I don't agree with you. Much has been posted in this thread about the BBS era but I don't think a lot of you have any idea how important it was. And to go even further, how important it was that we had phreakers before that. The BBS community came up with, among other things, chat, email and forums standards (kiss my ass usenet), file transfers, global communication, online games (Nethack is awesome but the BBS took it to a whole new level), and the original foundations of peer sharing. We did that without the Internet, we did it through Fido, WWIV, MajorBBS, and Tymenet.
The reason that the Internet is where its at today is because they smart people (who did it because they loved it) went on and created what you see now. They don't post or comment because hey, if you had that much money would you bother with Slashdot?
Tymenet and its like were fascinating. 1985-1990 were exciting times. Most news services and Lexis/Nexis were members and it didn't take much to pull logins out of a dumpster. I still have it though it is much dogearred and so is the other one, but for anyone who wants to get an idea of how amazing that time was checkout these:
Did you hear that? That was the sound of the point going completely over your head.
If you're going to run a business, run a business. Run your personal stuff somewhere else.
See that sentence above, that's helpful. I'm not being rude, I'm being honest. Rude would be saying, "Good luck using GAWD! or any other LOL,ROFL,U,R,PEEPS,P0WNED word in a business environment kid because bosses, managers, owners will laugh your ass back on the street where you'll say, 'GAWD! How Rude!' while they're standing at the windows laughing at you and getting blowjobs from $5000 hookers, counting their money with one hand and trying to decide which angle to throw the clue stick with the other while offering up odds to the other employees."
So what, how many people are using Wine to play Crysis compared to dual-booting and using native 3d support in Windows.
And don't give me Cedega. If it was mainstream I'd be reading about it in mainstream publications. I haven't even seen it mentioned in my Linux journals for quite some time.
Wine is a great study in programming but pretty pointless in this day and age. It took what, 12 years to get to release 1.0? Look at how far VMware has progressed in just the last two years. VMware 6 is an incredible product that does what IT departments want. My little brother isn't going to want to boot into linux and run around in circles getting Wine to work so he can play a game.
A lot of you forget that we are the minority when it comes to computer users. We may have no problem jumping through Linux hoops but most people just want to turn on their computer and be done with anything other than double-clicking the icon of the program they want to run.
If you're running a business, your first worry should be about servicing your customers not using Bittorent. Get another DSL/Cable/Wifi connection for your business and run your VOIP over that.
If you only need the limited bandwidth that you are looking for you'd be fine with the lowest speed (read cheapest) connection any ISP offered.
I signed up when I heard that the Sam & Max games would be available and I was was shocked at the amount of games they had. Maybe it was nostalgia but I still think it is worth every penny of the $12.95 a month I spend on it.
I have never experienced any spam or other crap from them. I get an email telling me new games have been released and that's about it. I forgot my password once and had to call support and a real human answered the phone, fixed it for me and was pleasant to work with.
The only thing I would really like would be the ability to play the games offline. Sitting in the airport I don't want to have to pay another $9.99 to access their wireless so I can access Gametap.
I live in a "city" and I don't have public transportation. I stressed for 10 months trying to decide whether to buy a house in a nice place or one in an okay place closer to work because of gas prices. I decided on the latter.
Have you actually looked at a map and seen just how big this country is? Have you seen how spread out cities that aren't situated in areas where they have no land to expand to are?
I don't know if you're being sarcastic or not but I just looked up the specs or the E4500. No offense, but why would you want to use it as a workstation? I have a better idea.
That much power requires something better...
Design my flying car that runs on my dog's poop. By the smell of it (dear God, just thinking about it is giving me a gag reflex) it has enough methane to power my flying car longer than a reactor.
Yeah, we have the "snack station" which consists of chips and dip and the "candy station" that consists of, well...lots of the mini candy bars.
Here's the funny thing:
I DON'T EAT ANY OF IT!!!!
Its not a matter of being healthy or anything, its really the fact that I KNOW IF I EAT THAT CRAP I WILL GET FAT and I choose not to be fat.
I could cite a number of comedians who have said it way better than I could but it really comes down to this...
Do you want to be that person that make me have to stop in the grocery aisle because your ass is wider than the cart that I can't get around you; or that person that wakes up in the morning and looks in the mirror, thinks "Fuck It" then puts on a sweat suit because they just gave up; or maybe the fattie who blames it on everyone else and decides its their chance to make everyone else miserable because they couldn't put down the fucking cheesecake?
