That depends on how much software you purchase and for what purpose.
I had this same conversation at work not to long ago. I suggested Linux
as a way out from under Microsoft's licensing. While there were a number
of reasons (cost of retraining, "there'll be no one to blame...", "that's
non-standard..." etc.), one issue caught me without an answer.
We were discussing how Linux has just about everything we wanted from
the Corporate Standard sense. You could lock the systems down tight for
the average user, you could give developers a developer-oriented operating
system, Open Office offered a good-enough Word/Excel/Powerpoint replacement,
even e-mail wasn't an issue.
Our issue was group calendaring and MS Exchange. You see, while Ximian
has some great stuff, it doesn't interface with the release of Exchange we're
using. The question was asked, "What if we upgraded to Exchange 2000?"
The answer was that we hadn't finished depreciating our current licenses
for Exchange.
That last bit has also surfaced as a reason to use pay-to-play software
in general. You depreciate the license cost over time like you would office
furniture or new computers.
I haven't crunched the numbers, so I don't know which way is cheaper.
Do you save so much in taxes by depreciating licenses as an asset? Or is
it cheaper to avoid the license cost up front? It seems to me that you'll
end up paying someone knowledgeable about the system regardless of whether
it's open source or not. Can you really save so much on taxes that it's
worth paying recurring licese fees and making yourself vulnerable to vendor-lock?
Personally, I now run Linux as the main OS on my home machine. I became
more and more disgusted with Microsoft's policies. I also became more and
more concerned about having to keep buying Outlook to read my e-mail archives,
or being forced to use Microsoft products to gain access to my own writing.
I haven't gone MS free (I'm down to a few boots a day), mostly because of
my computer gaming habit. I'm working on it though. (BTW: I bought a duel-boot
(pun intended) machine from Los Alamos Computers
--great machine.)
I agree with your point about retraining, sort of a weening from MS (ughh can't get horrid image out of mind...). However, I think that the shift is happening off the charts. You see, because you can download it for free, computer geeks like me will try it out. Because/. and other "geek-chic" gathering places take a decidedly pro-Linux slant, people wanting to be "savvy" and "in-the-know" will talk about Linux. And because its good and free (very rich word, that) more people will use it. Linux is not a tide that ebbs, it is the small stream that becomes victorious over the rock bed. Sorry for all the philosophical nonsense, but Linux will find its way into your office and mine the same way Windows machines edged out VAX terminals. Linux offers something better.
As Microsoft becomes more and more the a media giant they want to be (Disney-esque, even), more and more people will see their software for what it is... Mickey Mouse. (Don't forget, they've got Donald Duck heading up corporate strategy.)
I've read just over half of The Butlerian Jihad and while the ideas are good, the writing isn't. As for inconsistency with Frank Herbert's Dune universe, I am unsurprised. I've read all of Frank Herbert's original Dune novels, and all of Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson's dalliances with the universe. I was acutely disappointed in the last of the House trilogy, as the ending controverted several events outlined in the very first pages of Dune.
Dune told us in the very first quotation on the very opening page that Paul Atreides was born on Caladan. House Corrino has him born on Kaitan and stolen by Piter DeVries, who is killed and replaced by a Tlalaxu ghola (clone). In Dune, IIRC the Baron chews out Piter for predicting a girl. This makes Piter's death another deviation, as (according to HC), Piter was surprised that Jessica had a child at all.
OK, OK, those are past crimes, what about The Butlerian Jihad? Well lets start with the Imperial botanical testing stations on Arrakis. According to TBJ,they are long forgotten property of the Old Empire, set up before and abandoned during the war of the Titans. While Dune doesn't give a direct account of when the testing stations were built, it does suggest they were built and forgotten by the new empire, after the war with the machines.
While I haven't finished the book yet, I imagine they're laying a foundation for two more books, followed by the promise of the sequel to Chapterhouse: Dune. Unfortunately, along the way, they're telegraphing so much of the story that it may not be worth reading when it comes. What could the Honored Matres be fleeing? How about intelligent machines?
I realize I haven't really answered your question. I suppose the largest inconsistency between TBJ and Dune is the feel. Dune was literate, complex, and displayed a textured society by treating us to a view of textured characters. In contrast, TBJ is clumsy and often amateurish, you imagine bad actors delivering cliches in a TV movie as you read it. "Damn those evil machines... They're heartless, because they have no heart."
So why am I still reading it? I'm a science fiction nut. It's a blessing and a curse."
I do believe Bruce Sterling spotted this one coming. I forget if it was in Distraction or in Heavy Weather, but the setting was a future where America's economy had collapsed due, in part, to Chinese software destroying (as in out-competing) American technology markets.
