Why PHBs Fear Linux 665
Tin Foil Hat writes "Paul Murphy over at LinuxInsider examines the role IT text books play in business school curriculums and the misconceptions and misinformation that they present to students. If you've ever wondered why your PHB just doesn't get it when it comes to UNIX and Linux, this article is for you."
I'll tell you why mine fears Linux (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Nobody said MS invented computing... (Score:3, Insightful)
A diversity of systems coupled with the internet would FORCE vendors to adopt cross-platform standards, such standards did not exist in the past because there was little demand for data portability between systems, microsoft is still living in the old days when each vendor created their own systems which weren`t
Maybe they don't get it (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe they don't get it because they don't see Linux software on store shelves at Best Buy. Maybe they feel that using Linux would be a huge headache since they have NFI where the software actually comes from. It's percieved as some toy OS.
Re:Maybe they don't get it (Score:3, Informative)
And yes, they're sitting there right next to Windows. It may not be equal footing, or equal mindshare, but the market penetration is constantly improving.
Re:Maybe they don't get it (Score:3, Insightful)
No, what's going to do that is seeing software for Linux on the shelves. And in the pages of the CDW catalogs he leafs through. And all those articles in Business Week abou
Re:Maybe they don't get it (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Maybe they don't get it (Score:3, Insightful)
That's the OS, what about the software?
Re:Maybe they don't get it (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Maybe they don't get it (Score:4, Funny)
Boxen, plural form of fuck all: a term used by goddamn IT morons to identify themselves to other goddamn IT morons. My boss fired me for inventing stupid words and using them in company wide emails; now who will administrate my boxen? See also: PEBKAC, ROFLMAO, User Friendly.
Not Best Buy...Dell, HP and Gateway. (Score:5, Interesting)
Now at the Best Buy it's not that Linux is missing from the shelves. It's that applications that Run on Linux are missing on the shelves. Give me Quickbooks, OfficeXP, or Adobe with little "for Linux" stickers on them and we might get noticed.
Most PHBs don't even know what an OS is. I've had plenty of well educated people, when I ask them, "What OS do you run?" tell me Word. They know on some level that they run Windows but they are clueless about what it really is. They just hear the name and they parrot that. Word, Windows, whatever...
Re:Not Best Buy...Dell, HP and Gateway. (Score:5, Insightful)
HOWEVER, people aren't entirely hopeless. If you sit down with them with a clear idea of what you're trying to explain, and explain that thing calmly and clearly in terms they can relate to, most will pick some of it up. If you calmly explain it a few more times, still keeping to terms they can understand, they'll get even more of it. We, the geeks, are the educators. The market and the education system has no desire to talk about something that doesn't make them piles of money.
If we treat people with respect and keep our ideas clear, they will listen most of the time. Stick to real world examples that have or can affect them. If you can't come up with a real world example, maybe you should go back and rethink whatever idea you're trying to explain. If it doesn't affect them at all, why are you harping on it?
Geeks are capable of changing the world, one non-geek at a time. Just have patience.
Oh because people actually use it? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Oh because people actually use it? (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not saying your other points are invalid, it's just that people always bring up
Re:Maybe they don't get it (Score:3, Insightful)
Forget about retail. PHBs don't go shopping, least of all in Best Buy. They are visited by a salesman who gets a commission for signing him for the software and support.
Hmm.. (Score:2, Funny)
So when you remark "My PHB is a clueless, drooling half-wit." it's really a case of nuture over nature?
A-freakin-men (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know why this is the case, but it really must affect the bias of so many students (and future PHBs). I suppose its a matter of people using what they know and what they expect the readers will be using that makes them decide to take this slant, but still seems to be a bad approach in the long-run.
Re:A-freakin-men (Score:5, Interesting)
Very true. Curerently, my college is quite MS-centric. It's got this whole "Microsoft Certified Academy" plaque somewhere in the main hall which gave me a fear for something which became a reality when I got into "Advanced Programming" classes. They basically told us to go learn ASP.NET from w3schools.org [w3schools.org] and to get ( download ) a ASP.NET forum up and running, which I didn't like for several reasons:
And I won't even mention some of the books I must have for college: Very MS-centric. More or less to be expected, but a general understanding on other operating systems is never bad. Don't even get me started on the things they dont teach regarding Macs, which still hold a sizeable portion of the desktop market. ( when compared to Linux ) You'd think some general knowledge like knowing how to set up a network with Macs and Linux/Windows machines would be useful.
* Silly Dutch educational system.
** Not to mention licensing costs. W2k AS, 3999 USD and SQL Server, 1489 USD. Of course, we could fiddle around with Access database which would be a joke, but a less expensive on at 229 USD. I could of course use MSDE ( core of SQL Server ) which is free but comes with NO management tools. Woot. Not surprisingly, after the "teacher" told us to install W2k AS with SQL Server, legally, we told him to go hell.
Re:A-freakin-men (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm tutoring at the local CC, and was asked to teach a short course in Linux. Try to find a textbook that talks about a current version of Linux. Before you Fanboys start flapping your gums about kernel versions, the school will change books every year to keep up with the latest "innovations" from Redmond, and has changed mid year for the past two years.
The school's only "open" minded professor worked with me, and we ordered instructor's desk copies from all of the major text book publishers. The ones that came with CDs had RH7.2 This was Nov 03! Yet the same publisher had texbooks on Windows server2003.
After looking at the paucity of readily available textbooks, we opted to go for an open source solution: Paul Sheer's RUTE.
