I managed 0ver 300 Win2K clients all by my lonesome as my last job. And with superior tools like Active Directory, Exchange, Remote Installation servers, auto-update servers, PKI and proper permission sets, I ran my shop with 99.6% average uptime on all servers and workstations. I guess Linux has it's own brand of FUD afterall.
You fucking retarded Linux Jihad Zealot. Once again, Microsoft has been doing for years what you can only dream of. Please, lobotomize yourself already.
That the *nix people are still holding on to the belief that they can compete with professional OSs by using unprofessional naming conventions, poorly designed UIs, etc. Let me relate an exchange between myself and my superior recently over the usage of Windows and *nix at work:
Me: "You know Ken, Some of our customers really only need web access to do their jobs. We could change out some of these expensive Dell laptops for really cheap Linux boxes running a bootable Linux distro. Our customers never really move around with the Laptops anyway. I could arrange a demo, if you like."
Ken: "Sounds intriguing. Let's have a look at your proposition at the next Officer's Meeting this Thursday."
[Flash forward to Thursday. I show up with a homegrown box and a copy of Gnoppix. Total cost of my venture, including the media for Gnoppix? $358.23]
Me: "So you see, gentlemen, not only could we save considerably on our own initial expenses, but we can pass a portion of those savings onto our customers which should help us earn more market penetration. It's a win-win."
Ken: "Umm, how do I change the resolution on this thing? We need to get it in sync with the overhead"
[I make necessary changes]
EO#1: "Sounds great, but what does Gnome mean, anyway? I'm confused. I though gnomes were tiny little dwarf-like people, not computer applications. I mean, with Windows, the customers know exactly what they're paying for; a Windowing system to run their computer. You say this is independent of the operating system and more modular than Windows. Can we rename it and brand the splashscreen with our own design? What are the legal implications of that?"
Me: "Sure, we can make any changes we want to. But, the way the software is written and licensed, we have to make freely available all changes to the source code if requested to do so."
EO#2: "I would have to ask our onboard lawyers about that, but it sounds like you're saying that there's no way we can keep any proprietary changes to ourselves. Is that correct?"
Me: "Yes, that is correct."
EO#2: "So what you're saying is that we would be paying our developers to work on this project, and essentially anyone else can just come along, pick up where we left off and that's that? That doesn't really seem fair, if you ask me."
Me: "Well, sir, I-"
EO#1: "Sounds like software communism. But, I can understand why it would be set up that way. I was looking for a magnifier so I could zoom in on this text here and all I can find is this thing that tells me it needs something called a 'Gok' package. What the hell is Gok, anyway? I mean, Windows is pretty straightforward, and I know our customers appreciate its intuitiveness. Windows calls it Accessibility, which makes a lot of sense, but I don't think our customers would appreciate it if we replaced their current systems with Gok, or troll, or Gnome, whatever it's called."
Me: "Sir, as I've already stated, we can make any changes to the UI and look and feel that we want to-"
EO#3: "Assuming we make it freely available to anyone who wants it. We're basically working for free."
Ken: "We only have to give up the code if someone requests it, Jim. There's nowhere in the GPL that states-"
EO#2: "What is the GPL?"
Me: "Gnu Public License, G-N-U"
EO#2: "GNU?"
Me: "It Stands for Gnu's Not Unix"
EO#1: "Okay, gentlemen, thank you for your time, but I've had enough of this. I've heard a lot about the Linux phenomenon, and I have been meaning to get with you so you could clear it up for me, but from what I see, it has a long, long way to go. Windows is already at that point, and it does what we need it to do, so I believe we'll be sticking with that for now. Gnu, Gok, a UI that looks like it was designed 20 years ago, it's all too unprofessional to be springing on our customers, even with the substantial savings you mentioned. Goodbye now, gentlemen"
*sigh* Thanks, Linux Phenomenon. There goes my next promotion.
Roger that on the daydreaming;) Not too much time to do that in the Army...
Hmm... the usage rights issue is interesting, especially when you consider that your average cellphone now plays music, holds files (I can send powerpoint files to my cellphone from my Bluetooth-enabled PDA) and hops from one tower to the next. Isn't this, in essence, the same process? I don't need usage rights for each and every cell tower, nor do I need a usage right for a song I sent to my phone from my PDA or computer or vice-versa. Should I be paying Microsoft a license for storing a ppt file on my phone? It's a shame the 'rules' aren't more clearly defined, or there would be a lot more successful business ventures happening today...
