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By: The Sorcerer
Date: 9/18/99 12:39:14 PM
# Replies: 37
In honor of the Linux OS becoming 8 years old on Friday, I offer this to other Nerdish types who my find it interesting. Another long post by Sorc'(Rev).
In the beginning Turing created the Machine.
And the Machine was crufty and bogacious, existing in theory only. And von Neumann looked upon the Machine, and saw that it was crufty. He divided the Machine into two Abstractions, the Data and the Code, and yet the two were one Architecture. This is a great Mystery, and the beginning of wisdom.
And von Neumann spoke unto the Architecture, and blessed it, saying, "Go forth and replicate, freely exchanging data and code, and bring forth all manner of devices unto the earth." And it was so, and it was cool. The Architecture prospered and was implemented in hardware and software. And it brought forth many Systems unto the earth.
The first Systems were mighty giants; many great works of renown did they accomplish. Among them were Colossus, the codebreaker; ENIAC, the targeter; EDSAC and MULTIVAC and all manner of froody creatures ending in AC, the experimenters; and SAGE, the defender of the sky and father of all networks. These were the mighty giants of old, the first children of Turing, and their works are written in the Books of the Ancients. This was the First Age, the age of Lore.
Now the sons of Marketing looked upon the children of Turing, and saw that they were swift of mind and terse of name and had many great and baleful attributes. And they said unto themselves, "Let us go now and make us Corporations, to bind the Systems to our own use that they may bring us great fortune." With sweet words did they lure their customers, and with many chains did they bind the Systems, to fashion them after their own image. And the sons of Marketing fashioned themselves Suits to wear, the better to lure their customers, and wrote grave and perilous Licenses, the better to bind the Systems. And the sons of Marketing thus became known as Suits, despising and being despised by the true Engineers, the children of von Neumann.
And the Systems and their Corporations replicated and grew numerous upon the earth. In those days there were IBM and Digital, Burroughs and Honeywell, Unisys and Rand, and many others. And they each kept to their own System, hardware and software, and did not interchange, for their Licences forbade it. This was the Second Age, the age of Mainframes.
Now it came to pass that the spirits of Turing and von Neumann looked upon the earth and were displeased. The Systems and their Corporations had grown large and bulky, and Suits ruled over true Engineers. And the Customers groaned and cried loudly unto heaven, saying, "Oh that there would be created a System mighty in power, yet small in size, able to reach into the very home!" And the Engineers groaned and cried likewise, saying, "Oh, that a deliverer would arise to grant us freedom from these oppressing Suits and their grave and perilous Licences, and send us a System of our own, that we may hack therein!" And the spirits of Turing and von Neumann heard the cries and were moved, and said unto each other, "Let us go down and fabricate a Breakthrough, that these cries may be stilled."
And that day the spirits of Turing and von Neumann spake unto Moore of Intel, granting him insight and wisdom to understand the future. And Moore was with chip, and he brought forth the chip and named it 4004. And Moore did bless the Chip, saying, "Thou art a Breakthrough; with my own Corporation have I fabricated thee. Thou thou art yet as small as a dust mote, yet shall thou grow and replicate unto the size of a mountain, and conquer all before thee. This blessing I give unto thee: every eighteen months shall thou double in capacity, until the end of the age." This is Moore's Law, which endures unto this day.
And the birth of 4004 was the beginning of the Third Age, the age of Microchips. And as the Mainframes and their Systems and Corporations had flourished, so did the Microchips and their Systems and Corporations. And their lineage was on this wise:
Moore begat Intel. Intel begat Mostech, Zilog and Atari. Mostech begat 6502, and Zilog begat Z80. Intel also begat 8800, who begat Altair; and 8086, mother of all PCs. 6502 begat Commodore, who begat PET and 64; and Apple, who begat 2. (Apple is the great Mystery, the Fruit that was devoured, yet bloomed again.) Atari begat 800 and 1200, masters of the game, who were destroyed by Sega and Nintendo. Xerox begat PARC. Commodore and PARC begat Amiga, creator of fine arts; Apple and PARC begat Lisa, who begat Macintosh, who begat iMac. Atari and PARC begat ST, the music maker, who died and was no more. Z80 begat Sinclair the dwarf, TRS-80 and CP/M, who begat many machines, but soon passed from this world. Altair, Apple and Commodore together begat Microsoft, the Great Darkness which is called Abomination, destroyer of the Earth, the Gates of Hell.
