There is something to be said for paying someone to do the gruntwork for your benefit as opposed to say Slackware. Those guys glow with pride at how hard and obscure and slow it is to get anything useful done. The "Slackware Way" and "You WILL LEARN the distro" is really just the pretty face of arrogance and being a secret member of the supersecret He Man Club.
Bah - Ever since Linux stopped being a viable desktop OS for low end underpowered machines and Win95/98 continues to be functional in that space and Linux instead generally forked to the highest of the high end machines the idea that spending a lot of time bit twisting twisting twisting twisting ad infinitum, at least on the desktop has approximately zero charm and zero practical benefit. So write a check and slap it on.
For the front end user autoinstall and config goodness. ELX is EH based at any rate. Xandros is the old Redmond Linux (aka it looks like Windows) and Lycoris has a pretty good customer service model.
There are people here who still have emotional scars from OS/2. Trust me, IBM will never ever ever ever try to take the lead in end user desktop OS's ever again. They may very well follow others into the Linux desktop world but they will never ever ever butt heads with MS again for out-front dominance.
And if they wanted to, then they should just buy any all of the following:
Xandros Lycoris ELX
Which are built as commerical Linux replacements of Windows desktops and not for the Krispy Kreme & Black T-shirts crowd.
IBM already has a good relationship with RH and SuSE. Why would they need to take over Slackware no matter how good it is? And why does Slack bother with SPARC and Alpha ports? Can't they leave all the 'I got this kernel to compile on my fucking sundial' shit to the BSD heads?
Clearly this is almost entirely focused on the server side aka Workplace which is a huge complex assembly of AIX, Linux, Python, Java and RDBMSs. This is aimed at business space that wants to use Linux for things like CRM, Peoplesoft, SAP, Oracle, Seibel and custom made apps.
In fact I want states to go after vehicle purchasers who buy their vehicles in other states to avoid higher taxes. That way the different states could tax the vehicle more than once.
In fact I want roadblocks established at every state border to stop and search vehicles for any contraband that could conceivably be sold in that state.
I just want to make sure that as long as there are no software patents in the EU that they still get to quasi-nationalize key industries and support them through public funding with the full enforcement and protectionist power of the government backing them up, yes? I mean we wouldn't want rampant power being wielded capriciously, would we?
Oh sure I did. Do you even bother to think about what you say? Lemme ask you a question oh keeper of the 20-sided die.
How easy do you think it is to unpak a windows machine 2003 or other, plug it in and have it be relatively secure w/o doing much of anything at all? Compare that to whatever the normal effort is in getting a Linux box up and running with the barest amount of bit twiddling that the install proc makes you do. For the most part - at 400+ distros there are always a few that really suck at this.
At any rate Transformicon Master+200, Given the reality of say.....the fact that your average Win server deployed in a commercial environment has >12 accounts in the admin group just to get the basic work done and that the restrictions imposed by those accounts.......
Now I know... oh wizard of the volcano of half assed wisdom.. this is going to shock you right out ya jammies.......
How does that fact, that essentially busted windows security model protect the system from one another of the admins. You see in the real, non-basement dwelling R0xx0R world, the largest number of threats are from the INSIDE.
So unless you have enviroment that isolates and manages the system at least as well as Unix or RACF then you will have a system, no matter how harded from the tools @ Un-Root that is still profoundly broken.
There, was that thought out enough for you or do I need a new magic sword and 2 bags of fairy dust?
This meltdown behavior is very familiar. It's not slow and progressive, it's halting. And then one day it just flies over the cliff and explodes. I think we're seeing that right now. And I think that if anyone ever brings forensic accountants to SCO they will find massive fiduciary problems that they saw as being covered up by suing someone.
Let's face it, ever since Douggy's Dad had to resign for sexually harrassing the staff, SCO has had the whiff of being a shitty little disreputable bunch of corner crack monkeys lucky enough to be sitting on a product that people would actually pay to make and improve for them.
I guess the jury is in. It really doesn't work very well but we can probably leverage it to force people to pay for something else down the road, so let's give it away.
OR is it complex melange of requirements, funding, skills, time, staffing, testing and packaging? I looked at LWN yesterday and noted there were 400+ different distros for Linux. Probably 300 of them are either orphans or one or two person operations or the work of whichever crop of college labrats are working the time. Maintainability in this context is really a matter of discarding 4/5ths of the code out there that should be left to die. Take the time, skills and money and build more cooperative projects over a smaller set of large distros. Or if that's not feasible, then break the problems down into snap ins that more generic.
"Hey you assholes we're like 2+ years late with this crap and some of the features in it were promised in 1998. We have security problems coming out our ass. Whole countries are abandoning us. WTF are you going to do???"
"Smithers, release the Browser!!!"
