"First who was stupid enough to mod this as interesting? Read on..."
Firstly, who made you Slashdot moderator. Read on... (insert smiley)
"Oh my, where are the howls that "Linux!=Open Source" that I always hear? MS is saying open source, not Linux only."
Yea, precicely. MS is so scared of Linux that they instruct their staff to never use the word. Which is why Bill Hilf has to keep repeating 'it's not about Linux it's about Open Source. If Linux isn't Open Source then what is it.
Fud injection alert:
"the current level of Linux support with a TON of the distros is very amature in comparison to MS."
How precicely, you buy a Red Hat distro and get a support contract. Specifically where is Linux support lacking.
"I know, cry it's because MS has a trillion dollars behind them;"
Are you on drugs or something?
"MS isn't the ones making the claim that Linux is a commercially viable product."
Correct, MS is dishonestly infering that Linux is not a commercially viable product.
Fud injection alert:
"You lack funding? That's not MS's problem."
What? Who lacks funding and what has this to do with statements in the referred to article. If this was usenet I would suspect you of trying to derail the thread.
"In their defense many of them are in their infancy but you have to be insane to claim these projects have the same value as their MS counterpart in many cases."
But I never claimed such a thing. I was responding to certain statements by Hilf. How does your' insane' comment relate in any way to what Bill Hilf said and my comments regarding that.
Oh come on, now I know you're just a trolling. Compare some worst case Linux distro to the best case MS version.
Fud injection alert:
"Man, if that isn't the pot calling the kettle "black". Linux is NOTHING more than an open source version of a much more mature operating system (*cough* UNIX *cough*)"
Then why hasn't IBM, Novell or RedHAT set up their own Windows interoperability lab so as to learn from all that Microsoft innovation?
"I get this odd taste of UNIX and Solaris in my mouth. Why is that?"
Specifically, could you describe what exactly was copied from Unix and Solaris. Please also provide these details to the SCO legal team as they havne't been able to prove this allegation in over three years.
"Over time, as you see the open-source marketplace maturing and becoming more commercial"
Im what areas are the current Linux offerings less commercial than the MS offerings?
"what we're doing provides value to the [open-source] community."
What exactly of value does the MS Linux lab provide to the Open Source community.
re high-performance computing..
"We.. help [Microsoft's product teams] understand what attracts developers.. to use Linux in that environment,"
I thought you just said that Open Source wasn't really commercial. Yet here we have you copying it. So basically you are cloning a Linux solution while at the same time somehow claiming leadership in that area.
All the MS lab does is produce MS flavoured anti-Linux retoric in a disengenous attempt to steal mindshare in the community. What need do Linux developers have for Microsoft to 'explain' what Open Source is really about. You are merely the chief MS fud spokesman.
That would mean you started using it in 1994 the same year Red Hat released GNU/Linux (june). What distro did you start on. I also don't understand how if you managed to compile and install GNU/Linux circa 1994 you have so much difficulty with the current crop. Especially after twelve years experience.
"knowing what config file to edit and when, and how to edit it is very difficult for a newbie"
What config file. SuSE uses something similar to the control panel in Windows called YaST. Click and install. Couldn't be easier.
"We had a bunch of text files that did not end in.txt, and it was too much of a pain to look at these files via "Open with..." or similar, so dropping to the commandline was easiest (and my preference anyway)."
Linux doesn't use extensions to identify a file. It uses a magic number in the header. On this system I renamed legal.pdf to legal and it still opens when I click on it in Konqueror the file manager.
"It will probably take 10+ years for Linux to get a decent GUI on top of their excellent OS."
In the lead article we have the author comparing a six year old version of Windows to the current Linux OS. And here we have you comparing a twelve year old version of Linux to the current Windows.
You can always spot a well formulated piece of fud. It goes something like, I like Linux and want it to be better except it doesn't have feeture x, y or z that's in Windows. Below are some comments and selected quotes.
"six-year-old version.. Windows"
FudAlert: He's comparing a six year old version of Windows to the current versions of LInux:)
"Linux systems may do just fine. But they still are largely more appealing to computer hobbyists who would like to see Microsoft face more competition"
FudAlert: Linux only usefull to the computer nerd who only want to give one in the eye to MS. Would be no use to the average office worker.
"while the installation and simple functions worked well enough"
Specifically, what complex functions are you referring to that are easier under Windows. And which six year old version.
FudAlert: A six year old version of Windows is better at 'complex functions' than the current crop of Linux.