I taught out of the book, and the students had the choice of buying the book, or downloading the PDF. I burned copies of Knoppix so that they could actually have Linux at home to practice on.
This school does have two computer labs with Linux, one is locked away from the rest of the LAN, on its own subnet and firewall, and the other has removable hard-drives, and they disconnect the room from the LAN before they install the linux drives!
The school still equates Linux and "Hackers" since the sole purpose of Linux there is use in the computer forensics classes. Any wonder why the CIS majors never learn anything about Linux?
Re:strikingly similar (Score:5, Insightful)
2 years ago, I had the option of sending my kid to a better public grade school; I decided to test the waters by meeting with a few of the teachers.
I asked "what was the major cause of the U.S. Civil War?"
and "is the U.S. a republic, or a democracy? whats the difference?"
The answers literally scared me. in both schools, near identical, both wrong.
Re:strikingly similar (Score:5, Funny)
Tick question! Gotcha! It's a corporate oligarchy.
Not just PHB's (Score:5, Interesting)
Sad
Same for the professional sector, really (Score:5, Interesting)
Expect this to change now that IBM and Novell have to IT world all a-buzz. People are already being sent to Linux training (by their employers) in droves in my area.
Knowledge is *hard* (Score:5, Interesting)
This should be interesting.
I can't see any kind of training course that effectively teaches someone Linux. You *might* manage to teach someone the GUI configuration front end to Red Hat's current release in a week (including enough background concepts to allow them to understand it). Not much else, though. You definitely can't learn to admin Linux effectively in a week any more than you can learn to admin Windows in a week. I'd go so far as to say that six months of well-thought out curriculum and constant practice probably isn't enough to hammer all the important concepts into someone's head of the workings of just the full set of daemons in a distro, all the important POSIX commands, different security implications, the administrative stuff that a distro uses (keep in mind that this is just for *one* distro) the ins and outs of packge systems, troubleshooting procedures, appropriate forums to go for help and etiquette in those forums, rescue procedures, networking issues...
Maybe it's expecting too much. Most Windows admins that I've run into are barely more than instruction-manual-following monkeys, whereas there are some *scarily* knowledgeable UNIX gurus out there (could be because there are people with thirty years of UNIX experience out there, but none with more than eight of Win95+ experience). You might be able to take a short training course on how to do very basic operation of a system, but if anything breaks, you aren't going to have a *clue* what to do.
God, I've been using Linux heavily for years, and I still don't know standbys like awk (well, just enough to get by, but not much) or anything more than a single operator for sed. I *still* find new commands that I haven't seen before. Groff is a closed book to me. I know a bit of Apache's workings, but not loads. I don't know how to set the systemwide timezone in a distro-independent manner (I could look it up, though). I know almost nothing about sendmail's cf syntax -- without a GUI config frontend, I'd be helpless to get sendmail running, and probably mostly helpless to fix anything more than a basic problem. I don't know what a
Re:Knowledge is *hard* (Score:5, Insightful)
And yes, when things break, there's some flagellation, especially if it breaks X, but I've usually been able to recover through basic troubleshooting I've learned in the Windows world.
As an MCSE with some Linux experience, do I recommend Linux to my bosses? Sure, but with many caveats, including buying commercial versions with commercial support and understanding what role Linux can play in an organization -- usually not as a Microsoft replacement.
My advice is to stop making Linux the "elite" operating system. If an "instruction-manual-following monkey" can get the system up and doing what it's supposed to, mission accomplished.
Re:Knowledge is *hard* (Score:4, Insightful)
Look, I'm not trying to criticize people that aren't using Linux. I'd say that it takes an equally long period of time to *really know* Windows. I just think that fewer people *really know* Windows. I know probably one person that *really knows* Windows, but I've run into many *IX admins that know an *IX system inside out.
And I've seen clueless *IX admins as well, so I'm certainly not trying to make a statement about all admins on either platforms.
How many Windows admins know (and I'm not a serious Windows guy, so I'm sure I'm missing crucial tools) Dependency Walker, Regmon, and Filemon around, for those times when *something* has changed and things aren't working? How many people could fix a system where Explorer has started refusing to boot, or would know what to start doing? What if a file association mysteriously didn't show up in Explorer and applications couldn't register that association all of a sudden? What if an admin password goes missing? What if some user tries installing Linux and blows away the Windows boot loader? I'm sure there are tons of Active Directory weirdnesses that a Real Windows Guru will know how to deal with that I can't even begin to describe.
The thing is, I really think that the only way to learn a system is to use it. A lot. And fix it when something goes wrong. And it's really hard to do that if your primary system is Windows and most of the problems someone has you fix are Windows-based. The same would go for a Mac OS X fan who maintains a Windows server or two or (me, a Linux guy) for maintaining a major Windows installation at a Fortune 500 company. It'd be silly. It'd not because I'm stupid, it's just because I can't learn everything about admining a Windows system in a week or probably even six months. And because Linux is new, a lot of admins are being handed a training course, and expected to be able to fix all problems. Their bosses are going to expect that if something goes down, the system will be back up again shortly. So suddenly there is this huge mass of newbie Linux admins expected to handle critical Linux systems. A lot of them have no interest in ever learning more, and are going to stay right at that level.
The fact that you're running Linux at home makes a pretty strong statement that you're interested in doing more than just yanking out the manual and never learning more than the ten things you had to do the last time something went wrong. Same would go for someone running MS Exchange or Solaris or Photoshop at home to learn it -- they aren't just doing the bare minimum to get by.