That will keep them quiet for at least a year while they figure out how much of it is yet more crappy buggy code *with shiny glittery rotating 3 dimensional things hanging off it*
Because large companies enter into long term agreements with companies to provide tools and services with payments predicated on the projected useful economic life of that tool or service. What kind of sense would it make to suddenly end a muliyear agreement with a vendor and buy out your own contract just because you didn't need it anymore? Not much, that's what.
There's certainly a few as noted here before, perhaps 10,000 albeit not well supported and still some birthing pains as well you could imagine with VPNs, Wireless, Lotus Notes, net meeting type apps and internal Web apps and Web Java apps. Just like any other large company with a large suite of internal applications.
Moreover you could guess that taking machines out of service before end of lease, to replace the entire suite of software on them, then send them back, train people and staff a help desk for it is not really a rational goal.
I don't think anyone thinks that migrating everyone or a large chunk of everyone from Win to Linux is going to be any easier than the migration from OS/2 to Win several years ago. And that was quite hard.
Another thing to keep in mind is that your most difficult desktop users, the ones with the most complicated and inflexible requirements are the executives and if they have an app on Windows that absolutely must run the way they want it to run then that is what will happen. Period.
Plus you'd be wasting all the monies you invested in desktop tools for AV and spyware if you suddenly didn't need or couldn't use them anymore.
I think it's bravado to claim that there will be nothing but Linux desktops inside of one year.
There are tons of so called magazines and journals out there which are either openly run by companies like Microsoft or so reliant on their dollars as to make no difference and clearly those sponsors make critical editorial decisions. What if one of those publications goes out and finds crucial information about a competitor and then hides behind the 1st Ammendment? It would make the entire industry captive to the journalistic equivalent of diplomatic immunity.
Clearly they need to follow the internet/software model and offer two versions. One that is verified and supported for money and one that is degraded, unchecked and unsupported for free. That way everyone will have access to information but only people with money will have the right information. And then they can extend that model to premium services such as going out and looking for the information for you, collating it, packaging it and presenting it.
How else could trust fund kids make it through college?
Slashdot Mirror
There is something to be said for paying someone to do the gruntwork for your benefit as opposed to say Slackware. Those guys glow with pride at how hard and obscure and slow it is to get anything useful done. The "Slackware Way" and "You WILL LEARN the distro" is really just the pretty face of arrogance and being a secret member of the supersecret He Man Club.
Bah - Ever since Linux stopped being a viable desktop OS for low end underpowered machines and Win95/98 continues to be functional in that space and Linux instead generally forked to the highest of the high end machines the idea that spending a lot of time bit twisting twisting twisting twisting ad infinitum, at least on the desktop has approximately zero charm and zero practical benefit. So write a check and slap it on.
Modded by a True Believer, I see
Or haven't you been listening to these psychotards and their desire to christianize the nation?
For the front end user autoinstall and config goodness. ELX is EH based at any rate. Xandros is the old Redmond Linux (aka it looks like Windows) and Lycoris has a pretty good customer service model.
There are people here who still have emotional scars from OS/2. Trust me, IBM will never ever ever ever try to take the lead in end user desktop OS's ever again. They may very well follow others into the Linux desktop world but they will never ever ever butt heads with MS again for out-front dominance.
And if they wanted to, then they should just buy any all of the following:
Xandros
Lycoris
ELX
Which are built as commerical Linux replacements of Windows desktops and not for the Krispy Kreme & Black T-shirts crowd.
IBM already has a good relationship with RH and SuSE. Why would they need to take over Slackware no matter how good it is? And why does Slack bother with SPARC and Alpha ports? Can't they leave all the 'I got this kernel to compile on my fucking sundial' shit to the BSD heads?
Clearly this is almost entirely focused on the server side aka Workplace which is a huge complex assembly of AIX, Linux, Python, Java and RDBMSs. This is aimed at business space that wants to use Linux for things like CRM, Peoplesoft, SAP, Oracle, Seibel and custom made apps.
In fact I want states to go after vehicle purchasers who buy their vehicles in other states to avoid higher taxes. That way the different states could tax the vehicle more than once.
In fact I want roadblocks established at every state border to stop and search vehicles for any contraband that could conceivably be sold in that state.
Good job Congress. Nice to see you occasionally come up for air while you're fluffing the special interests.
So modding me down is your answer to my point, how again?
Hey there's a wawr agin the terrorists people. We ain't got no time for security. Now watch this drive.
I just want to make sure that as long as there are no software patents in the EU that they still get to quasi-nationalize key industries and support them through public funding with the full enforcement and protectionist power of the government backing them up, yes? I mean we wouldn't want rampant power being wielded capriciously, would we?
Oh sure I did. Do you even bother to think about what you say? Lemme ask you a question oh keeper of the 20-sided die.
.....the fact that your average Win server deployed in a commercial environment has >12 accounts in the admin group just to get the basic work done and that the restrictions imposed by those accounts.......
