I have yet to meet (in person) a technical person that pushes Microsoft that isn't being paid or rewarded in some way to do it.
That's because the number of MS techies who actually know whot's going on under the hood is very very low. Generally the limit of why they think Windows is good is limited to "easy to use", "keeps me in a job", "everyone uses it" and "it never crashes for me so it must be something you are doing wrong". This buys about 12 seconds of serious argument in real life but endless postings on newsgroups (hence you never talk to anybody who argues for Windows IRL).
It's generally really easy to shut a Windows evangelist up. Just stick to technical issues and don't get sucked into "everybody uses it so it must be good" or "my penis/breasts are bigger than yours" arguments and they don't last too long. The ones who can argue technical issues have generally seen how crap Windows is when stacked up against *nix and have joined the *nix camp.
It's amazing how much IE looks like windows, even after MS changes the look and feel of windows! It's almost like they are writting their own standards or something.
When he rejected it in favour of the Hurd. If it wasn't for Linux there still wouldn't be a usable GNU OS (seeing as the Hurd still isn't a full kernel) and MS would rule the world.
He passed on the chance to make it GNU/Linux and now it's Linux with a bunch of GNU apps. Arrogance and short sightedness is a bitch like that.
Most of what's there is carefully contstructed to make windows look really good by defining "really good" as what windows is. Surprisingly enough when compared to that critera, Windows looks good, Linux doesn't. You'll notice they use the words "native" and "integrated" in just about every point. It's not that linux doesn't have that stuff, it's just that it isn't made by the same company/group that makes the distribution (which includes just about everything).
The whole IP thing is just FUD. If yuo use linux to run your servers you are much less likely to fall foul of IP laws than if you use Windows in the same situation. Compare the usage restrictions in MS's EULA and in the GPL (for the uninformed, there aren't any in the GPL).
And then there's the SpecWeb99 link. The machines compared is Windows 2k with RH 6.1 in Q4 1999. If you actually bother to go to the full list you'll find that linux servers are generally faster than IIS running on the same hardware. Sometimes being over twice as fast.
So no, this isn't any "fairer" than the last page. It's just less full of complete untruths. Instead it has things that are technically true but not the whole story. A quite nice example of content free marketing.
People who resist this sort of inovation on the grounds of "computers can't possibly do x as well a person" are absolutely correct and completely missing the point of the technology. The goal isn't to replace humans but to give them a tool to provide them with relevant information. Computers are good at finding something provided you give the search critera in the right format (and there isn't any pr0n sites trying to attract your attention).
To put this into a perspective the/. crowd will understand (no, it doesn't involve first posting or Natalie Portman and hot grits). What doctors do today is the equivalent of reading a programming language reference manual and then coding in that language using only memory and using compiler messages to work out when you get something right. Sure, after you have been programming in a language for 10 years you could do this but you'll still need to refer to the reference manuals occasionally when venturing into unfamiliar territory.
Using computers to do this is much more effective than trying to write programs that do the diagnosis. Computers can't reason, humans can (well most can... ok some). To quote Dijkstra, "The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim."
Read the parent (for some reason posted as an AC). Basically the web page referenced by the article is crap and well and truely rubbished by the link in the parent (Reposted here for the lazy).
http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/dissent.html
As a Dvorak user for 4ish years now I've never seen anyone who learned the Dvorak keyboard go back to qwerty once they reached a decent speed. Also it impresses the hell out of the drones when they see you typing on a keyboard with different layout than the printed letters (just don't tell them that once you can touch type the printed letters are meaningless:)
Microsoft would be absolutely crazy to do an Office port to linux. MS Office is the only app that is keeping the vast majority of desktop computers running Windows (MCSE are tools, not apps). Once linux has it there really isn't that much reason to run windows on the desktop anymore. Linux is much easier to administer and lock down. With Office on linux, it seriously reduces the retraining costs and at the same time seriously reduces the OS purchasing costs.
Without Windows on the desktop, Windows in the back room also falls apart (I could frig with Windows networking for a couple of days or I could use NIS and NFS).
Fear the geek with the grudge. Bad body odour and modified nerf guns are our tools (and we have the largest population of tools seen, not counting Eminem concerts).
Surely you jest! The fine community that is the slashdot readership provides a much richer experience than ever thought possible. What with the first posters, Portman and the hot grits thing, karma whores, and who can forget the "BSD is dead" guy/girl. They don't stand a chance.
It's generally considered bad business practice to promote the other guy, but hey this is a Linux World so normal business rules need not apply.
Well the editors can't spell, have poor grammer, don't read the articles before posting, post the same article multiple times, choose articles by flipping a coin, why should they be any better at business decisions?
People argue about the name of the sport. Despite the fact that most of the world refers to a game that is played almost entirely with the feet as Football(makes sense to me), the dissenters call it soccer and argue that it should never have been called football.
