Opportunities with Linux
 

Not that anyone here cares, but I decided to waste some of my time anyway. A very interesting article, sounds like a promising future for technology expansion. Linux is being seriously promoted by IBM which is investing billions into the campaign. That would represent a serious completion for Microsoft; so far Linux is the only one to pose a threat to the monopolizing giant.

That would mean more job opportunities for Linux Agents. Pat, perhaps you should look into learning Linux instead? It operates in C++ and deals with a great portion of programming as well as Networking skills. Plus Linux Certified Agents receive a hefty salary in comparison to Microsoft. I am definitely going to brush up on my Linux.

Here is the article.

[url]http://www.forbes.com/home/free_forbes/2004/0607/086.html[/url]

Well, I don't know of anyone else who would know this other than Seapahn. Thus this post was only meant to give my post count a boost. Cheerio.

OK interesting. I've got a C++ book, maybe I'll read it sometime. It's too bad those certification people only plop out tests and don't teach you anything.

Oh, by the way, it should be added that Microsoft is a government created monopoly. Not that anyone here cares.

[QUOTE=Anonymouse]Well, I don't know of anyone else who would know this other than Seapahn. Thus this post was only meant to give my post count a boost. Cheerio.[/QUOTE]

In C++ lingo, we just say: Anonymouse.post_count++;

About Linux and C++... Linux is written in C/C++. Knowledge of C/C++ will help if you plan to hack into the kernel and make modifications to it or write drivers or other applications. Although there are utilities that come packaged with most linux distributions that streamline the customization of the operating system kernel with easy to use menus and graphical user interfaces. So you make a bunch of choices and it'll recompile the kernel to your liking. You don't need C knowledge to install and operate most linux distributions. It is very similar to Unix in nature.

Having said that, knowing C is not a bad thing as it can only help!

By the way, to those who wish to dabble around with linux, I highly recommend VMWare, available from [url]www.vmware.com[/url] and to start with Mandrake [url]www.mandrake.org[/url] .

If you can't figure out what to do with the info in this post, you are not ready to mess with linux.

Why does all this matter? Soon the machines will rise, and we will have to destroy all of them.

Because you'd probably want the machines to rise under anarchy (i.e linux) as opposed to an evil government (i.e. Microsoft) :evil:

[QUOTE=Anonymouse]Well, I don't know of anyone else who would know this other than Seapahn. Thus this post was only meant to give my post count a boost. Cheerio.[/QUOTE]

My darling....I've been meaning to say this to you for quite some time...Will you be my cheerleader?

Seapahn, GUI interface is not used for servers in which case it is much wiser to operate in text mode and know your commands. Also to execute some maintanance scripts, one should be a little familiar with C++. Only if the user intends on using his/her PC as a Desktop machine for a simple purpose GUI interface is preferred. I guess it depends on what you intend to do with Linux; one can get away with GUI only so much, beyond that it becomes very complex.

[QUOTE=Seapahn]By the way, to those who wish to dabble around with linux, I highly recommend VMWare, available from [url]www.vmware.com[/url][/QUOTE]

I remember using VMWare to do NT Server installations. I really didn't like it. To do an installation it works, but it's always best to screw up a system once or twice to get a good hang of it.

More on Open Source OS.
[QUOTE]
[CENTER][B]France Challenges Microsoft in Software Re-Fit
Fri 18 June, 2004 15:47
[/B][/CENTER]
By Emmanuel Jarry and Jean-Baptiste Vey

PARIS (Reuters) - France's cash-strapped government is giving alternative software firms the chance to win state business from Microsoft in a pioneering drive to challenge the U.S. software giant in the public sector.

Civil service minister Renaud Dutreil told Reuters France wanted to use "open-source" software providers to resupply part of the almost one million state computers under a government cost-cutting drive designed to trim a bulging public deficit.

"We are not starting a war against Microsoft, or against American companies in the software sector," Dutreil said in an interview. But he added that Microsoft "must return to being one supplier to the state among others."

"The competition is open," he said. "My estimate is that we can cut the state software bill at least in half."

At stake, in the case of office suite software alone, is around 300 million euros ($362.5 million) worth of software to be introduced to state computers over three years. Savings on operating systems could be of a similar order, officials said.

France's conservative government is trying to cut costs as it seeks to rein in a public sector deficit which is set to bust the European Union limit of three percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2004 for the third year running.

Open-source software -- uncopyrighted software which has no license cost -- like Linux, OpenOffice, Mozilla, Apache, MySQL and Evolution -- was "very credible," Dutreil said.

Microsoft, which is appealing a European Union fine for breaching antitrust law, said it would seek to show the French government it could offer software at a competitive price.

"In fact, open-source software is not free. It is very expensive because it shifts the cost to maintenance, services, integration and training," Microsoft France chief Christophe Aulnette said.

Open-source software suppliers welcomed the news.

"This decision will allow us to increase our presence in France," said Jacques Le Marois, president of the French open-source software company MandrakeSoft.

"This will also help us sell our solutions to other governments," he said, adding that he believed the German, Israeli and Malasian governments also envisaged shifting to open-source software.

France's culture, agriculture and finance ministries had already signed deals with MandrakeSoft, the company said. ($1=.8275 Euro)[/QUOTE]

Training everyone to use Linux will be interesting to observe.

Would you like to be my first student?

[QUOTE=anileve]Would you like to be my first student?[/QUOTE]

Why, so we can all learn to run our very own servers? My web host has gone to great lengths to make easy breezy GUI's for their customers so they don't have to hurt their noggins. :)

[QUOTE=patlajan]Why, so we can all learn to run our very own servers? My web host has gone to great lengths to make easy breezy GUI's for their customers so they don't have to hurt their noggins. :)[/QUOTE]

That depends on what you trying to get out of your system. If you want to control your OS instead of it being a stubborn and no cooperative arse, then Linux is for you.