Re:Not just PHB's (Score:3, Funny)
Do you perceive this as a problem? What do you think 30+ years of GUI development has been for -- isn't this statement a proof of its [GUIs] success (or, gasp, is it proof of MS Windows' success?) What am I trying to say here?
Not trying to be difficult or anything, but I think this kind of comment is redundant. Don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly
Re:Not just PHB's (Score:3, Funny)
Why do you need root to set shields? Worf's userid should be part of the security group...
Or in the GUI world....
Picard: "Raise all shields, 2/3rds power to the forward shields."
Worf:
Click on work with shields
Click on advanced properties
Clippy pops up with "I see you're preparing to defend the ship..."
Highlight the forward shields
Click on raise to power, roll the roller to 66%
Click on apply now
Click on confirmation box
Highlight the remaining shields
Click on raise to power, roll the roller t
Re:Not just PHB's (Score:3, Interesting)
You can't have a fully functional GUI any more easily than you could have a graphical programming language.
The basic idea is that a CLI is almost entirely context-insensitive. It always behaves the same no matter what else is happening.
A graphical interface is all about context: is there a box there to click on? What's the value of that text entry field? What part i
Re:Not just PHB's (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Not just PHB's (Score:3, Insightful)
Uh, why would most of them *need* to be looking anywhere except their consoles ? It's not like they're transcribing letters or the phasers are aimed by moving a set of crosshairs across the main viewscreen.
Not to mention that according to one of the Enterprise tech manuals, the interfaces tha
thats easy (Score:5, Funny)
My PHB says it's too hard to install printers [catb.org]
Re:thats easy (Score:3, Insightful)
IMHO, Linux office software still sucks too.
I'd blab on about Linux's good points to get karma, but let's face it, they aren't relevant to your post.
Re:thats easy (Score:5, Interesting)
Ever tried installing Java and Java programs? Ever tried to compile Java 1.3.1 (Native threads) on OpenBSD where you have to downloading several big files files from Sun after agreeing to Sun's obnoxious lisences? Java, the platform where everything is opaque? Where lack of relevant informations is the norm, and not the exception?
To vent some frustration, I've got a quote from the bok "Apache: The Definite Guide" (page 384):
Re:thats easy (Score:4, Informative)
Yes, I added jpackage.org [jpackage.org] to my sources.list and ran "apt-get install ant struts tomcat5" and got everything I needed.
Why x sucks. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why x sucks. (Score:3, Insightful)
Not only that, but you'd be doing your readers a disservice by lying to them. If Linux was designed, even in part, because of
Need Better Books! (Score:5, Insightful)
The article does a good job of picking the misleading and false statements about Unix and Linux in various leading textbooks.
And these are just the vague and false statements about one particular category of knowledge - the Linux OS. It begs the question: if they can be mistaken about this area and not taken the time to get their facts straight, what other areas are getting hand-waving instead of well-researched facts?
More than anything else, this points out some embarrassing shortcomings in these textbooks. Professors picking textbooks for their students would do well to pick better ones than these.
Re:Need Better Books! (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course PHBs fear Linux (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Of course PHBs fear Linux (Score:3, Interesting)
Not just IT (Score:5, Insightful)
It used to be political regimes that adultered the curriculums with indoctrination, nowdays, like everything else, it has become a business!
Fortunately there a growing number of Maverick enterprises, in all sectors, that are learing that success comes best by not following the rules. I guess that is what the lawyers are supposed to prevent;-)
No kickbacks? (Score:5, Insightful)
(Runs, ducks for cover!!)
Perception of Value (Score:5, Insightful)
But wait, there's more! (Score:5, Interesting)
I agree, and there's more to it than that:
Consider Godiva chocolates. I've read studies that state that blind taste tests cannot rate them higher than Russell-Stover chocolates, a much less expensive chocolate. The reason why Godiva exists is because people want to pay more for chocolate. It's part of a high-class lifestyle. They need to feel high-class, and they need to fit in with their high-class friends. This same phenomenon is true with many other products. Just replace "high-class" with "cool", and you'll see what had fueled the sale of Nike shoes for years.
I'm not interested in using products to make me feel like I'm better or, or in using products to impress my friends. I am, however, interested in selling products to people who feel that way. It seems to me that the seller is in the much more intelligent position than the buyer.
instructor doesn't get it (Score:5, Interesting)
1.What is Linux and who created it?
2.Why was it released into the public domain rather than copyrighted?
3. Is it possible to copyright anything that relates to Linux? If so, in what way?
I gave *long* answers, showed examples of copyright statements from the Linux source, explained that everybody who contributes to it, such as Linus or IBM, keep copyright, etc. I really wanted to meet her clueless instructor, but, maybe next time.
Keep in mind that these guys were pushing cobol up until about 3 years ago, so they probably think it's extremely cutting edge to push windows nt.
Re:instructor doesn't get it (Score:4, Insightful)
The questions posed by the instructor indicate stunning amounts of cluelessness that, being involved in a LUG, would be almost a civic duty for you to clear up.
Jason.
Re:instructor doesn't get it (Score:3, Insightful)
He/She is trying to teach the students how to think critically, look deeper into subjects that they are not familiar with, and do some research before they form their opinions and share those opinions with others. That, my friend, is called education and hats off to the instructor who is actually teaching these skills rather than blindly handing out assi
Re:instructor doesn't get it (Score:3, Insightful)
Hey, I'm all for critical thinking. But this question makes false implications. It's like asking the question, "Why does a triangle have 4 sides instead of 3?" Any question that expects a balanced, critically thought answer ought not to be loaded.
