Desktop Linux Sliding in Under the Radar? 742
Paul Johnson asks: "This article at ComputerWorld describes a sysadmin's discovery that many people in his company are installing Linux on their desktops without consulting IT. The writer is concerned with the security implications, but there is a wider issue. At present the 'official' penetration of Linux into the desktop market is something around 1%. The writer of this article doesn't give figures, but it sounds like he may have stumbled on several times that percentage of desktop Linux installations. If so then this is an important trend. Linux got its foot in the datacentre door in exactly the same way a few years ago, with unofficial installations doing odd server jobs.
If you are a sysadmin, in an organization that runs Windows on the desktop, have you stumbled on many unofficial Linux installations?"
Not exactly ... (Score:5, Funny)
I tripped over my mail server last week. Does that count?
I only wish! (Score:5, Funny)
Is the sysadmin sure he wasn't dreaming?
Linux... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Linux... (Score:1, Funny)
Not a problem (Score:4, Funny)
Re:VMWare rules! (Score:5, Funny)
But wait! There's more! The first Karma-whore to post about VMWare on Slashdot will receive some moderation points... absolutely FREE!
Order your copy now, while there's still time!
---
Sheesh.
I *wish* I had to time to make obnoxious posts to slashdot all day.
Er.. wait a minute...
on the sly (Score:0, Funny)
Unofficial Linux installations...? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:This is unexpected? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:they better not (Score:0, Funny)
Dicksmacking wankermaster.
Re:they better not (Score:5, Funny)
Apparently you've confused Linux for a version of Windows.
This kind of sysadmin crap is why I prefer working for a small company.
I work for M$ (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Now that's one of those Ask Slashdots even I ca (Score:5, Funny)
Re:A reason to run Linux on a work PC (Score:2, Funny)
Which is exactly why someday management will meet him early christmas morning in the parking lot instead of at his desk......
Yes, and terminated (Score:2, Funny)
This was a regular occurrence in our engineering department for some time, and as any MCSE knows, Linux is insecure. As IT director, I was initially given the task of physically removing hardware when rogue Linux installations were found, but employees were actually discovered bringing in their own laptops to run Linux or using VMWare to host virtual Linux machines with active and unique MACs on the corporate network. To better battle this, I asked for and received the right to terminate employees. After several high-profile firings, our network is once again safe, and it has become policy to perform more extensive background checks on job applicants with a UNIX or Linux background to ensure that they haven't caused similar grievance elsewhere.
Re:they better not (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I'm not a sysadmin (Score:5, Funny)
the key was to install cde and tcsh and say it was solaris x86 (which he disapproved of too.. but less). since he never actually used the machines, this was easy.
Re:Don't reinstall - boot linux from another disk (Score:2, Funny)
2. Open compuer case.
3. Insert spare hard drive.
4. Install favaroite OS on spare hard drive.
5. Leave IT *approved* OS on *other* drive.
6. ????
7. Profit!
- I can't believe I just make a for profit post. I must leave now.
Re:back in the old days... (Score:1, Funny)
You Have Been Served (Score:5, Funny)
}
}
} In the matter of SCO
} vs.
} Electric Cloud
}
}
}
Said defendent is alleged to have been running an unlicensed version of Lie-nucks, violating vaguely alluded to (but impossible to produce) 'intellectual property' alleged to belong to litigant, by virtue of having been written independently to superficially resemble an unpopular operating system the litigant overpayed to acquaire the rights of (c.f. UNIX), said litigant thusly excersizing their Constitutional Rights (tm) to sue uppity upstarts who dare make use of a legally engineered and freely provided system that competes with their abysmally unsuccessful, outdated, and buggy commercial offering.
Said litigant cites as prima facia evidence of infringement "a post to slashdot that indicated a successful deployment of the demonic system."
Defendents declined to comment, but did point out to the court that the daemon was a mascott for another, competing free operating system, and that perhaps counsel for the plaintiff would be so kind as to wipe the froth from his mouth and clarify.