But what does it matter, nobody will ever see my post but I still got to bitch...kind of like the fatties.
Have you ever been to a grocery store where they have the self-checkout lanes? I'd say that its a comedy of errors but I'm the guy standing there thinking, "See where it says pay now, press PAY FUCKING NOW!"
See, the problem is all the animations. Carts zooming around and other things that get people to say, "Oh! Look at the Frosted Flakes, they're spinning!"
Here's what should happen:
Screen says "Scan your shit" Screen says "Put your shit in bags" Screen says "Pay for your shit" Screen says "Pick up your shit and get the hell out"
I gave an example, would you like to elaborate on yours. Wait, you didn't give any.
Third party software vendors (i.e. the companies that make the software that industries actually rely on)...very damn relevant.
Can't argue with that. Oh, wait, yes I can.
Waiting for your argument.
A lot of you fail to understand that businesses do live or die by Microsoft Office and Windows. There are three major management system providers for the insurance agency industry. None of them have anything written that will work on anything other than Windows.
Gee, that sound's like more like an opportunity then anything else. Y'know, I used to work as a programmer in the insurance industry... I wonder...
Yes, that was the whole damn point of my post.
Insurance companies, Medical companies, Finance...the run a ton of stuff that was developed in house.
Yes, for DOS and Windows 3.1. Seriously.
Yes, another that's the goddman point.
Most business users could give a damn whether they use Office, OpenOffice, CoolOffice923432 as long as it lets them type their letters and email them. But take away their 3rd party app that really does the work and they shit.
Most business would only have a need for Office, Email and Internet. Everything you've described is specialist shit.
Not bullshit, the truth. Most companies run "specialist bullshit". But you should know that as a "former programmer in the insurance industry".
That's where the problem is, convince those companies to rewrite their software and we'll see what happens.
I doubt there's a need to rewrite anything. Anyone used WINE recently? I've been playing Civ4 on my Linux laptop all week - it rocks!
I can't see any way that this move could damage OSS, and there is, in my opinion, a better then average chance that it could benifit us. So why is everyone here acting so cynical and paranoid (I mean, more than usual)? Cheer up for fuck's sake!
Yes, because your ability to play a five year old game totally is the same as a business application that someone wrote 20 years ago and 15 people have worked on since then.
I never said anything about damaging open source. I was trying to give my opinion on what I thought would help it.
Third party software vendors (i.e. the companies that make the software that industries actually rely on)...very damn relevant.
A lot of you fail to understand that businesses do live or die by Microsoft Office and Windows. There are three major management system providers for the insurance agency industry. None of them have anything written that will work on anything other than Windows.
Insurance companies, Medical companies, Finance...the run a ton of stuff that was developed in house.
Most business users could give a damn whether they use Office, OpenOffice, CoolOffice923432 as long as it lets them type their letters and email them. But take away their 3rd party app that really does the work and they shit.
That's where the problem is, convince those companies to rewrite their software and we'll see what happens.
No need to link to the Wikipedia article, already perused it. Why don't they just call it BBS 2008.26? I mean its the same damn thing.
I forgot, it won't make money if it doesn't have at least five buzz words behind it. Wasn't Web 2.0 originally a combination of Apache/MySQL/PHP? What happened to Java 11123.23423? Do I smell soap in the air????
And no offense, but doesn't the scientific community have Internet 2.0? Or is it Internet 2.dvds-tranfers-in-30-seconds-ha-we-do-it-in-ten-and-we've-been-talking-about-it-for-10-years-but-you'll-never-see-it-because-its-the-only-topic-we-have-for-conversation-while-trying-to-get-laid-next-pun-intended.36-12 stroke 9?
I posted this in a comment to a comment to a comment above.
When I moved into my first home two months ago, I finally opened some boxes I've been carrying from apartment to apartment for the 15.5 years (I'm 32) that I've never opened because they were labeled "Collectibles". I figured they were pictures and report cards and sports trophy's when I was a kid (back when the winning team got trophy's and the other kids had to stare and realize they'd have to work harder next year and nobody's parents were screaming about little Johnny's psyche being scarred for life but I digress).
Now I've always known I was a pack rat and for the first time I was happy about it. I found a 3.5" 200 disc holder of all my DOS games from 1985-1997. Every Sierra/Flight Simulator/SimCity/Civilization games made during that period.
My F19 still works in DOSBox. Damn its fun and like a comment above, my favorite aspect was that you didn't just go out and bomb stuff. You really had to pay attention to radar/SAM sites/altitude to succeed in the missions. I spent more time on autopilot watching my radar emissions and threat screen than piloting the craft.
