You seem to be missing a larger piece of the picture I painted, as that sentence wasn't really the crux of my post. But I'd like to take your points one by one.
I'm not sure how your seeing people talking about "how linux is free" has much to do with anything, but its still a fact. And if you don't think the bottom line matters, even at a company spending a 10 million a quarter on IT, you are sorely mistaken. Yes, Linux works better in many situations, however so does NT, and so does Solaris, and so does MacOS. The right tool for the right job. And in a, money is no object environment, the fact is that anyone would be hard pressed to come up with a soution better than Outlook 2000, Word 2000, Exchange 6, Windows 2000 Server. I've seen the demos, they are scarily cool.
And, as that was my example, lets expound on it a bit. The number crunchers where I work are currently looking at what it would cost to impliment just such a solution for the 900 users in the central office. Let me share with you the initial number they came up with to support each user for one year. $100 per month, per user. Still think it doesn't seem like a lot?
$12,000 doesn't seem like a ton of money for an enterprise email system to me either. But -$0- sounds like quite less. (Btw, 600 users doesn't sound like much of an enterprise either. Heck we have a truly stable Linux email solution right now supporting 10,000 users. Net cost initial: Software: -$0-, Hardware: -$50,000-, Setup: -$4,000- man hours. 1st year support: Est. 20 hours: -$1000-.)
I'm not sure when exactly all Unix (Linux?) administrators became 18 year olds. Personally I'm 28, and while I abhor day to day Unix administration its certainly what I got started on, and I still do some of it today. Did I get started on Linux? No. Can pretty much any real Unix administrator be a real Linux administrator in a matter of weeks, yes. And there are plenty of Unix admins left out there.
Do you have any idea what MCSEs are making these days?? Its obscene.
And finally. Linux doesn't need to be sold to companies It is selling itself day in and day out. Its stable, hence reliable, and generally getting easier and easier to use. Not to mention, free. Oh did I mention it was free? Did I mention the licensing for 99% of services was, oh, free? Linux doesn't need to sell itself. However, the applications must be written, they must be ported, they must make it over to Linux, and fast.
Whether or not a Linux installation wins the benchmarking game against Microsoft NT, the fact is that Linux has made remarkable inroads in the past year - and shows no signs of slowing.
CEOs, Managers, CTOs, etc... are all making a decision to test Linux installations, if not outright deploy them. Electionic mail infrastructures are being built on Linux based machines in Fortune 500 companies. Winning benchmarks or not, the Linux juggernaut will roll on.
A free operating system, that runs free server daemons is going head to head with a company that would charge $12,000, just in licensing, to offer 600 users email services using thier groupware solution.
What would my message be to the Linux/OSS coders out there? Stop looking at benchmarks and start looking at functionality. I've seen the Office2000 suite. I've been to the Mircosoft presentations. If collaboration is the way of the future, then someone needs to come up with an answer to Windows 2000 Server, Exchange 6, and Office 2000 - and quickly.
All the benchmarks in the world won't mean jack shit if you don't have software that people want running on your OS to produce them.
The one problem you are going to run into is network programing. Because of new (old?) regulations, you are not allowed to recieve network affiliate programming unless a) you live in an area that is known to recieve an inadequate signal from stations in you area or b) you get written authorization from the stations in your area allowing you to recieve your free-network programming from your dish.
Aside from that you can just buy a honking antenna and jack it into your dish and get programming via that route.
They have been supporting (to a degree) thier corprate customers using Linux (and Solaris x86) for some time now. I'm not a bit supprised that they have no interest in diving into a pool, that at this current time they probably dont have the skills to swim in.
I've been very impressed with Dell all around and have run Linux on thier 1300s, 2300s, and 6300s. Hell we've got almost 20 of them installed now, with plans for quite a few more.
Isn't this a semi-'Red Hat sponsored' production? And the RPM versions are how far behind? 3? 4 versions? On my desktop I don't mind compiling and installing the sources, but on my somewhat slower laptop that I'd rather use without compiling in the background, it sure would be nice to have some RPMS.
Slashdot had little to nothing to do with Bell Atlantics decision to support 'other' Macintoshes. If anyone can take that crown it is the man who publicized his plight. If you didn't pick up his story others would have (and others did). Funny how we don't see the others that did publish this particular story stroking thier own egos.
You want to take credit for something? Redirect all your traffic for a day to a site with a cause you consider worthy. Perhaps then you will truly open awareness and create a news story, instead of reporting on one and then taking credit for the outcome.
Slashdot Mirror
.... end Jules impersination */
You seem to be missing a larger piece of the picture I painted, as that sentence wasn't really the crux of my post. But I'd like to take your points one by one.