Saying "football" in Australia doesn't really narrow it down much. It means Aussie rules in the southern and western states, rugby league or rugby union in Queensland and New South Wales and soccer to people of European or South American parentage. In the last couple of years or so both Aussie rules and rugby have move out of their traditonal homelands so that really doesn't work anymore. So there's a practical element to giving it a name other than football.
Also nobody here refers to American Football as just football.
To be honest I enjoy both sports. But, I just don't understand how a small group of people can be so rabid in their dismissal of a sport that is, obviously, of tremendous significance to the entire world.
To anyone who's not an American this comes as no surprise.
Isn't it wonderful how a security hole in an open source program brings forth all the security experts on Slashdot. And they flame someone who know a shit load about it and is dedicated to improving security to the point of being a complete arsehole.
Anyway. My guess is that this hole is something substantial, possibly very plateform dependent and any patches aren't going to be trivial. Seeing as all you people who felt the need to use fsck in their posts more than once know about as I do about this then my assumptions are as good as yours (and I don't feel the need to use the word fsck as an expletive once). Non-trivial patches mean that commercial vendors are going to take for ever to release final patches and if you are running anything open to the internet then it's likely to be ssh. Add it all up it means this could be very bad.
Now the OpenSSH team is actually two. One that develops new stuff and does code audits specifically for OpenBSD and another that takes that and ports it to other architectures.
All those bitching about full disclosure, you manage to be completely committed to a cause, idiots and miss the point of full disclosure all at once. If the bug is bad then releasing it when only the OpenBSD version of OpenSSH is patched would be an absolute security nightmare. Giving vendors advance notice is very much required in this case. When the vulnerability is announced then I'm sure it will be fully disclosed which will provide the opportunity to test a system for vulnerabilities.
As for you people who are saying Theo is being pro-OpenBSD, read the above paragraph again and answer this question. If Theo really wanted to really rip on other OS's then what could he have done with this announcement? Only OpenBSD not vulnerable and with mindless full disclosure to cover his arse. You do the maths.
The fact is Theo is a complete arsehole when it comes to security. Some see this as not a bad thing. With OpenBSD security is pretty much everything. To the vast majority of other "vendors" security is something they also do and with this Theo has a legitimate gripe. He has got a shitty reception from other vendors to something that will make a vital link in the security chain more secure. Is he making a point of this? Probably. Is he right to do that? Depends on your point of view. If it gets the "vendors" off their arses and add support for priviledge seperation in their ports then would this be considered a good thing? Most definately.
When it boils down to it, Theo would be well within his rights to patch the OpenBSD version of OpenSSH (by using priviledge seperation) and hanging the other vendors out to dry. He didn't. Deal with it.
My apologies. Singapore money is also plastic and the reason it looks similar is because it uses the same technology from the Reserve Bank of Australia.
The next big thing will come along and "sing" the same thing about Eminem. By which time he will be a fat balding ex-rap star who's never changing lyrics will seem a bit out of place and who is bitching about how much money he isn't making these days.
And you never know. All that repressed homosexuality may well come to the surface.
Slashdot Mirror
It's generally really easy to shut a Windows evangelist up. Just stick to technical issues and don't get sucked into "everybody uses it so it must be good" or "my penis/breasts are bigger than yours" arguments and they don't last too long. The ones who can argue technical issues have generally seen how crap Windows is when stacked up against *nix and have joined the *nix camp.
It's amazing how much IE looks like windows, even after MS changes the look and feel of windows! It's almost like they are writting their own standards or something.
No integer only codec. This means no portable player support as they generally don't have a FPU.
He passed on the chance to make it GNU/Linux and now it's Linux with a bunch of GNU apps. Arrogance and short sightedness is a bitch like that.
Because there are only six countries in the world after all.
Damn it! I swear I copy and pasted that bit for that very reason. Must have X's/Slashcode/cosmic rays fault. :)
The whole IP thing is just FUD. If yuo use linux to run your servers you are much less likely to fall foul of IP laws than if you use Windows in the same situation. Compare the usage restrictions in MS's EULA and in the GPL (for the uninformed, there aren't any in the GPL).
And then there's the SpecWeb99 link. The machines compared is Windows 2k with RH 6.1 in Q4 1999. If you actually bother to go to the full list you'll find that linux servers are generally faster than IIS running on the same hardware. Sometimes being over twice as fast.
So no, this isn't any "fairer" than the last page. It's just less full of complete untruths. Instead it has things that are technically true but not the whole story. A quite nice example of content free marketing.
"typo" maybe?
Is it that much to ask ...
"Is that too much to ask ..." or possibly "Is it too much to ask ..." depending on what you wanted to do with the rest of the sentence.
Slashdot and professionalim in the same sentence has to be some sort of error.
You wouldn't submit a resume` that has grammatical errors on it, would you?
