Here's a little hint: If pirated copies stopped working, people would buy a legal copy. Computers and components cost a lot. Anyone with the extra scap around to build a custom PC would be more than willing to shell out $99 for WinXP Home. And if you bought your PC, then just throw in the restore disc.
-------------
Don't tell me. You work for the music industry, don't you. And you probably believe these same people will go out and by the music CD's once downloads are stopped for them too, right?
Overall, I agree there should be some learning curve, classes, or at the very least a central location for documentation with regards to Linux.
I'm a Unix Admin by trade, and was MCSE certified in NT 4.5 during the blue moon years ago. I'm certified in HPUX 10.02/10.20, AIX on RS6000's, and Solaris 8-10 on blade 150's upwards to the 25K's.
Unix by default blows for documentation. Including, but not limited to Solaris. The manuals read like sterio instructions for anyone who doesn't have a decient background in the technology at hand.
Windows, for different reasons, also blows for documentation. Most of their documentation is geared around pre-programmed maintenance and mid-level administration. If you want to do severe tweeks to the registry, maintenance, or trying to figure out why 'Stamped Document X on how to fix the IIS server isn't working' you have a hell of a time finding the solution. Sometimes more so then new people trying to find out how to set up (as an example) samba on linux.
Is the documentation and answers out there? Of course they are. But that's not the point. The point is what was mentioned earlier by someone else. Time is money. Corporations drop deadlines on your desk, on things they have known months in advance, and only give you 2 days to work on it.
Will you do the 'right thing' and put it on the 'right hardware' or will you do the fast thing, get it up, get it running and save your job? I bet most people choose door #2, and they will continue to do so because regardless of the fact that Linux and Unix tends to be more reliable, and definately more robust, especially for threaded and multi-processor applications, the family and their need to provide for them come first, so they'll use what they're used to.
If we, as unix admins, want to change this, we should set up a central hub for all the documentation that we run into that cause us 'issues'. Make a huge WIKI or something. Publish it on the net. Make a huge database of 'Windows to Unix conversions'.
Have it such that it says something of the sort 'Instead of going into registry X to tweek the IIS entry of Y, you would open up configuration file A, in subdirectory B for said change'. And for systems that are set up non-standard, show them how to find what they're looking for, even if the answer is 'find / -name apache.conf'
Once you provide the answers on how to find the solutions, you'll find a lot of these 'microsoft admin drones' that people seem to be snarking on, are very intelligent people, who if given half a chance, can be a great addition to the unix world.
They just need some direction. You know, just like we all did when we started, even if it was back in the early 80's like myself.
Actually, a few years ago, a friend of mine got his linux box hacked and root-kitted.
They had a bot listening/talking on an IRC channel to handle the remote control of the linux box.
The linux box was never patched, ran a 5 year old release of redhat, out of the box.
The linux box was hacked through a vulnerable Apache bug.
Solution? copy up a new shell that's not root kitted, yank the root kit, fix up vulnerable/hacked binaries. Install firewall.
Total lost? nothing.
Time took? 1 hour.
So that's a worse case senerio (minus malicious removal) and was still better than windows:)
Actually, if you shoved an elephant into a zero-g room, and trained it to swing it's trunk around like a propeller, I would wager that you could, indeed, prove that elephants could indeed fly.
Which goes to show you that even the most obsurd speculation can be proven with facts if you're so inclined and have the scientific principles and current capabilities to do so.
Science and religion will always be at odds, not because of the beliefs, faith, or details between them, but because of the members of both groups.
Working with Sun equipment from the standard Blade 150's up to the Sunfire 25K's, I can say the following with ease:
1) The hardware is DAMN expensive. If you don't have sufficient support, you're paying through the nose for replacement parts. We're talking $3000 for memory. That's three thousand here. For a single DIMM. Gets really nasty when some of the mid-sized servers take 40 such DIMM's.
2) The support for servers is ALSO damn expensive. Talking Platinum service? Get our your wallet. They're 'nice' enough to give 10-30% (and sometimes 50%) discount on hardware/parts to corporations who are tied heavilly into their business, but that still makes support contracts really damn expensive.
3) The support for sun currently SUCKS ROCKS. When platinum support should have a 2 hour turnaround, and we constantly have 24 hour turnaround, that tells you something about how Sun runs their business. I guess it happens when you lay off all your expert personal and hire green off the street college students. No offense, but that's the facts.
4) The requirements are not NEARLY as reliable as it used to be. A sun box before you could shove into a dusty closet and have run for years and years without touching it. However, now, based on contractual support obligations, you're _required_ to keep up to date with patches (even if you don't need them), _required_ to keep up with firmware upgrades (even if you don't need them), and _required_ to keep explorers updated on the boxes (which while isn't a big deal, is a pain in the ass even automated). So instead of keeping up that wonderful uptime of years, you basically have an uptime of a few months, and sun boxes arn't intended to be constantly rebooted. It shows.