Even better, picture this: Joe user wakes up to a pre-selected playlist of music played from speakers embedded in his bedroom walls, goes and sits down at his dumb terminal which is hooked up to a central server located somewhere in his house (he doesn't know, and doesn't really care. Much like his air conditioner). He gazes at the day's appointments being displayed on a high-quality flat panel monitor embedded in the wall above his desk. There are 4 to 5 more like it located in strategic locations around the house. Next to the telephone in the living room, the kitchen, the garage, the dining room, etc. After a power breakfast consisting of whatever is all the rage at that time he gets into his car. The house, sensing no movement from any of the dozens of movement sensors, decides that because the last door to close was the door to the garage, Joe user must be leaving for work (simple enough for a program to deduce based on day of week, time, previous habits, etc) and is getting ready to drive there. The central server makes a quick wireless link to the automobile's onboard computer and syncs any changes Joe user has made to his appointments, contacts, etc. It also uploads any work data he requested be uploaded the next time he drove. On the way to work his car plays playlists he created at home and takes calls as they come in, not to mention IM and email, of course. As he pulls into his parking spot, his projects, email, messages, music and other important data are wirelessly transmitted to his cube. Sorta off topic, I know, but heh, you started this little daydreaming thing
Especially when you can go with one of these for a fraction of the cost. True, a little modification may be necessary, but hey, we live for that sort of thing, don't we?
And can already get a headshot in UT2004. She loves to watch me play Doom3, and as a result has ceased to be afraid of the dark. Granted, part of my duty as a parent was to explain to her in depth that John Carmack is just a mere mortal (let the flaming begin!), and I also used it as an opportunity to show her how many wonderful opportunities there are for her in CG and technology when she gets older. True, I've taken some of the magic out of her childhood, but I also feel that I've given her more of a pragmatic outlook on life. She's watched all 3 of the LOTR movies, Matrix movies, X-Men movies and Spiderman movies, but I've also made sure she's seen the 'Making of' portions, so she can see things like the good guys and bad guys hanging around the makeup trailer together, the CG used to create Gollum, etc. In a nutshell, we refuse to shelter our daughter from what the world has to offer, and not only has it made her smarter and more critical as far as her thinking skills go, but I believe it has given her an advantage her classmates haven't been afforded the opportunity, and her counting, reasoning verbal, and reading skills prove it.
Well, my whole point is that in order to have an unsecured system attached to the 'Net, you need an Admin who either doesn't know or doesn't care. In which case, no system would be a good idea. The article attempts to place blame on Microsoft for people's laziness and ineptness, which is just more of the anti-Microsoft zealot-ism drivel I've come to hate from Slashdot as of late.
I do admin a mail server, and in my current situation I have no need to have any packets routed from any country but America and Germany. Granted, this approach works great for me (I tend to disagree with other poster's remarks about most spam coming from American Windows boxes. My 200+ a day spam habit stopped by adding deny rules for Asia and Russia), but is probably not the best course of action for most folks. In retrospect, I probably should have gone more into depth with that, but hey, live and learn.
Olny someone with absolutely no experience working with MS products at an enterprise level would spout such uneducated drivel. IE can be secured, and has been at hundreds of places of buisness. Just as Linux and *BSD take a bit of tinkering to become usable products, so does IE need a bit of tinkering to become a usable product. And AD does a lot more than "just manage privs" as you state. Again, methinks you need to educate yourself on AD before stating what you think it is, or is not, in this case.
Active Directory allows an Administrator complete and total control over his/her domains, up to and including limiting the ability of other administrators to install/remove software. On my last assignment we used a combination of AD, RIS and scripting to monitor the computer states of those with local administrative rights (think executives here who incessantly whine about not being able to control their computers) so that any unauthorized changes to the allowed states were undone every 5 minutes. When I started the assignment the Cisco routers were reporting over a Gb of spyware-related traffic every day. We reduced that to less than 1Mb per month. MS SMS pretty much does the same thing, but if you know anything about scripting and batching you can accomplish just about everything that overpriced product does.
