I don't have a particular problem with having Sun being a major driving force behind Java but only having one company calling the shots is somewhat dangerous(ie corporate ambitions are sometimes wrong:-) ). IMHO, Java should be ANSI-fied by a "standards committee".
I really believe distributived services are the way to go. Just look at the current problem with Win32 and the SMS.
If you want everyone to who has Office 97 to have Office 2K on their machine, you need to run around to each machine or use SMS(or what ever remote admin tools). Even with SMS it still takes a lot of time to run over the entire domain and that is assuming that there are no problems(ie install may fail if a certain service pack installed).
On the other hand in the Unix world, things tend to be highly distributed. ProE or IdeasMS are usually installed on one disk which is NFS exported to all clients. The license server serves up license keys to those who want to use the programs. If there are patches to be applied you can apply them to one install instead of hundreds.
There are problems with a purely distributed system, but it does have promise as an alternative to huge amounts of staff to maintain machines, especially when networked systems are becoming extremely robust.
Actually, I'm waiting for the BSD camps to claim they ported to it so they can lord this over this heads of the Linux camps. I can see it now...
"See! BSD is technically superior to Linux because it runs on 1940s harware so there!"
:-)
Re:DVD is still a year or two away..
on
DVD for Linux
·
· Score: 1
Have to agree with you there. CDROM was a huge revolutionary leap in technology. On the other hand DVD is just a supliment technology. DVD gains users not from a real technical standpoint but from the fact that CDROM drives are being phased out. As long as you have programs and data sets that fit on a CDROM, CDROM disks and drives will still be useful(and much cheaper).
As for DVD on Linux, that is great! DVD drives could be accessed through their drive interface(SCSI or IDE) so DVD drives are still useful. The big problem is the mpeg decoder hardware. Oh well...I'll just to use my dedicated, stand alone player to watch movies I guess.:-)
The first season of Millenium did rule. Unfortunately, it was too dark for the mass appeal(like some of X-Files episodes aren't *shrug*) so they dumbed it way way down. By doing that, they lost the following it originally had dooming it all together. Once again, the TV Execs killed an intreging show before it's prime.
This is great news. It shows that the system is sound and stable enough to be used in a serious application. But I was thinking about a serious legal question here: Is there something somewhere that states the liablity of Linux under "mission critical application"? For instance, you could use Linux(with the apropriate hardware) to control a nuclear reactor. Just like the 911 Service, having down time is completely intollerable and may cost lives. How liable would the Linux Kernel team, the distributor(Red Hat, Caldera, etc.), and the coders be for failures in this kind of application?
ps. Does anyone have any other examples of this kind of "mission critical" usage of Linux? And I'm not talking about a web server that has to be up 24/7.:p
A serious legal question here: Is there something somewhere that states the liablity of Linux under "mission critical application"? For instance, you could use Linux(with the apropriate hardware) to control a nuclear reactor. How liable would the Linux Kernel team be for failures of this kind of application?
I seem to remember something in the Windows NT license to cover their ass in this kind of event. It goes something like this....
You can not use Windows NT to control insert important stuff that will blow up and kill people if the software stops functioning here and Microsoft will not be liable if you do.
... As Linux moves into more and more areas(especially custom built situations), this should be given at least some thought.
Naw...remember that TCP/IP isn't a hardware specification. In fact IP's credo is that it a communication protocol that works across various hardware(copper wire, fiber, token ring, interplanetary communication array:-).
Going to school at Iowa State University and taking many a Computer Science class, one could not help but hear the stories about ABC computer.
I've always thought that the true "First Digital Computer" should go to the ABC. It is true that because it was built a physics prof and a grad student for research, stability wasn't the best but it was more than enough to prove digital computing theories they put forth.
Here is the Ames Lab's web page on their project to construct a replica the ABC machine. Each drum could hold up to 30, 50 bit numbers...that is only 3,000 bits(.4K). That is computing power!:-)
Due to the rapid nature of the developement(ie. they hacked hard and fast to make it in time), they couldn't get the maxium performance out of the FX board. Their initial driver was implemented only using PCI. If they had more time, they could have utilized the AGP and really let the polygons fly.:-) Although technically a "non-product technology demo", look for some sweet Linux stuff(hardware and software) from HP in the near future.