Also, it was the 80's...it was cool to smoke the dirty Commies.
This has two components. When the OEMs gather up enough courage to escape Microsoft's shackles, and when the device makers decide that developing open drivers is worth their time, Linux will flourish.
Nvidia needs to abandon their binary-only driver approach. Yes, because last time I checked, companies hate making money. And shareholders hate getting returns on their investments.
Why would I spend hundreds of thousands of dollars hiring people and setting up the facilities to create a product that is probably not going to make me enough money to cover said expenses?
I'm confused...did you spend $7000 total with the data center or did you get royally ripped off. $7000 grand for a standard raid card "yeah, they all pretty much come with batteries"..ignoring your other crap until...six hour response time!
Are you fucking kidding me? Six hours, do you live in Alaska? Do you have any idea what you are doing?
When we registered our first domain in 1996 it was $75 for one year through NSI. The fact that we can renew for 10 years at $120 make me believe that spam companies aren't really going to care a bit about this.
I think every CS student should be required to take at least two semesters of Business and one semester of Philosophy. We could avoid retarded post like this.
In my day we handy Tandy Color Computers with cartridges and all of our games came from Disney on cassette. It cost $800 for a 10mb hard drive and you worshiped the damn thing. If a download was over 100kb you begged your parents to stay off the phone.
Point is, who cares what the plane has? As a business traveler I have everything I need in my handy laptop bag.
Movies or TV - Check Games - Check Music - Check In-Flight Bathroom Entertainment - Check
But I do have a secret obsession with watching that little airplane travel over the map...even though I'm sitting in the goddamn plane, in the window seat, but still watch the little plane go over that goddamn map.
Um, why would you deploy and operating system that you know is faulty to 800 people regardless of which video card is installed. Most companies (especially if you are leasing) will just give you a few machines so you can install your standard load for testing. We haven't even begun testing Vista and probably won't because we're waiting to see what the next Windows brings. Kind of like we did with Windows XP and Server 2003. We just moved into Server 2003 last year because we felt it was stable enough.
Just because Microsoft is going to stop selling XP doesn't mean you have to upgrade. The Vista license also covers XP (if that tells you anything) we get out laptops from Lenovo and downgrade them to XP. I've got a sweet Ghost 2003 image all setup and configured.
Personally, I've used all the versions of Vista and ran Ultimate for a year on my home PC. I switched back to XP because the DirectX 10 card I bought worked great on DirectX games but Oblivion ran like shit and that game is my Alpha and Omega. Pulled out my 8600 and put my 7900 back in.
But then again, our IT department (self included) is full of people who have been around for awhile and gotten burned with Microsoft. I agree with the post way above about NT 3.51. Fucking terrific OS, NT 4, not so much. Didn't it get to Service Pack 6? 2000 was rock solid after Service Pack 4 and 2003 seems to be fine so far.
My point is, just because its there doesn't mean you have to use it. I'm also in a 800 person company.
And don't even tell me "Well Linux doesn't have Service Packs. Yes it does, they're called "Releases" as in Fedora R2 R3. Ever joined a Linux systems security mailing list? If not, try one.
I love Linux, I have a three system, 4TB MythTV media center sitting in my basement, but I would not run a business critical app on it, plus there isn't anything available for my industry.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't agree with you. Much has been posted in this thread about the BBS era but I don't think a lot of you have any idea how important it was. And to go even further, how important it was that we had phreakers before that. The BBS community came up with, among other things, chat, email and forums standards (kiss my ass usenet), file transfers, global communication, online games (Nethack is awesome but the BBS took it to a whole new level), and the original foundations of peer sharing. We did that without the Internet, we did it through Fido, WWIV, MajorBBS, and Tymenet.
The reason that the Internet is where its at today is because they smart people (who did it because they loved it) went on and created what you see now. They don't post or comment because hey, if you had that much money would you bother with Slashdot?
Tymenet and its like were fascinating. 1985-1990 were exciting times. Most news services and Lexis/Nexis were members and it didn't take much to pull logins out of a dumpster. I still have it though it is much dogearred and so is the other one, but for anyone who wants to get an idea of how amazing that time was checkout these:
Out of the Inner Circle by Bill Landreth
The Hacker's Handbook
Read them for the social hacking aspect, not the ones and zeros.
Did you hear that? That was the sound of the point going completely over your head.
