Re: Viva le Same! Linux
You have 100 apples, and I have 2 applesWhy do I need 100 apples when I am obviously overloaded (as compared to you, who only has two). Obviously I'm trying to do too much. I should get into another line of work (like game consoles).
One of your apples has a worm in it, and one of mine does.
Who will locate the worm faster?
So okay, let's mince arbitrary apple metaphors then:
I have 20 guys in one of my orchards picking apples. Instead of telling them to look for worms, I tell them to work faster. I make it harder for them to actually look for worms because they are overloaded. I've promised the grocer that I'd have his shipment of mellon-sized seedless-apples out by this afternoon, so I'm pushing my guys hard to meet that deadline. Even though I know there's a lot of worms in the apples I'm shipping out, I still ship them today. Even though most of the fruit I'm shipping isn't ripe yet, I'm still shipping it today.
You have 3 guys in one of your orchards. They have chosen apples specifically because they look and feel like they will be the best apples to eat. Although you pick less apples, you rarely hear of a complaint about under-ripe fruit or worms in the apples. Although your apples aren't seedless, nor are they mellon-sized, you have a loyal customer base.
But this is a divagation from the point: if you don't have the capacity to finish the jobs you start, you should be doing something else.
Just like any other job that has a high-level of responsibility
associated with it, if you can't do it right, then you should be doing
something else.
So what exactly is MS doing wrong? I mean they have like 92 billion in assets.
They must have done at least a FEW things right.
Microsoft is a business. That they sell software is a happenstance. Software development was an opportune choice for a crafty businessman to make. But focusing on the quality of the software has never been an issue because it was never strategically necessary for them until recently. Microsoft as a corporation has never overtly taken pride in the quality of its products, has never gone beyond the minimum necessary to maintain status-quo. Don't get me wrong, I know there are a lot of very smart, very talented people over at Microsoft that take a lot of pride in what they are doing--and they do their job very well. But they aren't running the business.
What has Microsoft done right? Hired Sting and Madonna and the Rolling Stones to sing for something so banal as an operating system's release. They've manufactured a desire for something most people just don't need. What have they done right? Run every other competitor out of business, or run them into a niche market. But Microsoft didn't succeed by making a more usable, better quality product. It succeeded by guile, by deception, by shouting and waving hands. Microsoft succeeded by making people think they need something.
A computer on every desktop was a vision of genius. Without Microsoft I don't think it ever would have happened. Who else could have manufactured that need?
Good article. Guess what - Linux wasn't engineered with security in mind either.
It got added in later on. Most OSs out there were never designed from the ground
up to be secure.
The thing is, there are flavors of Linux that are. That's what open source makes possible. That's the difference. With Windows, you can't do anything close to that.
So - don't use a Microsoft box. Use a Linux box. Nobody is forcing you to use
Windows. You are not mandated by UN Security Council to use Microsoft Windows.
Demand your rights, man. Be free. Nobody will stop you. But don't expect
everybody to follow you.
I don't understand what this has to do with anything. Does my personal choice effect you? No. Does your personal choice effect me? No. I like it that way, and I'm glad to leave it that way. Honestly, I don't care where the herd decides they want to graze today. I do care when I read what I perceive as misinformation.
And make sure the next job you apply for, you stand up tall and proud and
proclaim "I will not use a Windows product in my job for I refuse to be ripped
off! In fact, today I will have Open BSD. For I am an open-source supporter and
proud of it!"
And still, this isn't really relevant to the discussion, but it is funny. I guess I look forward to a time when we don't have to "stand up tall and proud" that we don't have to "proclaim" anything about something so banal as an operating system. I look forward to a time when the politicization of software ends, and interoperability and customer satisfaction are truly the goals of all software development.
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Re: Viva le Same! Linux: From: Andrew Plato
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