--- John Hebert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > --- will hill <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > ... > > The best way to get free software into a Windoze > > network is to show how much cheaper free software > is > > than the next "upgrade". Can anyone here name one > > "service" that Microsoft offers that someone else > > does not do better? > > Quantify "cheaper" and "better". > > For the sake of argument, I can name a number of > examples. Their development environments (Visual > Studio, etc.) are very nice. They _do_ pay attention > on how to improve development tools so that > programmers will more likely use them (to build apps > dependent on proprietary requirements).
And Cut and Paste works everywhere. > > And Microsoft SQL Server is a nice, robust and > easily > maintainable RDBMS, compared to Oracle's 8i (don't > have working experience with later offerings) and > IBM's DB2. However, Microsoft takes every > opportunity > it can to tie systems to their proprietary > technology. One would think that they would make their API's open, not open source, but openly available, so that it would be easier to create software that funtioned well with MS. > Oracle, IBM and other players don't have the luxury > of > Microsoft's monopoly, therefore must be more open to > be competitive. > > Let's be rational here for a moment. Dreamer. > Some > people|corporations are willing to trade their > freedom > for ease of use. I think it is short-sighted, but > that's just my opinion. I've just spent a lot more > time than I first anticipated trying to make the > Postfix mail server (http://www.postfix.org) .deb > package work with the tls/sasl > (http://asg.web.cmu.edu/sasl/) .deb package, in > order > to migrate from the Microsoft Exchange mail server > to > a Linux based mail server. M$-Exchange took very > little time to install and setup, comparatively > speaking. However, I and my employer was willing to > put in the time to make it work because we value the > freedom gained versus the time lost. Most other > companies don't see that advantage, so they stick > with > what works. What works, and what more people know how to fix/support. The issue I get a lot is "Yes, you can make it work, and it works great, but when you leave, and you will, how easy will it be to find someone to replace you. Almost anyone can run MS products. Who can write Perl, and take care of Linux? > (BTW: the problem was that postfix > starts > up in a chroot jail and the sasl .deb doesn't, so > the > /etc/sasldb was not being seen :P . Live and learn.) > > Computing technology is primarily, for good or ill, > influenced by the computing industry, which is > primarily influenced by the bottom line > (capitalism). > Microsoft is a legal entity with the freedom to do > business within the confines of the law (and it > brushes up against those confines pretty often) in > our > great United States. I believe that is Microsoft's best selling point. If they are such a sorry company, why are they doing so well? Don't try to tell me it is all about their evil ways. That dog won't hunt. I do not like some of their tactics, but the truth is, in the past, they responded faster and provided better products. Compare MS Access 2.0 with FileMaker 1.0, FoxPro 2.0, and the other offerings. MS Access was far more easy to use, to teach and to roll-out. The difficulty the other products had roll-ing out was not and MS issue, they ran on DOS. I've been working with and on computers since 1982. MS entered a very narrow field, helped to start and industry and has done a good job of playing king of the hill. I think there is a lot they could do better, and I am not about to nominate them for a knighthood, much less a sainthood, but let's at least get the history correct. Does anyone really miss Harvard Graphics? Was that an over-priced clunky piece of bloatware or what? > > Microsoft has come a long way from it's humble > beginnings, back when it was seen as the _underdog_ > to > IBM's monopoly (yes, kids, IBM was considered just > as > bad if not worse than Micro$oft at one time). Remember when the pundits said IBM was going to own the world? >Sure, > Micro$oft has more often than not used its marketing > and advertising efforts to make up for the lack of > technological prowess (MS-Bob anyone?). But it is > doing something right, according to people that buy > Microsoft. What is it? How can we compete against > what > Micro$oft is doing right? > > Microsoft does plenty wrong. The past successes of > free and open source software easily demonstrate > Microsoft's failures; Apache httpd running on Linux > for one > (http://news.netcraft.com/archives/web_server_survey.html). > > My point is that instead of ranting about the > _politics_ of the Microsoft vs. Linux debate, I > think > our time would be better spent in comparing the > technological merits of Microsoft vs. Linux. There > seems to be a lot of uninformed ranting (I should > know > as a previous rantee) about Micro$oft that seems to > me > to stem from a faddish, political nature within a > large section of the Linux community. > > I think the Linux community in general could take a > lesson from the *BSD crowd and just concentrate on > making better software. Aw, where's the fun and mayhem in that approach? >That's the way to compete. > Leave the marketing and politics to Micro$oft. > Politics happens when people don't know how to > inform > themselves. > > We have the source code, we have the HOWTOs and > RFCs, > we have our on-line community, there is nothing more > we need, to learn everything we need to know to make > better software than Micro$oft makes, other than the > time and the will (no pun intended, Will (: ). > > John Hebert > > ===== > John Hebert > 'cat /dev/random | perl' > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. > Try it! > http://webhosting.yahoo.com/ps/sb/ > > _______________________________________________ > General mailing list > [email protected] > http://brlug.net/mailman/listinfo/general_brlug.net ===== Warmest Regards, Doug Riddle Capital punishment makes the state a murderer. On the other hand, life in prison makes the state a gay dungeon master. -- Rev. Jesse Jackson "Decisions, Decisions, Decisions..." - Doug Riddle __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. Try it! http://webhosting.yahoo.com/ps/sb/