If you're going to run a business, run a business. Run your personal stuff somewhere else.
See that sentence above, that's helpful. I'm not being rude, I'm being honest. Rude would be saying, "Good luck using GAWD! or any other LOL,ROFL,U,R,PEEPS,P0WNED word in a business environment kid because bosses, managers, owners will laugh your ass back on the street where you'll say, 'GAWD! How Rude!' while they're standing at the windows laughing at you and getting blowjobs from $5000 hookers, counting their money with one hand and trying to decide which angle to throw the clue stick with the other while offering up odds to the other employees."
Now that would be rude. True, but rude.
I wouldn't worry about that, you'll be too busy bouncing your great-great-grandkids on your knee.
So what, how many people are using Wine to play Crysis compared to dual-booting and using native 3d support in Windows.
And don't give me Cedega. If it was mainstream I'd be reading about it in mainstream publications. I haven't even seen it mentioned in my Linux journals for quite some time.
Wine is a great study in programming but pretty pointless in this day and age. It took what, 12 years to get to release 1.0? Look at how far VMware has progressed in just the last two years. VMware 6 is an incredible product that does what IT departments want. My little brother isn't going to want to boot into linux and run around in circles getting Wine to work so he can play a game.
A lot of you forget that we are the minority when it comes to computer users. We may have no problem jumping through Linux hoops but most people just want to turn on their computer and be done with anything other than double-clicking the icon of the program they want to run.
I, for one, welcome our virtual machine gods.
If you're running a business, your first worry should be about servicing your customers not using Bittorent. Get another DSL/Cable/Wifi connection for your business and run your VOIP over that.
If you only need the limited bandwidth that you are looking for you'd be fine with the lowest speed (read cheapest) connection any ISP offered.
I signed up when I heard that the Sam & Max games would be available and I was was shocked at the amount of games they had. Maybe it was nostalgia but I still think it is worth every penny of the $12.95 a month I spend on it.
I have never experienced any spam or other crap from them. I get an email telling me new games have been released and that's about it. I forgot my password once and had to call support and a real human answered the phone, fixed it for me and was pleasant to work with.
The only thing I would really like would be the ability to play the games offline. Sitting in the airport I don't want to have to pay another $9.99 to access their wireless so I can access Gametap.
Plus - THEY HAVE SAM & MAX!
I live in a "city" and I don't have public transportation. I stressed for 10 months trying to decide whether to buy a house in a nice place or one in an okay place closer to work because of gas prices. I decided on the latter.
:)
Have you actually looked at a map and seen just how big this country is? Have you seen how spread out cities that aren't situated in areas where they have no land to expand to are?
I almost forgot
I don't know if you're being sarcastic or not but I just looked up the specs or the E4500. No offense, but why would you want to use it as a workstation? I have a better idea.
That much power requires something better...
Design my flying car that runs on my dog's poop. By the smell of it (dear God, just thinking about it is giving me a gag reflex) it has enough methane to power my flying car longer than a reactor.
Yeah, we have the "snack station" which consists of chips and dip and the "candy station" that consists of, well...lots of the mini candy bars.
Here's the funny thing:
I DON'T EAT ANY OF IT!!!!
Its not a matter of being healthy or anything, its really the fact that I KNOW IF I EAT THAT CRAP I WILL GET FAT and I choose not to be fat.
I could cite a number of comedians who have said it way better than I could but it really comes down to this...
Do you want to be that person that make me have to stop in the grocery aisle because your ass is wider than the cart that I can't get around you; or that person that wakes up in the morning and looks in the mirror, thinks "Fuck It" then puts on a sweat suit because they just gave up; or maybe the fattie who blames it on everyone else and decides its their chance to make everyone else miserable because they couldn't put down the fucking cheesecake?
But what does it matter, nobody will ever see my post but I still got to bitch...kind of like the fatties.
Have you ever been to a grocery store where they have the self-checkout lanes? I'd say that its a comedy of errors but I'm the guy standing there thinking, "See where it says pay now, press PAY FUCKING NOW!"
See, the problem is all the animations. Carts zooming around and other things that get people to say, "Oh! Look at the Frosted Flakes, they're spinning!"
Here's what should happen:
Screen says "Scan your shit"
Screen says "Put your shit in bags"
Screen says "Pay for your shit"
Screen says "Pick up your shit and get the hell out"
Yeah, that would be sweet.
Why do you think its so slow and has also taken them 8 years to get to 0.7?
