

Why Your Server Should be Running Linux 137
Peter Neves writes
"
There is a Linux story on the very front page of the MSNBC Technology Section, "the front slide" as they call it, on why Linux should be the OS running your server. While the story gives a technical overview on the features and performance of several distributions in comparison to NT, the summary says that Linux is not capable of "Competing with the 800 pound Gorilla" of the MS Marketing and distribtution channels. "
Mmmm, FUD (Score:1)
Microsoft did save us from IBM (Score:1)
You're not too far off. Where I work, we pay about $5000 for an IBM P2/400.
Wow (Score:1)
800 pound Bill Gates? :) "NT stands for: New ... (Score:1)
I stand corrected!
I had thought it meant (even prior to its first release) as: N(ot) T(here) (Yet).
microsoft is only mostly evil (Score:1)
*But* you shouldn't pigeonhole this latest wave of marketroid hype and asian teen porn as being entirely bad. We do have computers on practically every desk, and thanks to many, many different individuals and companies, including people as revered as lick and bob taylor to people/companies as universally slammed as gates and AOL.
As for signal/noise ratios... that's a function of the people, not the technology. Slashdot has a sometimes poor ratio itself, but it doesn't have to be that way.
Without Microsoft, you're right, the internet would probably still be a place of intelligent discourse, but, the number of people using it would be far fewer. I think that was a good tradeoff.
Interesting ZDNet comments. (Score:1)
Can you say "syndrop?" [zdnet.com]
Mmmm, FUD. [zdnet.com]
Shutting up now, sir. [zdnet.com]
"Complete package" like Web server, six different editors... [zdnet.com]
Apache::ASP, perhaps. [zdnet.com]
New technology...macro viruses, you mean? [zdnet.com]
Gold Bar, WA...hmm, 36 miles from Redmond... [zdnet.com]
"Lazy programmer's version" meaning that you don't have to pay $600 for the compiler? [zdnet.com]
Yes, 400-1400 users are just so easy to simulate in a lab environment. [zdnet.com]
Ever pushed NT's memory? (Score:1)
Nope, at least not yet ( coming soon, unfortunatly ).
However, I have pushed Win3.1/Win95 ( read: lose3.1/lose95 ) memory with the same effect.
From lose95 onwards, Loseows is supposed to include a virtual memory manager with garbage collection when your apps terminate ( bwahahaha! - yes, this is normally in capitals to express humor. Lowercase is used to express borebom. ).
In actual fact, this does not appear to be the case. Loseows95 and higher doesn't clean up all un-allocated resources at program termination. The result is a steady "leak" of system resouces until the machine crashes. Has anybody else had this problem?
Note : my own area of experience is in data-communications ( which push Loseows to the limit ). Is there a problem in that stupid damn "OpenComm()" command that's supposed to set up a send/recieve queue that anyone else has hit? The memory allocated is supposed to be freed when you issue "CloseComm()", but I have my doubts on that point.
Is Rob a Rascist? (Score:1)
Actually, no. As someone who has previously e-mailed Rob Malda over the issue of censorship, I can categorically state that
1). If you have a genuine grip and you are prepared to point it out to Rob, he will normally fix it.
2). If your just a lame AC who doesn't have the conviction to put your name to your words, he will ignore you.
Grow up *jerk*. If you don't have the guts to put your name to your words, then your just whining. Get a valid nick and maybe then we might pay attention to you ( but not before then ).
You use Microsoft SQL server? (Score:1)
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
You poor idiot. You mean you can actually stomach all that stupid SQLConnect() and SQLSetColumns() lameness without throwing up?
Gosh dude, you really aught to apply to "Madam Toni's house of Discipline and Bondage" for a discount rate. Your sure deserve it! If nothing else, youll get a *free* spanking!
As to your post "disappearing", not likely. It's just too funny for the moderators to do that. If you want to go through life with a sign over your head that says "I'm a Masocist, please hit me!", well, you asked for it, you got it.
Why? Because "Server too busy"! (Score:1)
Try searching for say, "Lizard" then click on one of the images, and see MS IIS choke!
J.
IDIOT BOSS? GET ANOTHER JOB! (Score:1)
If you've got an idiot non-technical boss telling you what technology to use, get another job!
There are plenty if IT jobs where you don't have to put up with this BS. There's no excuse for whining about something so easily fixed. Someday, the corporate world will recognize that they need to trust good it professionals, rather than hiring the same old point-click-and-reboot joe losers.