5) The hardware is below par. I don't know if they do what the Romulans used to do and get hardware on the lowest bidder, but it's currently sucking. 1 out of 5 systems we get have some type of hardware issue in the first 3 months. Memory, harddrive, case, motherboard, nic, fc-al, something always is going wrong. And frankly it's disgusting. PC hardware is proven more reliable, and linux right now looks damn nice compared to sun.
So you want to know why the TCO for Sun has been so high? Look above, you have your answers.
add 'sharegroup' to/etc/group
add the users you want to share to 'sharegroup'
mkdir/var/tmp/share
chgrp sharegroup/var/tmp/share
chmod 770/var/tmp/share
cp a-list-of-files/var/tmp/share
Voilla. A directory where you can dump any file and only those in 'sharegroup' can modify it.
Oh, and of course, you could make a directory anywhere you want to do this with, long as you have write permissions to that location.
Oh, and yea, you can even use the pretty GUI's to make all of the above changes in nearly every distribution. No commandline needed. Neat, huh.
Yup, uber-hard. Uh-huh.
Really?
I find that interesting as my wife, who has no formal experience, installed slackware just dandy on a PIV box I built for her.
1 hour install, I configured the network for her, she typed 'startx' and wow, KDE running nice now for 6 months straight.
And while Sun is ok, my current Blade 150 seems to crash at least once every few months, running the latest and greatest Solaris 9 (yes yes, I know Solaris 10 is out, but it's currently not in the schema of things for our company. We SA's feel it's still only half baked, and not yet fully supported by a lot of our 3rd party packages)
As a FYI, it's a known issue that linux does have issues with AMD64 procs. Mostly because a lot of software you use on it is compiled for 32 bit, not 64. There are some fully 64 bit compiled versions of linux for AMD64, and unless you use such, you will probably continue to have problems.
I installed slackware just fine, recognized my DVD, SCSI devices, IDE devices, logitech 6 button mouse (wireless USB I might add), my crappy SiS motherboard, CrystalSound system, and full graphics.
And all I had to type was 'gasp' startx to do it.
Maybe your desktop has 'SCO inside' and refused to load properly.
Slashdot Mirror
Here's a little hint: If pirated copies stopped working, people would buy a legal copy. Computers and components cost a lot. Anyone with the extra scap around to build a custom PC would be more than willing to shell out $99 for WinXP Home. And if you bought your PC, then just throw in the restore disc.
-------------
Don't tell me. You work for the music industry, don't you. And you probably believe these same people will go out and by the music CD's once downloads are stopped for them too, right?
Hey (whispers)... I have a bridge to sell you.
Overall, I agree there should be some learning curve, classes, or at the very least a central location for documentation with regards to Linux.
I'm a Unix Admin by trade, and was MCSE certified in NT 4.5 during the blue moon years ago. I'm certified in HPUX 10.02/10.20, AIX on RS6000's, and Solaris 8-10 on blade 150's upwards to the 25K's.
Unix by default blows for documentation. Including, but not limited to Solaris. The manuals read like sterio instructions for anyone who doesn't have a decient background in the technology at hand.
Windows, for different reasons, also blows for documentation. Most of their documentation is geared around pre-programmed maintenance and mid-level administration. If you want to do severe tweeks to the registry, maintenance, or trying to figure out why 'Stamped Document X on how to fix the IIS server isn't working' you have a hell of a time finding the solution. Sometimes more so then new people trying to find out how to set up (as an example) samba on linux.
Is the documentation and answers out there? Of course they are. But that's not the point. The point is what was mentioned earlier by someone else. Time is money. Corporations drop deadlines on your desk, on things they have known months in advance, and only give you 2 days to work on it.
Will you do the 'right thing' and put it on the 'right hardware' or will you do the fast thing, get it up, get it running and save your job? I bet most people choose door #2, and they will continue to do so because regardless of the fact that Linux and Unix tends to be more reliable, and definately more robust, especially for threaded and multi-processor applications, the family and their need to provide for them come first, so they'll use what they're used to.
If we, as unix admins, want to change this, we should set up a central hub for all the documentation that we run into that cause us 'issues'. Make a huge WIKI or something. Publish it on the net. Make a huge database of 'Windows to Unix conversions'.
Have it such that it says something of the sort 'Instead of going into registry X to tweek the IIS entry of Y, you would open up configuration file A, in subdirectory B for said change'. And for systems that are set up non-standard, show them how to find what they're looking for, even if the answer is 'find / -name apache.conf'
Once you provide the answers on how to find the solutions, you'll find a lot of these 'microsoft admin drones' that people seem to be snarking on, are very intelligent people, who if given half a chance, can be a great addition to the unix world.
They just need some direction. You know, just like we all did when we started, even if it was back in the early 80's like myself.
-=> ... Over wind by way of avian carriers ...
