs) legal action against BSDI and Berkeley. Another trauma. SCO's action are the latest attempt to appropriate the work of others (it does not matter if from Linus Torvalds, IBM, or SGI) via perversions (IMHO) of the legal system. What is at risk is the painfully constructed safeguards(BSD and GNU licences inter alia) truly dedicated and creative people have used to protect their output for the common good. We can not help but be distracted from more productive work. And, this distraction and the diversion of resources to utter waste is the real price society is paying.