If you want to be more marketable in the technical field, Linux is for you.

Better security you ask? Linux is for you.

Apache server? Linux is for you.

A great competition for Microsoft, some fresh meat in the computer industry? Lower prices? Linux is the way.

Wow, I should be their marketing manager. :confused:

[QUOTE=anileve]Would you like to be my first student?[/QUOTE]

My post was in response to the article about France.

[QUOTE=anileve]Better security you ask? Linux is for you.
[/QUOTE]

I'm not so sure about that.

[QUOTE=Seapahn]I'm not so sure about that.[/QUOTE]

I stated it therefore it is. :cool: You better not argue or I'll discuss feminine issues with you.

[QUOTE=anileve]That depends on what you trying to get out of your system. If you want to control your OS instead of it being a stubborn and no cooperative arse, then Linux is for you.
[/QUOTE]

Explain please.

[QUOTE=dusken]My post was in response to the article about France.[/QUOTE]

I know. My response was a proposal. Either way, the bird of opportunity has flown away. Rest easy.

[QUOTE=patlajan]Explain please.[/QUOTE]

Everything opposite of this.

[url]http://www.opensource.org/[/url]

[QUOTE=anileve]I know. [/QUOTE]

No, you did not. You are lying.

I agree with Anileve that Linux gives you absolute control over everything. Afterall, the source code is there so you can change ANYTHING you want.

However, this openness could cause problems in terms of security I think. My comment about security was not about this however. Linux can be made very tight and very secure if you really know what you are doing. But so can windows. I wouldn't say one is necessarily more secure than the other at this point. The one advantage that windows has is that there are experts out there (at Microsoft) actively patching up all the holes for us, the average users ... we simply need to run windows update once in a while.

I haven't yet seen the equivalent of windows update in linux. Once such a mechanism is in place, then I'll sleep better at night running my linux servers (if I had any) :) The thing with security is that there is no fool proof system ... as history has shown, anything will eventually be broken somehow.

I believe that would be "full," unless I misunderstood the idea.

[QUOTE=dusken]I believe that would be "full," unless I misunderstood the idea.[/QUOTE]

Lesson #1: When you have nothing to say...correct others.

"foolproof"? Is that the term in reference? I should not have put a space there but I did mean it in this context:

foolproof (adjective)
1. designed to function despite human error: designed to continue working properly in the face of any kind of human error, incompetence, or misuse

I misunderstood. Very good.

[QUOTE=anileve]Lesson #1: When you have nothing to say...correct others.[/QUOTE]

Lesson #2: If you are as dumb or dumber than anileve, shut the snatch up.

[QUOTE=Seapahn]I agree with Anileve that Linux gives you absolute control over everything. Afterall, the source code is there so you can change ANYTHING you want.

However, this openness could cause problems in terms of security I think. My comment about security was not about this however. Linux can be made very tight and very secure if you really know what you are doing. But so can windows. I wouldn't say one is necessarily more secure than the other at this point. The one advantage that windows has is that there are experts out there (at Microsoft) actively patching up all the holes for us, the average users ... we simply need to run windows update once in a while.

I haven't yet seen the equivalent of windows update in linux. Once such a mechanism is in place, then I'll sleep better at night running my linux servers (if I had any) :) The thing with security is that there is no fool proof system ... as history has shown, anything will eventually be broken somehow.[/QUOTE]

I hope you read the article to which I posted the link. Also read this.

[url]http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A34978-2003Aug23&notFound=true[/url]

[QUOTE=dusken]Lesson #2: If you are as dumb or dumber than anileve, shut the snatch up.[/QUOTE]

Lesson #3: If you are as gallant as dusken, drown yourself.

Here's the critical quote from the article :)

[quote]The patches that aren't downloaded: Windows is better than most operating systems at easing the drudgery of staying on top of patches and bug fixes, since it can automatically download them. [b]A PC kept current with Microsoft's security updates would have survived this week unscathed.[/b]

But hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Windows systems still got Blasted, even though the patch to stop this worm was released weeks ago.

Part of this is users' fault. "Critical updates" are called that for a reason, and it's foolish to ignore them. (The same goes for not installing and updating anti-virus software.) [/quote]

There is a tradeoff. Mac OS ships with "zero ports open" as the article states. But my buddy who owns a very sexy new Mac has been completely unable to get a wireless card to work with it. Sure he is no expert but Windows is not shipped to the experts! Most of its users are below average joe's trying to figure out how to check their emails. So there has been a design choice made to sacrifice some security over ease of use to make the "default" installation suitable for the widest possible range of end users.

The recent Netsky blast utilized a security hole that Microsoft had patched more than 2 weeks before! Now that's excellent service from Microsoft if you ask me.

I am ashamed to admit it but my Linux workstation at UCLA was compromised a couple of years ago and even to this day I don't know how that bastard got in. :D

One more thing ... "opening insecure attachments" and all the problems that brings as well as spyware, adware, etc are NOT faults of the operating system in my opinion. So those "problems" should not be attributed to windows per se.

However, since applications like Outlook and IE are exposing the system to such vulnerabilities, Microsoft is the correct target for blame. My comments above about security have been about "windows" as an OS versus Mac and Linux as OS's as opposed to the PC platform as a system.

The PC platform has potentially MANY weaknesses compared to unix platforms but the applications we install (like peer to peer file sharing, outlook, IE, etc) are often the major factors to blame and not the OS.

[QUOTE=anileve]Everything opposite of this.

[url]http://www.opensource.org/[/url][/QUOTE]

I know what open source is. I'm asking why you think windows is a stubborn jackass. I don't have many complaints. Open source is nice, but not when things get too complex.