Antagonising linux users like is a very bad business move (even if what he says is true). When the CTO or somebody else in an expensive suit with enough technical knowledge to distinguish a computer from the desk it sits on most of the time says to his minions "Go forth minions and study this linux thingee", linux needs friends on the inside. There will always be studies that support the linux is crap, expensive and entirely the wrong choice (MS will make sure of this) so without a linux champion, linux loses.
At this point it's the people who use linux at home are the ones who are going to step up and suggest which linux to use. And SuSE may well be right there is only two real choices here, but that's one more than just SuSE. With the arrogance SuSE has shown towards their favourite distrobution and the fact there really isn't that much difference between SuSE and RedHat, SuSE may well find themselves the first loser which really isn't that much different from not being one of the choosen two in the first place.
Redhat seems to understand this better than most commercial distros. They don't go out of their way to cut down other to make themselves look better. Sometimes the best course of action is to sit nod and let the other person do all the work for you.
Really, it would probably be a way more relevant test to see the same test subjects take each OS out of the box, install from scratch, install a few apps, configure their gui, etc
That is karma whoring wrapped up for the idiot percentage of/. moderators. This is a study targeting business users. In such a setting the only people who set up machines are the sys admins. Why would the study be more relevant if they had to do something they would never have been asked to to anyway?
Besides, before doing any comparisons on Debian vs. Gentoo they should have compared Gentoo vs. Gentoo on different optimizations
And how many Gentoo users have done this?
If Mandrake had funded this study then your way would have the correct way. This on the other hand was a limited study done with limited time (by the sounds of the article). The testing was done with some fairly standard optimisations to see if it's worth testing further and appears as it is.
"It's my network and anything that I don't know about gets trashed" blah blah blah *thumps chest*
If you were actually any good at your jobs you should be asking why these people (who may or may not be risking their jobs) feel the need to install linux? What is it that the current policy doesn't provide? Why has sysadmin become so unapproachable that they did it without asking (this should be an easy one)?
Actually do something useful rather than wandering around the network marking your territory.
I don't know if they can win, but I know that winning a derivative works argument is substantially easier than winning a copyright violation argument.
Can somebody explain which part of copyright law this is part of? It can't be a look-and-feel thing because that has been shot down before (Apple tried it against MS). The only thing I can think of is was it in the contract with IBM to redistribute modified code, [ ] yes, [ ] no
The fundamental problem with all of this is that IMHO recoding wouldn't actually help that much. Sure, it would sort out any simple Copyright issues, but not the generic "IP" bullshit that these guys will be chasing. They will claim that since it is a work-alike, then it is a derivative work.
"IP" consists of a small number of things. Copyright, Patents and Trade Secrets all held together by contract law. IP is just the term the suits made up to make it sound more complicated than it really is. Currently the only claims SCO seems to have is a contract/copyright dispute with IBM which may entitle them to derivative code from IBM.
Hobart. Besides, the point of my post was more in the problems with incompetent uninterested techies being hired.
I'm assuming you're somebody who started the degree after the merger between north and south (otherwise known as the south grovelling to join the north after they previously rejected the north as generally pathetic). The techs in the north are very much competent and interested in what the do (the head sysadmin, hi Tony, takes the 3rd year graphics programming unit in the north).
please attack the real substance (i.e. the point) of my post, not my specific examples.
I, unfortunately for me, only have experience with the one university. My experience with that one uni and subsequent work experience would tend to suggest that in Australia, the general feeling is one of absolute loathing towards Windows but a general acceptance that it's currently necesary to use it. We program in it and learn it because it's popular but would much rather use anything else.
I can say that is crap (unless it's changed or you're doing it in Hobart). When I was there the Windows machines were there for the basic intro to computing subjects (used by the school for fund raising by running getting students from other schools to do computing subjects) and to drive the legos with. All of the programming units were done on a Sun server excepting for the graphics units which was done on Macs. Most of the lecturers are ambivelant about Windows and the techies hate it.
That it's constantly under development and that the whole 6 days thing was just marketing spin for people who were gullible and needed an answer. Despite people finding a shitload of evidence to the contry, they still point at things like the evolution of people from apes and say "show us the missing link!" Unfortunately they don't want the missing link, they want a family tree before they'll admit they're wrong.
Management still pushes the six day idea to stop people frigging with the mechanics of the game too much. Of course various hacker groups have sprung up and are busily chopping and changing. Management have responded by astro turfing the opinion that the game will fall apart if this continues to go on.
Despite all this power they supposedly have, they still refuse to fix the things that really need it. They hide behind the "we act through the actions of others" mantra. Most aren't convinced.
And having a complete monopoly on household gaming would almost certainly be worth that kind of investment....
The problem with that line of reasoning is that it assumes you can have vendor tie-in in the home console market. Unlike the desktop OS market, there just isn't the control there. Just because Foowidgets Great Adventure is a huge seller for the x-box one doesn't automatically preclude the sequal from being a huge seller on another plateform.
And despite what the fanboys rave on about, there really isn't that much difference between consoles of the same generation. So one can do another couple of thousand polygons per second. That doesn't make a rats arse of difference when you are racing your mates at Mario cart or kicking the crap out of them in a fighting game.