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That depends on how much software you purchase and for what purpose. I had this same conversation at work not to long ago. I suggested Linux as a way out from under Microsoft's licensing. While there were a number of reasons (cost of retraining, "there'll be no one to blame...", "that's non-standard..." etc.), one issue caught me without an answer.
We were discussing how Linux has just about everything we wanted from the Corporate Standard sense. You could lock the systems down tight for the average user, you could give developers a developer-oriented operating system, Open Office offered a good-enough Word/Excel/Powerpoint replacement, even e-mail wasn't an issue.
Our issue was group calendaring and MS Exchange. You see, while Ximian has some great stuff, it doesn't interface with the release of Exchange we're using. The question was asked, "What if we upgraded to Exchange 2000?" The answer was that we hadn't finished depreciating our current licenses for Exchange.
That last bit has also surfaced as a reason to use pay-to-play software in general. You depreciate the license cost over time like you would office furniture or new computers.
I haven't crunched the numbers, so I don't know which way is cheaper. Do you save so much in taxes by depreciating licenses as an asset? Or is it cheaper to avoid the license cost up front? It seems to me that you'll end up paying someone knowledgeable about the system regardless of whether it's open source or not. Can you really save so much on taxes that it's worth paying recurring licese fees and making yourself vulnerable to vendor-lock?
Personally, I now run Linux as the main OS on my home machine. I became more and more disgusted with Microsoft's policies. I also became more and more concerned about having to keep buying Outlook to read my e-mail archives, or being forced to use Microsoft products to gain access to my own writing. I haven't gone MS free (I'm down to a few boots a day), mostly because of my computer gaming habit. I'm working on it though. (BTW: I bought a duel-boot (pun intended) machine from Los Alamos Computers --great machine.)
I agree with your point about retraining, sort of a weening from MS (ughh can't get horrid image out of mind...). However, I think that the shift is happening off the charts. You see, because you can download it for free, computer geeks like me will try it out. Because /. and other "geek-chic" gathering places take a decidedly pro-Linux slant, people wanting to be "savvy" and "in-the-know" will talk about Linux. And because its good and free (very rich word, that) more people will use it. Linux is not a tide that ebbs, it is the small stream that becomes victorious over the rock bed. Sorry for all the philosophical nonsense, but Linux will find its way into your office and mine the same way Windows machines edged out VAX terminals. Linux offers something better.
As Microsoft becomes more and more the a media giant they want to be (Disney-esque, even), more and more people will see their software for what it is... Mickey Mouse. (Don't forget, they've got Donald Duck heading up corporate strategy.)
I've read just over half of The Butlerian Jihad and while the ideas are good, the writing isn't. As for inconsistency with Frank Herbert's Dune universe, I am unsurprised. I've read all of Frank Herbert's original Dune novels, and all of Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson's dalliances with the universe. I was acutely disappointed in the last of the House trilogy, as the ending controverted several events outlined in the very first pages of Dune.
Dune told us in the very first quotation on the very opening page that Paul Atreides was born on Caladan. House Corrino has him born on Kaitan and stolen by Piter DeVries, who is killed and replaced by a Tlalaxu ghola (clone). In Dune, IIRC the Baron chews out Piter for predicting a girl. This makes Piter's death another deviation, as (according to HC), Piter was surprised that Jessica had a child at all.
OK, OK, those are past crimes, what about The Butlerian Jihad? Well lets start with the Imperial botanical testing stations on Arrakis. According to TBJ,they are long forgotten property of the Old Empire, set up before and abandoned during the war of the Titans. While Dune doesn't give a direct account of when the testing stations were built, it does suggest they were built and forgotten by the new empire, after the war with the machines.
While I haven't finished the book yet, I imagine they're laying a foundation for two more books, followed by the promise of the sequel to Chapterhouse: Dune. Unfortunately, along the way, they're telegraphing so much of the story that it may not be worth reading when it comes. What could the Honored Matres be fleeing? How about intelligent machines?
I realize I haven't really answered your question. I suppose the largest inconsistency between TBJ and Dune is the feel. Dune was literate, complex, and displayed a textured society by treating us to a view of textured characters. In contrast, TBJ is clumsy and often amateurish, you imagine bad actors delivering cliches in a TV movie as you read it. "Damn those evil machines... They're heartless, because they have no heart."
So why am I still reading it? I'm a science fiction nut. It's a blessing and a curse."
I do believe Bruce Sterling spotted this one coming. I forget if it was in Distraction or in Heavy Weather, but the setting was a future where America's economy had collapsed due, in part, to Chinese software destroying (as in out-competing) American technology markets.