"the systems couldn't handle all the multimedia applications I needed"
FudAlert: A six year old version of Windows is better at 'multimedia applications' than the current crop of Linux.
What multimedia applications are you comparing to under Windows. Will a six year old version of Windows run the latest multimedia applications. On this SuSE box I have Realplayer, Amarok Kaffeine, KsCD and Mplayer. Mplayer I installed seperately the rest came on the default installation CD.
"getting some of the systems to work required more time and effort than I was willing to exert"
FudAlert: Using Linux is difficult. Using Windows is easy. Even a six year old version.
What didn't work in the default installation. On mine, out of the box you get the above multimedia applications as well as Firefox, Open Office and Acroread. All that most average desktop users would need.
"Linux was [by] Linus Torvalds, who wanted to modify the Unix operating system"
The Linux kernel was based on Minux and is not a modified version of Unix. Most of the rest was contributed by Richard Stallman and a large number of other people too numerous to mention.
"Compatibility with hardware can be a big problem for Linux"
Again, is this six year old hardware? All I can say is that on this system the default installation correctly identified and configured the network card. It also correctly picked up the two SCSI CD writers and the printer. It identified the monitor but the screen was offset and too big so I had to manually selected it using a prog called SaX. Configuring is trivially easy under SuSE as it uses YaST a graphical config tool similar to control panel under Windows.
"the problems became more pronounced with multimedia applications, like viewing movie trailers and operating my digital camera and iPod"
Specifically what movie trailers and what web sites. I didn't realize that the ipod could run on six year old Windows.
"I couldn't transfer, via email or a disk, some complicated word-processor and spreadsheet files between my Linux system at home and Microsoft Windows on my work PC."
Could you provide some more details. Is it a problem with opening attachments. The floppy resides in \media\floppy1 on my system. If you click on it in the file manager the contents should appear. What happened when you tried to access the floppy drive?
"Linspire and Fedora.. didn't appear to be compatible with my graphics hardware"
What make and model of graphics and sound card.
"I was able to send files back and forth between Word on my work computer and OpenOffice's word processor, Writer, on my home PC"
What did you do to solve the previously mentioned problems.
"Daines was the victim of a computer virus.. He and at least one other person who clicked on the links were infected by what security experts call the first-ever virus for Mac OS X".
What was the name of the originating web site.
Who was the one other person who caught the 'virus`.
Can we see a sample of this 'virus`.
"In Daines' infection, a bug in the virus' code prevented it from doing much damage. Still, several of his operating system files were deleted, several new files were created and several applications, including a program for recording audio, were crippled."
Does a default Mac installation run applicions by clicking on an icon on a web page.
Does the application require root to do any damage. Can a Mac be configured to not clack and run. If the home directory was made noexec would any of these alleged exploits work.
The article is a little short on real facts. Just a case of some 'security` company fudding up some business.
"For anyone who wants to enter the IT industry, a tech support job is a great start."
It is a good start but only stay for ten months maximum. If you manage to stay the course you then stand a good chance of getting promoted to 'senior` tech support and don't have to take any more calls. If they won't promote you then move company. In my experience they usually prefer to hire in as they assume that their own staff are useless.
"If the company has it's own technical support group in-house, you get a chance to meet all the big honchoes of the company and you get to learn and understand their vision,"
You have *got* to be kidding. Tech support is considered only one place up on the janitors job. Senior management would never be caught talking to their own support people as they would be found out as to being totally useless. The senior CIO is hired on specifically because he is a non-techie and, talks management-speak and is good at brown-nosing.
"one can create relationships with managers at the company and eventually maybe VIPs,"
Tech people are the last to find out managerial visions usually from reading the tech press. If management do get a vision they hire someone on from a different continent, give the tech support the day off and make a big presentation. That way they get to look good.
"Although having a small turn-over rate at a company is a very good thing"
On the other hand they keep the turnover rate high and move people on before they find out that management is totally useless.
"Because there are other machines on the network accessing the share, and I don't want to export it with SMB and NFS simultaneously because of permissions problems."
What problems, the two protocols do not interact. I use SMB to share with Windows clients and NFS to share with Linux. I have a directory on the file server 'backup' mapped into the root directory on the client and cron backups/home to/backup every day. Backup is a second harddrive on the file server. Couldn't be simpler.
"Just installing the thing and getting a good set of apps on it took about 8 hours. I followed a guide posted online. It worked well, but that's 8 hours I'll never get back."
