Linux guidelines get an upgrade

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There's hogwash

Then there's total hogwash.

Where is Microsoft going to make it? Well, let's try servers. In the near term there will be sales to keep legacy systems alive, but the Fortune 500 are moving on; according to suvey cited in this very publication,
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5149066.html

smaller businesses will follow as soon as they can find the way.

For the best exemplar, take a look at the USPTO's solicitation announcement. In the client-server era, PTO accumulated in excess of 125 stovepipe systems, with typically one or more HP-UX boxes and a like number of Windows servers per system. Those Windows boxes are an administrative nightmare - two to three times the administrator cost per end user. For the past two years, PTO has been re-designing the enterprise architecture, unifying, symplifying and integrating. There will be no Windows servers in the target architecture, nor in that of other major players who are sharing best practices in enterprise architecture. A single operating system allows us to consolidate our staff, training and other support, while shopping around among the vendors for the most cost-effective solutions - end of lock-in. MS loss of share? Yes, indeed.

So how about the desktop? Strong indications are that Microsoft's days as "OPEC of the desktop" are numbered. I just returned from an executive breakfast at which I inquired of one of the IBMers about their open-source-on-the-desktop pilot. It was amazing the number of others who gathered around, listening aptly and adding their own plans to move in the direction of open source on the desktop. And it wasn't just the TCO factors (separate support staff, too many calls "to the edge," etc), which are my concern, it was the visceral reaction to the name Microsoft; Mssrs Ballmer and Gates have worked hard to achieve their pariah status. These folks are positively motivated to find a way out of the MS lock and are expending energy on it. And since we currently have a solution that works on the desktop, and the latest Office 2003/Windows XP clinkers don't provide any motive to "upgrade," they can stand pat while paving the way for the next generation solution. The corporate desktop isn't nearly as secure as it looked six months ago.

Home use? Not an area where I have any experience, other than personal, but it looks like the lock on distribution channels will keep the archade game/music download/entertainment center market safe for the moment. However, that's current dominance, not new dominance.

Security. There's a lot of emotion to your security analysis, but less logic. Let me start from Mr. Gates' dispariging remark that Linux is a "clone of Unix." If so, we are looking at a heritage of the system that was created to advance the state of timesharing, that has built an architecture from the ground up to insulate users from one another, that was the genesis of what became the internet, that people have been beating on for decades and has been progressively upgraded on the basis of real-world experience. You will now contend that a system that was built for a single user, in totally isolated environment, that has had communications added and security bolted on in response to continual failures is "more secure." In truth, there is probably no way to prove or disprove your assertion, and I won't state outright that it is false; I will, however, contend that you have a long way to go to support such a notion.

As for Linux programmers being "underpaid." I know what IBM is paying my nephew, and all I can say is, if Microsoft pays even better, WOW! But let's see how much sense that assertion makes. The world's largest computer company, as well as the rest of the hardware vendors, have their corporate reputations on the line with their customers. Are you telling us that they assign second-rate programmers to develop and maintain the operating system, when underperformance could mean loss of valuable accounts? What business school did you go to - I want to make sure to reject any applicants from there.

Posted by: IT_User   Posted on: 01/29/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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