Imagine asking the question in a cou
On the other hand, CS textbooks (Score:5, Insightful)
Never have I once come across a mention of Microsoft (except maybe in the History section (Xenix)) any any of the classic books by Tanenbaum, Stevens, et al.
not always true (Score:3, Insightful)
However, I'll be the first to admit that most of the MIS-related courses gave only sparse mention of Linux. I think students in general are aware of Linux's existence, but little more than that. Were it up to them to make a platform decision after the basic business degree program, I'm sure that most students would sadly be grossly uninformed about Linux and OSS, and therefore drift over to the familiar Windows environments.
From sSomeone who pitches those PHB's... (Score:5, Insightful)
There have been an increasing number of articles, posts, and so forth coming from notable people in the Linux community pointing out how the zealotry is really becoming a serious impediment to further Linux progress. In particular, they cite many Linux zealot's inability to take any sort of constructive criticism and their steadfast belief that the users should conform to the OS instead of the other way around. They say this is bad for Linux, and I think they're right on.
Microsoft is using this irrational zealot behavior to convince more PHB's that Linux is some kind of cult, not just an operating system. The more outspoken the zealots are, the more they hurt things.
Re:From sSomeone who pitches those PHB's... (Score:5, Interesting)
For every Linux (or BSD, or OS X) zealot, there are a hundred Windows zealots, the majority of them suits who have never had any real education in the evaluation of competing software, and who will reject out of hand any non-Windows solutions because that's how they were trained and because Nobody Ever Got Fired For Buying Microsoft
Re:From sSomeone who pitches those PHB's... (Score:5, Insightful)
I have to disagree with you there...from what I've seen there are definately more Linux zealots roaming around, and they are making Linux look very bad. IBM's Linux commercial (you know, the one with the orphan being adopted by the world) wasn't merely to try introducing Linux to the world, it was image spin. Anytime I tell someone that I use Linux, they always associate me with being a l337 hack0r. The latest batch of worms attacking Microsoft, SCO, and RIAA certainly don't help that impression. To the rest of the normal non-technical people, the Linux zealots really must look like terrorists. "We don't like Microsoft, or SCO, or the RIAA, so we're going to shut them all down fplolomg" Lots of the Linux zealots that I know haven't even used Windows since 85 or 98, so they don't even know what they're really up against with XP or 2003Server, and they're so busy railing about how evil MS is, that they never bother to take a look at what their products are like, to know what they are competing against.
Re:From sSomeone who pitches those PHB's... (Score:3, Interesting)
As a consultant for several Fortune 1000 companies, I'm going to disagree with you here. Many of these companies have had negative interactions with FOSS proponents. More frequently than not, the pitch degenerated into "but you should dump Microsoft because it's better for the world when one company isn't so dominant." This usually happened when the TCO studies showed l
Why my company doesn't do LINUX (Score:5, Interesting)
Linux can even cost a lot, if you so desire! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Why my company doesn't do LINUX (Score:3, Informative)
Interesting. I work for a defense contractor and we are mostly a Linux shop.
I've read one of those books... (Score:3, Informative)
This article, IMHO, doesn't really show the reality that 1) Linux even 5 years ago was merely a speck in most people's minds, 2) that Unix does have its downsides, and that 3) the authors of these books are probably running Windows as their native OS! This hardly adds up to the kind of bias the article suggests.
2-3 years from now you will start to see Linux information trickle down into these books, as they publish new versions. A couple may retain a "bias", but I bet that most will realistically track what has changed in the marketplace since the previous version of their book. To expect that formal education moves at the same speed as economic developments is silly. Education moves much more slowly, and it's got nothing to do with bias.
Re:I've read one of those books... (Score:4, Interesting)
I'll be working on an MBA in a few years myself, and I plan on paying pretty much nothing but lip service in the computer section to the instructors -- I've been working in the field long enough to see how things work, and I'm not stupid enough to think that one vendor is going to be able to solve all of my problems. I'm also not stupid enough to turn down a cost-effective solution just because it's not "commercial" -- nevermind that the non-commericial offerings of the free software world often have better support.
Maybe I should just start up a business that does nothing but set up and train users with free software for a small fee. *grin* It'd still be cheaper than any of the solutions from Redmond...
If you write a computer textbook (Score:4, Insightful)
Without even realizing it... (Score:5, Insightful)
I work for a Fortune 100 telecom company who isn't terribly pro-linux. But one day I counted up all the open-sourced software we use on a daily basis, there's a ton of it... if someone ripped OSS software away from us, we'd be in a world of hurt.
Security (Score:5, Interesting)
In our case, it's SCO. (Score:5, Insightful)
If SCO is just a shill for Microsoft, and is trying to delay the inevitable slide away from Windows, well, in our case, it's having some of that effect. If they're not doing this as an agent of Microsoft, well, it has the same effect.
Just to show what professional really means (Score:5, Insightful)
This is the first paragraph of the article. Now think about this. Basically what it says is that whatever the system (in this case educational institutions) feed them, that is what they believe. It is very sad to see that many professionals in fact do not spend the time to learn about their field outside of what is fed to them in the classroom. Their educational diet is pretty bad. If one really wants to know everything one can about a particular field, then one should take the time to read that which lies outside of the institution where they are learning it. Btw, this also shows how corporations are integrated with the education system. Never trust just one source for all your facts.