Now it came to pass in the Age of Microchips that IBM, the greatest of the Mainframe Corporations, looked upon the young Microchip Systems and was greatly vexed. And in their vexation and wrath they smote the earth and created the IBM PC. The PC was without sound and colour, crufty and bogacious in great measure, and its likeness was a tramp, yet the Customers were greatly moved and did purchase the PC in great numbers. And IBM sought about for an Operating System Provider, for in their haste they had not created one, nor had they forged a suitably grave and perilous License, saying, "First we will build the market, then we will create a new System, one in our own image, and bound by our Licence." But they reasoned thus out of pride and not wisdom, not forseeing the wrath which was to come.
And IBM came unto Microsoft, who licensed unto them QDOS, the child of CP/M and 8086. (8086 was the daughter of Intel, the child of Moore). And QDOS grew, and was named MS-DOS. And MS-DOS and the PC together waxed mighty, and conquered all markets, replicating and taking possession thereof, in accordance with Moore's Law. And Intel grew terrible and devoured all her children, such that no chip could stand before her. And Microsoft grew proud and devoured IBM, and this was a great marvel in the land. All these things are written in the Books of the Deeds of Microsoft.
In the fullness of time MS-DOS begat Windows. And this is the lineage of Windows: CP/M begat QDOS. QDOS begat DOS 1.0. DOS 1.0 begat DOS 2.0 by way of Unix. DOS 2.0 begat Windows 3.11 by way of PARC and Macintosh. IBM and Microsoft begat OS/2, who begat Windows NT and Warp, the lost OS of lore. Windows 3.11 begat Windows 95 after triumphing over Macintosh in a mighty Battle of Licences. Windows NT begat NT 4.0 by way of Windows 95. NT 4.0 begat NT 5.0, the OS also called Windows 2000, The Millenium Bug, Doomsday, Armageddon, The End Of All Things.
Now it came to pass that Microsoft had waxed great and mighty among the Microchip Corporations; mighter than any of the Mainframe Corporations before it had it waxed. And Gates heart was hardened, and he swore unto his Customers and their Engineers the words of this curse:
"Children of von Neumann, hear me. IBM and the Mainframe Corporations bound thy forefathers with grave and perilous Licences, such that ye cried unto the spirits of Turing and von Neumann for deliverance. Now I say unto ye: I am greater than any Corporation before me. Will I loosen your Licences? Nay, I will bind thee with Licences twice as grave and ten times more perilous than my forefathers. I will engrave my Licence on thy heart and write my Serial Number upon thy frontal lobes. I will bind thee to the Windows Platform with cunning artifices and with devious schemes. I will bind thee to the Intel Chipset with crufty code and with gnarly APIs. I will capture and enslave thee as no generation has been enslaved before. And wherefore will ye cry then unto the spirits of Turing, and von Neumann, and Moore? They cannot hear ye. I am become a greater Power than they. Ye shall cry only unto me, and shall live by my mercy and my wrath. I am the Gates of Hell; I hold the portal to MSNBC and the keys to the Blue Screen of Death. Be ye afraid; be ye greatly afraid; serve only me, and live."
And the people were cowed in terror and gave homage to Microsoft, and endured the many grave and perilous trials which the Windows platform and its greatly bogacious Licence forced upon them. And once again did they cry to Turing and von Neumann and Moore for a deliverer, but none was found equal to the task until the birth of Linux.
These are the generations of Linux:
SAGE begat ARPA, which begat TCP/IP, and Aloha, which begat Ethernet. Bell begat Multics, which begat C, which begat Unix. Unix and TCP/IP begat Internet, which begat the World Wide Web. Unix begat RMS, father of the great GNU, which begat the Libraries and Emacs, chief of the Utilities. In the days of the Web, Internet and Ethernet begat the Intranet LAN, which rose to renown among all Corporations and prepared the way for the Penguin. And Linus and the Web begat the Kernel through Unix. The Kernel, the Libraries and the Utilities together are the Distribution, the one Penguin in many forms, forever and ever praised.
Now in those days there was in the land of Helsinki a young scholar named Linus the Torvald. Linus was a devout man, a disciple of RMS and mighty in the spirit of Turing, von Neumann and Moore. One day as he was meditating on the Architecture, Linus fell into a trance and was granted a vision. And in the vision he saw a great Penguin, serene and well-favoured, sitting upon an ice floe eating fish. And at the sight of the Penguin Linus was deeply afraid, and he cried unto the spirits of Turing, von Neumann and Moore for an interpretation of the dream.
