[Sussex] From last nights conversation

[Geoff Teale]

Morning..

Interesting meet last night, Mark and Nik should have their own show ;)  It
is very interesting that in a group that all share a common interest in
Linux there can be such a range of views, especially from two people who are
essentially in the same business, but in different business sectors.  I
wonder if all our visions of how the world really is are all skewed
massivley by what we do for a living?  I know that an awful lot of people
I've met doing VB development seriously believe that everybody in the world
runs NT/2000 servers as well as windows desktops, I even had an argument in
a management meeting at Thomson with a guy who honestly believed that SQL
Server 7 was the world most popular database sever.  Equally I tend to look
at the world as a place of idiotic, corrupt and naive management because of
my experiences.

One point I'd like to illustrate this morning.  Mark asked for an example of
how Microsoft customers would be better off if Microsoft software was
open-sourced - here's a perfect example:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/29985.html

..Whilst Microsoft claim they won't fix NT 4.0 because the structure of the
OS makes it too hard some former employees have claimed this moring that
this is not true and that this attitude is simply a result of Microsoft
winding down the last stages of NT 4 support.  

I have no problem with a business that makes its money by box-shifting
wanting to limit the lifespan of it's older products, this is a fact of life
that we accept and will have to accept from Linux vendors as well as
propreitary vendors.  However the one real benefit of open source is that
the group of people who want (or indeed _need_) to continure working with NT
4 are going to see more and more of these problems and they would be better
servered by an Open Source product because it simply allows them to at least
have the choice - redevelop systems that rely on NT4 to work with newer
platforms or maintain NT4's source.  Now in most cases an individual company
would opt for redevelopment of their own systems (this makes sense), but I
am sure there are enough companies running NT4 out there that any community
project to continue to support the code would recieve a _lot_ of commercial
backing.

Does this make sense for Microsoft?  Absolutely not, they need you to buy
their new product, not keep on using their old one.  Does it make sense for
Microsoft customers - yes.

When we talk about the world in a Windows versus Linux way (not the way
businesses see it, as Mark will attest, but certainly the way most Linux
zealots and Microsoft themselves see it) it is often telling that one of the
biggest reasons people are interested in Linux is not for any technical
apsect of it but simply because they don't (to the same extent, at least)
have to get locked into an upgrade cycle, and where there is an upgrade to
be made, it is a matter of a free download rather than a whole bunch of new
licensing (and, often, new hardware).   A point that both Mark and Dominix
have made about Microsoft bashing is very relevant here - these valid
concerns often get lost in the flood of "Microsoft sucks because..."
comments.

--  
geoff.teale at claybrook.co.uk
tealeg at member.fsf.org

If God is perfect, why did He create discontinuous functions?

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GCS d? s+:+ a- K? w---$ O M+ V- PS++ PE- Y+ PGP- t--- 5-- X R- tv- b+++ 
DI++++ D G+ e++ h--- r+++ z+++
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------



The above information is confidential to the addressee and may be privileged.  Unauthorised access and use is prohibited.
 
Internet communications are not secure and therefore this Company does not accept legal responsibility for the contents of this message.
 
If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution or any action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful.
 
Claybrook Computing Limited is a subsidiary of Claybrook Computing (Holdings) Limited
Registered Office: Abbey House. 282 Farnborough Road, Farnborough, Hampshire GU14 7NJ
Registered in England and Wales No 1287205
 
A Hogg Robinson plc company