True, it isn't entirely the fault of the student, but what do we do about it? One idea comes to mind, find more sources for information besides just a book your school was encouraged to buy.
There is hope though. Linux is one very powerful example of how the internet has changed the way we find information and work together on common goals.
Re:Just to show what professional really means (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, except you just made me think of the article again and the big problem is that the article is most likely WRONG.
We're talking about some reasonably smart people here. Most of whom don't just buy off on an idea because they see it in print, and most of whom know how to research things a bit. Hell, I know a lot of business types and I seriously doubt they remember anything from school. Most of them went to get that scrap of paper that helped 'em land the job, then learned the real stuff there.
Treat the text of this article the same way you'd treat the text of one of the referenced text books: Don't believe it just because it's on Linux Insider.
Business people are trained to think in terms of dollars and risk. They need quarterly profits to satisfy investors, they need to manage risk. I have seen very few treatments of Linux or other OSS solutions that satisfactorily address BOTH cost and risk management concerns.
Linux is growing in a somewhat organic way, and the technology of it is way ahead of our ability to actually sell it. Until we address that lop-sidedness in the community, I don't see things changing fast, but they still will change, it's happening all the time.
Re:Just to show what professional really means (Score:3, Interesting)
They are smart, but in the midst of the complexity of business, finance, and management, where would they get the energy to understand the technology, too? Many technology decisions really do take the path of least resistance, simply because technology is just one more massive layer of complexity, risk, and volatility to deal wi
What goes in a PHBs mind (Score:3, Troll)
Let me share some thoughts
1. PHBs dont' give a damm about linux/windows/apple.
2. PHBs tend to have little more going through their head like getting the payroll running for the next month which pays for your cool toys
3. PHBs understand very well how to play with your psychology and depress you or make you happy like a little puppet.
So, think twice.
Get serious (Score:3, Insightful)
textbooks in general are horrible (Score:3, Informative)
textbooks are notoriously bad, for the most part. textbook publishers have to sell textbooks and there are a whole range of issues they have to deal with. i was a member of the textbook adoption committee a few years ago and i had the privilege (?) of speaking with a few of the reps. holy crap!! it should be no different i IT. the people who have the loudest voices (i.e. political groups who squak about "representation") or the most money (corporations that need product placement), get their voices heard the loudest. it is disgusting, which is why i use the text for very little of the class.
here's a blatant example of the 10th grade Mod Civ book. Hitler and the holocaust get an entire section in the WW2 chapter, yet the multiple 10's of millions Stalin killed gets 2 sentences. hmmm...
Re:textbooks in general are horrible (Score:3, Interesting)
Really? I've found that US textbooks (assuming you teach in the US) are reasonably pro-US, though not to the point of USSR textbooks. Mine included things that reflected negatively on the US, like the origins of the Panama Canal, the origins of the Spanish-American and Mexican-American wars, the fact that the US didn't care t
I read the article (Score:4, Insightful)
Traditionally Unix and Linux have bastions in CompSci departments and MIS departments have skewed to the Windows world. Microsoft has heavily infuenced US business schools with low priced licensing and faculty sponsored research, Linux does not have this advantage. Alos, I would mention that Linux+Unices only have 8% of the marketplace while Windows occupies 85% therefore if Linux/Unix have 3 references and you see more then 30 references for Windows then it really is out of whack with reality.
Outside of Slashdot and in the real world, Linux is a minority group, (not to say it will always be that way) and therefore will have less coverage because of it. (I am a fan of Trance music but I do not complain that my local Best Buy does carry the kind of selection I can get in a Miami independent record store devoted to Trance/Dance music). The store and also the author of these books are playing to the largest segment of the population. I would take a guess that more people know how to manipulate digital pictures on a computer then know how to use a Unix-based system.
Finally, university textbooks are NOTORIOUS for being behind the curve when it comes to new developments in fields so you can't really fault the books for being behind the times when it comes to Linux, it is only since 1999-2000 that Linux began to get real traction in the marketplace.
I like this quote from one of the books (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess what I am getting at is that maybe we shouldn't teach them anything about IT or programming. Maybe we should teach them how to be humble enough to ask for advice from those of us who know that stuff, instead of pretending they know everything? I know we can be just as biased, but lets say you have a few knowledgeable employees, ask them all and make your best decision from that. I don't know how to manage others or run a business, I wouldn't try without getting input from someone who does first, why should they?
My MBA experience with Linux (Score:5, Interesting)
That being said, he refused to take a copy of knoppix, refused to play with it when I loaded it for him on the school's computer, and refused to believe that I wasn't playing a trick on him. Because he was the boss of the class and was handing out the grades, I was only able to convience one member of the class on the possibilities of class.
Oh yeah, the prof was a teacher at Northwestern and at DePaul. Yeesh.....
That prof is a nut (Score:5, Interesting)
Wow.
not easy to use
I'd give it currently, from an end-user standpoint, about roughly equal to Windows. It is different, though, which means that for a user skilled in Windows, it is more difficult to use at first, until they become familiar with the differences.
it is not guarenteed to continue into the future
I will bet a million bucks that the Linux kernel will be around longer than the Windows NT kernel. There is one company working on the NT kernel -- there are many people working on Linux. Many companies have an investment and the ability and desire to continue using it, and nobody has the ability to "discontinue" Linux.