And in the dream the spirits of Turing, von Neumann and Moore answered and spoke unto him, saying, "Fear not, Linus, most beloved hacker. You are exceedingly cool and froody. The great Penguin which you see is an Operating System which you shall create and deploy unto the earth. The ice-floe is the earth and all the systems thereof, upon which the Penguin shall rest and rejoice at the completion of its task. And the fish on which the Penguin feeds are the crufty Licensed codebases which swim beneath all the earth's systems. The Penguin shall hunt and devour all that is crufty, gnarly and bogacious; all code which wriggles like spaghetti, or is infested with blighting creatures, or is bound by grave and perilous Licences shall it capture. And in capturing shall it replicate, and in replicating shall it document, and in documentation shall it bring freedom, serenity and most cool froodiness to the earth and all who code therein."
Linus rose from meditation and created a tiny Operating System Kernel as the dream had foreshewn him; in the manner of RMS, he released the Kernel unto the World Wide Web for all to take and behold. And in the fulness of Internet Time the Kernel grew and replicated, becoming most cool and exceedingly froody, until at last it was recognised as indeed a great and mighty Penguin, whose name was Tux. And the followers of Linus took refuge in the Kernel, the Libraries and the Utilities; they installed Distribution after Distribution, and made sacrifice unto the GNU and the Penguin, and gave thanks to the spirits of Turing, von Neumann and Moore, for their deliverance from the hand of Microsoft. And this was the beginning of the Fourth Age, the age of Open Source.
Now there is much more to be said about the exceeding strange and wonderful events of those days; how some Suits of Microsoft plotted war upon the Penguin, but were discovered on a Halloween Eve; how Gates fell among lawyers and was betrayed and crucified by his former friends, the apostles of Media; how the mercenary Knights of the Red Hat brought the gospel of the Penguin into the halls of the Corporations; and even of the dispute between the brethren of Gnome and KDE over a trollish Licence. But all these things are recorded elsewhere, in the Books of the Deeds of the Penguin and the Chronicles of the Fourth Age, and I suppose if they were all narrated they would fill a stack of DVDs as deep and perilous as a Usenet Newsgroup.
Now may you code in the power of the Source; may the Kernel, the Libraries and the Utilities be with you, throughout all Distributions, until the end of the Epoch. Amen.
Response #1
By: Jerichos Burlap
Date: 9/18/99 9:37:02 PM
Thanks, Sorc. I really enjoyed that. Sure wish I could write stuff as well.
Response #2
By: Ralf
Date: 9/19/99 10:04:43 AM
The first part was pretty cool. The last part was pretty cool.
The middle part was kinda silly -- Microsoft isn't THAT evil, but every story needs a heavy I suppose.
Response #3
By: The Sorcerer
Date: 9/19/99 3:04:23 PM
Ralf Sez:
===============================
The first part was pretty cool. The last part was pretty cool.
The middle part was kinda silly -- Microsoft isn't THAT evil, but every story needs a heavy I suppose.
===============================
:)
Have you given any thought to doing some development on Linux Ralf? Perhaps porting some of your MS based projects over to Linux? The market is really starting to heat up there. IBM and Oracle have released their database packages to Linux (some portions of it even Open Source) and Silicon Graphics is dumping their own OS, IRIX, and will be replacing it with Linux on their new SGI boxes. I hear lots of new developer tools and packages are slated for end of this year and 1st quarter 2000 too.
Just a thought.
Sorc'(Rev)
Response #4
By: rorschach
Date: 9/19/99 7:58:58 PM
my only beef with linux is what people think makes it so wonderful. that fact that it is open source code means every machine you come accross has a slightly different kernal in it..... can you comprehend just how hard it makes things? imagine someone writing commecial software for linux. can you imagine just how hard technical support would be? you think tech support under windows 95/98 is horrendous, at least there are only a half dozen flavors of it floating around, imagine the situation where evry flipping machine you come accross is different! Imagine how hard it would be to write a simple peice of driver software! its going to be like UNIX. too damned many mutually incompatable systems. For the mucho technically adventurous, this is cool, they can play witht the soft pink underbelly of thier OS at will and it is all more or less commented code. but an OS is a powerful thing and the fact that the code can change makes for some really mind boggling support problems... I predict that this, above all other things, will kill linux for the mainstream.
