On 04/01/2012 04:55 PM, Bruce Dubbs wrote: > Ken Moffat wrote: > >> I was going to reply earlier, then I remembered that I do have one >> windows machine (my netbook - it came with some form of windows7, >> but is totally unusable with it (insufficient memory), so I've not >> been able to update my satnav [ the download is win only ]). It >> also made even long-gone redhat installers look state-of-the-art in >> comarison to the win installer :) > > Going a bit off topic (e.g. DHCP), let me make a comment. When I was > teaching, I sat through a course on Windows for comparison. This was > around 2002. One of our tasks was to install it on a bare drive. When > people complain about installing Linux, it only means that they never > installed Windows, but bought it pre loaded. It was a PITA. When > complete, I looked at what came with it. My mind boggled -- I asked "Is > that all there is?" The answer was yes. Anything useful is an add on > at extra cost. > > It makes you wonder if the world wide water system has been contaminated. >
IDK. I use whatever is required for the job at hand. My laptop does dual boot, and I do have cross-over office installed so that I can use Outlook in Linux (which was really a waste as I haven't used it, I use my phone for just about everything now). A clean Windows 7 installation is not that bad (maybe 6 or 7 prompts now days), nor is Windows 8 (but 8 will likely be a flop along the lines of Windows ME). Now, that's not to negate "extra cost" because my time is not free and there are likely drivers to add, and additional software packages to install, user migration, etc. Now imaging does come into play for businesses to offset some of those costs, but from a management perspective, Windows is quite a bit easier for both admins and end users. I want something done, say a new network printer installed, I set a policy using a simple and fairly intuitive point and click interface, nothing need be done by the end user, and it is done on *all* machines that I request it be done on. I need info on a machine, I personally clob together a simple WMI query using vbscript, but my counterparts usually employ something point and clicky from the myriad of tools available to automate this task. As far as my experience on Linux, nothing simple like the two examples above exist. Am I capable of writing an LDAP query to push something to my machines over ssh/scp, sure. Login scripts, certainly. I can ssh into any machine and get whatever I need, but again, well over half of my counterparts at my current place of work are incapable of these tasks. While the additional features certainly make Windows less secure (ports open for WMI, additional code that can potentially harbor security vulnerabilities, etc.), there is an old adage that still holds true: Speed, reliability, low cost, pick two. In just about any corporation, you can expect low cost to be one of the two selected variables, and good unix admins don't come cheap. Until we are commoditized (not a real word) by mindless point and click interfaces and kiddos fresh out of tech school with a Linux ataboy certificate that says nothing more than they know how to pass a test, Windows will likely be around. I find it best to be able to work with it. -- DJ Lucas -- http://linuxfromscratch.org/mailman/listinfo/blfs-support FAQ: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/faq.html Unsubscribe: See the above information page