YOUR server should run Linux, but NOT OURS! (Score:1)
"YOUR server should run Linux!" they say. Notice that they make no claims about their own servers.
--
Typical MS (Score:1)
Rob is a Censorship demen (Score:1)
Actually wouldn't it be "daemon"? Since, in the original posters mind, Rob is forever lurking in the background waiting to censor anything that AC's post.
Actually, I think we could usa a bit *more* moderation here. I hate wading through pages and pages of off-topic flamewars and rantings.
Of course, that includes this post doesn't it? Doh! Please moderate this post too, Rob. =)
This is many things: (Score:1)
2) We've seen 3 times now (although it IS a good article), which
3) is very good for Linux.
Not new news, but still good news. ;-) (Score:1)
However, it is as true now as it was then, and perhaps even more so, with the 2.2.x kernel release. Even if it's not new news, it being posted on the front of MSNBC's tech section is new. And very, very good. Linux is the way of the future.
-- Toph
"First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you.
Then they fight you. Then you win." - Gandhi
Am I too critical? (Score:1)
Linux will run on (almost) anything. Can't we for once see a news site have an article that doesn't take sides on a distribution. Once you get past the package management, its *ALL* the same damn thing!
The only reason MSNBC has that article on their news site is to try and make the DoJ/Judge think they don't have a monopoly. It would be better for the DoJ/Judge to drop the case and let nature (Linux, BSD, SUN, IBM, etc) take care of itself.
Lastly why do they always have to inflate the minimum requirements to run Linux? Linux runs on my 386SX with 2mb ram, no harddrive, no video card or serial ports. And every damned news site always says 'Minimum requirement: 386DX 16 MB ram'!
Okay enought ranting from me, someone else?
An interesting analogy... (Score:1)
mcse is very hard and not everyone can become one (Score:1)
If thats not even more rediculous microsoft wants to make the minimum requirements for an mcse up to 9 exams and expect the students to pay up to 12,000-16,000$ to take classes and 900 for all the exams. I want to shoot them! Microsoft thinks it can do whatever it likes just because thewy claim to own 80% of the server market. They may not treat us like rats. I want to administer and support computers and not go back to a university type class so I can learn how many mouse clicks or answer microsoft specific questions.
That's a nice machine (Score:1)
On about the same hardware AFAIK.
And you can set up a site w/MySQL and SlashEngine pretty quick. A friend of mine once made a presentation on linux to a bunch of execs. He took a bare machine and had a web server up and running in 5 minutes flat.
Notice some of the sig's (Score:1)
That's "MicroSoft Certefied Engineer & Certified NetWare Engineer".
Linux actively destroys the diplomas this guy spent good money to buy. That wasn't very nice now was it
-------------------
SCORES
-------------------
The Server:
Linux 1 NT 0
coming soon to pay per view:
THE DESKTOP
can MS's interface from 1995 stand up to the latest from all over the world? Can the debate between KDE and GNOME finally solve the real question: Which is better, C or C++? What the hell crazy name will Miguel come up with for GNOME 1.0?
Frankly i can't decide, i like them both. I figure I'll make a final decision on what's most key: games and coolness of themes.
Linux will not be mainstream until.... (Score:1)
> not have happend. The benefits of this
> proliferation are enormus (and I don't have
> either the time or space here to count them
> all). I'm going to sum it up in one word.
> Internet. Without ready access to computers that
> are "user friendly" (sorry for the buzz word!!!)
> we don't get all this communications stuff that
> makes up the "Information Age".
No internet without Microsoft, eh? I think not. Unix (and its precursors) built the internet starting in the late 1950s. Microsoft didn't even catch on until a few years ago, they were too busy working on "Bob" because computers still weren't stupid enough for them. Hundreds of thousands of morons using IE to download asian teen porn did not create "all this communications stuff that makes up the Information Age".
However, without Microsoft, the internet *would* probably still be a place of intelligent discourse and high signal/noise ratios.
*sigh*
--
The X thing (Score:1)
oh puh-lease (Score:1)
Come on, give me a break NT whomps on Linux so bad it's not even funny I remember running Linux way back in 96 and it was crap I have a hard time believing it's improved much since then besides, that test was run with the Linux boxes not running X, so of course that helped speed up performance DUH!