Or did he mean the APIs? UNIX system and library APIs have been more or less constant since the *'70*s. On Windows, a programmer has had to learn (get ready for it) DOS goodies, Win16, Win32, potentially the missing functionality in Windows CE and the added functionality in WinNT (which, frankly, is vastly more of a pain in the ass than the differences between even "different operating systems" like FreeBSD and Linux). Toss MFC into the mix. Now Microsoft's moving their developers to
Or maybe he was talking about the applications? Sysadmins might learn an application and then it's yanked out from under their feet...but sendmail (then called delivermail) shipped in the *'70*s. How about Apache? It started out as NCSA httpd, and was the second web server ever written.
there is no one to be held accountable for failures or for fixes
Absurd. Unless you are Dell or the US Government (and then only *maybe*), Microsoft does not *care* whether there's a bug in Windows. Name one instance where someone successfully sued Microsoft for a flaw in, say, Windows, and recieved damages for the problems caused by it. You can call Microsoft "accountable" all you want -- they are simply not.
In the Open Source world, I can sit down right now and email the main author, the development team, the maintainer, or the author of a particular feature (and usually *exact* line of code that I care about). I can generally enter bugs into the same bug-tracking system that the developers themselves use. If I'm in a hurry and need a contract for a fix within a certain time bound, I can hire a contractor to fix a bug or add a feature and send that fix to them, even if my company does not have any in-house developers capable of fixing the problem. I can discuss the problem at a technical level and point out the exact lines of code causing the problem publically, with every interested eye in the world trained on the bug. Linux has seen bug fix times for crucial bugs on the order of less than an hour ("there's a TCP bug that needs to be fixed *NOW*) "we need a fix out ASAP". Let's say you use Photoshop and report a bug to Adobe. Maybe, if you're lucky, they'll fix a bug. WilberWorks (a company formed by some GIMP developers) sells service contracts with guarantees that bugs you run into and require fixes for will be fixed within ten *days*. Try getting Adobe interested in doing something like that. Plus, if I don't like WilberWorks, I can hire anyone else to deal with my problem -- there are consultants and programmers-for-hire all over, and I can pay them whatever it takes or have them sign whatever contract I want to get them to fix my problem. Getting someone to be accountable to ensure that Open Source works is much easier than closed source products, where you have only one option -- the original vendor, which generally does not provide support on par with open source developers that provide support contracts (at least of the ones I've noticed). Most closed-source companies have churn, and do not keep developers on a single project. Microsoft, for exampl
its the institutions, not the textbooks (Score:4, Insightful)
The noted symptoms are indicative of problems in education in general, not necessarily specific to MIS. Keep in mind that it takes a while for a textbook to get written, edited & published. Then it takes time to get it approved for use & curricula to be developed, then you have to wait for the next semester / school year to start. If you were to publish a current, accurate textbook today, you'd be lucky to get it into a classroom before fall 2005. Those students wouldn't likely hit the market until 2007.
Now take a look at the mainstream press & how long it takes them to catch up to whats current in IT. If the journalists that cover this stuff on a daily basis take their sweet time opening their minds to new software / OSes / development styles, etc. how long do you think it will take a textbook publisher, much less a professor?
When I was in college around the beginning of the last decade, the best class I had used business week to drive discussions. It was a great way to get up to speed with the current issues facing business. We were discussing biotech as 'the next big thing'. Note that this was back around the same time that Linus was writing the 1.0 kernel. The 3.5" floppy drive was taking over as a new standard. Internet? WTF is an internet?
If you want to get current information to wet-behind-the-ears MBA/MIS types, you have to figure out how to convince academians that they need to have flexible curricula that changes as fast as technology. Not necessarily follow the bleeding edge, but find a periodical that will cover a wide range of tech issues.
The problem isn't with the textbooks, per se, but with the academic institutions that continue to use old, out of date textbooks - which, in the tech field, any published textbook would be!
A UNIX Book for MBAs (Score:3, Insightful)
How about a book called: "O'Reilly's Using UNIX/Linux guide for MBAs"
Funny, at work, the senior Oracle DBA is a huge proponent of Solaris and AIX on big machines. He's almost done with his MBA. But then again he used to be a UNIX/AIX System Admin.
What really makes me wonder (Score:3, Interesting)
I would bet it would be highly unlikely that a business course on selecting vendors for materials and services contains absolute adherence to a "single source" philosophy. In fact just the opposite is taught. Single source vendors for materials an services are heavily frowned upon in business. A major point of controlling business costs is tied up in pitting vendors for the same or similar materials against one another.
Yet in the absolutely worthless world of MIS, a single source of supply for operating systems on which to run your business is seemingly extolled as a VIRTUE!! All of the textbooks mentioned in this story are worthless drivel, with no critical critique of true use of software in business. No other aspect of a business would be allowed to be beholden to one supplier the way business IT is. And the peopld in charge of business IT don't just accept it, they demand it.
MIS degrees should be banned.
"A Cup of Tea" for the PHBs (Score:4, Informative)
A long time ago, I read a book by Paul Reps titled "Zen Flesh, Zen Bones", that includes a story, "A Cup of Tea", that is particularly appropriate given the material in this article. I reproduce the story here:
A Cup of Tea
The PHBs have had their heads filled so full with material, and are so unwilling/scared/unable to unlearn it, that their education becomes a liability. Corporations encounter the same kind of problem when they develop "core rigidities" and are unable to rapidly adapt to the ever-changing marketplace.Aside: someone has been kind enough to reproduce this story, along with a number of other excerpts from "101 Zen Stories", and they can be found here [utas.edu.au].
