A fun article for all you linuxer's.
zdnet.com
I come not to praise Linux ...
By Michael Surkan, PC Week Online
November 24, 1998 9:28 AM PT
I've done a fairly good job of keeping my mouth shut regarding Linux
until now. I felt that to even talk about Linux in a column on networking technologies was to dignify the software beyond what it deserved.
if you have any comment sent to michael_surkan@zd.com
you can no longer just click on mikey's name and sent him email.
Well of course I put in my 1/2 cent.
michael_surkan@zd.com
To: michael_surkan@zd.com
Dear Michael,
Who in their right mind would run Linux on their PC on their network at work?
Let's tour the network.
[ 266 ] > rsh dog386 uptime
12:38pm up 277 days, 1:28, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
[ 267 ] > rsh dog386 uname -a
Linux dog386 2.0.27 #1 Sat Dec 21 23:44:11 EST 1996 i586
[ 268 ] > rsh dog386 date
Tue Nov 24 12:39:54 EST 1998
---------------------------------------------------------------
or
[ 270 ] > rsh watson date;rsh watson uptime; rsh watson uname -a
Tue Nov 24 12:41:16 EST 1998
12:41pm up 113 days, 6:15, 1 user, load average: 0.18, 0.06, 0.01
Linux watson 2.0.32 #1 Wed Nov 19 00:46:45 EST 1997 i586 unknown
---------------------------------------------------------------
or
[ 271 ] > rsh yogi date ; rsh yogi uptime ; rsh yogi uname -a
Tue Nov 24 12:43:48 EST 1998
12:43pm up 93 days, 20:46, 2 users, load average: 0.13, 0.04, 0.01
Linux yogi 2.0.34 #1 Fri May 8 16:05:57 EDT 1998 i686 unknown
--------------------------------------------------------------
or
[ 272 ] > rsh caravan date ; rsh caravan uptime ; rsh caravan uname -a
Tue Nov 24 13:45:26 EST 1998
1:45pm up 214 days, 16:00, 4 users, load average: 0.08, 0.02, 0.01
Linux caravan 2.0.27 #2 Thu Jul 10 00:10:18 EDT 1997 i486
--------------------------------------------------------------
or
Well Mike, do you get the message? A corporate print server, a mail server,
A smp testing and development workstation, a compute server and ppp gateway
machine with ip masquerading.
The up-times reflect reboots to upgrade hardware and or the version of
the kernel itself. In the several years I've used Linux, hmmmm, I can't remember
the last time Linux crashed or hung.
I spend about 1 minute a week in admin tasks for these machines.
Do you understand that I can run graphical programs from any of these
systems and display on any systems.
It's a property called symmetry. Symmetry is one the property you look for
when you are searching for truth, efficiency, stability, and va va voom
in a concept. Sorry I digress.
I also can run graphical programs on the Sgi, Hp and Sun workstations and
display on any of these, dare I say, Linux system's. I can even bring up an NT
desktop as just another Xapp. Off course our NT server crashes about once a
day. But NT on this dual pentium pro server with 192 meg of ram runs as fast
as, hmmm, Oh yes my old 80486 running Linux.
I prefer running applixware when I have to do office type stuff as
applixware runs on all the computers in my company. Well that may not
be true, We may have a couple of vaxes still running somewhere in the company
and I don't think applixware runs under VMS.
Mike Your absolutely right, Linux should not be dignified.
Oh| wait! What about the machine I'm working on now......
[ 273 ] > date;uptime;uname -a
Tue Nov 24 12:21:27 EST 1998
12:21pm up 50 days, 3:34, 2 users, load average: 1.04, 1.08, 1.08
Linux c2norden 2.0.32 #1 Wed Nov 19 00:46:45 EST
1997 i686 unknown
This system has two displays, AcceleratedX multi-head, $299, On each
display there are 10 desk-tops at a resolution of 1600x1200. I have a
couple of dozen apps running right now. the nature of my FVWM desktop makes
it easy to keep track of everything running. It's so very simple that I
believe you could not visualize it.
But, let's talk about business and making money. Who's got a plan???
Another more thoughtful perspective on why Linux has no place in the
business world.
Tom's story of the evolution of business.
Once upon a time there was a WANG.
Sold WANG hardware, WANG OS, and WANG office
PC hardware with Microsoft OS and apps out performed WANG at half the
price and oops, no more WANG.
CAD and CAE companies sold dedicated home grown hardware, home grown Unix
OS's, and proprietary hardware. Home grown hardware and OS's went to Apollo,
(now HP), and SGI, and sun Unix workstations. Many of the CAE and cad
companies are now planing to port to NT with the idea that the masses are
afraid of Unix, and the same business analysis of WANG's demise.
But having used all major workstations (sun Sgi HP and PC/Linux) with
professional apps, and having developed and cross ported signal processing
and gui apps, and knowing since these apps also run seemlesslyER on Linux, and run
as fast or faster on Linux, a new efficient business model exists for
selling Software. Ya know, I have the exact same software development tools
at home as I have here at work under Linux. The other think I have discovered
over the years is that if I develop under Linux, All I have to do to port and
compile under the name brand unixes is add a couple of ifdefs. Well sometime,
but most of the time the software ports with no changes.
Back to a business plan that can make no money. THE WANG MODEL ????
Does Linux make this possible ???????
A company can roll it own PII(Intel whatever)(zeon)(quad
zeon)(alpha)(dual alpha)(Linux cluster) workstation with Linux
from redhat, or suse, or caldera, and simply port their app's to Linux. They
can cost effectively get into the original WANG business model. The can
leverage the value of fully integrated dedicated systems that also have
a million other apps of share-ware that work well. The Cost of hardware
is a cheap PC. The recurring cost of Linux licenses is ZERO.
The model. Competitively priced hardware with universal support.
A super stable OS that is easier to admin than all current
commercial unixes and I think, NT also.
A proprietary dedicated app.
Major FUD 1
Oh, if the customer has already bought some NT workstation, no problemo,
eradicate the borg virus with Linux and install new apps.
Major FUD 2
If you have a whole mess of ms office documents laying around. just get
applixware and convert them.
Major FUD 3
Oh applixware can write back out ms office formated docs for all the
grumblers who don't want to change for a while.
Internet and network connectivity will be the integral to the major
productivity enhancements of all upcoming business software apps. NT is
years behind Linux in stable network and internet connectivity(NT is
unstable when handling I/O).
Mike, I have a question for you, Did Microsoft rename NT 5 to windows 2000
because they realized that the software development kit for NT would no
longer fit in to 5 cases of CDroms. The number 2000 was more reflective
of the number of CDroms required to hold the development kit.
Sincerely Tom Watson, Linux user 17,321.
Senior Systems Engineer
Advanced Programs Group
Northrop Grumman Norden Systems |
