in some dark distant past ..<br><br>I used to be a computer geek! Spectrum,C64, amiga's, atari st's..it was all<br>good stuff. <br><br>! I then got myself a job, and discovered the joys of Unix..<br><br>and things were joyful...<br><br>Until, I was managing HPUX,SCO,AIX,Solaris,bsd,... I got really fed up about the<br>small difference between administration of these platforms, unix vendors<br>could'nt agree on how to do things, there was very little sharing going on!<br>It was not a pleasant place to be. however support for these platforms<br>were incredible. you did'nt buy a piece of hardware, or software <br>you bought something that did a particular job, and if it did'nt your<br>vendor wanted to know about it. it was SERIOUS stuff.<br><br>You could'nt run unix on a home computer at all. It was a shame that I could'nt<br>hack away with the systems at night at home, so I hung around work, working<br>late (unpaid) just learning stuff, I nearly wore the 'man' command
out.<br><br>I read everything I could about unix design, even then it was open and<br>well documented! <br><br>The came mighty NT.. I though...hmm, new ,based on vms, looks interesting<br>one size fits all, PORTABLE to different cpu's!! I though it would be great<br>to have a single environment, it even ran a posix subsystem for unix emulation.<br><br>and things were joyful...<br><br>I was impressed by the ease of use, and actually started to learn stuff about it..<br><br>then something happened..more and more features kept appearing, more silly<br>bugs, focus on os development was on gui changes rather than under the hood<br>Windows NT 2000, that was their finest hour, I still quite enjoy this o/s<br>but after that, it all went very very wrong.<br><br>The most sickening thing was if I had a problem, I had to rely on microsoft<br>or their knowledge base to fix it. Access to source code was impossible. I<br>remember having an exchange 4.0 problem, no internet email
for 4 days<br>because of a new bug, where mime attachments stopped the internet<br>mail queue from starting !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!..... as the queue was binary<br>propitiatory format , it was very different from /var/spool/mail. at this point<br>I thought, shall I go back to unix mail, it's no pretty but it was rock solid.<br><br>I though, why use a binary format for a mail queue? no reason , apart from<br>keeping prying eye's away. Why do microsoft love to hide stuff, <br>with weird file formats, you can't understand? I could still to a string grep<br> I could still actually read people's email ;-). mwwwwhahahahah ! (ethically wrong,<br>and not something I would do...ever). so, it's was'nt a privacy issue..<br><br>I could'nt fix the problem, to my users I looked like an idiot.<br><br>I'd always been able to fix this kinda thing on unix....<br><br>so, during this time, linux was gaining strength, I got a copy (I did use it<br>in version 1.0 , it was
fun ) and it seems to be quite a full featured <br>operating system.<br><br>Microsoft then dropped all other cpu support for NT, and that's the time<br>I threw my hands in the air and so no more. this is bullshit. for many years<br> have had too much movement in the marketing<br>department, and not enough being spent in the engineering department.<br><br>I got sick of fighting problems, I had enough skill to fix my own problems<br>at source level if need, just I had this organisation saying, dont do that<br>just give us money...money..money..for this close source operating system.<br><br>It's a shame because I did like the kernel of NT (vms based) it had some<br>interesting idea's, but it's microsoft marketing department that finally<br>killed it for me.<br><br>so, where are we now? As linux says, 'you should never see the operating system' it should be invisible...and just work!!!!!!!!!!!<br><br>Unix seems to be an evolution, it a progression, I learn unix and I stay
with<br>it 'small; things change for time to time, but the core remains the same.<br><br>I 'm sick of relearning stuff, do you think I can be actually bothered<br>to learn vista server when it's released? it's not evolution, it's not even<br>wipe the slate clean, as microsoft have to support braindead , insecure<br>protocols like smb through all versions.<br><br>I'd rather write a piece of code than can run everywhere, rather than<br>say code a VB program that can only be run one one platform,one cpu .<br>.net is a great idea, but what's the point when the only servers your going<br>to full features or NT ones? microsoft trying to be cross platform, the<br>math's don't add up.<br><br>At the end of the says, that's what going to kill microsoft , there are going<br>to be technically outgunned. nothing to do with communist freedom<br>fighters etc etc.<br><br>Tim was saying to me about J++, you know, when microsoft took<br>java, and tried to make it 'better'... wow...