SuSE 10 install took half an hour. When it rebooted it picked up an IP address, Firefox, OpenOffice, Cd burner worked straight out of the box. What good set of apps required eight hours to set up.
"Gnome and KDE are a different story. It's not just familiarity. It's the fact that they have serious bugs and problems that affect everyday users and make using them really hard."
But you've presented no real evidence as to these serious bugs. Problems with SMB shares do not equate to bugs in KDE etc.
"How about instead of moderating my post as "flamebait", giving me some insight into how I'm wrong."
I think there is some confusion here.. Where is it today?
Microsofts sucess owes more to them squeezing out competitors/partners than anything to do with providing a low cost client. Take a look at the litigation page on Groklaw to see what they are really good at. Remember this is a company who altered Outlook to block a web greeting card company when they wouldn't sell out to them.
The main reason you don't see thin client is because MS supressed the development of Java and reinvented most of its functionality in dotNET.
Despite so many online and network applications, many business users need to function offline.
A medium sized PC running groupware supplying 10/15 diskless clients would be a lot more cost effective to the small company that Windows on each desktop. Remember Novell netware.
Java is also quite a moot point nowadays. The write once run anywhere model maybe a factor on the server side; however, on the client side for enterprise customers simply not an issue. What enterprise customers run multiple client platforms successfully? Few and at what cost?
It isn't a matter of having multiple clients. How is it not an issue. You update a single application on the server and the clients don't need to be each visited in turn. Remember the fiasco here recently when the department of works and pensions tried to upgrade all their desktops remotely and it failed.
Why can't I go into a shop and buy a $200.00 dollar netPC plug it in and it works. When I buy a DVD player I know it will play any DVD from any supplier regardless of who made it. Why don't the same economy apply in the PC market. Why a monoculture. Well we all know the answer to that don't we.
If anyone should be rewarded for providing millions of jobs for the world, it should be Bill Gates
You're kidding aren't you. What millions of jobs. A few hundred developers in Redmond yes. Some CD factory in China turning out CDs for 0.5p a go. IT is a drain on a companies budget. A business should be working to spend less on IT not more. You could also count the cost in lost productivity to endlessly managing Windows. Someone who works in providing medical equipment told me they spend a fifth of their budget per year on Windows licenses.
-If software and hardware all worked perfectly, I'd be without a job.
If other business were as reliable as 'software' planes would be falling out of the sky, engines would fall off cars and fridges would explode. And people would take this as normal.
"Jonathan Schwartz is making the same mistakes that got McNealy and Sun into trouble. Instead of concentrating on creating new avant-garde technologies"
You mean like Java. What got Sun into trouble was Microsoft sabotaging Java on the desktop. Remember when they brought out an incompatible Microsoft Jave version. Wilfully breaking the write once run anywhere option. The one thing Java was supposed to do well.
"McNealy launched a Microsoft and Linux-bashing propaganda campaign."
When someone launches a campaign to destroy your company and you comment on it how is that propaganda. His biggest mistake was in settling the long running court case.
"How about instead of moderating my post as "flamebait", giving me some insight into how I'm wrong"
Fair enough. I would appricate a responce to the following.
"As an experiment, I recently tried switching to a Gnome-based Linux system to replace my Windows desktop."
What version exactly. Did you buy a CD set or download from the Internet. Did you pay for a support contract?
"I do a bunch of fairly standard office tasks -- spreadsheets, word processing, email, etc."
So do I. Openoffice, Firefox and Thunderbird are all adequate to the task. I also get a CD
burner and multimedia player into the bargain.
"But I do have some specific needs, such as needing to use a particular scanner, save files to a SMB share, etc."
What make and model scanner. Is a driver available for Linux. Personally as a test, I got a canoscan lide50 working on this desktop no problem. What exactly are your problems saving files to an SMB share.
"Things that seem like absolutely basic functionality don't work right."
Specifics please.
"OpenOffice pops up random dialog boxes when you try to save to a file share"
Is this file share on a Windows box. If so do you have the rights set correctly. What exactly do the dialog boxes say.
I have OpenOffice writing to an SMB share on a second Linux box no problem. I use it as a backup archive for a number of Windows boxes. I also share it to this SuSE10 desktop through NFS. Again - no problem.
"Flash doesn't really work right on Linux under Firefox,"
Could you be a little more specific. In what way does it not work. It works file here. I also have flashblock installed to stop those annoying flashing adverts. Did you do the following?