You link to one story to back your claim up? How about I tell you a real life experience to back my claim up that Linux is STILL TOO HARD for the average untech to use? I have a neighbor. retired electronics engineer. 68 years old. Ran screaming from Mandrake Linux back to Windows XP. His WinXP install works with everything with no issues whatsoever, unlike Mandrake, that didn't detect his graphics, his USB mouse, his digital camera or his printer. His exact words? "I never had to work so hard in my life just to get something to work. Time being money, I could have bought another computer for all the time I wasted trying to get Linux to work". And here's the part where you tell me that he was using an OEM or non-standard hardware, so I'll just save you a step and tell you that that's what a VAST MAJORITY of people use today, not homerolled boxxen. Yes. Linux is still too hard for 97% of the world, and that's why 97% of the world is still using Windows =]
Have you seen the Longhorn beta in action? It asks the user for their name and a cd key. Not much else. The end users are getting dumber and dumber as time goes by, and are willing to do less and less to set-up/maintain their computers. Asking them to partition their own boxxen is an excersize in futility. On all other points, however, I agree with you wholeheartedly. Way back in 1998 I proposed an idea to usenet about a Linux distro that came with an executable installer, so that you could run it from within windows. It would migrate all user data and settings before nuking the Win32 install and installing itself. With user and program histories (something Microsoft is fanatcal about maintaining from within the OS), it wouldn't be that hard to discover what apps a user used the most and install compatable alternatives. If you make it effortless and seamless, they will come;)
That Linux distros are taking the shotgun marketing approach, unlike Microsoft who has painstakingly researched what end users want in an Operating System and for the most part, has delivered exactly what the majority of PC users want. Granted, Linux is destined for the server market for the time being so a distro packed with services is appropriate for the most part, but if Linux ever wants any substantial share of the desktop commodity its going to need to do some serious work on several fronts like UI, ease of use, intuitiveness, size and speed.
Slashdot Mirror
I managed 0ver 300 Win2K clients all by my lonesome as my last job. And with superior tools like Active Directory, Exchange, Remote Installation servers, auto-update servers, PKI and proper permission sets, I ran my shop with 99.6% average uptime on all servers and workstations. I guess Linux has it's own brand of FUD afterall.
You fucking retarded Linux Jihad Zealot. Once again, Microsoft has been doing for years what you can only dream of. Please, lobotomize yourself already.
Hmm... I though IBM was pretty quiet about their Linux initiative these days...
That the *nix people are still holding on to the belief that they can compete with professional OSs by using unprofessional naming conventions, poorly designed UIs, etc. Let me relate an exchange between myself and my superior recently over the usage of Windows and *nix at work:
Me: "You know Ken, Some of our customers really only need web access to do their jobs. We could change out some of these expensive Dell laptops for really cheap Linux boxes running a bootable Linux distro. Our customers never really move around with the Laptops anyway. I could arrange a demo, if you like."
Ken: "Sounds intriguing. Let's have a look at your proposition at the next Officer's Meeting this Thursday."
[Flash forward to Thursday. I show up with a homegrown box and a copy of Gnoppix. Total cost of my venture, including the media for Gnoppix? $358.23]
Me: "So you see, gentlemen, not only could we save considerably on our own initial expenses, but we can pass a portion of those savings onto our customers which should help us earn more market penetration. It's a win-win."
Ken: "Umm, how do I change the resolution on this thing? We need to get it in sync with the overhead"
[I make necessary changes]
EO#1: "Sounds great, but what does Gnome mean, anyway? I'm confused. I though gnomes were tiny little dwarf-like people, not computer applications. I mean, with Windows, the customers know exactly what they're paying for; a Windowing system to run their computer. You say this is independent of the operating system and more modular than Windows. Can we rename it and brand the splashscreen with our own design? What are the legal implications of that?"
Me: "Sure, we can make any changes we want to. But, the way the software is written and licensed, we have to make freely available all changes to the source code if requested to do so."
EO#2: "I would have to ask our onboard lawyers about that, but it sounds like you're saying that there's no way we can keep any proprietary changes to ourselves. Is that correct?"
Me: "Yes, that is correct."
EO#2: "So what you're saying is that we would be paying our developers to work on this project, and essentially anyone else can just come along, pick up where we left off and that's that? That doesn't really seem fair, if you ask me."
