Alternate Universes: Unix vs MCSE
,----[ Quote ]
| The problem isn’t the people: that MCSE who interprets the word “reliability”
| in the context of the technology keeping him employed is neither wrong nor
| bad; the problem is that the certainties which co-evolved with his technology
| didn’t evolve in the same directions in mine - meaning that we use the same
| words to refer to very different concepts and think we’re communicating when
| we’re not.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Murphy/?p=1089
Days ago:
Linux growth tied to personnel issues
,----[ Quote ]
| Certainly, Linux is gaining a track record for reliability, Jones said, and
| costs—at least for initial software licenses and maintenance—are lowest for
| Linux compared to Unix and Windows. And Jones cited Oracle Corp.’s decision
| to release its 11g database first on Linux as further evidence that the
| market is shifting irretrievably.
|
| With all the momentum behind Linux, an interesting question emerges: Why
| isn’t every shop that is able from a workload standpoint to migrate to Linux
| doing so?
|
| Jones however sees a good reason for the hesitancy: skills. Unix shops in
| particular remain set in their server ways.
`----
http://enterpriselinuxlog.blogs.techtarget.com/2008/03/10/linux-growth-tied-to-personnel-issues/
Open Source found to be source of all happiness
,----[ Quote ]
| A REPORT by New York consulting company, Bluewolf, reckons that IT salaries
| are going to rise even higher in 2008, with open source application
| developers leading the pack with an average 7.6 percent salary growth. This
| corresponds to a salary increase from the previous average of $80,250 to
| about $112,500 a year for the lucky open saucers.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/03/11/open-source-found-source
Advice for the MCSE: go back to school
,----[ Quote ]
| Number one on that list is a simple reality: everything changes, and by
| betting against industry wide change you’re leaving yourself, your family,
| and even your community hostage to Microsoft’s continuing commercial success.
|
| [...]
|
| Not many people like Microsoft - and there are better alternatives: Linux on
| the server side, MacOS X on the user side.
|
| Is it going to happen tomorrow? Probably not, but it will - and when it does
| a lot of today’s MCSEs will be caught out: essentially unemployable in
| comparable professional roles without significant, unanticipated, and
| uprooting personal change.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Murphy/?p=1081
The meaning of Microsoft Server 2008
,----[ Quote ]
| Server 2008 looks like a bit of an odd duck - it doesn’t meet the promises
| made for “Longhorn” and “Blackcombe”, it’s probably neither more reliable nor
| more efficient than its 64 bit 2003/XP based predecessors, and unlike Vista
| (with which it shares some code) the kernel changes amount to rather more
| than just another point release in the NT schedule.
|
| [...]
|
| And that, I think, reflects Microsoft’s other strategic concern: that MacOS X
| and Linux bracket Microsoft’s market and are both reaching out to the people
| in the middle - the managers and MCSE decision makers who now consider Apple
| too consumer oriented and Linux too technical.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Murphy/?p=1082
Related:
,----[ Quote ]
| The Scary World of Linux Computers.
|
| Dunkelberger likely wasn't intending to suggest that the iPhone was
| running Linux, but instead that it is a full computing environment
| with multiple vectors for potential exploits to attack. It is
| interesting that he brought up Linux however, because it is a scary
| subject for IT staff beholden to Microsoft.
|
| The majority of Microsoft oriented corporate IT staff I've worked with
| have a sort of reverential fear of Linux. They like to talk about it
| in a respectful sort of way, but they are often afraid to actually use
| it. Deploying a Linux server without an outside support agreement is a
| very scary task to users who have felt safe for years in their
| codependent relationship with Microsoft.
|
| After investing tens of thousands of dollars into their troubled
| relationship, after spending sleepless nights nursing NT servers back
| to health after they fall off the wagon to binge on worms and the
| other malware they have a genetic propensity to be addicted to, after
| growing dependent upon calling up the Redmond Father's TechNet for
| advice on how to deal with the regular schizoid mania and subsequent
| crashing of Windows, it's difficult to start over with something
| entirely new.
|
| IT managers are a whipped bunch. Linux is an allure associated with
| danger, like a pretty girl on the bus who smiles at the haggard,
| middle aged family man. She's just being friendly, not inviting him
| into a blissful world. He knows he has to think about his commitments
| to Microsoft, all of the fighting that would have been for nothing,
| all of the holding back of hair that he's already dealt with and wants
| to use as credit toward an established relationship. It's too much
| starting over, too late in the game.
|
| Today's adherents of Microsoft are like the COBOL programmers in the
| 90s: too old to learn new tricks, and too tired to even want to try.
| They are dinosaurs, dependent upon resisting change to maintain their
| proprietary world.
|
| Change isn't resisted successfully for long, but holdout adherents can
| oppose progress and tenaciously hold things up for longer periods of
| time than one might imagine possible.
|
| Is Linux Really a Problem?
| Of course, there are lots of phones that run Linux already--far more
| than run Windows Mobile--and they are not plagued by security
| problems.
|
| There are also tens of millions of embedded routers and phone systems
| running Linux or its BSD cousin, and none have suffered a scourge of
| security rashes anything remotely like Microsoft's Windows. Perhaps
| security isn't just a product of being powerful or having market
| share.
|
| Why would the iPhone's closed BSD environment be a special security
| risk? Hackers working on the iPhone have to build and install their
| own shell before they can even control it in ideal settings in a lab.
|
| If iPhone enthusiasts can't hack their own phones without first
| manually installing their own root access and shell environment, why
| are pundits distributing scary stories about the potential for iPhones
| to turn on their human masters and form a rebellion mechanical army of
| robot terrorists?
|
| Why didn't these flacks ever tell us about their brainstorming efforts
| to imagine security problems for Windows Mobile devices?
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http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q3.07/8E67109A-41FD-4CB1-B92A-4B038428FAA2.html
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