How easy do you think it is to unpak a windows machine 2003 or other, plug it in and have it be relatively secure w/o doing much of anything at all? Compare that to whatever the normal effort is in getting a Linux box up and running with the barest amount of bit twiddling that the install proc makes you do. For the most part - at 400+ distros there are always a few that really suck at this.
At any rate Transformicon Master+200, Given the reality of say
Now I know... oh wizard of the volcano of half assed wisdom.. this is going to shock you right out ya jammies.......
How does that fact, that essentially busted windows security model protect the system from one another of the admins. You see in the real, non-basement dwelling R0xx0R world, the largest number of threats are from the INSIDE.
So unless you have enviroment that isolates and manages the system at least as well as Unix or RACF then you will have a system, no matter how harded from the tools @ Un-Root that is still profoundly broken.
There, was that thought out enough for you or do I need a new magic sword and 2 bags of fairy dust?
My God, you smash one little icon round here and they come boiling up out the basement like cockroaches, don't they?
And how many people run Win2003 server at home? People should understand that the plural of anecdote is not data.
This meltdown behavior is very familiar. It's not slow and progressive, it's halting. And then one day it just flies over the cliff and explodes. I think we're seeing that right now. And I think that if anyone ever brings forensic accountants to SCO they will find massive fiduciary problems that they saw as being covered up by suing someone.
Let's face it, ever since Douggy's Dad had to resign for sexually harrassing the staff, SCO has had the whiff of being a shitty little disreputable bunch of corner crack monkeys lucky enough to be sitting on a product that people would actually pay to make and improve for them.
I guess the jury is in. It really doesn't work very well but we can probably leverage it to force people to pay for something else down the road, so let's give it away.
No I'm afraid not. It's actually a variant of Gelfling's Axiom of voicemail which is:
You don't really need it, if it's important enough they'll call back.
Is this:
90% of all eMail is useless the moment it arrives in your inbox.
The First Corollary of eMail age is this:
All remaining eMail is useless no more than one year after the moment it arrives in your inbox.
The Second Corollary of eMail age is this:
eMail accidently deleted will become instantly irrelevant or it will be resent without your request.
OR is it complex melange of requirements, funding, skills, time, staffing, testing and packaging? I looked at LWN yesterday and noted there were 400+ different distros for Linux. Probably 300 of them are either orphans or one or two person operations or the work of whichever crop of college labrats are working the time. Maintainability in this context is really a matter of discarding 4/5ths of the code out there that should be left to die. Take the time, skills and money and build more cooperative projects over a smaller set of large distros. Or if that's not feasible, then break the problems down into snap ins that more generic.
"Hey you assholes we're like 2+ years late with this crap and some of the features in it were promised in 1998. We have security problems coming out our ass. Whole countries are abandoning us. WTF are you going to do???"
"Smithers, release the Browser!!!"
That will keep them quiet for at least a year while they figure out how much of it is yet more crappy buggy code *with shiny glittery rotating 3 dimensional things hanging off it*
"Brilliant"
Because large companies enter into long term agreements with companies to provide tools and services with payments predicated on the projected useful economic life of that tool or service. What kind of sense would it make to suddenly end a muliyear agreement with a vendor and buy out your own contract just because you didn't need it anymore? Not much, that's what.
Transition costs are enormous, you use your head.
There's certainly a few as noted here before, perhaps 10,000 albeit not well supported and still some birthing pains as well you could imagine with VPNs, Wireless, Lotus Notes, net meeting type apps and internal Web apps and Web Java apps. Just like any other large company with a large suite of internal applications.
Moreover you could guess that taking machines out of service before end of lease, to replace the entire suite of software on them, then send them back, train people and staff a help desk for it is not really a rational goal.
I don't think anyone thinks that migrating everyone or a large chunk of everyone from Win to Linux is going to be any easier than the migration from OS/2 to Win several years ago. And that was quite hard.
Another thing to keep in mind is that your most difficult desktop users, the ones with the most complicated and inflexible requirements are the executives and if they have an app on Windows that absolutely must run the way they want it to run then that is what will happen. Period.
Plus you'd be wasting all the monies you invested in desktop tools for AV and spyware if you suddenly didn't need or couldn't use them anymore.
I think it's bravado to claim that there will be nothing but Linux desktops inside of one year.
There are tons of so called magazines and journals out there which are either openly run by companies like Microsoft or so reliant on their dollars as to make no difference and clearly those sponsors make critical editorial decisions. What if one of those publications goes out and finds crucial information about a competitor and then hides behind the 1st Ammendment? It would make the entire industry captive to the journalistic equivalent of diplomatic immunity.
Clearly they need to follow the internet/software model and offer two versions. One that is verified and supported for money and one that is degraded, unchecked and unsupported for free. That way everyone will have access to information but only people with money will have the right information. And then they can extend that model to premium services such as going out and looking for the information for you, collating it, packaging it and presenting it.
How else could trust fund kids make it through college?