I am participating in a GIS (Geographic Information System) project which I hope will alleviate some of that ignorance.
The rest of the world has been working hard on the US since the US discovered there's a rest of the world out there just after Pearl Harbour. No luck so far.
Some countries *cough*Australia*cough* have given up and are just taking the piss instead (Did any of you watch The Dream hosted by Roy and HG during the Atlanta winter olympics? Yes those hard to pronounce placese are real, No they're nowhere near where they were on the map).
Name the capital of Australia (no, not the country in Europe, The big one near tho bottom of the Pacific. No, it's not Sydney)? Name two states (we have six and two territories). Come on. Most of them are "bigger than Texas" as the saying goes.
And we're not talking about some "2nd and 3rd" world country here. We've been a democracy ever since we stopped being a bunch of colonies. You got to watch Neil Armstrong walk on the moon because of us (NASA forgot to check to see that they'd have a receiving station capible of receiving the pictures at the time of the walk). We invented the "pickup truck" and have gifted the world with Steve Erwin (sorry about that. We didn't even know he'd gone until three years after he made it big in the US, honest).
As for this question:
Why is it so important to you for Americans to know where every 2nd and 3rd world country is?
It is also the answer. A significant number of Americans seem to be proud of being this ignorant and seem to be of the belief that the US was the sole bastion of the first world up until you helped out all those red countries.. A lot of people from other countries find this strangely annoying.
Slashdot Mirror
At this point it's the people who use linux at home are the ones who are going to step up and suggest which linux to use. And SuSE may well be right there is only two real choices here, but that's one more than just SuSE. With the arrogance SuSE has shown towards their favourite distrobution and the fact there really isn't that much difference between SuSE and RedHat, SuSE may well find themselves the first loser which really isn't that much different from not being one of the choosen two in the first place.
Redhat seems to understand this better than most commercial distros. They don't go out of their way to cut down other to make themselves look better. Sometimes the best course of action is to sit nod and let the other person do all the work for you.
BTW I don't use either. Debian all the way here.
I don't think SCO liked the "Go fuck yourself" reply from IBM. Some people are just too sensitive.
So it's not one single instant. It's a first time and then a repost and then another repost and then a slashback.
And how many Gentoo users have done this?
If Mandrake had funded this study then your way would have the correct way. This on the other hand was a limited study done with limited time (by the sounds of the article). The testing was done with some fairly standard optimisations to see if it's worth testing further and appears as it is.
If you were actually any good at your jobs you should be asking why these people (who may or may not be risking their jobs) feel the need to install linux? What is it that the current policy doesn't provide? Why has sysadmin become so unapproachable that they did it without asking (this should be an easy one)?
Actually do something useful rather than wandering around the network marking your territory.
End of litigation.
"It's not that I'm lazy. It's that I just don't care." -- Peter Gibbons
We call 'fscking' fucking, mate.
Yeah but I thought I'd tone it down for the Americans.For those who don't know, vegemite is made from beer waste.
We call a spade a fscking shovel mate.
I can say that is crap (unless it's changed or you're doing it in Hobart). When I was there the Windows machines were there for the basic intro to computing subjects (used by the school for fund raising by running getting students from other schools to do computing subjects) and to drive the legos with. All of the programming units were done on a Sun server excepting for the graphics units which was done on Macs. Most of the lecturers are ambivelant about Windows and the techies hate it.
I would have thought best practice would have been not to use Windows?
Management still pushes the six day idea to stop people frigging with the mechanics of the game too much. Of course various hacker groups have sprung up and are busily chopping and changing. Management have responded by astro turfing the opinion that the game will fall apart if this continues to go on.
Despite all this power they supposedly have, they still refuse to fix the things that really need it. They hide behind the "we act through the actions of others" mantra. Most aren't convinced.
This is slashdot. Most people don't read any of the article so three pages is pretty long.
And despite what the fanboys rave on about, there really isn't that much difference between consoles of the same generation. So one can do another couple of thousand polygons per second. That doesn't make a rats arse of difference when you are racing your mates at Mario cart or kicking the crap out of them in a fighting game.
Some countries *cough*Australia*cough* have given up and are just taking the piss instead (Did any of you watch The Dream hosted by Roy and HG during the Atlanta winter olympics? Yes those hard to pronounce placese are real, No they're nowhere near where they were on the map).
And we're not talking about some "2nd and 3rd" world country here. We've been a democracy ever since we stopped being a bunch of colonies. You got to watch Neil Armstrong walk on the moon because of us (NASA forgot to check to see that they'd have a receiving station capible of receiving the pictures at the time of the walk). We invented the "pickup truck" and have gifted the world with Steve Erwin (sorry about that. We didn't even know he'd gone until three years after he made it big in the US, honest).
As for this question:
It is also the answer. A significant number of Americans seem to be proud of being this ignorant and seem to be of the belief that the US was the sole bastion of the first world up until you helped out all those red countries.. A lot of people from other countries find this strangely annoying.Unless we are trying to fool the Americans in which case, it's a ripper beer. Crikey!