The IT industry is shifting away from Microsoft

The Inquirer ^ | Sunday 28 December 2003 | Charlie Demerjian

[bwteim]

"VA's web stats are scientific enough to be pertinent to the topic of the article and the subsequent discussion."

I would support Petronski - It ain't the size of the sample that counts - - it is the motion, OR, it is the composition of the sample in that it reflects the population it is supposed to represent. You can get good statistical estimates with extremely small samples - eg. 20 or 30 or less - conversely, you can count sheep all day and still end up with sheep. I am sure that Varmint Al reflects 99.99% of his visitors, but we don't know who visits. Al could pick 30 or 40 and still be accurate for his sites's visitors.

[Knitebane]

Also be advised that nearly every browser available (other than IE) lets the user select a user agent.

In fact, Opera for Linux installs with a default setting to return IE 5 on Windows as it's user agent.

A statistical sample is only valid if the reported data is accurate.

[Petronski]

Also be advised that nearly every browser available (other than IE) lets the user select a user agent.

I forgot all about that...it's an excellent point.

[bwteim]

Also be advised that nearly every browser available (other than IE) lets the user select a user agent.

Good point. Many web designers unfortunately use IE specific features so that the non-IE browsers have to adopt a Klingon cloaking methodology...

[bwteim]

his sites's visitors.

his site's visitors.

[JudgemAll]

Sorry, but Linux is expensive to maintain and quirky to set up on the various PC laptops out there. Maybe on Mac machines things are more streamlined for linux.

That said, I had to get linux on my machine and I had to end up paying $100 worth of tech to finaly make it work with the sound driiver and all that I could not find.

I can get College student priced Windows and Word for 5 bucks each.

[MarkL]

You need to take another serious look at your computer (specifically, network PC) history.

Novell "ruthlessly exploited their customers?" Novell could only network locally? Windows 3.11 used TCP/IP?

While there's a bit of truth in these statements, it's certainly not "the whole truth."

Server and network management requires that you use the most convenient tool to get a job done. In far too many cases, a GUI gets in the way. This has nothing to do with being a purist. It has to do with getting the job done. While I can't speak to Win2003, this is the case in both WinNT and Win2K servers, as well as NetWare and Linux.

Linux won't be supplanting MS products on the desktops for many, many years at most companies, but it is making huge inroads in the data centers, on servers.

Mark

[MarkL]

And how about that fantastic VI text editor! How could I ever live without it?

You don't have too... Get yourself a copy of "Lemmy," which is a Win32 version of vi. I use mine over and over again, every day. Can't beat the power of a real programmer's editor like vi. However, I will not begin a flame war over "vi vs emacs." I don't believe in "buckey keys." Besides, I never really wanted to learn LISP.

Mark

[MarkL]

There is no reason for a difference between a desk-top and a server specific operating system today, since they often use the exact same hardware.

Hardly, unless you're dealing with a VERY small business what runs it's servers on PCs!

Even the low end HP Proliants like the ML-330 use "real" server systemboards and chipsets. Sure, they look like a PC, and even use a PC powersupply... But they have a "real" ServerWorks chipset, along with support for registered ECC RAM and XEON processors. Don't get me started about 2, 4, 8, or even 16 way SMP systems.

Why waste processing cycles on services you don't need? While in *IX it's pretty easy to disable services you don't need, just try to disable the AD services in Win2K Server.

Mark

[antaresequity]

That last stock split sucked. Thing trades like a turd now.

[MarkL]

Linux is just Unix warmed-over..

You are absolutely correct. You could download Unix from the University of California, Berkeley and install that operating system on your own computer for free. Of course, it would take you hours to download the software, and Unix was not easy to configure for your specific computer.

Linux came along and copied that free UCB software onto CDs and sold it as an easy to install package for PC computers.

Do you even have the slightest idea of the history of either UNIX or Linux? If you did, and you saw the sort of statements you made, you would have the same reaction that I did... "Is this person on drugs?!?!?!"

You need to do a bit of research on the whole thing... The source distributions (ATT v6, v7, SYS III, SYS IV) and the BSD revisions, and how they got the original ATT source code, and the different licensing issues. And don't forget the fact that BSDI has licensed a single version for i386 distribution from the regents of UC @ Berkeley, and it's NOT free! However, there are OS BSD versions avaiable, such as OpenBSD and FreeBSD, and both do have portions of the BSD source that have been released, but again, they're from earlier versions of the source.

Finally, LINUX IS NOT BSD UNIX!!!It may look a little bit like it, but that's saying that there's no difference between a Ford and a Chevy. They both do the same thing, and they even sort of look alike, but they're NOT the same.

Mark

[MarkL]

That's not really fair. NT counts as a "complete overhaul" compared to the "DOS with a GUI bolted on" that Microsoft started with. Cutler & crew were pretty competent architecture types. I never saw the inside of NT, but I'm sure the original design was at least as slick as UNIX.

Wouldn't suprise me, since he was behind VMS back at DEC...

Interesting side note... Everyone knows about the 2001 A Space Oddesey's HAL acronym... HAL + 1 = IBM : Well how about this... VMS + 1 = W(in)NT ?

Mark

[Poser]

"So, what comes out of Redmond nowadays? Hot air and Ballmer dance videos made on Macs. Monkey boy is funny to watch, but after an all night patching stint with the CEO yelling at you, it loses its charm."

Now there's an unbiased article.

[whd23]

1) NETWORKING Novell could only network locally and windows 3.11 used TCP/IP which allowed it to network with other networks.

Although Netware was native IPX, you could also tie servers together via TCP/IP, AppleTalk, SNA (I think that's the IBM protocal, can't remember now), etc. Windows was native NetBUI, puke.

2) WINDOWS GUI INTERFACE GUI (point and click flat won over having to memorize hundereds of commands and switch combinations touse in the dos commmand line.

I only wish the DOS/Windows command prompt were as powerful as what is available under Linux (Bash shell).

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Sorry, but Linux is expensive to maintain and quirky to set up on the various PC laptops out there.

Sorry, but you obviously haven't tried Knoppix or Mandrake lately.

Things do change over time, and the times they are a-changing' for Microsoft and Linux.

.NET is great and all, but anything you write in it is essentially just rented from Microsoft.

Not so with open source. That is its big selling point, and it is going to become more and more important over time.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

In fact, I bet if we dug deep enough we would find that the author has ties to IBM. IBM is still pissed that they gave 100s of billions of dollars away to Microsoft. Linux is their current attempt to retake the field.

And the SCO FUD is Bill Gates' way of trying to defame Linux, but it didn't work, and actually is having the opposite effect.

And if it comes down to betting on Microsoft or IBM, IBM wins hands-down.

[Quix]

GRRR A PROBLEM AGAIN WITH IE 6.X on XP-P.

My FR IE 6.X screens have again started carrying each paragraph out to the right as one line, as far as it goes such that I have to scroll to the right to read the whole paragraph--a long ways if it's a long paragraph.

I can't figure out how to restore it so that the paragraphs have line breaks within the screen size.

Any suggestions?

THANKS IN ADVANCE.

Blessings for the New Year to one and all.

[msgt]

Have you looked at the advanced tab on your start menu properties? There is an option "Scroll Programs". This will allow the menu to scroll so you can get to everything on it.

[Quix]

THANKS.

WILL GO DO THAT. That's a different problem than the text in all my FR IE windows requiring me to scroll to the right to read the whole paragraph. How can I solve that, if you know?

SURE APPRECIATE YOUR HELP!

[Quix]

Now I feel like an inexperienced idiot. I got there the other day but can't figure out how to do it today. Sigh.

How do I get to that screen?