This is actually funny. In a sick, sad sorta way. You "remember Linux "way back" in 96" eh? Hmm, you don't think that with 3 years and...oh a couple hundred thousand hours of coding and debuggin it's gotten BETTER?
Unlike NT (Never Trustworthy), Linux has been CONSTANTLY under revision. There isn't a day that goes by that new code is added to the Linux legacy.
Unlike you, many of us don't REQUIRE a fulltime dummified P&C interface. And if turning it off helps improve performance of the machine while I'm not working on it, or even if I am, I'm ALL FOR IT. Pointing it out as a "cheat" is idiotic. It's a feature of the OS. The GUI is merely an app run on the system, not the system itself. Inevitably this IS going to mean more speed for the CLI. You're just peeved because you cannot turn off your butt-ugly NT interface.
Face the facts, Unix is a dead and dying OS it'll never be anything worth looking at besides, the world uses NT so until Linux gets some good apps that will be compatable with NT's...forget it
Unixen have been getting proclaimed "dead and dying" for YEARS. MS declared it so at one time. Now they're hustling to get NT certified as Unix. I'll believe Unix/Linux dead when I see it. Not because some kid who has trouble understanding what to do at a DOS prompt says so.
The world uses NT? Even "I" am not THAT widely travelled that I can make that claim! Do a check of how many of the webservers on the internet are using some form of Apache or CERN or NCSA or other unixen-based webservers. The number FAR exceeds the pitiful market share that NT holds.
I seem to also recall that NT handles threads better and also multitasks better than Linux plus NT security is way beyond Linux's how many NT exploits are there? no where near as many as Linux
You SEEM to recall? Or you DO recall? Just because some mental defective's mind barfs out pseudofacts doesn't mean it's so. Do some RESEARCH and find out. Also, threading, while a nice addition, isn't necessary to achieve peak performance in Linux. You saw it for yourself in an article posted on a site owned by MS itself. Linux as a server runs at LEAST 200% better than an equivallent (what a misnomer) NT machine. Also, Linux can wring every last ounce of performance out of a machine that would otherwise choke on NT.
Nowhere near as many NT exploits? MAYBE. Last time I checked the Symantec Antivirus Research Site [symantec.com] there were several tens of THOUSANDS of bugs, exploits, and virii available to foul an already foul operating system.
In addition how many of the exploits in NT are fixed within 24-48 HOURS of notice. DAMN FEW (read ALMOST NONE). How many are fixed within a week? A month? A year?
How many of them are just hushed up in hopes that nobody finds them? Try MOST.
Now let's see. How is NT superior to Unixen?
You know? You're right. NT MUST be superior.
.....Yeah, and Bill Gates might fly if we chucked him off the highest building we could find near Redmond.
geez, next you'll be arguing MacOS is gonna steal back it's share of the market
We're talking facts here. Not fantasies.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
This is the third time for this one (Score:1)
actually, this is the secret meaning of "NT" ... (Score:1)
Just take "useable" from "unstable" and "NT" is what is leftover
-- heard somewhere on usenet
Mmmm, FUD (Score:1)
This is obviously a ploy (Score:1)
Has MSNBC been "cracked"? (Score:1)
http://www.msnbc.com/news/195260.asp
and tell me if box halfway down the page isn't using pictures of Tux as bullets.
Consider the Experiment (Score:1)
I want a file/print server.
Point #2:
Ah yes. That's good. Get your client to pay out the ass for a crappy server OS. Then, after you're gone, they have problems and come crying to you. Smart move. I hope it makes you look good in the eyes of your contractors and not like someone who's trying to scam them.
Point #3:
Use PHP. It is flat out better than ASP. And since your intelligence is only "marginal", you could even start out with the ASP2PHP converter.
Point #4:
A machine w/ a P6-200 and 96MB of RAM using Linux 2.2.2, Apache & mod_php, and the same SQL server setup you've described was set up by your most humble narrator in less than a day for a fraction of the cost for my employer.
Point #5:
They pay you too much.
Have a nice day.
--Simon Breakwater
A hacker is a machine for turning caffeine into code.
I thought NT stood for... (Score:1)
Point, counterpoint (Score:1)
I only dabble with web servers so I can't speak with a great deal of knowledge on the subject. I have seen a plenty of web sites created with PHP, mod_perl and Zope that seem pretty cool, although it may have taken longer for them to be developed, I don't know. But IBM is porting Web Sphere to Linux, a port of Cold Fusion is on the way and other vendors are porting tools to Linux practically everyday now. Therefore, my second point is that as far as RAD development is concerned, I don't imagine that NT will have much of an advantage in the future, assuming that it has an advantage now.