Seriously, 0.7? Duke Nukem will be out before Freenet hits 1.0.
How's the air up there in the clouds?
Wonderful. How's the shit down there in the mud?
Smells like shit and mud but tastes like stuffed peppers, thanks for asking.
Operating Systems, Drivers, Market Share...not relevant.
Facts, Figures, Trends ... nah, you're right, it's nothing.
I gave an example, would you like to elaborate on yours. Wait, you didn't give any.
Third party software vendors (i.e. the companies that make the software that industries actually rely on)...very damn relevant.
Can't argue with that. Oh, wait, yes I can.
Waiting for your argument.
A lot of you fail to understand that businesses do live or die by Microsoft Office and Windows. There are three major management system providers for the insurance agency industry. None of them have anything written that will work on anything other than Windows.
Gee, that sound's like more like an opportunity then anything else. Y'know, I used to work as a programmer in the insurance industry ... I wonder ...
Yes, that was the whole damn point of my post.
Insurance companies, Medical companies, Finance...the run a ton of stuff that was developed in house.
Yes, for DOS and Windows 3.1. Seriously.
Yes, another that's the goddman point.
Most business users could give a damn whether they use Office, OpenOffice, CoolOffice923432 as long as it lets them type their letters and email them. But take away their 3rd party app that really does the work and they shit.
Most business would only have a need for Office, Email and Internet. Everything you've described is specialist shit.
Not bullshit, the truth. Most companies run "specialist bullshit". But you should know that as a "former programmer in the insurance industry".
That's where the problem is, convince those companies to rewrite their software and we'll see what happens.
I doubt there's a need to rewrite anything. Anyone used WINE recently? I've been playing Civ4 on my Linux laptop all week - it rocks!
I can't see any way that this move could damage OSS, and there is, in my opinion, a better then average chance that it could benifit us. So why is everyone here acting so cynical and paranoid (I mean, more than usual)? Cheer up for fuck's sake!
Yes, because your ability to play a five year old game totally is the same as a business application that someone wrote 20 years ago and 15 people have worked on since then.I never said anything about damaging open source. I was trying to give my opinion on what I thought would help it.
How's the air up there in the clouds?
Operating Systems, Drivers, Market Share...not relevant.
Third party software vendors (i.e. the companies that make the software that industries actually rely on)...very damn relevant.
A lot of you fail to understand that businesses do live or die by Microsoft Office and Windows. There are three major management system providers for the insurance agency industry. None of them have anything written that will work on anything other than Windows.
Insurance companies, Medical companies, Finance...the run a ton of stuff that was developed in house.
Most business users could give a damn whether they use Office, OpenOffice, CoolOffice923432 as long as it lets them type their letters and email them. But take away their 3rd party app that really does the work and they shit.
That's where the problem is, convince those companies to rewrite their software and we'll see what happens.
You can't argue with them, they'll find some retarded thing that they believe supports their argument.
I work in a company of 2200 people, not a Mac to be seen except for the 6100 with the DOS card that I keep.
Apple lovers, they're good for what they do, Windows XP is good for what it does, Linux is good for what it does.
Stop complaining and find the goddamn middle.
No need to link to the Wikipedia article, already perused it. Why don't they just call it BBS 2008.26? I mean its the same damn thing.
I forgot, it won't make money if it doesn't have at least five buzz words behind it. Wasn't Web 2.0 originally a combination of Apache/MySQL/PHP? What happened to Java 11123.23423? Do I smell soap in the air????
And no offense, but doesn't the scientific community have Internet 2.0? Or is it Internet 2.dvds-tranfers-in-30-seconds-ha-we-do-it-in-ten-and-we've-been-talking-about-it-for-10-years-but-you'll-never-see-it-because-its-the-only-topic-we-have-for-conversation-while-trying-to-get-laid-next-pun-intended.36-12 stroke 9?
Hmm, just wondering.
I posted this in a comment to a comment to a comment above.
When I moved into my first home two months ago, I finally opened some boxes I've been carrying from apartment to apartment for the 15.5 years (I'm 32) that I've never opened because they were labeled "Collectibles". I figured they were pictures and report cards and sports trophy's when I was a kid (back when the winning team got trophy's and the other kids had to stare and realize they'd have to work harder next year and nobody's parents were screaming about little Johnny's psyche being scarred for life but I digress).
Now I've always known I was a pack rat and for the first time I was happy about it. I found a 3.5" 200 disc holder of all my DOS games from 1985-1997. Every Sierra/Flight Simulator/SimCity/Civilization games made during that period.
