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Linux Business

Maddog on the State of Linux 30

Posted by michael from the purple-state dept.
Amy Kucharik writes "Long-time Linux user and pioneer Jon "maddog" Hall spoke recently with SearchEnterpriseLinux.com about what he knows best: Linux. Hall discusses where the penguin is going and where it's been in this exclusive interview."
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Maddog on the State of Linux More

Maddog on the State of Linux

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  • in time for 2008? (Score:5, Funny)

    by BortQ ( 468164 ) on Thursday November 04, 2004 @08:06PM (#10730008) Homepage Journal
    I can see it now: The US passes an amendment to allow foreign citizens to be president and we get a Linus vs. Arnold campaign.

    And be careful, because if 'Linus' isn't a girlieman name then I don't know what is.

  • Huh? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Many people have had problems in fitting Firefox into their Microsoft suite because of Microsoft's "integration."

    Say what? Who is having problems fitting Firefox into their Microsoft "suite" (whatever that is)? What the hell is he talking about?

    • That would be Office.
    • How about Sharepoint? I've read there are a lot of problems with that as well.
    • As in lots of web apps written by Microsoft or Microsoft-shops require IE. Firefox compatibility isn't good enough to run these, so they continue to use IE.

    • Re:Huh? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Foggerty ( 680794 )
      i.e. People wanting to use something like WebEx, or a custom built application that requires ActiveX. Not justifing it (by a long shot), but you might be suprised at how many "web" apps have been written that only work on IE.
  • Microsoft does not do a "good job" of tying its products together. If they did, they would use open, published standards and interfaces to allow customers to use other components as desired.

    This guy is funny, perhaps because he's being honest.

    • Re:Good stuff (Score:5, Insightful)

      by TykeClone ( 668449 ) <TykeClone@gmail.com> on Thursday November 04, 2004 @08:19PM (#10730100) Homepage Journal
      I'd disagree there - they do a good enough job to achieve lock-in. Look at Outlook/Exchange Server - you need to use the Outlook client to really leverage Exchange; to get a good deal on the Outlook client, you get it bundled with the rest of Office; to make good use of your Office investment, use Windows Server...

      It mostly works good enough to make it difficult to break out of it - which is where the problem with moving to Linux lies.

    • Re:Good stuff (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      On the contrary -- as in that quote, he frequently gave the impression that he doesn't have the slightest idea what Microsoft software can and can't do. He's been a Unix guy for so long it's not surprising but he sounds like his understanding of Microsoft comes from listening to Linux zealots.

      I dunno, I was pretty disappointed in this interview. I'd expected better.

  • Hall joined Linux International as a volunteer in 1991 and has been using Linux since 1994.

    So now we know that it takes 3 years of knowing about linux before one is willing to use. Now that Linux has been hyped (at least here) 2003-04, we might expect larger numbers in mmm...06-07?
    • Dude, linux has been hyped on here since I joined way back in '99. I'd imagine that simply knowing about it is just one step to getting more people to use it.
  • Recently, I was in a shower in Korea, and the shower knobs were smooth and covered with soapy water. I could not turn on the cold water, and I was almost scalded. I suggested that the management go to the hardware store and buy new handles for the faucets, ones with rougher knobs. This would be possible due to the standards in the plumbing industry that set the size of pipes, screw pitch, etc., and allow you to put several different styles of knobs on the end of the pipes. If Microsoft had built the hotel,

  • Anyone can complain (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    it takes an entity with vision to do something.

    I would have liked to hear more details in this interview on how the LSB [linuxbase.org] project is going and the other activities going on at the Free Standards [freestandards.org] organization since Jon is on their Board of Directors.

  • No wonder (Score:2, Insightful)

    by FullMetalAlchemist ( 811118 )
    It's no wonder that people think of Linux users as totally clueless, because if one of the pioneers have no clue at all, then what about the rest?

    If there is anything like bad press then Bruce Perens, maddog, ESR and RMS are the pioneers of it.

    You fellows should be glad that Linus is such a lovely chap, he can sometimes make up for it.

    Seriously, if Linux was a company and had all the same incompetent spokespersons it would be in the gutter.

    Maybe Linus can gag them for attampt on ruining his reputation.
    • Not flaming, just curious: Why is he totally clueless? What specifically in the article, and in the behavior of Perens, ESR, and RMS, leads you to think they are clueless? I think a case can definitely be made for it, so I'd like to hear yours.
      • Jon is clueless about all things related to Mircosoft, which is nothing strange from where he comes from.
        I, however, originally came from the UNIX (BSD)world and has gone to the Microsoft .NET platform. Now knowing what Microsoft is today brings Jon's statements in a different light than probably most /.tters.
        Everything Microsoft is available through .NET, which by the way are mostly very open standards, except for WinForms and that doesn't really bother me all that much.

        The others are just pure flamethrow

  • No mention of Evolution/SUSE/Open Exchange (Score:5, Informative)

    by scupper ( 687418 ) * on Friday November 05, 2004 @07:03AM (#10733081) Homepage
    When Maddog was asked about communications and e-mail applications running on Linux making a dent into Outlook/Exchange, I was kinda dissapointed to not hear mention of Evolution and Evolution Connector [zdnet.co.uk], or SUSE Linux Open Exchange Server [suse.com] (SLOX) migrations going on with companies like RICIS [ricis.com] and IDL [idltechnology.com] .

    I understand his point about Sendmail and developing countries adopting F/OSS, but the question was pretty pointed;
    "any communications and e-mail F/OSS apps running on Linux that might make a dent in Outlook/Exchange?"

    He could have shared the fact that......

    IDL Technology Group [idltechnology.com] in CA-US claims :
    "
    Together, Ricis and I.D.L. Technology Group have installed over 1,000 Openexchange servers in 2003 and have performed more than 340 Microsoft Exchange to SUSE LINUX Openexchange migrations, as well as over 150 migrations from other Email server platforms using various SUSE LINUX (Now Novell) approved migration tools.
    Those are the kind of facts Senor Maddog needs to be dropping. Also, here's a online demo for SLOX 4.1 [suse.com]
    (BTW: I don't work for SUSE/Novell, RICIS, IDL)
    • I remembered reading this, and went back to read about Netline, and discovered this little fact in the article...

      "Server software maker goes open source" [com.com] :

      "

      However, Netline will keep some of the software proprietary. The open-source version lets computer users tap into its functions with Web browsers, but those wanting to use Microsoft Outlook or Novell Evolution will have to buy a separate module from Netline. "If you want to use Outlook as your preferred client, you need an add-on from our site which i

  • Hot soapy, smooth knobs... erm (Score:3, Funny)

    by tod_miller ( 792541 ) on Friday November 05, 2004 @10:11AM (#10733721) Journal
    from the interview

    Recently, I was in a shower in Korea, and the shower knobs were smooth and covered with soapy water. I could not turn on the cold water, and I was almost scalded. I suggested that the management go to the hardware store and buy new handles for the faucets, ones with rougher knobs. This would be possible due to the standards in the plumbing industry that set the size of pipes, screw pitch, etc., and allow you to put several different styles of knobs on the end of the pipes. If Microsoft had built the hotel, they would have to rip out the entire piping system, all the way back to the water supply on the street and replace the entire thing, just to allow me to use a different manufacturer's knobs.

    Freud would have a field day on this chappy!

    OK it was immature. and fun! (it worked if you saw the subtext)

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