The mere fact that you can run a Linux without a GUI gives a major performance boost as a server. Although I only dabble with web servers, I know operating systems. I started my career supporting a proprietary, multitasking operating system (CTOS) in the early 80s. I've written transport layers on top of DOS, multithreading toolkits for DOS and Windows 3.1 and device drivers for ISC Unix, Linux and (shudder) NT. I can say without any reservation that NT is incredibly inefficient. The number of "objects" that you need to pass around in a device driver is absurd, not to mention all the painful abstractions and IRQ layers that you need to worry about. The funny aspect is that all the inefficiencies do nothing to improve the stability of the OS. As a matter of fact, a bug in a device driver is guaranteed to BSOD the system. In Linux, there is at least a chance that a bad sound driver won't crash the entire system. Point number three, a Linux server will almost always be faster and more stable than an NT server.
Now although you set up NT boxes for your clients that "never crash", what do you do something does go wrong? I'm assuming it's the client's fault, maybe they installed the latest Internet Explorer service pack and now their server is unstable (this really happened to me). For an NT machine, you drive to the client site and start mucking in the registry, checking DLL versions and pointing and clicking the night away. If they don't have a good disaster recover mechanism in place (including backing up the registry), you back up your software, format the hard drive, and reinstall everything from the ground up. What do you do with a Linux box? Well first of all, the latest web browser won't make a Linux server unstable (it may crash X, but it won't crash the system). But things can go wrong and when they do, you secure shell in, and go through a similar (but in my opinion, less painful) process. You can even reboot using a different kernel if you need to. All the while you're in your pajamas listening to your favorite CDs. Only if a Linux server is completely hosed do you need to be physically present. So the fourth point is that Linux is easier to support.
Finally, scalability. If the customer's machine is under powered and needs to be upgraded, Linux scales better. On Alpha and UltraSparc hardware, Linux is 64-bit. IBM will be supporting Linux on RS/6000s in the very near future. Besides that, any solution you develop for Linux will easily port to any UNIX out there in case they really need a Sun Enterprise server with a ridiculous number of processors or an HP 9000. The customer with the NT solution is screwed until Merced and NT 6.0 (2005?) ship. Trust me, they won't be happy. Point five and game goes to Linux.
Can you say Freedom? I hope you can.
P.S. I just reread this and it seems a bit pompous. I didn't mean it to be, it must be that I watched "Pride and Prejudice" last night. Oh well, I'm too lazy to rewrite it.
I particularly like... (Score:1)
oh puh-lease (Score:1)
If that aint customer satisfaction, I dunno what is.
They're saying Server NOT Desktop (Score:1)
I think it was the second Halloween document that tried to compare Linux to other Unixes and block it off as Merely a server OS, i.e. strictly not for the Desktop.
MS could be trying to hype the server side of Linux to keep it from the desktop.
"Servers are big and scary; Windows isn't."
..Yeah, right.
800 pound Bill Gates? :) (Score:1)
I saw this great homepage once, linked off
of the window manager's page (http://www.plig.org/xwinman/). It was an enlightenment screen shot, in one of the windows there was a graphical image of what (at first) looked like the NT logo, with that Redmond 95 font and the crossed wires and all. But upon closer inspection, there were two cavemen trying to start a fire.
...And I can't find the link anymore. I'm so sad.
Help me with a counter-argument for something (Score:1)
gvim is a very nice text editor if you take the time to learn it... all Linux really needs is time for the toolkits to develop good GUI-building apps and a few good books to be written and real programmers will start to realize what a clean and efficient tool you have, especially when you have access to ALL the code
.
Consider the Experiment (Score:1)
Funny stuff. (Score:1)
Not like Unix OS's haven't accrued hundreds of patents. Hell, NT probably "violates" some. Good for MS if they do, software patents suck.
Consider the Experiment (Score:1)
It *IS* the tools that suck. NT on the whole is probably comparable with many commercial Unixen, but when you have to use blunt tools like User Manager and Server Manager, or when you have to go moving around the whole registry then remotely load a corrupted hive (which NT does its damndest to make inconvenient), that you really start itching to put a bullet through the thing.