"download Macromedia Flash Player 7. Once downloaded, copy libflashplayer.so to your Mozilla plugins directory and flashplayer.xpt to your Mozilla components directory."
"Evolution doesn't like having its email repository stored on a share, etc, etc."
An SMB share uses a different file system that the native Linux one. Why are you using SMB to store Evolution files. Why not use NFS which is transparent to the applicatiions. If you are using an SMB share to store evolution files. How is a problem with shares a defect in OpenOffice or Evolution. Please provide some more details regarding etc, etc.
"Then there are the user interface difficulties.. Gnome and KDE are nice window managers, but they're just not set up right for office tasks"
KDE has a start icon in the bottom right of the screen, same as Windows. Clicking on it brings up a list of menus, same as Windows. Clicking on Control Center and you can customize the desktop, similar to Windows Control Panel. Along the bottom is a status bar, same as Windows. Clicking on Konqueror brings up the file manager. Clicking on a document icon and it opens in its associated applicion, same as Windows. Pray tell us all what you found difficult about working this.
"And don't even get me started on file associations (what program runs when you double-click on a file with a given extension)."
Linux doesn't use extensions to identify a file it uses a magic number in the header of the file.
"No matter what I tried, I couldn't get Gnome to let me change the file associations for files on an SMB share."
How can you set file associations on an SMB share - it's on a different file system. Not a problem with Gnome is it.
"And, it's absolutely opaque how to change them for regular files too without resorting to editing text files in/usr/share/blahblah."
Konqueror->Settings->Configure Konqueror and choose the file associations
"How would I make my scanner scan files into Word?"
As normal. Scan it into an image and run OCR software on it.
How about just fixing the Memory Management Unit so as it don't get buffer overflows etc. And don't say it ain't possible.
As for the above I recall reading something similar about scrambling the microcode table and the opcodes in the actual program residing on disk. Since each processor would have its own unique instruction set viruses/trojans would be stopped in their tracks. And what's more you don't have to learn Calculus
"for the most part the glitches result from problems with some Hewlett-Packard software products, including any HP DeskJet printer that includes a card reader, HP scanners, some HP CD-DVD players/burners, and HP cameras".
"corporate IT departments.. have specifically demanded that patches be released on a regular schedule"
I work in an IT department. I know of no techie that looks forward to the next round of 'patches`. In fact most/all of them hold off on installing for fear of breaking something.
"blame the corporations for bringing that pressure to bear in the first place."
This could have been written by the MS publicity bureau.
Blame the corporations for the patch cycle and
blame the competitors for MS failing to secure Windows.
"the whole notion of improving software and making it better for users has been attacked because it makes it tough for competitors"
> Thats the penalty you pay for shared libraries, goes for other platforms as well.
If they stuck to using DLLs for just that purpose, sharing functionality, we wouldn't be in this mess. Installing or upgrading an application usually involves replacing a system DLL which alters/breaks the functionality of another application.
Why MS designed Windows in such a way is open to question. For instance there is no need to mixe browser functionality with the system help files. The only effect is to make it impossible to remove Internet Explorer. Also you make Windows a moving target so as third party developers have to keep playing catch up.
The hack of having two or more versions in memory is just that, a hack.
"I doubt they will be able to clone Windows. It is very difficult to do technically, we have made it a moving target and we have some visual copyright and patent protection.."
Slashdot Mirror
"First who was stupid enough to mod this as interesting? Read on..."
Firstly, who made you Slashdot moderator. Read on... (insert smiley)
"Oh my, where are the howls that "Linux!=Open Source" that I always hear? MS is saying open source, not Linux only."
Yea, precicely. MS is so scared of Linux that they instruct their staff to never use the word. Which is why Bill Hilf has to keep repeating 'it's not about Linux it's about Open Source. If Linux isn't Open Source then what is it.
Fud injection alert:
"the current level of Linux support with a TON of the distros is very amature in comparison to MS."
How precicely, you buy a Red Hat distro and get a support contract. Specifically where is Linux support lacking.
"I know, cry it's because MS has a trillion dollars behind them;"
Are you on drugs or something?
"MS isn't the ones making the claim that Linux is a commercially viable product."
Correct, MS is dishonestly infering that Linux is not a commercially viable product.
Fud injection alert:
"You lack funding? That's not MS's problem."
What? Who lacks funding and what has this to do with statements in the referred to article. If this was usenet I would suspect you of trying to derail the thread.
