Should Microsoft be worried about Linux?

[NickC]

Weird - I could have sworn I went to their website last night, and this morning it's saying "no website at this address" !

Yes, I believe a big difference between Trios and Trios II is that the second design moved split the unit so that instead of being all in one box located in a drive bay, only the faceplate is there and the guts install in PCI slot (but not connecting to the slot). In some of the reveiws of the Trios, they complained that it was hard to connect all the IDE cables to the back, so maybe they switched the connectors to the PCI area to make this easier.

Find some more info on Trios II here

One thing I'd change in the design is not to have the switches exposed. Switching drives is not something you're going to do on the fly. So I'd take a little more precaution to make sure it doesn't happen accidentally.

[hongman]

Or if you would rather prefer, I suppose you could use a HDD caddy/tray/whatever they're called.

[jmtjet]

The Romtec Trois switch(the original) I have has protection built in so you can change harddrives without shutting down. Safety feature I guess. Tried their web site again-not there?

[Starman99]

Largely repeating previous interesting comments in my perspective. Realistically Linux as it stands is not suitable for the average computer user. Windows is a well-tested OS and look how many problems people have with that. Linux is finding small niches among people with more computer savvy so together with Apple is nibbling slightly at MS's heels.

There is a lot to be said for just a few standard OSs. You only have to look at the plethora of video formats, how small the benefits are of each compared to others of the same quality, and the mess that is caused by having so many. Imagine if there were 30 OSs on the market today. The problem is that control of that one main OS is in the hands of one company. In the short term anti-trust legislation and piracy will keep things in check. Should MS manage to overcome those, alternatives like Linux will have a better chance and people will slow down with upgrades for MS products. I still have a 386 that word processes fine, plays Minesweeper, boots in a fraction of the time of XP and you just turn the thing off (awww, why does my xp take so long to shutdown?).

If a significant portion of a law abiding society indulge in piracy or other illegal activities, the problem is not with them. People do not like to be ripped off. Anyone remember the tax on tea?

On the bright side, had IBM not messed up on the copyright of MS-DOS, we would now be using IBM software on IBM computers, if you could afford a special wing in the house to put one!

[DVOM]

I think rather than "Should Microsoft be worried about Linux?"

A better question would be "Is Microsoft be worried about Linux?"

And the answer is definitely "Yes"

M$ doesn't like anything that presents a threat to any part of it's monopoly.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/11...x_from_threat/

http://www.usatoday.com/money/tech/2...-microsoft.htm

http://www.itmweb.com/f060903.htm

[Jim1]

Hi to all: HAVE WE FORGOTTEN THE TALE (TAIL?) OF THE TORTOSE AND THE HARE (HAIR?) THOUGH I THINK MS IS SMART ENOUGH TO GRAB ON TO WHATEVER COMES ALONG AND LOOKS THREATENING. WITH, AS ACCOUNTANTS LIKE TO PUT IT, LIQUIDITY YOU CAN DO ALMOST ANYTHING. LET'S NOT FORGET MS IS A CASH COW, CAPABLE OF EATING ANY GREEN PASTURE OUT THERE LINUX WILL HAVE TO BEEF-UP FOR THE RACE AS MS CAN HIT PRETTY HARD WHEN IT HAS TO, EVEN USING WORFPERFECT'S BUTTERLHY LOGO IN IT ADS. REMEMBER TOO, THE TIFF WITH APPLE A NUMBER OF YEARS BACK. YES, THERE'S A MOVE TO LINUX, SLOW, MEASURED, AND WHEN IT GETS TO BE A REAL THREAT, MS IS BOUND TO TINKERWITH SOME OF ITS BETTER POINTS. REMEMBER THE VOICE OF THE TURTLE! J

[Train]

Read int he newpaper where Microsoft is now going to support a OS for 10 years. To many businesses were complaining it seems. Plus it keeps M$ on computers that may well have changed over because of the cost.

Jim1
Please do us a favor, do not use all caps because even with glasses, it is darn hard to read. Actually closer to impossible for some of us.

Now the vb code does actually help us out if it is used right.

[Undertaker02]

My biggest complaints about Linux..

1/ DOCUMENTATION, either assume too much or too little, always out of date.. or just plain incomplete..
2/ The smart A$$ Linux users who
a: can not answer your question other than to say.. this distro is better..
b: stick their heads in to a windows problem thread with "Load XXXX Linux" as their solution.
c: And who's complaints about windows are still from the Windows 2.0 days. Granted security issues..
d: expect ALL computer users to know and understand the command line interface (CLI), newbies included
3/ If you get a FREE (that is no cost) version you get what you pay for.. to get good linux distros you realy do need to BUY the offical release versions.. BUT the Support is shocking.. well Red Hat was in Australia a couple of years ago..
4/ Software compatability.. you need to make sure that the software you are getting is suitable .. not only for your Harware specifications but also the Distro Version, and the (for the gui ops) Xwindows version.

I certainly will continue recommending Windows to my customers.. and playing with Linux distros to learn.. in my spare time..

Cheers

[mfutty]

Totally off the topic... but if the Alpha Geeks at LinuxWorld were going to run a Linux World Expo, don't ya think they might have wanted to host its web site on, uh... maybe Linux, and not Windows web servers ???

Whoops.


They use Windows-based servers for their own web site while they tell everybody how much better Linux is? Hmmmmmm
(Sorry, couldn't resist)

[jayclark]

Isn't that ironic.

[smurfy]

Almost as ironic as Microsoft "admitting" that it needs Linux to protect itself from DDoS attacks:
http://news.netcraft.com/archives/20..._a_point_.html

http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?....cd.akamai.net



Smurfy runs Mandrake Linux 9.0 at home full time (unless booting to W98 for LAN gaming)

My biggest complaint about Linux - I don't want to go back to the command line, I left that behind with DOS - I like to use a GUI and I'm not ashamed to admit it.


Give you one guess what all Jupitermedia's sites (including Windows dedicated support) run on....

[jmtjet]

My biggest complaint with Linux is adding or removing software. I've looked at Lindows, but don't like the cost. It does seem to have a better software manager than other distros. I'm using SuSE 9.0 with Yast for a software manager-works so-so. I, too, don't like to use the command line any more. Linux commands are long and complicated. They seem to change from distro to distro and, for me, rarely work.

[Rick Harvey]

Spookie Man G
I just did a Google search for "download Knoppix", and got a bunch of hits. The "download _____",search, works in a search for just about anything I have looked for.

Rick

[Rick Harvey]

jmtjet had info about a switch. It looks expensive.

I bought a removable hard drive tray that goes into a 5.25" bay and only costs about $8.00 on Pricewatch, http://www.pricewatch.com , or go to their site. http://www.genica.com they work great, to change O.S. or to have a second drive to do backups on, etc. They really work great. You also can have different operators basically have their own computer by switching drives, or O.S.. With them you can also take your work home, or to a friends, or lock it in the safe at night.

Also a little program I got before, to select which O.S. it boots to, and can have up to 12 O.S. http://www.mstboot.com/en/