What is it about NT that makes otherwise perfectly good SA's so incompetent that they can't keep it running? Some kinda distortion vortex?
Point, counterpoint (Score:1)
Add on. And laughably unstable. It comes with warnings plastered all over it telling you how beta it is. God forbid they should try sshd. Fact: I cannot reinstall an NT machine over the network and telnet in to reconfigure it. This is SOP where I work, where we reinstall regularly because it guarantees standard configuration (every bit of user data is on NFS servers -- yes I hate NFS too)
> (2) Web based tools for adminning NT (built-in).
Not my area. I'm guessing regedit isn't one of those though. Correct me if I'm wrong.
> (3) Windows-based remote tools for adminning NT.
Unbundled. Defeats the purpose of standard admin tools.
> I'm just saying that I personally don't have as much pain with NT as you all have. I don't know why.
You've never had to limp over to the server room on a sprained ankle and bruised kneecap again and again to reboot the server because el bossman doesn't spring for remote admin tools? Remember this "it works out of the box, nothing extra needed" mentality is what sells NT in the first place, so most installations do NOT have all these wonderful third party tools. Or in the case of the telnetd, they're simply too unstable.
Can't compete with marketing, my eye... (Score:1)
They don't bite the hand that feeds them,eh ? (Score:1)
Aptly named too.
_Deirdre
Consider the Experiment (Score:1)
Yes, you are.
Good whore makes more per hour then you do.
Fucking with ugly, smelly drag dealers.
Ability to make money off something does not imply it is a good technology.
When Linux wins, you will be doing 10 projects per month.
Of course you are just bragging. Stupid troll.
How would you imagine that? (Score:1)
Ahh, why I bother to answer to morons.
Slow day
Consider the Experiment (Score:1)
Send you? What's your E-mail? Where did you install your bug-free solutions? Are you sure they will just upgrade your solution to Win2K and it will just work? Liar. Moron.
That's a nice machine (Score:1)
That's a nice machine (Score:1)
Man, you have too much free time I see, for all your bragging. (well, I have an excuse, my code is running in the background... third month of this debugging hell
BTW, my NT boxes do not crush as well. Besides that horrible memory leak in SP4, but it was fixed, thank you MS. Until users decide to go and add/change anything. Then there applications screw up system libraries all over the place - and there is no fucking way, short of a clean uninstall/reinstall to fix the mess. Then it works again tip top, indeed. Sheesh. Ease of use, mother fuckers. Yeah, once my thesis is over I can go and earn some money for what I am volunteered here to do...(NT desktop and application support for a research group) - if I can not find a respectable job of course.. People pay for this crap. It is still crap.
You asked for a database application example that NT cannot handle. Take a look at our stuff. (I am not with this directly, my friends are). If you say NT can handle that in any form - you are a bloody liar, who have no clue what he is talking about. Of course Linux is far from it as well, Solaris is used on mainframe level hardware. But Linux makes a good client. [stanford.edu]
That's a nice machine (Score:1)
Man, you have too much free time I see, for all your bragging. (well, I have an excuse, my code is running in the background... third month of this debugging hell
BTW, my NT boxes do not crush as well. Besides that horrible memory leak in SP4, but it was fixed, thank you MS. Until users decide to go and add/change anything. Then there applications screw up system libraries all over the place - and there is no fucking way, short of a clean uninstall/reinstall to fix the mess. Then it works again tip top, indeed. Sheesh. Ease of use, mother fuckers. Yeah, once my thesis is over I can go and earn some money for what I am volunteered here to do...(NT desktop and application support for a research group) - if I can not find a respectable job of course.. People pay for this crap. It is still crap.
You asked for a database application example that NT cannot handle. Take a look at our stuff. [stanford.edu] (I am not with this directly, my friends are). If you say NT can handle that in any form - you are a bloody liar, who have no clue what he is talking about. Of course Linux is far from it as well, Solaris is used on mainframe level hardware. But Linux makes a good client.
Anyone else wonder... (Score:1)
Sometimes Microsoft does something right--sue me I haven't seen anything in the same time zone as PowerPoint in years and although I keep trying the alternatives I always find Excel winning me back. But, when it comes to operating system fundamentals, give me Linux or BSD/OS any day of the week.
Linux is getting solid praise in my book because it deserves it and that's all there is to it. Fair warning, if things start going wrong, we'll report that too.
