Posted on 03/08/2006 10:00:30 AM PST by zeugma
IBM switching to Linux destops in Germany according to a Linux Forum 2006 presentation by their head of open source and Linux sales in Germany.
Interesting news from LinuxForum 2006
During a presentation on IBM's involvement with Open Source, Andreas Pleschek from IBM in Stuttgart, Germany, who heads open source and Linux technical sales across North East Europe for IBM made a very interesting statement...
"Andreas Pleschek also told that IBM has cancelled their contract with Microsoft as of October this year. That means that IBM will not use Windows Vista for their desktops. Beginning from July, IBM employees will begin using IBM Workplace on their new, Red Hat-based platform. Not all at once - some will keep using their present Windows versions for a while. But none will upgrade to Vista."
The question is, does this only apply to IBM in Germany, or IBM world wide?
If ALL of IBM switches to Linux desktops and OpenOffice... that would be a very significant loss to Microsoft; not only in direct licensing revenues, but also in speeding adoption of Linux by other companies. After all, if IBM can run on Linux desktops...
I think they're still trying to get their Office suite for Linux called Workplace working with Notes, apparently so they can soak the Notes customers for Workplace licenses. If IBM thinks they can pull tricks like that on these open source beggars, they've still got a lot to learn.
Here's the link I posted earlier.
This is the first paragraph of the link. The first three words clue the year.
Microsoft last year began a transition to the "Select 6.0" software licensing program for Berkeley and other academic institutions. The prime feature of this program is the elimination of software upgrades, in favor of something Microsoft calls "Software Assurance." Under Software Assurance, you can pay about twice as much as the normal cost of a license, to buy the right to install any upgrades for the next two to three calendar years. (Software Assurance always expires on December 31st, so if you buy it late in the year, it's good for slightly more than two years, but if you buy it in January, it's good for almost three years).
I totally screwed up on the year. Should have been 2001, not 1991. Don't know why I had 1991 on the brain. Probably because of some maintennance I had done on my car the other day.
Unlike some folks, I admit my mistakes.
We all make mistakes, some just a lot more than others. I'll be glad to admit where I'm mistaken as well, but from the looks of this thread, I've once again been right on the money. This was yet another BS rumor posted as fact, seems to be about one every other day around here, last time was claiming Dell was selling Linux on home desktops which has had to suffer being blown out of the water three separate times now.
You guys obviously need to give it a rest. You spin around shooting off these articles constantly that never pan out, and personally attack us for pointing out they were bunk to begin with. Just because you can't comprehend the fact that Dell and IBM still won't completely commit to Linux, doesn't mean you won't eventually have to accept it.
For us commoners who use the pc for surfing and emailing only, is Linux worth looking into? I've been thru the progression of Win 95, 98FE, and now XP pro. Same goes for various IE editions. I've found Firefox 1.5 to be superior to IE, and really no startling differences in the Win OS's over the years. Cable is not available in my area, so I have crap dialup.
Opinions Welcome.
I would never recommend Linux as a client operating system, I would strongly recommend a swith to Apple if you really feel the need to switch. Yes you have to buy new hardware but why not if you are really looking for a new computer experience. Either make a complete switch to something equal or better, or learn to customize windows, such as wincustomize.com, but you're only asking for a lot of headaches switching to Linux. It is more of a computer scientist type of system, that can't easily run most software or have very good vendor support.
Thanks. It's just hard to pass up 'throw aways' courtesy of the state of Michigan, with software and goodies, usually twice the clock speed of what I bought 2 years ago for.....$100. They are all Win. As far as switching to Apple, that would be a migraine (spelled wife) ;-)
Sorry, I misunderstood. If they've got some older computers for sale, I'd probably steer away unless I had an exact need. Extra computers = extra pain.
Good, then you can start by retracting #23, and #19 on the Dell thread, both shown by me to be false.
Ha, which one, the fanbois have been firing them off like a machine gun around here. Not that you wouldn't have linked and bolded it if you had actually been right.
IBM OpenDesktop is what they call it I think, few people have even seen it, most that have say it pretty much sucks. But Google, LOL, that reminds me, how many freaking threads did we see on here about Google, they had the next version of Linux, blah blah blah, but did they ever have it, or even actually anything close? Nah. Not about to, either.