Surely you mean "in it".
My point? Enough with the bitching about the spelling/grammar. Most of people here aren't any better and of the remainder most don't care.
To put this into a perspective the /. crowd will understand (no, it doesn't involve first posting or Natalie Portman and hot grits). What doctors do today is the equivalent of reading a programming language reference manual and then coding in that language using only memory and using compiler messages to work out when you get something right. Sure, after you have been programming in a language for 10 years you could do this but you'll still need to refer to the reference manuals occasionally when venturing into unfamiliar territory.
Using computers to do this is much more effective than trying to write programs that do the diagnosis. Computers can't reason, humans can (well most can ... ok some). To quote Dijkstra, "The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim."
Why not set up a file association or desktop link?
I'm hanging out for a (+5, Underrated) myself.
Gaar. I hate it when I do that. Atleast it wasnt an apostrophe thing :)
http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/dissent.html
As a Dvorak user for 4ish years now I've never seen anyone who learned the Dvorak keyboard go back to qwerty once they reached a decent speed. Also it impresses the hell out of the drones when they see you typing on a keyboard with different layout than the printed letters (just don't tell them that once you can touch type the printed letters are meaningless :)
To here an American say that. May I welcome you to a place known as the rest of the world.
Microsoft would be absolutely crazy to do an Office port to linux. MS Office is the only app that is keeping the vast majority of desktop computers running Windows (MCSE are tools, not apps). Once linux has it there really isn't that much reason to run windows on the desktop anymore. Linux is much easier to administer and lock down. With Office on linux, it seriously reduces the retraining costs and at the same time seriously reduces the OS purchasing costs. Without Windows on the desktop, Windows in the back room also falls apart (I could frig with Windows networking for a couple of days or I could use NIS and NFS).
Fear the geek with the grudge. Bad body odour and modified nerf guns are our tools (and we have the largest population of tools seen, not counting Eminem concerts).
Do you know that people outside of the US buy stuff! And sometimes they don't even speak American! Freaky huh?
Actually I think you'll find that New Zealand was inhabited at the time.
Saying "football" in Australia doesn't really narrow it down much. It means Aussie rules in the southern and western states, rugby league or rugby union in Queensland and New South Wales and soccer to people of European or South American parentage. In the last couple of years or so both Aussie rules and rugby have move out of their traditonal homelands so that really doesn't work anymore. So there's a practical element to giving it a name other than football.
Also nobody here refers to American Football as just football.
To be honest I enjoy both sports. But, I just don't understand how a small group of people can be so rabid in their dismissal of a sport that is, obviously, of tremendous significance to the entire world.
To anyone who's not an American this comes as no surprise.
Anyway. My guess is that this hole is something substantial, possibly very plateform dependent and any patches aren't going to be trivial. Seeing as all you people who felt the need to use fsck in their posts more than once know about as I do about this then my assumptions are as good as yours (and I don't feel the need to use the word fsck as an expletive once). Non-trivial patches mean that commercial vendors are going to take for ever to release final patches and if you are running anything open to the internet then it's likely to be ssh. Add it all up it means this could be very bad.
Now the OpenSSH team is actually two. One that develops new stuff and does code audits specifically for OpenBSD and another that takes that and ports it to other architectures.
All those bitching about full disclosure, you manage to be completely committed to a cause, idiots and miss the point of full disclosure all at once. If the bug is bad then releasing it when only the OpenBSD version of OpenSSH is patched would be an absolute security nightmare. Giving vendors advance notice is very much required in this case. When the vulnerability is announced then I'm sure it will be fully disclosed which will provide the opportunity to test a system for vulnerabilities.
As for you people who are saying Theo is being pro-OpenBSD, read the above paragraph again and answer this question. If Theo really wanted to really rip on other OS's then what could he have done with this announcement? Only OpenBSD not vulnerable and with mindless full disclosure to cover his arse. You do the maths.
The fact is Theo is a complete arsehole when it comes to security. Some see this as not a bad thing. With OpenBSD security is pretty much everything. To the vast majority of other "vendors" security is something they also do and with this Theo has a legitimate gripe. He has got a shitty reception from other vendors to something that will make a vital link in the security chain more secure. Is he making a point of this? Probably. Is he right to do that? Depends on your point of view. If it gets the "vendors" off their arses and add support for priviledge seperation in their ports then would this be considered a good thing? Most definately.
When it boils down to it, Theo would be well within his rights to patch the OpenBSD version of OpenSSH (by using priviledge seperation) and hanging the other vendors out to dry. He didn't. Deal with it.
My apologies. Singapore money is also plastic and the reason it looks similar is because it uses the same technology from the Reserve Bank of Australia.
And you never know. All that repressed homosexuality may well come to the surface.
or possibly:
(-1, http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=humour)
Do you often have trouble telling the difference between paper and plastic? Australian bills are made of plastic.