Steven, Senior Technology Editor, Sm@rt Reseller
oh puh-lease (Score:1)
Check out the Apple sales numbers lately?
The Mac is back.
Steven, Senior Technology Editor, Sm@rt Reseller
Please don't (Score:1)
Thank you. The author.
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
Senior Technology Editor, Sm@rt Reseller
http://www.zdnet.com/sr
Anyone else wonder... (Score:1)
...why zdnet is suddenly running "isn't linux cool" articles? Is it just me, or do they seem to have suddenly 'changed' their minds about a lot of this stuff? Could it be that microsoft had a little 'chat' with them and suggested it might simply be time to start painting 'that other OS' as a serious contender until the DOJ trial is over?
Hopefully, I'm just being paranoid...
CraigL->Thx();
Be Developer ID: 5852
An interesting analogy... (Score:1)
I had this vision...
The 800 lb ( 360 kg ) gorilla perched on top of a building, with little biplanes flying around shooting at it. The likes of Linus and Alan at the stick, and hell, Snoopy ( aka the Red Baron ) too. All shooting at it with their latest 2.2 super-lazer-blasters. The gorilla swinging wildly, in all directions obviously dazed and stunned by the suddennes and fericity of the attack. And then, in the middle of a swing its eyes suddenly flash blue and the other arm forgets to hold on.... down it falls off the Empire State building...
CraigL->Thx();
Be Developer ID: 5852
Ever pushed NT's memory? (Score:1)
My experiences with NT4 sp3 have been largely negative. While the Intel CPUs make light work of computation, if the application uses too much virtual memory the operating system goes into a kind of "seizure mode", even when the application is closed. It seldom recovers necessitating a reboot. I've observed this phenomenon with quite a few NT4 machines. On occasion, running out of VM will crash the machine entirely. I don't understand why closing an application shouldn't cause it's resources to be realeased fairly quickly in NT. I certainly never had this sort of problem running the same software, doing the same sorts of tasks on Solaris and Digital UNIX boxes.
The machines were (in those days, top-spec) IBM things with Pentium Pro 200, 128MB RAM and SCSI hard disks.
And another thing, try running a few Notepad, Calculator or Wordpad processes (say, 2 of each). These are seemingly light weight apps. Now, look at the task manager.
These are just a user's observations who hasn't looked at the technical design of NT's memory manager - just used it, hard. And, yes, the cost advantage of choosing Wintel for our new machines was hard to argue especially as the rest of the office was a Wintel environment with a peanut sys admin. Sad, really.
-t.
oh puh-lease (Score:1)
MS can't win! (Score:1)
Linux can compete or not, it is bad for
Microsoft. After MS paid $$$ to make Linux
look like competition, MSNBC wants to do
something nice for them and stabs them
in the back instead. These are funny times.
Just More Hype for MS's case (Score:1)
I don't find it coincidence that these articles appear on news orginazations such as MSNBC. If Linux were really a threat, those articles would never get posted. A true threat would do more damage to the business. (would you talk yourself OUT of a dineer date with a pretty girl by telling her about some guy over in the corner?) As it is.....MS can post them and say "see...we are being objective....we report favorably on the competition when it warranted". Key word here is competition. Was competition in any articles prior to the Halloween document?
Rant over...hehe
Hotmail (Score:1)
NT5/W2K is supposed to be an almost complete rewrite, so it may improve a little, but I personally find it hard to believe that they can overcome NT's scalability and performance problems without seriously compromising backward compatibility with previous versions.
They're doing a pretty poor job. (Score:1)
Censorship on slashdot... (Score:1)
Microsoft will have a monopoly in server real soon (Score:1)
oh puh-lease (Score:1)
I am not sure of the details, but from what I recall reading about Apple's plans, within a year or so their OS will be very much Unix like, albiet with a Mac GUI sitting on top of it.
What I suspect this means is that for most Mac users they will notice little difference, apart from much better multiprocessing, but if you need it (like on a server) much of the unix like functions will be there (perhaps even a command line?)
Linux will not be mainstream until.... (Score:1)
And as easy as it is to slam Gates/Microsoft I respect 2 things about it.
#1) Gates had a vision of a computer in every home. Without M$ "in-your-face" marketing this would not have happend. The benefits of this proliferation are enormus (and I don't have either the time or space here to count them all). I'm going to sum it up in one word. Internet. Without ready access to computers that are "user friendly" (sorry for the buzz word!!!) we don't get all this communications stuff that makes up the "Information Age".