Extreme prejudice 101 (Score:5, Funny)
localhost / # format c:
-bash: format: command not found
localhost / # fdisk c:
Unable to open c:
localhost / # deltree *.*
-bash: deltree: command not found
localhost / # del *.*
-bash: del: command not found
localhost / # sys c:
-bash: sys: command not found
localhost / # help
GNU bash, version 2.05b.0(1)-release (i686-pc-linux-gnu)
<snip>
</snip>
{ COMMANDS ; }
localhost / # fsda;lkjafdjl;kwfoied
-bash: fsda: command not found
-bash: lkjasdjl: command not found
-bash: kwfoied: command not found
localhost / # <insert_vcr_led>
Sobbing....I HATE LINUX....
Somewhere a penguin smiles.
Re:Nope, not here (Score:3, Funny)
That's a good thing. I'd hate to have my nurse worrying about incompatiblities with her Wireless NIC and her kernel.
Or my surgeon trying to get First Post on a Slashdot story during my operation!
So thanks for making their job easier and my hospital stays safer. Keep those systems up!
~Z
Re:Green Grass. (Score:5, Funny)
But you don't because you're an unemployed has been MSCE. haha
Why this is good... (Score:3, Funny)
> he may have stumbled on several times that percentage of desktop Linux installations.
If this is true it would be really great for us at Slashdot because then we could brag about a higher Linux desktop market share to our girlfriends...
No wait, that can't be right...
Well anyway, he said "Penetration". That's gotta be good, right?
Hey, I live in bumfuck... (Score:0, Funny)
Re:Nope, not here (Score:3, Funny)
I honestly believe that most of the trolls on slashdot are hospital admin people. What the hell else do they do all day?
Davak
Linux is BANNED in my cumpany. (Score:1, Funny)
Posting anoynmously from Kracksburg korporation.
Re:Green Grass. (Score:4, Funny)
I can't spell dinasaur either.
Re:they better not (Score:3, Funny)
Someone did this in my company to a laptop four years ago. Just last week I noticed he was still sitting funny after the impromptu buttectomy the VP gave him.
Re:I'm not a sysadmin (Score:2, Funny)
Only You Can Prevent OS Monopoly (Score:2, Funny)
And if you are a sysadmin in an organization that runs Windows on the desktop, but you have not stumbled on many unofficial Linux installations
Re:I only wish! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:where I work-Abuse me. (Score:1, Funny)
Hey! I wouldn't mind a keyboard done in leather and crome, with clamps, and rings. Whips and chains...er, um. Excuse me I got to go. My dominatrix is call me.
Re:Not exactly ... (Score:3, Funny)
But the point is that no one knows it is running linux. The funny thing is that when I set it up I named it 'Joe' and then I set up the networking using dhcp. After a bit I wondered about this. Going to a putty terminal on my Windopws box I ssh'd to joe. Yep, corporate dns now has an entry for joe.MyCompany.com!
Rogue Installs... Allow me to Retort... (Score:5, Funny)
So who and where the hell are these marauding rogue agents running around installing Linux on office desktops. It can't be IS, they're too busy, and it can't be cube workers, they're afraid of their CDROMs!
Re:Actually (Score:2, Funny)
Or maybe I'm the only one here who saw "MDK*" and thought MurderDeathKill...
Something else under the radar. (Score:3, Funny)
Yet, lots of people here are using it.
I'm using it right now.
Back in the 60s it was a fun thing to turn people on to marihuana for the first time. I've had fun giving Knoppix CDs away. Interestingly, with both Knoppix and marihuana, the first word was often: Wow!
Re:Ignoring the standard MS shot... (Score:2, Funny)
pack fixes to break in and install said service
pack?
Or just have the proxy stick a signed ActiVex
control that updates their systems in every
webpage they download.
Adv: SYSADMIN OF 15-YEAR OLD COMPANY ... (Score:3, Funny)
Does this headline look familiar? Of course it does. You most likely have seen this story recently featured on a major nightly news program (USA).
This 15 year old company's sysadmin was cleaning and putting backups away when he came across a large brown department that was suspiciously buried beneath some red tape and a WindowsXP EULA in the back of the 15-year-old company's closet. Nothing could have prepared him for the shock he got when he opened the department and found it was full of linux installations. Red Hat, SuSE, Debian, Slackware and Gentoo - all neatly beowulf-clustered in labeled piles...
Re:Not exactly ... (Score:3, Funny)
You should have called it 'www'.