Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (720 mails)

[pbleser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Pascal Bleser)]

That's the right attitude !
I agree with most of your arguments to beat m$... Really, a Win32 API on
Linux could be a *major* chance to really crush m$ on the commercial level,
but it certainly is a _lot_ of work to implement all that stuff, although it
certainly is possible...

Linux is such a great system to work on: no bugs, no reboots, fast as light,
the very powerful shell command line, ... ... ...
But, in my opinion, a major argument against Linux (but is it really ?) is
that the user (let's talk about administrators straightaway, because Linux
is best as a server anyway) has to have a certain knowledge of the system
(processes, users, filesystems, IPC, ...), which I think most of the
"administrators" don't have (that's the only way I can explain the success
of NT - just click, click over here and click, click over there: it _is_
easy and "intuitive", but if you want to set up your system *as you wish*,
you notice that you just can't change anything, compared to Linux).
I'm a student and I'm currently making my end-of-study work in the school
(Oracle Designer/2000, NT :-(  ), and I'm "teaching" Linux to some
interested students in the evening... Some of them don't know anything about
UNIX-like systems, so I had to start with 0... Well, that's the time where
you see that, maybe, it isn't that easy to understand Linux ;-) but, hey, I
said "administrator" ! Is it really asking too much to have administrators
who are capable of setting up Linux ?? It really isn't *that* hard, once you
understand some basic things... Am I right or am I right ? ;-)

bye !
Pascal

P.S.: If you want some help with SaMBa, I have some experience with it (and
its troubleshooting ;-) and have already helped out some people with that on
several mailinglists...

---snip, snip, snip---(not that it wasn't interesting, but it would get a
little long ;-)

>
> Steve,
>
>I understand your point of view.  You just don't want to have anything to
do with
>MS-Bill.  I see a place in my paradigm where folks like you could be fully
>satisfied with the same base Linux running on your preferred platform,
while those
>who wanted to emulate Win32 could add that functionality to their Linux x86
>systems.  I have been working as a sysadmin for five years now.  I remember
when
>NT was in beta.  I have watched it become a dominant market player.  One of
the
>most effective selling points of NT/95 has been the ability to do
everything that
>a Novell server or client could do, and then some.  Microsoft has produced
some
>decent products.  (Word is not one of these, BTW. ) Right now they are
crushing
>Netscape's browser development by dumping IE on the market.  That yanks my
chain
>big time! Part of the reason that MS can do this is because of their
virtual
>stranglehold on the intel OS market.  If they could not sell NT at $250 per
>workstation and 95 at $100 per workstation, if there were a Linux
alternative to
>NT/95, MS would have to compete more equally in the marketplace when it
comes to
>other software products.
>
>Now consider what happens when Joe administrator sets up his Linux system
to run
>MS-SQL server.  If MS-SQL server works well and does everything a Unix
based SQL
>server can do, then Bill gets to keep the business.  If, on the other hand,
MS-SQL
>can't hang with another product, perhaps a freeware product, Bill looses
the
>market share.  People who transition to Linux because they can get it for
much
>less, and can still use their MS investments, will then be free to move
between
>Win32 based products and UNIX based products.
>
>It is also likely that software producers would be more willing to compile
>software for other CPUs that don't run NT, but can handle Win32 calls
through
>Linux.  There would be no need to port the code to UNIX style calls.  All
of a
>sudden, people are using a Win32 API on a non-intel platform, and Bill
isn't
>getting a cut either.
>
>The Linx/UNIX user who doesn't want to participate in this simply doesn't
load the
>Win32 emulator on his system.  He uses pure Linux software, and keeps a
clear
>conscience.
>
>I guess what I am trying to say is that one of the best ways to break down
the
>MS proprietary fortress is to emulate MS OSs.  I truly believe that
Linux/UNIX can
>"do that too".
>
>Remember when people were saying that the reason MS-DOS was so successful
was
>because it would run on open system architecture.  IBM made a killing on
this
>strategy for a while and then found that is had created its own major
>competition?  Well,  its about time there was an open systems operating
system
>that could stand up to MS proprietary products.
>
>
>Mathematica:  I love it!  I have not yet tried it on Linux.  I have run it
on DOS,
>95, and NT.  See: www.wri.com
>
>NT = MS-UNIX?  I would not say that.  I am not as knowledgeable about the
core
>UNIX architecture as I am of NT's architecture.  There are some major
differences
>at the user interface level that I can speak authoritatively about.  First
off,
>that stuff about POSIX compliance?  I work in a Major DoD lab, and nobody
talks
>about POSIX.  UNIX products run on UNIX systems and Win32 products run on
NT/95
>systems.  The NT/DOS scripting language doesn't hold a candle to UNIX
shells.  The
>registry makes basic system administration easier, but puts many
restrictions on
>what you can do with a system.  NT seems to me to be slower in every
respect than
>UNIX.  I also have far more problems with Dr. Watsons than I do with core
dumps.
>As a workstation I have little trouble with NT other than the fact that it
seems
>to take twice as long to load things as it does on Linux.  I installed suse
a week
>or so ago.  At first I figured that it was going to be a clunky curiosity
that I
>would play with a bit here and there, while my real work would be done on
NT.  I
>haven't booted into NT in days except to retrieve files.  I am thinking of
buying
>a new system.  Before I tried suse, I was debating between NT and Solaris
x86.
>(which I do like, but has few applications which run on it.)  Now I am
almost sure
>that I will put suse on my new system. (if it will run on the dual Pentium
II 333
>Asus MB).  I then want to set up Samba  and network with my current NT
system.
>
>Steve
>
>--
>"Alles Vergaengliche
>Ist nur ein Gleichniss"
>-Goethe, as quoted in Ludwig Boltzmann's Vorlessungen ueber Gastheorie.
>
>
>
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>


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