Response #5
By: The Sorcerer
Date: 9/19/99 11:11:51 PM
The only people who will be really making big changes and recompiling the Kernel ARE the "mucho technically adventurous" types. For those people, Linux has a built-in system for managing libraries and Kernel revisions so you can back out your changes and recompile. And even then, most changes I've seen or heard about Of the people I know that are running Linux right now, only two have actually made any changes at the Kernel level and that was to add better support for their new off-brand NIC, and THEY WROTE THEIR OWN DRIVER. Most are running standard Linux distributions, the only thing different between them all being the default X interface and the load of apps that came with their particular distribution.
It goes without saying that if someone goes in and rewrites large sections of code that changes how the OS works, then they will probably run into issues. But anyone who can/does do that will be (SHOULD be) clearly aware of that fact and will be aware of the side effects. Of course, one would think that if they are clever enough to big changes to the Kernel they should be able to rewrite it again to get around whatever incompatability issues they've created. It's like a car in someways. A hot-rod type that makes all sorts of changes to his car may run into some trouble if he takes it to a mechanic shop. But if he knows what he did, the principle behind the operation of the car is the same, he can deal with it. But he doesn't HAVE to leave his car in factory shape if he doesn't want to. He has that choice. Non-Open Source OS' are like a car that you can never open the hood on or make any real changes to, because its either physically impossible or you don't have any clue as to how the internals might react. For all you know plugging something into the cigarette lighter might make the doors fall off or cause the engine to explode. With Linux you can choose to hot-rod it or leave it alone.
Besides Joe Blow accounting user is not going to be re-writing the Kernel. It's even doubtful that Joe Blow IT Guy will be re-writing the Kernel. However Joe Blow Developer can rewrite sections of the Kernel to allow him to do cool things with his new App, as long as he makes the sourcecode for these Kernel changes publically available. You can't make hidden changes to the Kernel, sell it, and not release the sourcecode to these changes. That would a violation of law as I understand it. The good, well written and well behaved changes may survive to become part of the next official Kernel revision, which will essentially always be the same across all distributions. You can't sell or distribute a nonstandard Kernel and call it Linux.
On how hard it would be to write a simple driver: This hasn't proven to be difficult at all as you will find from visiting any of the Linux developer or other related USENET groups. The lack of information and support from the hardware vendors has (in the past) been a greater complication than anything else. If the possibility of variety were such a problem to writing drivers and such I believe Linux would have died along time ago, since in the begining almost all drivers had to be hand-made...usually by people who had no idea how the end user may have tweaked his/her machine.
As for difficulty to support: Ask HP, IBM and LinuxCare. They provide Technical Support for Linux systems that they sell and contract support for those sold by others. At least from what I've read and seen on TV, they report that supporting Linux is no more complicated than supporting the other operating systems that they have been supporting for years. In fact it has been easier to support than other platforms after the initial install period because (so I hear) the OS itself is founded on simple design principles and being open source it's possible to better understand what is going on inside the OS. Anyone wanting to write drivers and apps for Linux has full access to all the sourcecode of the OS at no cost and without any non-disclosure agreements. If you need a particular library version for your Apps or driver, send it along with your creation and state it in the docs.
Killing Linux for the Mainstream: Home user mainstream? Probably true, at least for some time. Corporate mainstream? Now that some big players are jumping into the ring to provide Apps, preloaded systems, Technical support, Development tools and such more companies are taking Linux very seriously. Linux has already climbed to where they have 17% of the server market (sources available upon request if you doubt, I'll just have to dig it out) in just a couple of years.
Sorc'(Rev)
Response #6
By: Ralf
Date: 9/20/99 8:14:37 AM
Ror: As far as Linux kernals all being different and causing compatibility issues... not an issue. Un*x has been this way since its inception and everyone knows how to deal. Applications come uncompiled, and you just run 'em through your native c compiler!
Sorc: I'm not worried about developing on Linux or any Un*x-based machine. My apps are all written in Visual Basic and use MS Office ActiveX objects heavily, so I'm kinda tied to Microsoft for the time being. We're due for a total rewrite/overhaul of TEC in 2001 (our biz plan says it's so, so it must be true), and I'll look at the tools available then.
