[ShadowAce]

[Responsibility2nd]

Or you could just source and store on the cloud.

There. A 2 thousand word solution verses a 10 word solution.

[5thGenTexan]

The great thing about open source is that anyone can contribute to it.

The bad thing about open source is that anyone can contribute to it.

Unless you are personally reviewing and merging changes, there is a potential security risk.

[oh8eleven]

[by] Howard Fosdick
Any relation to "Fearless?"

[Psycho_Bunny]

I keep as much of my network Beige Box as I can: basically everything but infrastructure.

I’m trapped by software, though.

[palmer]

That's why most proprietarize any way they can. Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) is the latest of many attempts to kill competition by an artificial barrier. The rationale for UEFI lockdown you often read about -- that it prevents boot viruses -- is intended to mislead.

That's not true. The UEFI is used to verify the OS or OS kernel before it loads. It prevents unauthorized changes to the OS. The real reason the author doesn't like UEFI is that is can be used to local a piece of hardware to a particular OS, no other OS can then be loaded on it.

[BuffaloJack]

I have 2 identical machines and use one as a backup. My backup policy is to pull one of the mirrored RAID hard drives and replace it with a freshly wiped drive twice each week (and let the system rebuild overnight). If my system goes down, I pop the snapshot drive into the backup and I’m up and running immediately while I troubleshoot and repair the main system. This happened only a month ago when the power supply in my system died and I had to get a replacement.

[bigbob]

Pretty much matches what I do, although I don’t care whose name is on the box, as long as I can fix what’s inside it.

I’ve run into situations where file compatibility isn’t enough. And the incredible number of free apps for the Windows platform keep me on it, although I use Linux too.

[Catholic Canadian]

This is great if your software requirements are vanilla, I suppose. If all we are talking about is Office type documents than fine. But good luck if you have any special needs as a business. Most of this article is generalized, self important claptrap.

[EyeSalveRich]

Wow. If you want to do all that to avoid profiting big corps, fine. I have been using computers professionally for many, many years. The only hardware failures, I have had were from brown outs/ or power surges. Unplugging during lightning storms, and uninterruptable power supplies take care of that. Almost everything “problem” you mention, it seems like your solution is way overkill. If your happy with what your doing good for you. Thank God, I don’t have to go to that much trouble to be successful in computers.

[TexasTransplant]

I just want it to work... I don’t want to have a new hobby

Every few years we have to upgrade and it is 3 months of HELL... I would hate to deal with that on a daily basis... fix this, that doesn’t work, my printer doesn’t work etc etc etc

I could write DB Programs myself that did everything except have pretty pictures back during the dos days ... today ... not so much

TT

[FastCoyote]

Had a hardware crash on a Xp box. Yup, restoring the system is not just making a hard disk swap.

[freds6girlies]

Bookmark

[CodeToad]

Anyone relying on hardware and software for a living that doesn’t have a business continuity plan to include extra copies of said software is a cheap idiot. I have been using Microsoft software for over 30 years without the problems described in this article. Not a hitch.

[EyeSalveRich]

here are some facts to jugle in your computer religion wars

http://www.microsoft.com/hk/windowsserver/compare/reports.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/hk/windowsserver/compare/linux/server-security.mspx