Linux

[Ebtoulson]

ps.
Sorry hear about your trouble with wireless cards in linux . would it happen to be an atheros card? for some reason those seem to be a problem.

Nah it was a broadcom b43, problem only existed in 8.10 (worked perfect in 8.04) but I ended up fixing it. I was just saying this to show that these kind of problems happen on all platforms.

[ErikaM]

OSX only survives because you can get office for a mac.

I'd say Mac OS survives because it owns the high-end graphic design/publishing market. We use OS X for work (also OS 9 on rare occasion) and there's really no substitute. Just a little thing like font standardization is a big deal.

[tenuki]

Also, Word may be easily replaceable but Excel is basically *the* standard (AFAIK) in commercial/industrial/scientific/etc. spreadsheet work. Trying to convert complex spreadsheets between different programs is not worth saving a few pennies-- I know that from personal experience.

Spreadsheets are so 21st century, what kind of Luddite restricts their data to 2 dimensions anymore....

[Proinsias]

People who work on 2D screens?

[tjausti]

Just makes anything OSX and MS can do just seem like childs play.

MS is copying the repository idea for Win7. apparently its going to be stripped of everything including wordpad paint etc. when you try to access them it will download them from the MS Software Store.... sound familiar....

im not sure if this will be rolled in to add/remove programs but it sounds like it will.... this system is not included in the beta....

[Pentox]

I have heard the virus issue argued to death. fact of the matter is to say that there is no reason to write a linux virus is complete BS. if you look at the server market you will find that most secure servers are unix/linux. we are talking bank systems, government systems, credit card processing servers, the medical field is very heavily unix driven, almost any database driven system, web servers, GOOGLE Servers including thier financial systems, all of our accounting systems, warehouse manageent systems, etc. the big difference is in linux/unix by default you have no permissions to the systems unless you are exclusively allowed them where as windows you are given full permission to everything by default. MS has gotten better with vista's UAC system but it was so annoying that most people turn it off. when you are about to make a change to a linux system you have to purposely enter the admin password or you will only effect your account not the core system.

While linux servers are highly prominent out everywhere that does not mean they're more/less susceptible to attacks than a properly hardened MS system. The same problem that exists with vista's UAC problem will occur with anyone using linux for their desktop. Part of the reason why is people who don't know. If you have your root password on a system and it's ever needed to do legit installs the end user will need to know it. They will then get tricked just like any windows user. Right now linux mostly is installed on computers of people who know what they're doing or mostly know what they're doing. When you get down to the level of Grandma with her root password on a post it on the side of her laptop then you'll start to see the virus problems come into play.

[tjausti]

not true. you add users to a list that gives them permission to run applications with escalated privilege, however you add the applications to a whitelist. this is more of a corporate structure that linux (especially ubuntu) has used for home desktops for years. I will agree that at this point you do need a fair amount of knowledge to install and maintain a Linux box at home but it will get there.. where I see Linux making huge strides is enterprises and businesses like ours. being able to limit your users per application is a god send in a corporate infrastructure. we are constantly battling our users about what they can and cannot install on their machines. I cannot tell you how many laptops I get from our field users that have all kinds of crap they have installed, their kids have installed etc. Linux is a great solution for this problem. make a white list of applications that can be installed on your systems, add the user to the list for those applications and host those applications in a corporate software repository, map the repository to the synaptic package manager archive. the user can install or remove any of the software they need to do their job, if they want anything else they have to contact IT and have it added to the repository. very sinple to setup as far as IT goes. the users open synaptic and check the boxes of the software they want to install and uncheck anything they do not need. they can add it back later if they need to. this is a God send for IT people that have been in virus/spyware hell for the last few years. we have yet to have 1 linux system comeback with a virus, spyware, malware, etc problem since we started migrating 2 years ago. all the laptops/desktops pull their updates from our update servers and application servers. different groups have different software repository servers, etc. linux gives IT the control back to keep the business above 90% of problems that cause user downtime.

just my .02 but after being on the front lines of this situation in a HUGE Corporation as well as a few smaller employers (50-100 employees) (1500 employees) and now (one of the largest corps in the world) I am sure that linux will have an awesome impact once everyone stops drinking the MS koolaide. if MS cannot keep up with the slashed IT budgets it will happen fairly soon. our budget is down 60% from last year $150 extra per desktop and $2000 extra per server for MS products (never mind CAL's and other license fees for MS stuff) adds up quickly.....

[tjausti]

just ran across this on slash dot.

http://www.networkcomputing.in/Server-S ... nturn.aspx

highlights:

Linux Gaining Strength In Downturn

A February survey of IT managers by IDC indicated that hard times are accelerating the adoption of Linux. The open source operating system will emerge from the recession in a stronger data center position than before, concluded an IDC white paper...... Sixty-five percent of the 330 respondents said they plan to increase Linux server workloads by 10% or more this year. Sixty-three percent said they will increase their use of Linux on the desktop by more than 10% this year...... Forty-nine percent said they expect Linux will be their primary server platform within five years......

62% of respondents who said they are facing IT budget cuts or "are moving more cautiously and investing only where needed,"......... the growing number of Web-based Linux applications may result in more use of Linux.....