can you trust them?<br>no? I don't trust them... <br><br><br>So, linux really creates a standard base, something where I can move<br>around machines and the interface is almost the same.<br><br>okay, I like bsd too, but then again, I see it as another, lets do it our way<br>and not cooperate with anyone else.<br><br>I've got lots of other examples of where microsoft have runied my day,<br>prevent productivity, had poor documentation, and where they have<br>offered no support apart from 'why dont you upgrade' ...<br><br>Programmers might like the rich api's, and ease of use, but ask a<br>admin about microsoft networks, they are someone of a diastaster..the<br>bigger they are , the more they just don't seem to function.<br><br>if I leave uni, and don't find employment doing open source, non-microsoft work,<br>then so be it... I'd rather pass my time working with tools that I think are <br>both ethical and good tools, rather than being forced into the one microsoft
way.<br>If that means this prevents my career working for a corporate , then I'll just hack<br>away at home with tools I actually enjoy using.<br><br>I've gone full circle with operating systems, it's gone full circle, I've come home<br>to unix and it's feels good, but then again I thank microsoft, without them<br>ram would'nt be so cheap, and the unix vendors would still be property <br>monsters, even worse than Microsoft...<br><br>at the end of day use the right tool for the job, but for network's dont use<br>a product that refuses to speak to every other network product out there...<br><br>the windows desktop say it all 'my computer' the icon proudly prounces...<br><br>'our operating system' it should say below.<br><br>Linux is 'my operating system'<br><br>It's mine, and I , or I can pay someone to do anything I want to it.<br><br>that's a concept that the software giant will never realise, and until it<br>does it's days are numbered.They lost the server battle
many years ago,<br>the desktop is coming. No doubt I'll be working for microsoft when I leave Uni.<br>hehehhheh... now that's hypocritical. ;-)<br><br>so, what the share price now? it's gone up half a cent.. Someone just's <br>made a killing. does it ever worry that tech stocks just represent our idea's.<br>software is not real, the only thing you need to build it is tools with the<br>raw material being time (and a little bit of brains).<br><br>so when you but tech stocks, like microsoft, what are you buying exactly?<br><br>brains?<br><br>time?<br><br>Tools?<br><br>how can something that does not exist (software) have such a large value?<br><br>products should be things you can touch and feel.<br><br>you should buy stock that has assets, real world stuff, not just a bunch<br>of number, 0 and 1's. ;-) okay, I must admit some technology is worth<br>buying... but does microsoft actually own anything special? they have<br>a api and a kernel? not the most exciting stuff on the
market it is?<br><br>clustering? Microsoft cluster? hohohohoho<br><br><br>do you know the current firefox team is 17 programmers? interesting<br>thought.<br><br>if I write a program today, I can distribute it to everyone on the internet<br>in seconds? interesting huh.. could you call that a product? (probably a virus ;-) ).<br><br>I may dislike microsoft, but I can back it up with facts. (which are mostly wrong ;-) )<br><br>The world is slowly catching on, they've already lost, and the recent attempted<br>buy out of yahoo, is part of it's last death throws to dominate the internet scene... <br><br>Laters,<br>Lee<br>'developers, developers, developers (in the third world).'<br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br>Laters,<br>Lee<br><br><br><br><br><br><b><i>gordon dunlop <astrozubenel@googlemail.com></i></b> wrote:<blockquote class="replbq" style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"> I am showing you all the Microsoft bullying
& hypocrisy as a scientist<br>making observations. Two years ago I gave a presentation at Abertay<br>about the OLPC, highlighting Nicholas Negroponte's concepts and ideas<br>regarding low cost laptops and Linux and how he would use it for<br>educational purposes in third world countries. Microsoft scoffed at<br>these ideas putting him down, hardware manufacturers like Intel, Asus,<br>Everex etc. started copying his ideas producing low cost laptops with<br>Linux operating systems in response to consumer demand by individuals<br>in developed countries, he in a way has started a bit of a revolution<br>here. We are not talking about education in relation to teachers and<br>students, we are talking about commercial companies jumping on the<br>bandwagon in response to consumer demand. So Microsoft seeing his idea<br>is really changing things globally changing course in order to protect<br>their own interests and
monopoly.<br>http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Windows/Microsoft-Upbeat-about-Windows-on-the-OLPCs-XO/<br><br>After watching Revolution O.S. showed by Arron, how much is the<br>present is being mirrored by the past. I am an open source person<br>because as a trained scientist if you have a concept or idea:<br>you configure a practical experiment;<br>carry it out making scientific observations;<br>do data analysis;<br>write up your findings;<br>submit your paper to journal;<br>peer reviewed by three referees;<br>accepted after recommended modifications;<br>paper is published;<br>other scientists can build other ideas and experiments based upon your paper.<br>Truly open source is within science where knowledge and experience is<br>shared by all.<br>Microsoft is only out to control you and your computer.<br>Has Microsoft provided cures for cancer?<br>Has Microsoft solved the Global warming problem? (only Linux super<br>computers can come up with reasonable calculations)<br>Has
Microsoft solved potential problems in the release of genetically<br>modified organisms within the environment? (No! Fortran programs in<br>Unix using mathematical models was used, re my Ph.D.)<br><br>What point I am trying to make is that as a trained scientist<br>Microsoft is preventing knowledge and experience to be spread about<br>the world that is why Scientific Linux was started (based upon Red<br>Hat0 and is used within many scientific institutions.<br><br>Gordon<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>dundee GNU/Linux Users Group mailing list<br>dundee@lists.lug.org.uk http://dundee.lug.org.uk<br>https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/dundee<br>Chat on IRC, #tlug on dundee.lug.org.uk<br></blockquote><br><p> 
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