"In their defense many of them are in their infancy but you have to be insane to claim these projects have the same value as their MS counterpart in many cases."
But I never claimed such a thing. I was responding to certain statements by Hilf. How does your' insane' comment relate in any way to what Bill Hilf said and my comments regarding that.
Oh come on, now I know you're just a trolling. Compare some worst case Linux distro to the best case MS version.
Fud injection alert:
"Man, if that isn't the pot calling the kettle "black". Linux is NOTHING more than an open source version of a much more mature operating system (*cough* UNIX *cough*)"
Then why hasn't IBM, Novell or RedHAT set up their own Windows interoperability lab so as to learn from all that Microsoft innovation?
"I get this odd taste of UNIX and Solaris in my mouth. Why is that?"
Specifically, could you describe what exactly was copied from Unix and Solaris. Please also provide these details to the SCO legal team as they havne't been able to prove this allegation in over three years.
- Who are you going to be next week.
"Over time, as you see the open-source marketplace maturing and becoming more commercial"
..
.. help [Microsoft's product teams] understand what attracts developers .. to use Linux in that environment,"
Im what areas are the current Linux offerings less commercial than the MS offerings?
"what we're doing provides value to the [open-source] community."
What exactly of value does the MS Linux lab provide to the Open Source community.
re high-performance computing
"We
I thought you just said that Open Source wasn't really commercial. Yet here we have you copying it. So basically you are cloning a Linux solution while at the same time somehow claiming leadership in that area.
All the MS lab does is produce MS flavoured anti-Linux retoric in a disengenous attempt to steal mindshare in the community. What need do Linux developers have for Microsoft to 'explain' what Open Source is really about. You are merely the chief MS fud spokesman.
Protection * Download virus identity (IDE) file
No, for real protection download a Linux distro
I've been using Linux for about 12 years now
3 34541
.txt, and it was too much of a pain to look at these files via "Open with..." or similar, so dropping to the commandline was easiest (and my preference anyway)."
..
That would mean you started using it in 1994 the same year Red Hat released GNU/Linux (june). What distro did you start on. I also don't understand how if you managed to compile and install GNU/Linux circa 1994 you have so much difficulty with the current crop. Especially after twelve years experience.
"knowing what config file to edit and when, and how to edit it is very difficult for a newbie"
What config file. SuSE uses something similar to the control panel in Windows called YaST. Click and install. Couldn't be easier.
"Difficulty installing software and hardware"
I covered this in another post in this thread.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=185764&cid=15
"We had a bunch of text files that did not end in
Linux doesn't use extensions to identify a file. It uses a magic number in the header. On this system I renamed legal.pdf to legal and it still opens when I click on it in Konqueror the file manager.
"It will probably take 10+ years for Linux to get a decent GUI on top of their excellent OS."
In the lead article we have the author comparing a six year old version of Windows to the current Linux OS. And here we have you comparing a twelve year old version of Linux to the current Windows.
"What a long strange trip its been..."
What a strange post
"Multimedia is a real key .."
IF you want to watch movies buy a DVD player.
If you want to play games buy a console.
You can always spot a well formulated piece of fud. It goes something like, I like Linux and want it to be better except it doesn't have feeture x, y or z that's in Windows. Below are some comments and selected quotes.
.. Windows"
:)
.. didn't appear to be compatible with my graphics hardware"
"six-year-old version
FudAlert: He's comparing a six year old version of Windows to the current versions of LInux
"Linux systems may do just fine. But they still are largely more appealing to computer hobbyists who would like to see Microsoft face more competition"
FudAlert: Linux only usefull to the computer nerd who only want to give one in the eye to MS. Would be no use to the average office worker.
"while the installation and simple functions worked well enough"
Specifically, what complex functions are you referring to that are easier under Windows. And which six year old version.
FudAlert: A six year old version of Windows is better at 'complex functions' than the current crop of Linux.
"the systems couldn't handle all the multimedia applications I needed"
FudAlert: A six year old version of Windows is better at 'multimedia applications' than the current crop of Linux.
What multimedia applications are you comparing to under Windows. Will a six year old version of Windows run the latest multimedia applications. On this SuSE box I have Realplayer, Amarok Kaffeine, KsCD and Mplayer. Mplayer I installed seperately the rest came on the default installation CD.
"getting some of the systems to work required more time and effort than I was willing to exert"
FudAlert: Using Linux is difficult. Using Windows is easy. Even a six year old version.