#2) Gates has put the monopoly power of M$ to good use at least once. He has forced hardware standardization on some parts of the computer industry. And frankly, if I didn't want to go with standardized hardware I'd have gotten an Amiga in '91 instead of a clone.
(Disclaimer: I am NOT a Microsheep) Do I hope that the DOJ trial breaks or regulates M$? You bet I do!!! IMHO the best possible result is for M$'s OS division to be split into a different company than the HW and Apps divisions.
My point in all the above is that Linux might become a mainstream server in the readily forseeable future, but unless it takes on some of the attributes of Windoze it will probably never make it to mainstream desktops.
Dissenting opinions welcome!
David
Solaris and FreeBSD, too. (Score:1)
oh puh-lease (Score:1)
Consider the Experiment (Score:1)
server? Second, I don't know why I'm able to
set up NT boxes for clients that never crash
and never bottleneck. I don't know why I'm able
to write Active Server Pages applications
running against SQL server that support 400
simultaneous users on a Pentium II/300 with
128 megs of ram. I don't know why I'm able to
start-to-finish 5 of these projects every month.
I don't know why someone of marginal intelligence
such as myself is able to charge $100 an hour
to do this. I guess I'm just stupid.
Can you say RAD people? I know that you can.
Consider the Experiment (Score:1)
You express frustration at Microsoft because YOU and YOU alone have had difficulty in getting it to operate without crashing. How much luck do you think you would have had with Linux with no help from the community?
I've been working professionally with Windows NT since version 3.1, I started in 1993. I quit having the kinds of problems you guys are having when version 3.5 "Daytona" came out. Daytona was the same core technology as 4.0 without the 95 user interface. 4.0 suffered a stability problem, in that it took the general vendor population 2 years to write bug free drivers.
It has *always* been possible to have a crash-free NT environment if you have good drivers. It has *never* been possible to avoid a BSOD with crappy drivers.
The one design goal that NT strives for, and beats linux in, is usability by the general public, not just us geeks. See, guys, there's this strange beast called Business. Business, insanely, wants to retain the maximum value in their previous investments (call 'em nutty).
Consider this: Client comes to you and says they want a super-cool way-new ultra-sophisticated app, oh, and by the way, can you make it work seamlessly with the Novell 3 and 4 servers, oh, and can you have the data be accessible by the boss who likes to use Quicken, oh, and can you pull the data file off the mainframe, oh, and are my secretaries gonna have to ask me 95,000 questions about how to use the mouse and launch programs, and oh,
You say, "sure boss. Lemme just fetch Linux, and the mainframe access program written by Joe Shmega at U. Berkeley, and the Quicken Conversion program maintained by Bill Frickenfrack out of Stockholm, and the Novell access program written by the Cult of the Dead Skunk. Okay secrataries, now remember, when the log device grows to maximum, start a console and go to
It' just ain't gonna happen. Go try it.
(1) Linux will start to win in an economic sense when/if they start bringing this wonderful awesome stability down to the point where the secretaries and the pointy-haired bosses can understand it, or at least think they can.
(2) Once Linux tries to achieve this goal, they're gonna hit the same bug/bloat/goofiness wall that Microsoft has. Contrary to your 9000-pound brains, it is *harder* to write easier-to-use software for us metric morons than it is to write it for yourself, the genius.
Now, ain't a thing inherently wrong with Linux. I just want you guys to recognize ain't a thing inherently wrong with Microsoft programs. There is *everything* wrong with poor usage of any tool. If you guys would spent 10% the energy bitching at piss-poor PEOPLE instead of lashing out at something that just happened to give YOU trouble, things would get better.
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"A poor craftsman blames the tools."
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"A man says to the universe, 'Sir, I exist!'
The Universe replies, 'I am aware of that fact.'
'However, it has not instilled in me a sense of obligation.'"
(Stephen Crane)
peace out you freaks
love ya
P.S. - Send me the design spec for any database application for it you want, and I'll email you back exact intructions on how to implement a bug-free Microsoft solution that I could build in about one day.
P.P.S. - it is quite easy to charge more than $100 an hour if you only bill 17-22 hours per week, because you're not really billing for all your time. I bill 45 hours per week, every week, for the last 18 months.
The Screen Savers... (Score:1)
msnbc (Score:1)
-taber