Yikes...One should not try to read Slashdot when one just woke up.:-) A serious bad on my part...Microsoft is releasing their specs on their IM protocols, not anyone else's, which is a major good thing. Please accept my applogies.
This action is wrong so very wrong. To "publish" protocols for technology that isn't their's is not only ethically questionable, but how can Microsoft guarentee the acruacy of the specification of their specification or protocol? "Well, it works," isn't the right answer.
This is just Microsoft's ploy to take advantage of technology they don't control.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't have a particular problem with having Sun being a major driving force behind Java but only having one company calling the shots is somewhat dangerous(ie corporate ambitions are sometimes wrong :-) ). IMHO, Java should be ANSI-fied by a "standards committee".
I really believe distributived services are the way to go. Just look at the current problem with Win32 and the SMS.
If you want everyone to who has Office 97 to have Office 2K on their machine, you need to run around to each machine or use SMS(or what ever remote admin tools). Even with SMS it still takes a lot of time to run over the entire domain and that is assuming that there are no problems(ie install may fail if a certain service pack installed).
On the other hand in the Unix world, things tend to be highly distributed. ProE or IdeasMS are usually installed on one disk which is NFS exported to all clients. The license server serves up license keys to those who want to use the programs. If there are patches to be applied you can apply them to one install instead of hundreds.
There are problems with a purely distributed system, but it does have promise as an alternative to huge amounts of staff to maintain machines, especially when networked systems are becoming extremely robust.
Actually, I'm waiting for the BSD camps to claim they ported to it so they can lord this over this heads of the Linux camps. I can see it now...
"See! BSD is technically superior to Linux because it runs on 1940s harware so there!"
:-)
As for DVD on Linux, that is great! DVD drives could be accessed through their drive interface(SCSI or IDE) so DVD drives are still useful. The big problem is the mpeg decoder hardware. Oh well...I'll just to use my dedicated, stand alone player to watch movies I guess.
The first season of Millenium did rule. Unfortunately, it was too dark for the mass appeal(like some of X-Files episodes aren't *shrug*) so they dumbed it way way down. By doing that, they lost the following it originally had dooming it all together. Once again, the TV Execs killed an intreging show before it's prime.
ps. Does anyone have any other examples of this kind of "mission critical" usage of Linux? And I'm not talking about a web server that has to be up 24/7.
I seem to remember something in the Windows NT license to cover their ass in this kind of event. It goes something like this....
You can not use Windows NT to control insert important stuff that will blow up and kill people if the software stops functioning here and Microsoft will not be liable if you do.
... As Linux moves into more and more areas(especially custom built situations), this should be given at least some thought.
Naw...remember that TCP/IP isn't a hardware specification. In fact IP's credo is that it a communication protocol that works across various hardware(copper wire, fiber, token ring, interplanetary communication array :-).
I've always thought that the true "First Digital Computer" should go to the ABC. It is true that because it was built a physics prof and a grad student for research, stability wasn't the best but it was more than enough to prove digital computing theories they put forth.
Here is the Ames Lab's web page on their project to construct a replica the ABC machine. Each drum could hold up to 30, 50 bit numbers...that is only 3,000 bits(.4K). That is computing power! :-)
Due to the rapid nature of the developement(ie. they hacked hard and fast to make it in time), they couldn't get the maxium performance out of the FX board. Their initial driver was implemented only using PCI. If they had more time, they could have utilized the AGP and really let the polygons fly. :-) Although technically a "non-product technology demo", look for some sweet Linux stuff(hardware and software) from HP in the near future.
This action is wrong so very wrong. To "publish" protocols for technology that isn't their's is not only ethically questionable, but how can Microsoft guarentee the acruacy of the specification of their specification or protocol? "Well, it works," isn't the right answer.
This is just Microsoft's ploy to take advantage of technology they don't control.
The reason why I ask is because I worked on a demo for them specifically for SIGGRAPH and LinuxWorld. I'm curious if they actually used it.