What didn't work in the default installation. On mine, out of the box you get the above multimedia applications as well as Firefox, Open Office and Acroread. All that most average desktop users would need.
"Linux was [by] Linus Torvalds, who wanted to modify the Unix operating system"
The Linux kernel was based on Minux and is not a modified version of Unix. Most of the rest was contributed by Richard Stallman and a large number of other people too numerous to mention.
"Compatibility with hardware can be a big problem for Linux"
Again, is this six year old hardware? All I can say is that on this system the default installation correctly identified and configured the network card. It also correctly picked up the two SCSI CD writers and the printer. It identified the monitor but the screen was offset and too big so I had to manually selected it using a prog called SaX. Configuring is trivially easy under SuSE as it uses YaST a graphical config tool similar to control panel under Windows.
"the problems became more pronounced with multimedia applications, like viewing movie trailers and operating my digital camera and iPod"
Specifically what movie trailers and what web sites. I didn't realize that the ipod could run on six year old Windows.
"I couldn't transfer, via email or a disk, some complicated word-processor and spreadsheet files between my Linux system at home and Microsoft Windows on my work PC."
Could you provide some more details. Is it a problem with opening attachments. The floppy resides in \media\floppy1 on my system. If you click on it in the file manager the contents should appear. What happened when you tried to access the floppy drive?
"Linspire and Fedora
What make and model of graphics and sound card.
"I was able to send files back and forth between Word on my work computer and OpenOffice's word processor, Writer, on my home PC"
What did you do to solve the previously mentioned problems.
"users should be prepared to spend a l
"There's no innovation that we've seen come out of -- at least -- Linux,"
Ballmer said.
"Linux is a clone of a 30-years-old operating system (called Unix)."
Surly it's the companies setting up these mistypo-web-sites that are making the money. I guess it's trash google time again
"Google apparently doesn't see cheating its customers out of billions of dollars as doing evil,"
says Brian S Kabateck
"Daines was the victim of a computer virus .. He and at least one other person who clicked on the links were infected by what security experts call the first-ever virus for Mac OS X".
What was the name of the originating web site.
Who was the one other person who caught the 'virus`.
Can we see a sample of this 'virus`.
"In Daines' infection, a bug in the virus' code prevented it from doing much damage. Still, several of his operating system files were deleted, several new files were created and several applications, including a program for recording audio, were crippled."
Does a default Mac installation run applicions by clicking on an icon on a web page. Does the application require root to do any damage. Can a Mac be configured to not clack and run. If the home directory was made noexec would any of these alleged exploits work.
The article is a little short on real facts. Just a case of some 'security` company fudding up some business.
"For anyone who wants to enter the IT industry, a tech support job is a great start."
It is a good start but only stay for ten months maximum. If you manage to stay the course you then stand a good chance of getting promoted to 'senior` tech support and don't have to take any more calls. If they won't promote you then move company. In my experience they usually prefer to hire in as they assume that their own staff are useless.
"If the company has it's own technical support group in-house, you get a chance to meet all the big honchoes of the company and you get to learn and understand their vision,"
You have *got* to be kidding. Tech support is considered only one place up on the janitors job. Senior management would never be caught talking to their own support people as they would be found out as to being totally useless. The senior CIO is hired on specifically because he is a non-techie and, talks management-speak and is good at brown-nosing.
"one can create relationships with managers at the company and eventually maybe VIPs,"
Tech people are the last to find out managerial visions usually from reading the tech press. If management do get a vision they hire someone on from a different continent, give the tech support the day off and make a big presentation. That way they get to look good.
"Although having a small turn-over rate at a company is a very good thing"
On the other hand they keep the turnover rate high and move people on before they find out that management is totally useless.
"Because there are other machines on the network accessing the share, and I don't want to export it with SMB and NFS simultaneously because of permissions problems."
/home to /backup every day. Backup is a second harddrive on the file server. Couldn't be simpler.
..
2 27517
What problems, the two protocols do not interact. I use SMB to share with Windows clients and NFS to share with Linux. I have a directory on the file server 'backup' mapped into the root directory on the client and cron backups
"Just installing the thing and getting a good set of apps on it took about 8 hours. I followed a guide posted online. It worked well, but that's 8 hours I'll never get back."
SuSE 10 install took half an hour. When it rebooted it picked up an IP address, Firefox, OpenOffice, Cd burner worked straight out of the box. What good set of apps required eight hours to set up.