Me: "Well, sir, I-"
EO#1: "Sounds like software communism. But, I can understand why it would be set up that way. I was looking for a magnifier so I could zoom in on this text here and all I can find is this thing that tells me it needs something called a 'Gok' package. What the hell is Gok, anyway? I mean, Windows is pretty straightforward, and I know our customers appreciate its intuitiveness. Windows calls it Accessibility, which makes a lot of sense, but I don't think our customers would appreciate it if we replaced their current systems with Gok, or troll, or Gnome, whatever it's called."
Me: "Sir, as I've already stated, we can make any changes to the UI and look and feel that we want to-"
EO#3: "Assuming we make it freely available to anyone who wants it. We're basically working for free."
Ken: "We only have to give up the code if someone requests it, Jim. There's nowhere in the GPL that states-"
EO#2: "What is the GPL?"
Me: "Gnu Public License, G-N-U"
EO#2: "GNU?"
Me: "It Stands for Gnu's Not Unix"
EO#1: "Okay, gentlemen, thank you for your time, but I've had enough of this. I've heard a lot about the Linux phenomenon, and I have been meaning to get with you so you could clear it up for me, but from what I see, it has a long, long way to go. Windows is already at that point, and it does what we need it to do, so I believe we'll be sticking with that for now. Gnu, Gok, a UI that looks like it was designed 20 years ago, it's all too unprofessional to be springing on our customers, even with the substantial savings you mentioned. Goodbye now, gentlemen"
*sigh* Thanks, Linux Phenomenon. There goes my next promotion.
Roger that on the daydreaming ;) Not too much time to do that in the Army...
Hmm... the usage rights issue is interesting, especially when you consider that your average cellphone now plays music, holds files (I can send powerpoint files to my cellphone from my Bluetooth-enabled PDA) and hops from one tower to the next. Isn't this, in essence, the same process? I don't need usage rights for each and every cell tower, nor do I need a usage right for a song I sent to my phone from my PDA or computer or vice-versa. Should I be paying Microsoft a license for storing a ppt file on my phone? It's a shame the 'rules' aren't more clearly defined, or there would be a lot more successful business ventures happening today...
Even better, picture this: Joe user wakes up to a pre-selected playlist of music played from speakers embedded in his bedroom walls, goes and sits down at his dumb terminal which is hooked up to a central server located somewhere in his house (he doesn't know, and doesn't really care. Much like his air conditioner). He gazes at the day's appointments being displayed on a high-quality flat panel monitor embedded in the wall above his desk. There are 4 to 5 more like it located in strategic locations around the house. Next to the telephone in the living room, the kitchen, the garage, the dining room, etc. After a power breakfast consisting of whatever is all the rage at that time he gets into his car. The house, sensing no movement from any of the dozens of movement sensors, decides that because the last door to close was the door to the garage, Joe user must be leaving for work (simple enough for a program to deduce based on day of week, time, previous habits, etc) and is getting ready to drive there. The central server makes a quick wireless link to the automobile's onboard computer and syncs any changes Joe user has made to his appointments, contacts, etc. It also uploads any work data he requested be uploaded the next time he drove. On the way to work his car plays playlists he created at home and takes calls as they come in, not to mention IM and email, of course. As he pulls into his parking spot, his projects, email, messages, music and other important data are wirelessly transmitted to his cube. Sorta off topic, I know, but heh, you started this little daydreaming thing
Ah, there's nothing quite like the irrational rantings of a zealot. Thanks for the laugh!
Especially when you can go with one of these for a fraction of the cost. True, a little modification may be necessary, but hey, we live for that sort of thing, don't we?
the Slashdot RSS feed to the televisions in my bathroom suddenly stopped working. *sigh*, well, at least the one in the shower is still working...
And can already get a headshot in UT2004. She loves to watch me play Doom3, and as a result has ceased to be afraid of the dark. Granted, part of my duty as a parent was to explain to her in depth that John Carmack is just a mere mortal (let the flaming begin!), and I also used it as an opportunity to show her how many wonderful opportunities there are for her in CG and technology when she gets older. True, I've taken some of the magic out of her childhood, but I also feel that I've given her more of a pragmatic outlook on life. She's watched all 3 of the LOTR movies, Matrix movies, X-Men movies and Spiderman movies, but I've also made sure she's seen the 'Making of' portions, so she can see things like the good guys and bad guys hanging around the makeup trailer together, the CG used to create Gollum, etc. In a nutshell, we refuse to shelter our daughter from what the world has to offer, and not only has it made her smarter and more critical as far as her thinking skills go, but I believe it has given her an advantage her classmates haven't been afforded the opportunity, and her counting, reasoning verbal, and reading skills prove it.