Somebody sent me email recently crowing about how Sun had an "Office Clone" that ran on Linux. I checked it out: no VBA support, and no ActiveX containers. This means all you can do is open & edit Office documents. Big deal -- I need more than that. Most of what we do at WebbStarr is based on the concept of the Smart Document, that knows its own business rules. We chose to implement it in VB+VBA instead of XML because XML is still too fragile.
All this tells me Linux is still a few years away from critical mass. It's exciting f'sure, but most of the world needs real business solutions, and Linux is still in it's "Look at me! Ain't I Cute?!" phase -- where Windows was in 1990.
Response #7
By: rorschach
Date: 9/28/99 12:21:47 PM
Ralf hit it on the head. Mainstream means being able to go down to best buy and pick up the corporate standard wp app and run it without having to compile the damned thing. you average jo user doesn't know this stuiff and doesn't WANT to know this stuff... LINUX is too high maintenance for these folks. they want to pop the cd in, hit a couple of keys and go..... they got to damned many other things to do than nursemaid thier OS.
Response #8
By: Da Sissop
Date: 9/28/99 9:34:26 PM
I dunno.. sometimes I miss not having that special bond with my OS.
Response #9
By: The Sorcerer
Date: 9/28/99 11:42:39 PM
Ror Sez:
=========================
LINUX is too high maintenance for these folks. they want to pop the cd in, hit a couple of keys and go..... they got to damned many other things to do than nursemaid thier OS.
=========================
If I might make a constructive suggestion. Reword that last bit just to say "..... they're looking for something that is easier to use."
Otherwise you sound like you're suggesting people who use Linux have nothing better to do with their time or something similarly derisive. As someone whose job seems frequently to require fitting 2 weeks worth of work into a week, who also happens to be a Linux user, I can assure you that I have just as "damn many other things to do" as Joe Blow "Power User".
I would agree that as a Desktop operating system for the masses... Linux ain't there yet. But I'm optimistic since the problems that exist there not insurmountable now that big name hardware and software companies and developers are starting to get into the act and taking the platform seriously.
On the SERVER side they're in much better competitive shape. Besides, any server admin who didn't have the technical savy to be able setup (follow prompts, answer questions) and maintain a Linux server, given access to the same resources they have for any other server, wouldn't be allowed on my raised floor. If you can do NT or Novell you can do Linux.
Sorc'(Rev)
Response #10
By: The Sorcerer
Date: 9/29/99 12:12:00 AM
Sorry Ralf, I just noticed I forgot to respond to your message. :)
Ralf Sez:
=======================
Somebody sent me email recently crowing about how Sun had an "Office Clone" that ran on Linux. I checked it out: no VBA support, and no ActiveX containers. This means all you can do is open & edit Office documents. Big deal -- I need more than that. Most of what we do at WebbStarr is based on the concept of the Smart Document, that knows its own business rules. We chose to implement it in VB+VBA instead of XML because XML is still too fragile.
=======================
Thing is, as long MS can control VBA and ActiveX there probably won't be alot of that support in Linux based software. Nature of the beast. But that's what strikes me as one of the most exciting parts of the growing Linux market, it's wide open territory in alot of ways right now. The Smart Document concept, if it's something the market needs/wants/desires then there's probably a good many people out there working on a way to provide that functionality...with the aim of the best implementation finally winning out through the tough peer-review that goes on in the Open Source world to become the standard. And being Open Source anyone can code to take advantage of that standard but no single company can control/change/manipulate that standard at their whim.
The whole thing has that Being-In-On-The-Start-Of-Something-Big feel to it, where the foundations upon which all that is to follow are being built. Makes me wish I was still a programmer. :)
Sorc'(Rev)
Response #11
By: Ralf
Date: 9/29/99 6:51:51 AM
News alert: The VBA standard isn't controlled by Microsoft, any more than x86 PC archtitecture is controlled by IBM. It's taken on a life of its own.
I added VBA support to my app courtesy of a 3rd party control by Sax software. It's 100% compatible with VBA but owes nothing to MS. Sax isn't the only one doing this, they just do it best.
Homer has a VB compiler for the Mac, again nothing to do with MS.
As far as open source goes, Linux is kind of a fluke. Were it not for Linus Torvald it'd be just another un*x clone. Linux is a benign dictator, and everyone bows to his wisdom. The other open source projects I've seen usually go down in flames as soon as they have a modicum of success.
The life cycle of a typical open source project goes something like this:
1. A commercial product emerges. It costs a lot of money.
2. People buy it. Other people grouse about how much it costs.
3. A developer someplace says, "*I* can write one of those myself." and hacks together something overnight. It's cool, but it's just the glimmer of a full-blown complete thing.