"Gnome and KDE are a different story. It's not just familiarity. It's the fact that they have serious bugs and problems that affect everyday users and make using them really hard."
But you've presented no real evidence as to these serious bugs. Problems with SMB shares do not equate to bugs in KDE etc.
"How about instead of moderating my post as "flamebait", giving me some insight into how I'm wrong."
I'm still waiting for a reply to my other post
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=184367&cid=15
I think there is some confusion here .. Where is it today?
r k_outage/
= 2005010107100653
Microsofts sucess owes more to them squeezing out competitors/partners than anything to do with providing a low cost client. Take a look at the litigation page on Groklaw to see what they are really good at. Remember this is a company who altered Outlook to block a web greeting card company when they wouldn't sell out to them.
The main reason you don't see thin client is because MS supressed the development of Java and reinvented most of its functionality in dotNET.
Despite so many online and network applications, many business users need to function offline.
A medium sized PC running groupware supplying 10/15 diskless clients would be a lot more cost effective to the small company that Windows on each desktop. Remember Novell netware.
Java is also quite a moot point nowadays. The write once run anywhere model maybe a factor on the server side; however, on the client side for enterprise customers simply not an issue. What enterprise customers run multiple client platforms successfully? Few and at what cost?
It isn't a matter of having multiple clients. How is it not an issue. You update a single application on the server and the clients don't need to be each visited in turn. Remember the fiasco here recently when the department of works and pensions tried to upgrade all their desktops remotely and it failed.
Why can't I go into a shop and buy a $200.00 dollar netPC plug it in and it works. When I buy a DVD player I know it will play any DVD from any supplier regardless of who made it. Why don't the same economy apply in the PC market. Why a monoculture. Well we all know the answer to that don't we.
If anyone should be rewarded for providing millions of jobs for the world, it should be Bill Gates
You're kidding aren't you. What millions of jobs. A few hundred developers in Redmond yes. Some CD factory in China turning out CDs for 0.5p a go. IT is a drain on a companies budget. A business should be working to spend less on IT not more. You could also count the cost in lost productivity to endlessly managing Windows. Someone who works in providing medical equipment told me they spend a fifth of their budget per year on Windows licenses.
-If software and hardware all worked perfectly, I'd be without a job.
If other business were as reliable as 'software' planes would be falling out of the sky, engines would fall off cars and fridges would explode. And people would take this as normal.
ref: outage kills 80,000 PCs http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/26/dwp_netwo
http://www.groklaw.net/staticpages/index.php?page
"Jonathan Schwartz is making the same mistakes that got McNealy and Sun into trouble. Instead of concentrating on creating new avant-garde technologies"
.. September 1995 .. recommending Microsoft "jump on the Java bandwagon and take control" of its class libraries and run times"
You mean like Java. What got Sun into trouble was Microsoft sabotaging Java on the desktop. Remember when they brought out an incompatible Microsoft Jave version. Wilfully breaking the write once run anywhere option. The one thing Java was supposed to do well. "McNealy launched a Microsoft and Linux-bashing propaganda campaign."
When someone launches a campaign to destroy your company and you comment on it how is that propaganda. His biggest mistake was in settling the long running court case.
a memo
Now we see Schwartz using the same hype tactics. It's a shame because I liked the old Sun. I really did. Will it return? I am not so sure anymore.
Are you seriously sugesting that Suns decline had nothing to do with Microsofts tactics.
"How about instead of moderating my post as "flamebait", giving me some insight into how I'm wrong"
.. Gnome and KDE are nice window managers, but they're just not set up right for office tasks"
/usr/share/blahblah."
Fair enough. I would appricate a responce to the following.
"As an experiment, I recently tried switching to a Gnome-based Linux system to replace my Windows desktop."
What version exactly. Did you buy a CD set or download from the Internet. Did you pay for a support contract?
"I do a bunch of fairly standard office tasks -- spreadsheets, word processing, email, etc."
So do I. Openoffice, Firefox and Thunderbird are all adequate to the task. I also get a CD burner and multimedia player into the bargain.
"But I do have some specific needs, such as needing to use a particular scanner, save files to a SMB share, etc."
What make and model scanner. Is a driver available for Linux. Personally as a test, I got a canoscan lide50 working on this desktop no problem. What exactly are your problems saving files to an SMB share.
"Things that seem like absolutely basic functionality don't work right."
Specifics please.