My F19 still works in DOSBox. Damn its fun and like a comment above, my favorite aspect was that you didn't just go out and bomb stuff. You really had to pay attention to radar/SAM sites/altitude to succeed in the missions. I spent more time on autopilot watching my radar emissions and threat screen than piloting the craft.
Also, it was the 80's...it was cool to smoke the dirty Commies.
You just made my day and I wish I was still at work. I still have this game, and the manuals and it works in DOSBox.
One of my favorite aspects was that it really did focus on the whole stealth aspect with the way your waypoints were chosen. That game was intense.
Also, nothing like barreling into the Fulda Gap with an evil laugh and a grin on your face preparing to bomb those dirty Commies!
This has two components. When the OEMs gather up enough courage to escape Microsoft's shackles, and when the device makers decide that developing open drivers is worth their time, Linux will flourish.
Nvidia needs to abandon their binary-only driver approach. Yes, because last time I checked, companies hate making money. And shareholders hate getting returns on their investments.Why would I spend hundreds of thousands of dollars hiring people and setting up the facilities to create a product that is probably not going to make me enough money to cover said expenses?
Here's the funny thing though...
My hardware came with that third-party app!
The only reason anyone is bitching is because it doesn't look like an asian woman wearing a maids uniform.
Peter Berg is a pretty good director, but he's been an actor in some pretty shitty movies. He was the "Great White Hype".
Personally, I think he should make a sequel to Aspen Extreme and barring that should at least have the chick from it in Dune.
And oh yeah, his co-star from Aspen Extreme, the dreamy guy from Due South. Yum.
I'm confused...did you spend $7000 total with the data center or did you get royally ripped off. $7000 grand for a standard raid card "yeah, they all pretty much come with batteries"..ignoring your other crap until...six hour response time!
Are you fucking kidding me? Six hours, do you live in Alaska? Do you have any idea what you are doing?
Um, no.
When we registered our first domain in 1996 it was $75 for one year through NSI. The fact that we can renew for 10 years at $120 make me believe that spam companies aren't really going to care a bit about this.
I think every CS student should be required to take at least two semesters of Business and one semester of Philosophy. We could avoid retarded post like this.
Amiga shamiga
In my day we handy Tandy Color Computers with cartridges and all of our games came from Disney on cassette. It cost $800 for a 10mb hard drive and you worshiped the damn thing. If a download was over 100kb you begged your parents to stay off the phone.
Point is, who cares what the plane has? As a business traveler I have everything I need in my handy laptop bag.
Movies or TV - Check
Games - Check
Music - Check
In-Flight Bathroom Entertainment - Check
But I do have a secret obsession with watching that little airplane travel over the map...even though I'm sitting in the goddamn plane, in the window seat, but still watch the little plane go over that goddamn map.
But I forgot the point of this thread
LINUX!!!!!!!!
Um, why would you deploy and operating system that you know is faulty to 800 people regardless of which video card is installed. Most companies (especially if you are leasing) will just give you a few machines so you can install your standard load for testing. We haven't even begun testing Vista and probably won't because we're waiting to see what the next Windows brings. Kind of like we did with Windows XP and Server 2003. We just moved into Server 2003 last year because we felt it was stable enough.
Just because Microsoft is going to stop selling XP doesn't mean you have to upgrade. The Vista license also covers XP (if that tells you anything) we get out laptops from Lenovo and downgrade them to XP. I've got a sweet Ghost 2003 image all setup and configured.
Personally, I've used all the versions of Vista and ran Ultimate for a year on my home PC. I switched back to XP because the DirectX 10 card I bought worked great on DirectX games but Oblivion ran like shit and that game is my Alpha and Omega. Pulled out my 8600 and put my 7900 back in.
But then again, our IT department (self included) is full of people who have been around for awhile and gotten burned with Microsoft. I agree with the post way above about NT 3.51. Fucking terrific OS, NT 4, not so much. Didn't it get to Service Pack 6? 2000 was rock solid after Service Pack 4 and 2003 seems to be fine so far.
My point is, just because its there doesn't mean you have to use it. I'm also in a 800 person company.
And don't even tell me "Well Linux doesn't have Service Packs. Yes it does, they're called "Releases" as in Fedora R2 R3. Ever joined a Linux systems security mailing list? If not, try one.
I love Linux, I have a three system, 4TB MythTV media center sitting in my basement, but I would not run a business critical app on it, plus there isn't anything available for my industry.