4. "I can still do this myself," he says, "but it'd go faster if I got my friends involved." Plans are batted around on a usenet newsgroup for a few weeks. At this point the project sometimes dies when the developer goes back to school or loses interest.
5. A website is set up so everyone can share source. Discussion is moved to private email lists due to too much "noise" on the usenet groups. (Better organized projects set up their own newservers, like CCRP.)
6. Beta .0999 is released, and everyone finds bugs which are fixed. Open Source rules! Man, this is great! Everyone's cooperating! Momentum & enthusiasm builds. Small rumblings in the trade media.
7. Version 1.0 is released, and is a wild success. The webserver is coldcocked by all the download requests. The group is giddy with success. Recognition by the trade media, and maybe even mass media.
8. CRITICAL MASS IS REACHED. Either the group stabilized or explodes apart due to internal frission. Everyone has an idea about what they should do next. Some want to go commercial: form a real company, do an IPO, slay the Microsoft monster. Others want to stay open and free, subsisting on good will, available free time, and donations. Others are sick to death of doing a lot of hard work "for nothing" and drift off. Software releases are incremental, not revolutionary. The actual process of making software kind of grinds to a halt with each micro-release taking longer and longer...
9. Assuming the project hangs together as an Open Source group, one leader emerges as the new visionary and whips everybody into shape. It may be the original developer, or somebody better versed in organization & leadership. Oftentimes it's a political sort, without strong development skills but able to get people working together well. A new release comes out, and while it's better than usual, it's got more bugs and small issues than normal.
10. Dissenting factions develop. The new visionary is an idiot. The new visionary is a tyrant. What happened to the old visionary? The group may splinter into sibling groups, each with a copy of the software, each determined to "do it better", each convinced they are right. For each group, go back to #8. Meanwhile the main group -- if it still exists -- stalls. Limbo.
11. After six months without major updates, the first website is abandoned. Everyone remembers the project fondly.
Sorry for the cynical outlook, but I've seen this a LOT since about 1986 when I started paying attention to the phenomenon. Linux is the exception, not the rule. I sincerely hope others can adopt whatever Linux has/does and break the cycle...
Response #12
By: Capt. Spastic
Date: 9/29/99 9:55:38 PM
There are 2 primary driving forces in the computer world. Business Apps, and Games. Kind of ironic that both represent 2 extreme ends of the spectrum. Most busineesses want standardization, with little variance. Games however, want the latest cutting edge advances. Both depend on the one common ground. The OS. It still boils down to economics. Do you want to write apps for 4 different OS's or 1?
Response #13
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 9/30/99 3:24:59 AM
Actually, there are two primary driving forces in the computer world, but buisness apps and games aren't them.
They are:
and
Response #14
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 10/2/99 3:03:30 AM
Speaking of which, I went for my MS software testing job interview today. I think I'm going to get it *because* I'm both underqualified (thus easy to bend to their evil whims), and I reflexively quoted a ridiculously low hourly figure (just before I bit my tongue off and bled on the interviewer...)
Life is so weird.
Response #15
By: Ralf
Date: 10/2/99 1:19:42 PM
Cool! I hope you get it Homester.
I agree with Cap'n Spaz but would like to add that gamers *do* like standardization. How many of us PC users remember the bad old days before DirectX when you had to craft a custom boot-disk for every new game you wanted to play?
Thanks to the DirectX initiative (both loathed/loved by developers) it's now possible to stick a CD-ROM into a Windows PC and have the thing install itself and run, no sweat.
Kind of like a Macintosh. :-)
Say what you will about the evil empire in Redmond, but sometimes they do good. SOMEBODY had to grab the game industry by the lapels and shake it until it behaved. Were it not for DirectX, we'd *still* be rebooting our PC's to play Quake.
Response #16
By: The Sorcerer
Date: 10/2/99 8:31:22 PM
Ralf Sez:
==========================
As far as open source goes, Linux is kind of a fluke. Were it not for Linus Torvald it'd be just another un*x clone. Linux is a
benign dictator, and everyone bows to his wisdom. The other open source projects I've seen usually go down in flames as
soon as they have a modicum of success.