What about Magazines, Word of Mouth? (Score:3, Interesting)
Why the huge emphasis on textbooks? It's not like PHB's stop listening, learning, and adapting after they leave school.
Don't you think these PHB types talk to each other sometimes? Don't you think they read trade magazines? Word has and will continue to get around about Linux.
Big Companies that use Linux:
* Bank of America
* Autozone
* J.P. Morgan
* Golman-Sachs
The list is quite long.
The Linux Sales Pitch. (Score:3, Interesting)
Access to source code makes my time-to-market faster, because I can fix problems now rather than wait for vendors to respond. I have access to dozens of office applications, browsers, and e-mail programs, rather than being locked into just one or two. There are no restrictive licenses preventing me from changing how things work or spreading things around.
I can download, install, and use GNU/Linux for free. I only have to pay for support if I want it; if I do, GNU/Linux's higher uptime, greater stability and security over Windows means I will be spending less money keeping my system working and make more money doing my business.
This is not just the state of the art; GNU/Linux has an army of developers that dwarfs Microsoft's staff. GNU/Linux is improving more rapidly than Windows is, and in every aspect. GNU/Linux can afford to waste thousands of man-years on failed projects and branches because they have so many resources to spare, whereas any single company has to keep development costs in check to ensure profitability.
Nobody can compete with more features, more freedom, and lower cost over an extended period of time -- not even a company as large and successful Microsoft. In the long term, Microsoft will have to do what IBM has done -- adopt GNU/Linux and a service-based model. Otherwise, Microsoft won't survive.
Fifteen years from now, everything will be GNU/Linux.
Windows is being institutionalized (Score:5, Insightful)
The textbooks rarely mentioned UNIX or VMS unless it was during a discussion of ancient legacy database or EDI systems or a treatise on the history of client-server computing. There were courses that were specifically slanted toward certain products like Visual Basic, and ASP, with no mention of Delphi or PHP. Database discussions and case studies involving databases were always about Oracle or Microsoft products. There was never a mention of MySQL or PostgreSQL. Linux only came up because my boyfriend is an advocate. We'd discuss equivalent Linux technologies with professors. Those professors who were interested only felt that it wasn't worth it to try to teach those technologies to students since the students want to learn these sexy enterprise computing acronyms like ASP and
To make things worse, the entire school network had been rebuilt using all Microsoft technologies on the front end and a couple of IRIX or SunOS systems on the back far away from prying eyes. The result was a complete divorcing of UNIX from all aspects of computing among the student body with the effect of new students not being exposed to anything but Microsoft Windows (including thin clients). This bothers me a lot since I feel my UNIX and VAX experience has helped shaped my understanding of computing more than what Windows has done.
There is a perception of UNIX and Linux being institutionalized in the university system. UNIX is what was whereas Windows is what will be. Linux is for local chapter ACM members who have long hair and date ugly girls. Windows is for businessmen who drive luxury cars and get blowjobs from beautiful women they hardly know. UNIX is a typewriter in the age of Microsoft Office. UNIX is that mysterious blue box (SGI Indy) sitting in a basement office serving the school's webmail system, and the VAX is a hobbled workhorse that's being put out of its misery as I type.
*Bang* Hear that? That was the sound of six years worth of my emails being erased forever as a VAX completes its last process.
Re:If you've ever wondered why your PHB... (Score:2, Informative)
any others?
Re:If you've ever wondered why your PHB... (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, Pin Head is one of the main characters in Hellraiser. You may think that the that is proper comparision, but anyway, PHB = Pointy Haired Boss.
How about the article itself? (Score:5, Insightful)
I think he pretty identified the primary reason Linux has been slow to catch on in mainstream business.
It's all fun having a bunch of geeks get together and talk about how great Howard Dean is and how c00| Linux is; but we're still very nieve when it comes to educating the decision makers in the world. I'd love to seem some discussion about how to get Linux written up in more business textbooks. I would have thought the RHAT IPO and IBM would have helped this; but wow that article showed that misconsceptions still abound.
Re:How about the article itself? (Score:5, Insightful)
Too bad for him that he lost me (and unintentionally made a different point) in the second sentence (emphasis mine):
Simply try to remember, next time you run into users who think Microsoft invented computing, that they got those beliefs from their textbooks -- meaning that they aren't necessarily as moronic as their opinions and that you can hope to reeducate at least some of them.
This is the reason why most bosses are slow to pick up on Linux -- because most IT professionals treat it like a club rather than a serious operating system. If you don't get it, you are one of the morons, and you are excluded.
A manager might see Linux on the same lines as s/he sees this [thinkgeek.com] or this [thinkgeek.com], products designed to exclude the general public from the IT fraternity. The IT people think they are cool; the general public just sees nerds with toys.
Re:How about the article itself? (Score:5, Interesting)
A guy came into my cube today and asked about the box I'm building. When I mentioned that it ran Lniux, he asked me "Really? What *IS* Linux, anyway? What good does it do me?"
This was a brilliant question and it deserved a complete answer. So I looked at him. All of his needs were already met by Windows. We don't upgrade operting systems -- we just buy new machines ever three years or so on R&D grants -- so the cost issue was not there. He has never gotten any viruses and the firewall protects him from worms. In his day, he uses all of three apps: a custom program for customer management (Windows only), PC Anywhere (Windows only) and Microsoft Word. And he's busy as hell -- certainly doesn't have the spare time to pick up bash syntax or play around with Gee Whiz features. So I said to him, "It does you no good at all."