Has to say about benchmarks. Especially considering that they only accept advertising money from AMD.
Well, my whole point is that in order to have an unsecured system attached to the 'Net, you need an Admin who either doesn't know or doesn't care. In which case, no system would be a good idea. The article attempts to place blame on Microsoft for people's laziness and ineptness, which is just more of the anti-Microsoft zealot-ism drivel I've come to hate from Slashdot as of late.
Because Administrators can't patch their own shit? What makes you think they would patch Linux if they were to switch?
I do admin a mail server, and in my current situation I have no need to have any packets routed from any country but America and Germany. Granted, this approach works great for me (I tend to disagree with other poster's remarks about most spam coming from American Windows boxes. My 200+ a day spam habit stopped by adding deny rules for Asia and Russia), but is probably not the best course of action for most folks. In retrospect, I probably should have gone more into depth with that, but hey, live and learn.
I simply ban China and most other Asian countries at my router.
Oh wait... the example was slashdotted. Damn. Windows Update, here I come!
Olny someone with absolutely no experience working with MS products at an enterprise level would spout such uneducated drivel. IE can be secured, and has been at hundreds of places of buisness. Just as Linux and *BSD take a bit of tinkering to become usable products, so does IE need a bit of tinkering to become a usable product. And AD does a lot more than "just manage privs" as you state. Again, methinks you need to educate yourself on AD before stating what you think it is, or is not, in this case.
Active Directory allows an Administrator complete and total control over his/her domains, up to and including limiting the ability of other administrators to install/remove software. On my last assignment we used a combination of AD, RIS and scripting to monitor the computer states of those with local administrative rights (think executives here who incessantly whine about not being able to control their computers) so that any unauthorized changes to the allowed states were undone every 5 minutes. When I started the assignment the Cisco routers were reporting over a Gb of spyware-related traffic every day. We reduced that to less than 1Mb per month. MS SMS pretty much does the same thing, but if you know anything about scripting and batching you can accomplish just about everything that overpriced product does.
Install Red Hat on your boss's machine. That will surely make him miserable!
I have a platinum-plated pocket protector of +5 charisma!
You link to one story to back your claim up? How about I tell you a real life experience to back my claim up that Linux is STILL TOO HARD for the average untech to use? I have a neighbor. retired electronics engineer. 68 years old. Ran screaming from Mandrake Linux back to Windows XP. His WinXP install works with everything with no issues whatsoever, unlike Mandrake, that didn't detect his graphics, his USB mouse, his digital camera or his printer. His exact words? "I never had to work so hard in my life just to get something to work. Time being money, I could have bought another computer for all the time I wasted trying to get Linux to work". And here's the part where you tell me that he was using an OEM or non-standard hardware, so I'll just save you a step and tell you that that's what a VAST MAJORITY of people use today, not homerolled boxxen. Yes. Linux is still too hard for 97% of the world, and that's why 97% of the world is still using Windows =]
Have you seen the Longhorn beta in action? It asks the user for their name and a cd key. Not much else. The end users are getting dumber and dumber as time goes by, and are willing to do less and less to set-up/maintain their computers. Asking them to partition their own boxxen is an excersize in futility. On all other points, however, I agree with you wholeheartedly. Way back in 1998 I proposed an idea to usenet about a Linux distro that came with an executable installer, so that you could run it from within windows. It would migrate all user data and settings before nuking the Win32 install and installing itself. With user and program histories (something Microsoft is fanatcal about maintaining from within the OS), it wouldn't be that hard to discover what apps a user used the most and install compatable alternatives. If you make it effortless and seamless, they will come ;)
That Linux distros are taking the shotgun marketing approach, unlike Microsoft who has painstakingly researched what end users want in an Operating System and for the most part, has delivered exactly what the majority of PC users want. Granted, Linux is destined for the server market for the time being so a distro packed with services is appropriate for the most part, but if Linux ever wants any substantial share of the desktop commodity its going to need to do some serious work on several fronts like UI, ease of use, intuitiveness, size and speed.
I can't believe I passed that one by.
I'm off to read the stand again...
Mainly because he's one of the few that lives in Steven King's "The Stand".
The part of the Walking Dude should be played by Darl McBride =]