I'm not sure how your seeing people talking about "how linux is free" has much to do with anything, but its still a fact. And if you don't think the bottom line matters, even at a company spending a 10 million a quarter on IT, you are sorely mistaken. Yes, Linux works better in many situations, however so does NT, and so does Solaris, and so does MacOS. The right tool for the right job. And in a, money is no object environment, the fact is that anyone would be hard pressed to come up with a soution better than Outlook 2000, Word 2000, Exchange 6, Windows 2000 Server. I've seen the demos, they are scarily cool.
And, as that was my example, lets expound on it a bit. The number crunchers where I work are currently looking at what it would cost to impliment just such a solution for the 900 users in the central office. Let me share with you the initial number they came up with to support each user for one year. $100 per month, per user. Still think it doesn't seem like a lot?
$12,000 doesn't seem like a ton of money for an enterprise email system to me either. But -$0- sounds like quite less. (Btw, 600 users doesn't sound like much of an enterprise either. Heck we have a truly stable Linux email solution right now supporting 10,000 users. Net cost initial: Software: -$0-, Hardware: -$50,000-, Setup: -$4,000- man hours. 1st year support: Est. 20 hours: -$1000-.)
I'm not sure when exactly all Unix (Linux?) administrators became 18 year olds. Personally I'm 28, and while I abhor day to day Unix administration its certainly what I got started on, and I still do some of it today. Did I get started on Linux? No. Can pretty much any real Unix administrator be a real Linux administrator in a matter of weeks, yes. And there are plenty of Unix admins left out there.
Do you have any idea what MCSEs are making these days?? Its obscene.
And finally. Linux doesn't need to be sold to companies It is selling itself day in and day out. Its stable, hence reliable, and generally getting easier and easier to use. Not to mention, free. Oh did I mention it was free? Did I mention the licensing for 99% of services was, oh, free? Linux doesn't need to sell itself. However, the applications must be written, they must be ported, they must make it over to Linux, and fast.
... but how you play the game.
Whether or not a Linux installation wins the benchmarking game against Microsoft NT, the fact is that Linux has made remarkable inroads in the past year - and shows no signs of slowing.
CEOs, Managers, CTOs, etc... are all making a decision to test Linux installations, if not outright deploy them. Electionic mail infrastructures are being built on Linux based machines in Fortune 500 companies. Winning benchmarks or not, the Linux juggernaut will roll on.
A free operating system, that runs free server daemons is going head to head with a company that would charge $12,000, just in licensing, to offer 600 users email services using thier groupware solution.
What would my message be to the Linux/OSS coders out there? Stop looking at benchmarks and start looking at functionality. I've seen the Office2000 suite. I've been to the Mircosoft presentations. If collaboration is the way of the future, then someone needs to come up with an answer to Windows 2000 Server, Exchange 6, and Office 2000 - and quickly.
All the benchmarks in the world won't mean jack shit if you don't have software that people want running on your OS to produce them.
The one problem you are going to run into is network programing. Because of new (old?) regulations, you are not allowed to recieve network affiliate programming unless a) you live in an area that is known to recieve an inadequate signal from stations in you area or b) you get written authorization from the stations in your area allowing you to recieve your free-network programming from your dish.
Aside from that you can just buy a honking antenna and jack it into your dish and get programming via that route.
They have been supporting (to a degree) thier corprate customers using Linux (and Solaris x86) for some time now. I'm not a bit supprised that they have no interest in diving into a pool, that at this current time they probably dont have the skills to swim in.
I've been very impressed with Dell all around and have run Linux on thier 1300s, 2300s, and 6300s. Hell we've got almost 20 of them installed now, with plans for quite a few more.
The kick ass AMI PERC RAID controller is supported in 2.2.x kernels as well. Dunno about the newer PERC II controller though.
Isn't this a semi-'Red Hat sponsored' production? And the RPM versions are how far behind? 3? 4 versions? On my desktop I don't mind compiling and installing the sources, but on my somewhat slower laptop that I'd rather use without compiling in the background, it sure would be nice to have some RPMS.
My how the egos have grown.
Slashdot had little to nothing to do with Bell Atlantics decision to support 'other' Macintoshes. If anyone can take that crown it is the man who publicized his plight. If you didn't pick up his story others would have (and others did). Funny how we don't see the others that did publish this particular story stroking thier own egos.
You want to take credit for something? Redirect all your traffic for a day to a site with a cause you consider worthy. Perhaps then you will truly open awareness and create a news story, instead of reporting on one and then taking credit for the outcome.
I have my doubts that the Indonesian government watches Beavis and Butthead. need.tp? Please.