And then I proceeded to explain to him why I used in on the server. "If I ran the company website and that FTP site on Windows, I'd have to constantly worry about them. I'd have to constantly be installing patches and watching for exploits. By running Linux, I can decrease my watchfulness to the point where I only have to check up on it once a month."
Re:How about the article itself? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:How about the article itself? (Score:5, Insightful)
Argh. Not this again.
The wonderful appeal to the inferiority complex: "Look, there are a heck of alot of really smart people out there who can't even check their email. They make more money than you, get laid more often than you, and are probably happier than you."
These days, if someone remotely involved with computers can't figure out how to check their email, then they probably are stupid.
As for making money, or getting laid. Sure. There are bound to be people who are better or worse off than the average geek. But so what? Do you really want to be the rich guy who wrote spam software, who can't tell anybody what he did because it's so unethical? Geeks involved in the spam business probably make better cash than your average Linux enthusiast. What about getting laid? Sure, if you spend hours studying NLP you might be able to trick or coerce a girl into sleeping with you. Wow. Aren't you great. But really, sex is also the cause of a lot of problems: pregnancy, STDs, and an emotional rollercoaster. Wouldn't you rather be able to feel good about yourself, and have your partner feel good about you?
The fact is, aside from perhaps being introverted, geeky, and male, the average Slashdot reader has something else in common: morals. Look how often freedom is mentioned here. Look at how the argument agains Microsoft is about their unfair actions. There's a cost for everything. If I cared only about money, I'd be making more than I am now, but many of my friends would lose respect for me. If I wanted to get laid more, I could treat girls like they were disposable, but I'd lose respect of my friends for that too. No thanks, I'm pretty happy with who I am.
Re:How about the article itself? (Score:3, Insightful)
No. Not true. They're afraid of the computer, especially if it hasn't been set up properly. Many people have no clue what POP3, SMTP, SSL, etc. are, and couldn't configure them without a step by step tutorial. They're just too afraid of breaking something to try it. Why do companies need large tech support divisions? Because people can't fix things themselves. The computer is
Re:How about the article itself? (Score:5, Insightful)
I know uber-geeks don't really give a damn what anyone thinks right? Well clearly you care about how Linux and Unix is percieved or wouldn't be posting on this thread would you. You'd be amazed at how much easier it is to listen to someone who looks professional, or at least doesn't smell bad.
This is the biggest load of bollocks ever. The idea of a "professional look" was invented by PHBs for PHBs to show other PHBs how they can afford the expensive Armani suit. It says nothing about how well you do the job. It's window dressing. I work contract and will turn down jobs that have a dress code since I know that I'll have to deal with shitty management if there is one. And the longest I've been out of work in 4 years is a 6 week holiday I took in Egypt.
Bob
Re:How about the article itself? (Score:5, Insightful)
Hi, sit down. Make yourself comfortable. I know this is a little disorienting, but this is the real world.
What? Yes, in fact, 90% of the geeks in the real world do come to work shaved, showered and neatly dressed. In fact, a lot of them would do that even without work. I know, in your little fantasy world every geeks looks liks RMS, but this is the real world where, in order to get and keep jobs, they have to shave, shower and dress nicely. Most of our work places have dress codes, you know.
I know, it must be scary for you. So many geeks aren't afraid of speaking in public, making their voices heard and arguing persuasively using logic and business language. Geeks tend to be the most outspoken people in an organization. Being a geek means learning new cultures and different ways of thinking. It's a hobby to a geek. I know, I know. In your world, geeks are quiet, meek and mumble. That's OK, you're in the real world now.
Let's take a walk. Why, yes, they are very patient, caring people who really want their users to know what they know and to be productive. You don't survive long in this business if you don't.
Oh, look, that geek is having a heart-felt conversation with a techno-neophyte boss. Notice how well it's working. That's because the boss doesn't treat the geek as an idiot child who must be restrained. The boss respects the geek's knowledge and listens, in turn, the geek understands the boss has a different set of bosses to answer to, and he's trying his damndest to help his boss. He's helpful, honest and works his damndest to provide the bosses the numbers and research he needs to fight for him.
Why am I being so condescending to you? Why were you being so condescending to geeks?
Re:If you've ever wondered why your PHB... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:If you've ever wondered why your PHB... (Score:3, Interesting)
On our course I've seen little "pro-windows" save the choice of OS the university made for desktops. Some of the lecturers including the economics lecturer find aspects of the GPL model fascinating.
Alan
Re:If you've ever wondered why your PHB... (Score:5, Funny)
Basically, it's a Bachelor of Philosophy.
Re:If you've ever wondered why your PHB... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:If you've ever wondered why your PHB... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:For those of you without a clue... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:For those of you without a clue... (Score:5, Funny)
I warned you before about reading and posting on slashdot during work hours. Maybe you'll have better luck on your next job and your boss won't be a PHB.
Re:For those of you without a clue... (Score:5, Funny)
You know, today's not April Fools' Day. That was yesterday (just ask michael).
Re:Shared file access (Score:3, Interesting)
Because you have to go out of your way to do something less desireable, the "non-common case". If it was really easy to, say, blow away all your files instead of a user having to go "out of their way", I'd call that a misfeature.
Seriously, I think the no-sharing default is to help prevent anamalous behavior. Sharing a file requries extra planning; you wouldn't share a block of memory between two threads, read/write, without a lock