[Klug-general] Shiny New Laptop

[Karl Lattimer]

> neither should Windows.

My experience of win2k3 server is that it has some serious problems the
analogy i generally use to explain the issues to users of our exchange
server when it starts to go wrong is.

"Its kicking itself in the arse and wondering why it hurts"

win2k server was IMHO much more stable, but the software is seriously
costly, for the simple samba sharing and roaming profiles + exchange
you're looking at about £4.5k for 10 or so users.

Updates to the OS which you can configure to run automatically,
sometimes break it we've had a few instances where exchange has just
stopped talking to active directory because of updates. The time
required to manage the server is negligible, however when something goes
wrong it can take days to figure out what has gone wrong and how it has
gone wrong, and once you've determined that you sometimes can't get your
head in under the hood to see whats broken. If you get a virus on it,
forget your entire network! Reinstall is the only way to go, and even a
microsoft products guy said that so its not just zealotry saying that.

I think linux is the only way, but there are problems with it to list
but a few:

  * Directory management software, we need something for ldap like AD
  * Inter connectivity of services, we need an end to end, ldap & nis &
yp->samba & nfs->mail (all servers)->client connectivity
  * Session password management and single sign on.
  * Wine needs improvement, and it needs to become internet connective
for application installation requirements, which is why I'm writing
http://www.qdh.org.uk/wine-doors.trac as a replacement to winetools.
  * The X server needs to have some convergence of technology now, Xgl
is great, but Aiglx and Xegl are better, its a shame that neither work
properly at present (nvidia/ati users are locked out for the mean time).
  * The resource usage needs to be fixed, gnome/kde are memory hungry
and a kernel level garbage collector needs to be considered. OSX has
this, and memory usage is very good.
  * The performance issues in general, there are some terrible sections
of code which are responsible for slow performance in many areas.
  * The boot time/login time needs to be brought down, fair enough linux
does a great job in that once you log in, its all there ready to use, as
opposed to windows where you wait five minutes for it to calm down, but
it still needs to be optimized. 

All that said, it still kicks the arse of any other OS out there, and
that is because of choice, and open standards and open code. I think as
we're all linux users we'd all agree on that.

> I think I'll shut up and leave the coffee alone before I run off on yet
> more tangents :)

I recently bought a case of Jolt Cola, yes infamous jolt cola... By
christ its like rocket fuel!

K,