Posted on 02/06/2002 2:49:10 PM PST by Justa
-Justa (MCP Windows 2000).
I wish MS no ill, but it would be in the best interest of business and competition in general, if Linux caught on and became the de facto standard Network OS.
Of course MS could simply offer Torvalds a gazillion bucks to sell out and turn Linux over to them. It sounds farfetched but it's happened before (e.g. MS' attempt to acquire Intuit in the wake of MS Money's failure to gain much market share vs. Quicken).
If Linux can't handle the growing pains there's always the spectre of the OS 'forking' which everyone agrees would be bad for the platform. I'll stick with whatever Mandrake offers for a while yet. It has a great development and support team. Imo the most robust contender of the platform.
N.b. this does not disqualify Microsoft outright - they do give some people access to some source code - but it does put a pretty heavy burden on Microsoft to show there are no surveillance back doors in their products.
That's how the GPL works to keep software free, as opposed to the BSD or MIT licenses.
There's one thing stopping them from doing this: a non-compete agreement with the Santa Cruz Operation that they signed when they sold Xenix to SCO. As far as I know, this non-compete agreement is still in effect.
Yes, that's right. Microsoft used to sell a unix version. Could we come full circle?
its not his to "sell". the GPL makes sure of that. once GPL, always GPL.
The biggest flaw with closed source is that malicious kernal-level instruction sets can be put together by unscrupulous developers and can be used to compromise every machine running the OS. And then only the Microsoft programmers who know the source code can debug it. All of the MS-based virus scanners, firewalls etc. only protect the OS's shell operations. In some cases they can neither detect nor block kernal level scripts. This was, and is the problem with Code Red. It has at least 3 NT4 payloads, two of which remain unaddressed by Microsoft.
Code Red has several sets of NT4 kernal-level instructions as well as the 2000/NT5 IIS exploit. Unfortunately, because both OSs are closed-source not only are the instructions very difficult to detect but they are in fact the property of Microsoft. Even if one is able to detect the exploits they still need permission from MS for blocking or eliminating them. This is what Symmantic went thru last spring after they identified the NT4/NT5 virtual root trojan of Code Red. They had to wait six weeks for approval from MS before they could release the fix since it addressed kernal-level operations.
With Open Source programs like Linux when a virus or exploit is discovered word of it spreads very quickly and a fix is usually available online in days -if not hours. This is because kernal-level operations are not closed like MS's but are open for administrators to see. No one can poke around in the Linux kernal without the whole world seeing what they're doing. Since Linux is Open Source it cannot hide it's flaws -or vulnerabilities. The critical ones are usually addressed immediately, particularly if they have to do with the kernal or OS security. With MS, you're dependent upon a handful of programmers in Redmond, WA to 1) admit there's a problem, 2) decide whether or not it warrants Microsoft's "support" and then 3) get around to fixing it along with all the other stuff they're tasked with doing.
"Open source allows for observing, monitoring and modifying kernal(sic)-level instructions, the 'guts' of the OS. This is control, and control=security."
I submit that your premise is flawed. Being open-source exposes the software to exploits every bit as much as closed-source does its just a matter of being approached differently by the cracker. If Linux had the market share that MS has, it would probably be exploited almost, if not just, as much.
And given how many different versions of Linux there will eventually be, the support/response speed is going to go way down unless, of course, your company spends the 80k a year for an in house programmer.
Not that Im a fan of MS. They piss me off on a daily basis. It's just that I'm so tired of the Everythings butterflies and ice cream in the Linux world zealotry. Every OS flawed to the degree that it is functional.
It cracks me up that FReepers are smart enough to understand that communism has its good and bad sides but is mostly deplorable up until you start talking about communist software
at which point the blinders come on and Linux is The Second Coming.
That's just stupid. There's nothing "communist" about Linux, and I think you know that.
Maybe it's more socialist. No...that still involves government...the correct word escapes me.
Ah...'Collectivist'.
What's after collectivist OS's? Word processors? Database designs? Games?
When, in this software utopia of Open Source Land, do programmers stop being able to make a legitimate living?
Im pretty happy with Linux because its good and very good for specific purposes. What worries me is when employers start thinking that ALL software should be free Because Linux is and programmers become the computer industrys burger-flippers.
Were seeing this type of attitude cropping up with the Tech Visas right now. Its only going to spread.
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