Would that be African or European?
Actually, a few years ago, a friend of mine got his linux box hacked and root-kitted. They had a bot listening/talking on an IRC channel to handle the remote control of the linux box. The linux box was never patched, ran a 5 year old release of redhat, out of the box. The linux box was hacked through a vulnerable Apache bug. Solution? copy up a new shell that's not root kitted, yank the root kit, fix up vulnerable/hacked binaries. Install firewall. Total lost? nothing. Time took? 1 hour. So that's a worse case senerio (minus malicious removal) and was still better than windows :)
Actually, if you shoved an elephant into a zero-g room, and trained it to swing it's trunk around like a propeller, I would wager that you could, indeed, prove that elephants could indeed fly. Which goes to show you that even the most obsurd speculation can be proven with facts if you're so inclined and have the scientific principles and current capabilities to do so. Science and religion will always be at odds, not because of the beliefs, faith, or details between them, but because of the members of both groups.
Working with Sun equipment from the standard Blade 150's up to the Sunfire 25K's, I can say the following with ease:
1) The hardware is DAMN expensive. If you don't have sufficient support, you're paying through the nose for replacement parts. We're talking $3000 for memory. That's three thousand here. For a single DIMM. Gets really nasty when some of the mid-sized servers take 40 such DIMM's.
2) The support for servers is ALSO damn expensive. Talking Platinum service? Get our your wallet. They're 'nice' enough to give 10-30% (and sometimes 50%) discount on hardware/parts to corporations who are tied heavilly into their business, but that still makes support contracts really damn expensive.
3) The support for sun currently SUCKS ROCKS. When platinum support should have a 2 hour turnaround, and we constantly have 24 hour turnaround, that tells you something about how Sun runs their business. I guess it happens when you lay off all your expert personal and hire green off the street college students. No offense, but that's the facts.
4) The requirements are not NEARLY as reliable as it used to be. A sun box before you could shove into a dusty closet and have run for years and years without touching it. However, now, based on contractual support obligations, you're _required_ to keep up to date with patches (even if you don't need them), _required_ to keep up with firmware upgrades (even if you don't need them), and _required_ to keep explorers updated on the boxes (which while isn't a big deal, is a pain in the ass even automated). So instead of keeping up that wonderful uptime of years, you basically have an uptime of a few months, and sun boxes arn't intended to be constantly rebooted. It shows.
5) The hardware is below par. I don't know if they do what the Romulans used to do and get hardware on the lowest bidder, but it's currently sucking. 1 out of 5 systems we get have some type of hardware issue in the first 3 months. Memory, harddrive, case, motherboard, nic, fc-al, something always is going wrong. And frankly it's disgusting. PC hardware is proven more reliable, and linux right now looks damn nice compared to sun.
So you want to know why the TCO for Sun has been so high? Look above, you have your answers.
add 'sharegroup' to /etc/group
add the users you want to share to 'sharegroup'
mkdir /var/tmp/share
chgrp sharegroup /var/tmp/share
chmod 770 /var/tmp/share
cp a-list-of-files /var/tmp/share
Voilla. A directory where you can dump any file and only those in 'sharegroup' can modify it.
Oh, and of course, you could make a directory anywhere you want to do this with, long as you have write permissions to that location.
Oh, and yea, you can even use the pretty GUI's to make all of the above changes in nearly every distribution. No commandline needed. Neat, huh.
Yup, uber-hard. Uh-huh.
Really? I find that interesting as my wife, who has no formal experience, installed slackware just dandy on a PIV box I built for her. 1 hour install, I configured the network for her, she typed 'startx' and wow, KDE running nice now for 6 months straight. And while Sun is ok, my current Blade 150 seems to crash at least once every few months, running the latest and greatest Solaris 9 (yes yes, I know Solaris 10 is out, but it's currently not in the schema of things for our company. We SA's feel it's still only half baked, and not yet fully supported by a lot of our 3rd party packages) As a FYI, it's a known issue that linux does have issues with AMD64 procs. Mostly because a lot of software you use on it is compiled for 32 bit, not 64. There are some fully 64 bit compiled versions of linux for AMD64, and unless you use such, you will probably continue to have problems.
I guess if they merge gator into longhorn, the new ad-drive for Microsoft will be 'I know what you did last summer.'
Goody. A new horror in the making.
I put slackware 9.1 on a toshiba pentium MMX 233 laptop with 64M memory and a 500M swap.
KDE 3.1 ran fine. Enabling all the eye-candy made it sluggish, but still quite useable.
It's all about disabling what you don't need, the same as with windows.
Funny.
I installed slackware just fine, recognized my DVD, SCSI devices, IDE devices, logitech 6 button mouse (wireless USB I might add), my crappy SiS motherboard, CrystalSound system, and full graphics.
And all I had to type was 'gasp' startx to do it.
Maybe your desktop has 'SCO inside' and refused to load properly.