"OpenOffice pops up random dialog boxes when you try to save to a file share"
Is this file share on a Windows box. If so do you have the rights set correctly. What exactly do the dialog boxes say.
I have OpenOffice writing to an SMB share on a second Linux box no problem. I use it as a backup archive for a number of Windows boxes. I also share it to this SuSE10 desktop through NFS. Again - no problem.
"Flash doesn't really work right on Linux under Firefox,"
Could you be a little more specific. In what way does it not work. It works file here. I also have flashblock installed to stop those annoying flashing adverts. Did you do the following?
"download Macromedia Flash Player 7. Once downloaded, copy libflashplayer.so to your Mozilla plugins directory and flashplayer.xpt to your Mozilla components directory."
"Evolution doesn't like having its email repository stored on a share, etc, etc."
An SMB share uses a different file system that the native Linux one. Why are you using SMB to store Evolution files. Why not use NFS which is transparent to the applicatiions. If you are using an SMB share to store evolution files. How is a problem with shares a defect in OpenOffice or Evolution. Please provide some more details regarding etc, etc.
"Then there are the user interface difficulties
KDE has a start icon in the bottom right of the screen, same as Windows. Clicking on it brings up a list of menus, same as Windows. Clicking on Control Center and you can customize the desktop, similar to Windows Control Panel. Along the bottom is a status bar, same as Windows. Clicking on Konqueror brings up the file manager. Clicking on a document icon and it opens in its associated applicion, same as Windows. Pray tell us all what you found difficult about working this.
"And don't even get me started on file associations (what program runs when you double-click on a file with a given extension)."
Linux doesn't use extensions to identify a file it uses a magic number in the header of the file.
"No matter what I tried, I couldn't get Gnome to let me change the file associations for files on an SMB share."
How can you set file associations on an SMB share - it's on a different file system. Not a problem with Gnome is it.
"And, it's absolutely opaque how to change them for regular files too without resorting to editing text files in
Konqueror->Settings->Configure Konqueror and choose the file associations
"How would I make my scanner scan files into Word?"
As normal. Scan it into an image and run OCR software on it.
>Their Doctor Who section is absolutely awesome ..
Doctor Who is pretend. He doesn't really travel the universe in a Time And Relative Dimensions In Space machine.
TARDIS
How about just fixing the Memory Management Unit so as it don't get buffer overflows etc. And don't say it ain't possible.
As for the above I recall reading something similar about scrambling the microcode table and the opcodes in the actual program residing on disk. Since each processor would have its own unique instruction set viruses/trojans would be stopped in their tracks. And what's more you don't have to learn Calculus
I've tried writley icell and Googles customized homepage and find them all slow as molasses.
The nomachine testdrive service is faster and you get a real desktop into the bargan. Where can I sign up for such a service.
It wouldn't be the first such astro.wank.fes~1. Make one wonder why slashdot is reducing itself to regurgitation advertising slogans?
> Mod me how you will
Do you think there is anything to the allegation that WinTEL tried to lock AMD out of the 'trusted computing' business?
Problems With Latest Windows PatchesApril 11 2006
What kind of a design is it that breaks the printer when you patch the browser?
"there's concern in Redmond that IE users are being exploited by companies running ad farms on typo domains"
You mean like typing HTTP://HTTP:// and getting redirected to WWW.MICROSOFT.COM
Blame the corporations for the patch cycle and
blame the competitors for MS failing to secure Windows. Bill Gates Feb 15 2006
If they stuck to using DLLs for just that purpose, sharing functionality, we wouldn't be in this mess. Installing or upgrading an application usually involves replacing a system DLL which alters/breaks the functionality of another application.
Why MS designed Windows in such a way is open to question. For instance there is no need to mixe browser functionality with the system help files. The only effect is to make it impossible to remove Internet Explorer. Also you make Windows a moving target so as third party developers have to keep playing catch up.
The hack of having two or more versions in memory is just that, a hack.
Excuse me for butting in here but what he actually said was: If application A alters DLL B that causes changes in the behaviour of application C then ipso facto application C has been hacked by A.
Invocations of 'AppInit_DLL registry key` and `DLL injection key' are merely an attempt at `strawman' and distraction from the root cause, DLL hell.
"Linux violates our IP says Ballmer" Fri Mar 24, @02:24PM
recent submissions "Hilf benchmarks Linux" rejected Fri Mar 24, @06:14PM
"Bill Hilf benchmarks Linux"