--- Dustin Puryear <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > At 11:14 AM 9/25/2003 -0500, you wrote: > >TCO is a nebulous gremlin to pin down, but > certainly the security failures > >exposed in the Microsoft OS over the past few > months must be making those > >decision makers question that investment. > > > >Dustin, as a Microsoft/Linux integration guru, do > you see a business > >opportunity to address Microsoft OS weaknesses with > Linux where appropriate? > > I tend to concentrate on server technologies so I > can't address the entire > spectrum of Microsoft solutions. I think it can be > taken for granted though > that on the server-side that there are viable > alternatives. So sure, there > is a business opportunity. To take hold of those > opportunities you should > be able to offer Linux as a solid and reliable > solution on its own merits, > and not just as a "we aren't Microsoft" solution. > >
Let us be realistic, there are many needs, and many solutions. Sun's Java desktop (that isn't java), MS IIS servers, Oracle's databases, SQL's great solution. Lindows, Libranet, Slackware, Mac, and all the ones I left out. The world is a vast sucking pool of user needs. There is romm enough for every one. OK, a small camp in Redmond want people to think otherwise, but in the real world - THERE IS NO ONE SIZE FITS ALL. Them's the facts folks. If you are an educator trying to train an engineer, you would be criminally liable not to teach a student how to use Autodesk's way to do expensive products. If you are are teaching someone to be a secretary and you left MS Word out, then you are shorting the student. Open Office can do 98% of what MS Word can do. Would that justify you sending an Open Office Expert into the employment pool that asks for experience in MS Word? Well no. Of course not. That is the reality. Dustin works in the land of "What's happening now." It is not clear cut, it is not as simple as ideals. Having been an infantry soldier that fought in wars for ideals, let me assure you life is never that simple. It is all about what works. If it works, use it, if it doesn't ash-can it ASAP. Oddly enough, that rule will lead to Open Source. Just not next Tuesday. It took decades to get here. Patience. Who remembers DOS, Telenet, and Pine? What was that, like three hundred years ago? No. More like six or eight years ago. Geeze, get a grip. Humans do not like change. Yet, the change will happen. M$ cannot secure their code. It is closed. The holes only show up when someone finds them and doesn't care for K-Y. Nothing says shoddy workmanship like wrinkled duct tape. Even a moron can see wrinkled duct tape after a while. The masses are begining to hear that M$ is not the only choice. The tide is turning. In ten years you will be happy to download an M$ product. Mark my words. Write it down, put in your date book and check back with me. M$ has done some great things. Once they pull their collective head out of their constipated ass, I see a new future for them in server-side apps. Talent, money and vision is always rewarded. As soon as they relaize they are sailing aginst the wind, I see great things. Come on, think about it. M$ products secure and multi-platform? All they have to do is forget they are a M$ product provider and think of themselves as a product provider. Would you pay for a product that did a great job on any platform in your organization? What if there was a cheap and reasonable site-wide license cost? What if you could alter the code, say for cooling towers, or evaporators and resell the code? Damn skippy. Exxon-Mobile would be all over that like a blanket on a baby. There is room for all, and the future will solve the problem. Let capitalism run with the ball. Right will win out. 2.5 cents US Doug Riddle __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search http://shopping.yahoo.com