There are several folks on here that don't have a particular axe to grind regarding windows or linux.
For my part, as a strong linux supporter (to let you know my bias right up front), if you're only doing email and websurfing, linux is far superior to windows, as it is generally safer, and you'll not have to deal with such things as spyware/viruses/trojans.
For dialup, I'mn not really sure what it's like, as I haven't owned a modem in years, and at the time, it wasn't point and click. I've heard that it can be pretty straightforward these days if you have a supported modem (i.e., no 'winmodems'). If your modem is an external box, from what I understand, it's fairly trivial, as just about all of those types are well supported.
IBM statement re: Domino/Notes support on Windows 2003:
* Support for Windows 2003 server/Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition will begin with Domino versions 6.0.3 and 6.5, including Domino 7 server.
*** The Notes Release 6 and 7 client will not be supported on Windows 2003.***
*** There are currently no plans for support on the 64-bit version of Windows 2003. ***
* Lotus will support any Service Packs that are released for Windows 2003.
* From 6.5 Release Notes Citrix support statement: The Notes client is supported on Citrix Metaframe XPe FR3 on Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 server using NT and MAC ICA1 clients.
http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?fdoc=wplcdomi&rs=463&uid=swg21110541
Of course my post was regarding Notes on Linux.
Have to endourse most of what zeugma has said.
While he cannot speak from experience with dialup on Linux, i can. fuggedaboudit! i speak as a dialup user currently posting from SuSE 9.2 Professional.
First off, you can forget about most PCI (internal) modems. Even the ones that have drivers available for them often require a recompile of the kernel...not something that the average user wants to try.
Second, my experience with SuSE's dialup applications was a nightmare. It seems that those particular packages were not upgraded, and had serious flaws. i finally got kppp to work by copy/pasting a file into a directory (that also did not exist) in the application. i had to use an old external Zoom Telephonics v90 serial modem that did not require a software driver.
i stayed with it, spent more time than i care to think about on Linux boards, and Google, and eventually did get it to work, but let's be honest: It is definately difficult if your hardware is not recognised. Most internal modems are called Software, or winmodems, and are designed to work only with Windows. Until more manufactures start to design Linux capability into their modems, dialup will continue to be a nightmare. Others here have given up on the ideal of Linux dialup, and have come up with some unique solutions (while still maintaining dialup internet service). You may wish to talk to some of them.
I believe this desktop is a direct descendent of the Notes/Domino Java-based desktop that has been re-written in browser-brased scripting tools. I would imagine it's quite real.
Going forward, most applications are going to be platform independent, you'll only be required to have a standards-compliant browser, which by all account, Internet Explorer 7 may well be (unlike its predecessors.)
At that point, if you wish to pay US$200 for a Vista license and the cost to upgrade all of your hardware well...good for you.
Personally, I can't see Google getting into a Linux distro directly for the same reason IBM will not (n.b. they're using Red Hat) because of the cost to support it.
But it's going to get interesting. Considering as of the 6th generation of Windows you cannot directly plug in a standard peripheral without having to install drivers and reboot your machine, I am not optimistic about Windows future. Especially not when the Mac sitting next to it does everything I want, when I want, without having to shell out more $$$$ to say make a movie or burn a DVD. Curious concept, that.
I wouldn't have written it if I hadn't been right.
This thread, where you said Vista had not slipped and is in line with Microsoft's "Five Year Plan" (there's your commies). A quick news archive search at any tech news outlet will show you the details and reasons for the multiple schedule slips totalling about a year (that is if Vista is released on schedule later this year).
The Dell thread, you said in context of Stallman-type zealouts about Halfmanhalfamazing that "his denials here that they exist" when he in fact in an earlier post to you had referenced them, and agreed with me that distro zealots are part of Dell's problem.
Come on GE, denial is not just a river in Egypt. Be a man for a change, admit you lied, once factually and once in libel of another FReeper.
Yes, libel: publication, identification of you as the poster, defamation, falsity and malice.
http://www.ipcop.org
With an external modem it worked as good as dial-up can be.
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