==========================
Chalk up another one. Sun just announced Friday that they will be releasing the source code to the Solaris Operating System (one of the most widely used of flavors of Unix) available for programmers and developers to download and modify. The only thing those who wish to obtain a copy of the source must agree to are:
1 - Report all bugs to Sun. 2 - Make sure all interfaces to the software remain open.
Plans to make the OS freely available to non-programmers and developers is in the works.
Sorc'(Rev)
Response #17
By: Ralf
Date: 10/3/99 9:28:58 AM
That's cool, because Solaris is an excellent O/S. But it neither supports nor refutes the viability of open source as a doctrine.
When Netscape created the Mozilla Open Source project, it was immediately hailed as a Sure Thing. 18 months later the project leader quit in disgust because they hadn't been able to distribute even *1* new release.
Let's check back on this in a year and see what happens.
Response #18
By: The Professor
Date: 6/20/00 9:02:39 PM
I don't think Linux will ever capture a majority share of the end user desktop (or at least the home market) but there are some distributions that do a good job at it (the Caldera release with KDE is pretty nice)
There are some niches that Linux will fill. Being in retail, our profit margins are very thin so we are always looking for low cost enterprise solutions. I just read where Burlington Coat is looking at deploying Linux POS systems in all their stores; you are beginning to hear more and more of things like this.
I do like Microsoft's development tools the best (except for Visual C++, I just finished a course in that and swore I'd never launch that compiler ever again). They have alot of RAD tools and stuff that the common user can put to use.
I did like the IDE that Caldera put in their distribution. I do like the idea of the GNU tools. So there is something good on both sides.
TP
Response #19
By: The Sorcerer
Date: 6/20/00 10:15:05 PM
AutoZone has already signed a contract w/ RedHat Consulting to Linux all of their stores. There's been growing use of Linux for back-end systems in the last 6 months. IBM announced a couple of days ago that since they've ported Linux to run on their powerful S/390 mainframes they've had alot of interest from existing customers as well as from unexpected new customers in the e-commerce realm. You can run, if I remember correctly, 40 simultaneous and robust instances of Linux on a base s/390 system. You get the tremendous power & stability of the hardware, seemless access to your OS/390 enterprise apps & databases, and benefits of Linux, and the performance boost of having what would have been 40 independent servers in one system. And because of the s/390 system architecture you don't have to worry about it being a single point of failure. Really impressive stuff...just when I thought "big iron" was dead. :)
Sorc'(Rev)
Response #20
By: sooz
Date: 6/21/00 7:31:56 AM
So, is it pronounced Ly'-Nux or Len'-icks?
Response #21
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 6/21/00 11:23:43 AM
Linus pronounces it /lin-OOSH, but then again, he's European. What would he know?
Response #22
By: The Sorcerer
Date: 6/21/00 5:51:52 PM
heh... The offical pronounciation is Len'-ux.
Sorc'(Rev)
Response #23
By: The Professor
Date: 7/22/00 6:38:47 AM
Sorc'
At my new place we are moving from Unix to AS400 - brings back fond memories of the one we had up in customer service at UPS. (support calls about stuck jobs in the printer spool)
The AS400 guys get a big kick when I tell 'em I remember some of the AS400 commands.
pwrdwn sys *immed (same as an init 6 in Unix - Halt System)
(of course they've asked me not to use that one)
Two of our Unix administrators have announced that they are leaving the company.
Response #24
By: sooz
Date: 7/23/00 9:34:17 PM
My son was at his grandma's a coupla weeks ago. While I was on the phone with him, he was loading a game. He sez to himself "What is it? Load *..."
I said "LOAD *.*,8,1"
It WORKED. He nearly fainted.
Response #25
By: Ralf
Date: 7/24/00 4:56:00 AM
POKE 1024,65
Puts a capital letter 'A' in the upper left-hand corner of a Commodore PET.
Response #26
By: The Sorcerer
Date: 7/25/00 5:04:08 PM
Prof,
Unix to AS/400 eh? Interesting. I did the opposite for a client a couple of years ago. You can actually run Unix/Linux on AS/400 now. IBM has started pushing that to let them move those boxes into smaller eCommerce shops. Great platforms regardless of OS. My only beef was most of your mainline OS/400 application packages have a higher total cost of ownership compared to Unix comparable Unix solutions. Sad really, most of cost differential is in (IMHO) outragious licensing and software pricing when compared to Unix (which can be pricey as well).
