Published by Robert Pogson August 31st, 2009
in technology.
There are some thinga that other OS does better than GNU/Linux but updates are not one of them. That other OS installs malware supremely well but with that other OS, one has to replace drivers and applications manually at great expense. With GNU/Linux, especially Debian, there is a huge repository of applications updated in the same simple way as the kernel.
- apt-get update get the new package lists
- apt-get upgrade gets the new packages and installs them
- apt-get dist-upgrade gets the new release
What will you do with the rest of the day that users of that other OS will waste going from XP to “7″ because M$ does not provide an upgrade process except trash and burn?
It is an interesting question why M$ provides no upgrade for hundreds of millions of loyal customers:
- are they punishing them for not buying Vista?
- are they lazy?
- are they foolish?
- are they forcing folks to buy new hardware?
The thing that is obvious to everyone is that because M$ claims “7″ will run on a netbook it should surely run on a desktop or notebook too, so there is no reason M$ cannot set up an upgrade process except that they do not want to have one. They boast about spending a billions on research so M$ cannot be so short of cash they cannot afford to provide an upgrade path. It must be that M$ knows the bulk of XP customers are hopelessly hooked and will wriggle off the hook just for the privilege of impaling themselves on the next hook.
Compare that with GNU/Linux which is happy whether you use GNU/Linux on an old machine or a new one of 12 architectures and you can run an old release as long as you please… The difference is freedom. No business should be allowed to dictate how you run your business no matter how big they may be.
- Robert Pogson
Published by Robert Pogson August 29th, 2009
in Uncategorized.
The long sad story that is SCO v World should have ended long ago with the pitiful poor showing of SCO in court. They had no case, no evidence, and no workable business plan. A judge ruled that, as a matter of law and the plain reading of the contract, that SCO did not receive certain copyrights to a UNIX OS. Since their whole agenda depended on the copyright, they were dead in the water until an appeals tribunal ruled that the matter was too complex to be decided by summary judgement. The case of SCO v Novell for slander of title is now going back for a trial by jury. A further complication is that a trustee has now been appointed to manage SCO’s affairs. While it is hard to see how an impartial trustee could wish the legal bloodshed to be prolonged, it may take some weeks for the trustee to get up to speed.
This whole process has been a failure of the courts to require SCO to provide the least bit of evidence that they had a case. In criminal proceedings this thing would have been dismissed for lack of evidence at a preliminary hearing. Instead SCO was given millions of dollars worth of discovery under the civil rules and allowed to dodge a bullet by hiding behind Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection while they were not bankrupt. The cost of litigation and the bankruptcy proceedings themselves have now made SCO bankrupt so Chapter 7 is appropriate but the saga continues. I hope the trustee finds cause to claw back some of the ill-gotten gains from the lawyers and management of SCO to give the legitimate employees of SCO, their customers and creditors a break.
I do not know what IBM and Novell could have done differently to have this stuff killed promptly. Clearly, paying the thugs off was impractical as they demanded billions. Perhaps they were too polite. I think no judge could imagine this size of case could be a lie from day one.
- Robert Pogson
Published by Robert Pogson August 1st, 2009
in Uncategorized.
The decision of the city of Munich to migrate to GNU/Linux has been a long story and continues. Current status is that all 14000 work stations have been converted to FLOSS applications and 12000 staff trained in their use. 2000 work stations run GNU/Linux. Since they are now using thin clients, the conversion of the rest should be fairly easy. Less than 50% of the budget has been spent to date.
see Debconf2009 keynote
While the naysayers point to Munich as an example of failure the migration is sure to succeed because of its German thoroughness. Naysayers harp on budget, usability, re-training costs etc. Re-training has been only 16% of the cost so far. The project has won awards for usability. The costs going forward will be very small because they no longer will have to upgrade periodically at M$’s whim.
- Robert Pogson
