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Kiran Jonalgadda wrote:
> Engineers with brains are /very/difficult to
find..
Not entirely true. If we had such dumb engineers
others would'nt be importing them. You need good
engineers who will train other engineers and so
on. Initially it means doing things which does
not produce much but things change exponentially.
> And if you give them an OS where their mousing
skills are irrelevant,
> they'll go straight back to Windows.
Keeping things simple is always welcome but
making things unstable and unreliable in the
process is not. If these "professionals" cannot
learn from their mistakes too bad for them.
Funnily if you really simplify things,
reliability, performance and resource effeciency
increase.
> Again, most IT staff know little more than
point-and-click..
So what is managment doing??
> If you've been following the open source
movement closely, you'll know that there are
times when it simply does not work. The gaming
industry is one, highly customised software is
another.
Very very rare. Gaming..? unless ur a game
software mfg. you would be happy not have them on
your corp. computers. Incidentally gaming machine
vendors seem to be switching to Linux with a
vengenace. Highily customised software is again
the exception than the norm. Usually this goes
hand in hand with good internal tech team.
So they will experiment and find a way
(clustering, net servers, the recent Human Genome
project).
> All those companies had their COBOL sources,
but did that give them
> any foresight on the Y2k problem?
So you see what happens if you substitute for
quality.
> Says who? Linux is based on accepted POSIX
standards,
> but is anyone maintaining standards on new
developments?
> None of the Linux distros have even managed to
agree on an /etc/rc.d
> convention.
All distros have agreed to the LSB. The first
post of the standards is a few weeks old.
Compliance will be achieved by year end (if I
remeber correctly).
> Microsoft has produced software of exceptional
quality when pressed
> into doing it. Take Windows NT 3.51 as an
example. Give credit where > it is due.
I will accept your word on this as I've never
used it. But one exception only proves the rule.
As pointed out by CNB and Trevor.
> I'll take you on this anyday. Take my situation
> for an example: I maintain two Linux mail
> servers in two offices in Bombay. My company
> needs to setup mail servers in other cities to
> handle the growing user base there.
> But there are choices to pick from:
> 1) Get a Linux server and a linux admin to
> maintain it.
Setup a RAS server (or several remote
maintainence tools available on freshmeat.net)
and remotely maintain it.
> Even misbehaving modems need a tech to handle
> them. And getting Linux techs is next to
> impossible.
Hardware AMC should do the trick. Nothing Linux
specific in modems.
> 2) Get a Linux server and train one of the
> staff. Train a marketing guy to admin Linux?
Above RAS solution should do. And train the IT
dept for maintainence. Train users to use Linux
GUI and CLI ;-).
> 4) Pay a one-time 25k license fee for a
> commercial solution on Windows.
I have several enquiries from Windows commercial
solutions users who are fedup of using a system
that needs a reboot 50 times a day. The wonderful
support guys of a very large Indian IT firm
can do nothing about it. The server was upgraded
to a K6II 500 MHz with 256 Mb and 17gb hd on
their recommendation. So much for wide
availability of Windows support (a perfect
example of FUD).
25K only?. What about N.T. and Winproxy?. What
about added seats?. And I suppose the mktg guys
can load, run and maintain NT.
> The issue is, can Linux read DOC/xls files and
> play games? The answer is no for at least a
> good year to come.
Aplixware and StarOffice already do a reasonable
job.
Actually Linux developers are trying to hit a
moving target as far as doc/xls goes (ref CNB's
post). We should also ensure that government and
public bodies do not use proprietary formats to
publish information.
Games is an issue for homes ;-(. The reasons are
to do with security and direct access of the
frame buffer. Hope Linux solves this soon.
> And if the old box goes down, so do /all/ your
> clients.
> Have you ever managed to convince management
> into a thin client solution after explaining
> this possibility?
I suppose a PC crash a day keeps a server crash
away. Catastrophe piecemeal is catastrophe
nontheless. The server hardware will be as
reliable as the PC it originally was (minus
windoze).
> When an average sales guy brings in 2 lakhs in
> contracts in a week, saving on the 50k for a
> box that will last him one year is a silly
> idea. No sane management will do that.
What has cost of the box got to do with his
performance anyway?. The cost is not the hardware
but the software, maintainence and upgrade. The
average life of a pc in USA according to IDG is 3
yrs, and the cost of software maintainece 3 times
the price of hardware. It is a lot easier to
maintain a server and thin clients than PCs. That
is what client server technology is all about.
> The issue, my friend, is with the existing
> base. Newbies depend upon existing users for
> directions, and if the existing user has had
> bad experience with Linux, you can bet the
> newbie will steer clear.
One of the issues is with existing users. I agree
fully with you here. That is why Cyber cafes
become so important. The masses are likely to
interact witha box here.
> There are reasons why everyone hasn't already
> switched over to Linux. Think about it.
Sure there are reasons but not very good ones.
The reasons are to do with marketing and revenue
models rather than performance of the OS or
acceptance by users.
While on the subject Linux technologies P. L.
made a neat pile selling AL (pirate Linux). So
there are many who are ready for change. Would be
interesting to know their customer profile. It
could answer many of our assumptions.
Rgds
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