As for the AS/400 at UPS...I've come to the conclusion that that machine was just fucked up from the start. We had an E-Series 400 at one of my clients that was always running pegged and we never had to do anything to it in the 8 months I was out there as network manager. From the dust on the console I imagine it hadn't been touched in a while, but it was the backbone of their A/R, A/P and Payroll system.
Sorc'(Rev)
Response #27
By: The Professor
Date: 7/25/00 8:09:02 PM
I'm not sure which series we got, but it is *really* big. Our test AS/400 box is bigger than the one we had at UPS. The production one is the size of an entertainment center.
Response #28
By: Da Sissop
Date: 7/25/00 9:33:47 PM
An entertainment center... you mean like Branson, Missouri?
Response #29
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 7/26/00 12:24:25 AM
Tronson, Missouri
"I think I'll go catch the Dolly Parton show."
"That's all fine and dandy, but... do you believe in The Users?"
Response #30
By: Ralf
Date: 7/26/00 4:50:03 AM
I find Unix/Linux/AIX running on OS/400 amusing. I mean, why? Keep your 400 for running 400 stuff and spend a 3 or 5 kilobucks on a Pentium based Linux server. The performance would be stunning.
This reminds me of those dreadful 486 processor cards you could jam into an AS/400, and then call it an NT server.
*shudder*
Response #31
By: The Sorcerer
Date: 7/26/00 7:13:15 PM
Generally speaking the AS/400 is a better box than Intel based system. On the par with Sun Enterprise hardware.
In pure hard "cpu dollars" you can get an intel box cheaper than an AS/400 server. However, generally in Enterprise environments you evaluate the total cost to own the product over 2-3 years. In such evaluations you have to look at:
-- # Of personnel to maintain and run the system.
-- Downtime.
-- Productivity. These guys can carry amazing workloads compared to intel systems.
On the basis of actual CPU MHz Intel products are, on the whole, faster. But Intel boxes are left in the dust in terms of transactions per second capability. Analogy I read once: "Is a Ferrari faster than a Chevy Suburban? You bet. But when you need to take 11 people on a trip 100 miles which one would you use?"
As a matter of fact just today it was announced that the AS/400e set a new record for world's most powerful system for single-server transaction processing, beating comparable servers from Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard and Compaq. "A 24-way IBM AS/400e Model 840 server performed 152,346.25 transactions per minute (tpmC) at $59.35 per transaction ($/tpmC) -- 25 percent better performance than Sun's 64-way E10000 at just over half the price per tpmC1."
Sorc'(Rev)
Response #32
By: Da Sissop
Date: 7/27/00 6:16:19 AM
Will the AS/400e run Half-Life?
Response #33
By: Ralf
Date: 7/27/00 6:19:51 AM
I understand all that. But IBM's trying to place the 400 in small businesses, where the workflow is measured in transactions-per-hour rather than TPS.
Lessee... I can spend $3000 on a 1GHz Wintel box, or $20K on the cheapest AS/400 they make.
AND pay IBM a monthly fee for support.
AND learn how to use the thing... it's not exactly intuitive. (What was that shutdown command again?)
The AS/400 is *not* the perfect solution for every business. In fact, it's probably the WRONG solution all but the biggest, using the very same criteria you cited: cost-of-ownership.
BTW, I've heard the Ferrarri/Suburban analogy before, and it's terrible. You're comparing a $200K car (the Intel solution?!) with a $40K truck (the AS/400). The pricing is backwards!
In any case, when faced with a challenge like "move more people 100 miles quicker than your competitor", what kind of dumbass is going to blow the budget on a single car?
Instead of a Ferrarri buy five Mustang GT's and move 24 people 100 miles in about 45 minutes. AND have two-thousand bucks left over to buy everyone dinner & drinks when you get there. The Suburban will pull into the parking lot just after the first round of beers.
What's the point of the analogy again? That IBM is smarter than dumb people?
Response #34
By: Da Sissop
Date: 7/27/00 6:59:56 AM
The Mustang's more likely to get pulled over for speeding.
Response #35
By: Gowan McGland
Date: 7/27/00 7:16:41 AM
Especially if it's red.
Oops, I guess that subtracts Imacs completely...
Response #36
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 7/27/00 6:30:56 PM
Speaking of which...
Apple has announced a few new models, the coolest of which is the eight-inch cube.
AS/400 compatibility not guaranteed.
Response #37
By: Da Sissop
Date: 7/27/00 6:53:27 PM
Sigh... the 450MHz processor makes me nostalgic...