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----- Original Message -----
From: Harisfazillah Bin Jamel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, November 05, 1999 2:06 PM
Subject: Fw: Killing Off Linux [Part 2]
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Mister Goblin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Friday, November 05, 1999 12:52 PM
> Subject: Killing Off Linux [Part 2]
>
>
> ------- Forwarded message -------
>
> [ Continued from Part 1 ]
>
> Whether the UNIX community does so consciously or not, it transmits
> its values to succeeding generations. When you're studying computing
> in a UNIX-driven environment, you're likely to learn something about
> UNIX's history. You learn what a real operating system is like. You
> learn that a volunteer community can create great software. You learn
> why it's so important to give something back to this community, even
> if it means giving up personal profit. You learn that commercial
> software vendors are all right in their place, but it isn't smart to
> get too cozy with them. You learn that public, non-proprietary
> protocols are essential for genuine technical progress. And apart from
> trade shows and a few other contexts, the venues for transmitting UNIX
> culture are largely provided by university curricula, computing labs,
> and college user groups.
>
> Skeptical? Just ask Linus Torvalds, the Linux originator. I'm sure
> you've heard the story. Torvalds became acquainted with UNIX at the
> University of Helsinki. When he purchased his own computer, he wasn't
> willing to settle for anything less than UNIX, but there was no fully
> developed version of UNIX available for his computer. When Torvalds
> decided to develop his own UNIX kernel, he could readily draw from the
> UNIX and university traditions of Internet-based software development.
>
> So here's the point. If Microsoft (or some other vendor) succeeds in a
> strategy of replacing UNIX servers on college and university campuses,
> it's going to be more difficult--perhaps impossible--to transmit the
> essentials of UNIX culture and values to new generations of
> programmers. Would Linux exist today if Torvalds had never encountered
> UNIX, and instead spent his time mastering the intricacies of Windows
> NT?
>
> Staving Off Criticism: Sure, You'll Have Choice
>
> The move to vendor-specific technology exposes administrators to
> student and faculty protests, as CSU's Reed discovered to his dismay.
> CSU planned to move the statewide college system's entire computing
> operation to a vendor-funded consortium, paid for by Microsoft,
> Fujitsu, GTE, and Hughes Space & Communications.
>
> The plan wasn't greeted warmly by CSU faculty and students. Professors
> expressed concern over being forced to teach vendor-specific lessons,
> or finding themselves pushed aside if the vendor didn't like what they
> were teaching. Students decried the deal, saying they wanted an
> education, not Microsoft training. Campus outrage culminated in
> protests reminiscent of the anti-Vietnam War movement ages ago;
> students marched to a university administrator's office, for example,
> and sat on his desk until he agreed to listen to their demands. The
> deal fell apart when Microsoft backed out, reportedly due to a
> disagreement over financial details.
>
> Here's the lesson from the CSU debacle. If you're going to cut a deal
> with a vendor, you've got to convince students and faculty that they
> still have freedom of choice. Sure, maybe you're moving to NT in your
> back office, but you'll still let students and faculty use whatever
> clients they like, including Macs and Linux workstations. Microsoft's
> academic computing coordinator recently stated in a press interview
> how she "understood" that students and faculty would continue to be
> emotionally attached to their clients, therefore the company wouldn't
> pressure colleges and universities on the client side.
>
> So here's the public relations formula: Move to NT in the back office,
> but tell students and faculty that we administrators fully understand
> and support the university's traditions of free choice and diversity.
> You can use any client you want. That's the line IU administrators
> took in their more recent deal with Microsoft, and there was nary a
> whimper of protest--but there should have been. Client choice isn't
> enough.
>
> It's the Server, Stupid
>
> What's wrong with giving people freedom of choice on the client side,
> but not on the server side? Readers of this column are smart enough to
> know a basic technical fact: It's the server's architecture, not the
> client's, that determines the system's technical characteristics.
>
> An all-NT server infrastructure would inevitably influence the
> direction of computing curricula. When you really get into computing,
> you need to understand the networking protocols, application
> programming interfaces, and client/server architectures that are
> dictated by the server's operating system--and increasingly, that's
> NT.
>
> What's more, how long would Mac and Linux clients survive,
> realistically, in an NT-dominated server environment? As Microsoft is
> so fond of pointing out, things just work so much better when you go
> 100 percent Microsoft. The firm designs all of its products so that
> you don't get 100 percent functionality until you've gone to an
> all-Microsoft solution, and the company makes no secret of this.
> Academic institutions just don't have enough money to keep supporting
> all these platforms, and eventually they'll cave in. For example, Yale
> University recently created a stir by announcing that it would soon
> end support for Macs. A major reason? The school moved to the
> Microsoft platform for administrative software development, and it was
> just too much trouble and too expensive to port the code to the Mac
> OS. After students and faculty protested, Yale backed down, but the
> pressure to go all-Windows remain.
>
> Freedom of client choice now almost inevitably means an all-Microsoft
> computing environment later, which plays right into Microsoft's hands.
> Now, don't get me wrong; I'm not advocating an anti-Microsoft crusade.
> Microsoft's capable of making some great products. I use them. I write
> about them. There's a role for NT in the university, and there's a
> role for all those great Office products. But at the same time, we
> need to explain to the academic community that client choices made
> today may later mean no choice at all, and that server diversity
> really does matter.
>
> Keep UNIX and Linux Alive!
>
> There isn't a moment to lose. We must educate students and faculty to
> understand that freedom of client choice may lead to no freedom at
> all. We need to pressure state legislatures to fund computing and
> network budgets so our schools don't have to cut unwelcome deals with
> vendors. We need to explain to college administrators that there's a
> compelling justification for preserving server diversity, however
> "inefficient" such diversity might be. Above all, we need to explain
> that universities have an important responsibility here: They alone
> can preserve UNIX culture, a culture of disinterested, non-commercial
> inquiry that has been responsible for some of the late twentieth
> century's greatest technological accomplishments, including the
> Internet and that new kid on the block, Linux.
>
> Go back to school and tell your dean: Keep UNIX culture alive.
>
> For Further Reading
>
> Bowman, Lisa. 1998. "MS Deal with Schools Runs Into a Buzzsaw," ZDNET
> Tech News Now.
>
> Guernsey, Lisa. 1998. "Corporate Largesse: Philanthropy or
> Self-Interest?" Chronicle of Higher Education, April 24.
>
> Macavinta, Courtney. 1997. "Colleges to Give Windows Top Billing,"
> CNET News.com.
>
> Newman, Nathan. 1998. Microsoft Goes to College: The Education
> Software Market and Microsoft's Expanding Monopoly." Microsoft
> Monitor.
>
> NetAction. 1999. "Let Students Decide Which Software to Buy".
>
> Noble, David. 1999. "Digital Diploma Mills, Part III: The Bloom is Off
> the Rose."
>
> Young, Jeffrey. 1998. "Microsoft Marketing Brings New Business and New
> Skeptics," Chronicle of Higher Education.
>
> Bryan Pfaffenberger is a professor in the University of Virginia's
> pioneering Division of Technology, Culture, and Communication, where
> he teaches a popular course entitled Computers and Social Issues.
> Among his recent publications are Linux Clearly Explained
> (Morgan-Kaufmann, available now) and Mastering GNOME (Sybex, available
> this fall).
>
> Copyright ) 1999 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc.
> ------- End of forwarded message -------
>
> Sokongan Masalah Komputer Dan internet.
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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