You know, I understand that developing software is hard. I know I
can't do it. And not to make light of developer's efforts (many of
them volunteers!), but to someone who's choosing a server OS, it
doesn't matter even a little bit how hard the developer's job is. I
bet none of them could do my job either because it's hard too.
Put yourself in everyman's shoes and try answering this little
questionare as honestly as you can. Make a little chart with these
OS's at the top: MS Windows Server, Mandrake Corporate Server, Redhat
Advanced Server, and Debian. Along the side, put these categories:
Product lifetime, Hardware compatibility, 3rd party application
compatibility, and finally, Total projected cost (including training
if necessary) over 5 years. Now tell me, which OS looks better on
paper? THAT, my friends is what objective system administrators see.
Linux is more stable? I think so too, but how much more stable?
Linux is more secure? I agree, but how much more secure? If you
can't put a number on it, then it's not part of the equation because
it is an opinion. And it doesn't matter if millions of the world's
brightest minds have been through hell and back to develop this
software either. All that matters is the bottom line.
Linux distros are being compared with Microsoft, and until vendors are
prepared to play the game on their level, Linux won't go much farther
than it already has. Personally, I believe in Linux and the
open-source movement, and I'll go out of my way to use some version of
Linux for years to come. But to get more administrators to use Linux,
vendors are gonna have to inspire a heck of a lot more confidence than
they do now.
Sincerely,
Jim Hubbard
.--.
|o_o |
|:_/ |
// \ \
(| | )
/'\_ _/`\
\___)=(___/
Rockingham County Linux Users Group
www.rock.lug.net
____________________________________
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Vincent Danen
> Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2003 3:49 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: [expert] Mandrake's Golden Opportunity
>
>
> On Wed Mar 05, 2003 at 12:37:32PM -0800, Todd Lyons wrote:
>
> > > open-source users the wrong way, including me.
> Mandrake has exactly
> > > the right idea with MandrakeClub, but unfortunately,
> the current EOL
> > > policy (Mandrake's and Redhat's) is just a dealbreaker
> when it comes
> > > to a server OS.
> >
> > Just so that all are aware of what is being requested here:
> >
> > Users/Admins are asking to stay on older distros and use
> newer programs
> > which require newer libraries and are more difficult to
> make sure they
> > run in nearly all possible test cases where the only
> entity paying for
> > this is Mandrake with no possibility of extra revenue.
> >
> > Where's the motivation for Mandrake in this?
>
> There is none. =)
>
> > Have you _tried_ to backport things from $VERSION of some
> program in
> > current Cooker to 7.1? One with a different glibc? One with a
> > different version of gcc? One with a different (or no)
> urpmi? One with
> > only 2.2 kernels available? The fact that Vincent does
> this EVERY day
> > BY HIMSELF is mind-blowing.
>
> Ummm.. yeah. I dare someone to do this. Actually, what
> would be very
> intersting to me is someone trying to build KDE3 on 7.1.
> After you've spent
> a week on it, if you haven't given up already, please drop
> us a line and
> tell us how much fun you had.
>
> Oh, and tell us what other packages you had to build in
> order to get it
> done. Give us the entire package list of what srpms you
> built and what the
> resulting rpms were.
>
> Actually, don't do that. Put it on a web page and
> reference it.. the list
> might be exceptionally long. =)
>
> I'd actually like someone to try this one day. Their
> comments on the
> process may be revealing to others on the list. I'm not
> really someone who
> should be making these sorts of observations because I do
> this kind of thing
> 10-12hrs/day, 5-6 days a week. I'm kinda used to the
> frustration. =) A
> fresh set of eyes, preferrably one who's making this kind of insane
> suggestion, would likely bring a little more focus to the
> real issues here.
>
> --
> MandrakeSoft Security; http://www.mandrakesecure.net/
> Online Security Resource Book; http://linsec.ca/
> "lynx -source http://linsec.ca/vdanen.asc | gpg --import"
> {FE6F2AFD : 88D8 0D23 8D4B 3407 5BD7 66F9 2043 D0E5 FE6F 2AFD}
>
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