Hi List, hi Steve B. ;-) !
> "Linux is very, very, very expensive for customers to take care of,"
Talking about a home environ he might be right. But in a corporate
environ ? win2k and XP-Pro are there as complicated and difficult to
administrate as LX/UX... The decisive difference is not the
cost/complexity of administration but the number of applications
(still, unfortunately).
> "Linux is a cloned operating system - it cloned Unix and now
> it wants to clone Windows. "
So what ? To clone a proven, well-designed system for cheap hardware
is maybe a good idea, hmmm. M$ is still in the process of cloning...
And Mac OS-X is a clone (or fusion of UX, Obj-C-Lib's and MAC-GUI) too...
> "It would be nice to get some innovation."
And what about M$ ? Which innovations do they provide ? Declaring
the web browser as a vital OS' component ? They just get it half-way
right on the third attempt... And what about their innovations ?
+ C#: heavily influenced by SUN's Java
+ GUI: invented by PARC Xerox & spread by Apple Mac
+ Win NT: based on co-development with IBM (OS/2)
+ Office Apps: invented by VisiCalc
+ TCP/IP: invented by DARPA & spread by UX
+ Web: invented at CERN and NCSA (UIUC),
first denied an neglected by M$...
+ User Admin (ADS): clone of Novell's NDS and LDAP
+ Authetification: based on Kerberos (ADS)
+ SMB/CIFS: original SMB protocol introduced by IBM
+ MS SQL: Sybase clone
And their own "innovations" - WINS and NT domain. Gone...
And security ? One of my favorite quotes:
"Honestly, security experts don't pick on Microsoft because we have some
fundamental dislike for the company. Indeed, Microsoft's poor products
are one of the reasons we're in business. We pick on them because they've
done more to harm Internet security than anyone else, because they
repeatedly lie to the public about their products' security, and because
they do everything they can to convince people that the problems lie
anywhere but inside Microsoft.
Microsoft treats security vulnerabilities as public relations problems.
Until that changes, expect more of this kind of nonsense from Microsoft
and its products."
Bruce Schneier, cryptogram Jan, 2002
To broaden the discussion: the only thing I fear for the future and
from M$ is the whole subject of TCPA, DRM and "Palladium"...
It will be based on Hardware, will give M$ a deeper control of
the PC and the software installed on it and might be a serious
threat for the OpenSource Software and movement...
Cheers from the city without the wall ;-).
Oliver
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