Moving away from software monoculture..

[DevineHerring]

Thougth I might start a thread about news of events concerning Opens Source Software(OSS) and the move away from Microsoft software and Operating system monoculture....
This is actually a very important trend (revoloution) in the industry. The more we give up control of our information to systems we do not control, the less we control our selves (not a typo)...
Here's a good (recent) link to start... An example of the many government entities outside the US that have realised that being entirely dependant, not to be mention being put to wall financially, on a particular brand of software of which they have no control, and no knowledge of the actual design buts them at a distinct disadvantage...

New South Wales Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) will deploy 1200 G4 iMacs across 140 registry offices."
http://www.computerworld.com.au/inde...5;fp;16;fpid;0

I know most people don't think of Mac's as Open Source but read the article... MacOS X is a(Free)BSD(Unix) based Operating System and a quote from the RTA says a lot ->>
"The Apple rollout is a continuation of RTA usage of open standards-based software and systems. The further adoption of open source is being undertaken to provide more choice of vendors and to guarantee RTA systems are providing value for money,"

Computer "biodiversity" is good for everyone. I have always tended to avoid Microsoft products whenever possible. (I've used Macs since 1984.)

[Artoo]

Originally posted by Neil_Caple
Computer "biodiversity" is good for everyone. I have always tended to avoid Microsoft products whenever possible. (I've used Macs since 1984.)

Agreed - but sometimes easier said than done. In the old days it was easy - if you wanted to network to a mini or mainframe, it had to be a PC - Macs were only able to talk to other Macs, and then at something less than 100 metres. But that's all changed and I guess most application packages are now platform-independent. Anyway, I'm trying to wean myself off MS and onto Linux or suchlike. However, if you want to tinker with the insides of the machine, then PCs still seem to be about the only option.

Not that I like Unix - a virus masquerading as an operating system - but anything to break the dominance of any one company.

[DevineHerring]

Now.. Now.. Artoo... I wouldn't go around maligning *nix with the old virus analogy especially if all you have as an alternative are Microsofts attempts at operating systems, even considering the progress they've made in co-opting protocols and general reliability with their most recent versions of NT (XPpro and 2003 server - Name changes do not constitute a new OS regardless of what the marketing drones tell us). winWhatever will still let me Write to ring 0 any time I want... Bahhh... still no meaningful memory boundaries...
Oh well... I don't want to get into an OS development history / feature /performance /usability /suitability tit-fir-tat ( I'm sure some one else will pick up that standard and it's been done ad nausium in other places...) but. IMNSHO the only operating systems (other than some embedded systems and hardware specific OSes) that can claim to be truly superior in anyway to *nix in any real way are the IBM big iron OS'es (and they have the advantage of having a very limited hardware base). The latest Mac OS is a *nix.. not really even a derivative, just BSD with a very tightly bound UI and specific hardware support... which has made it a very viable desktop OS. The major Linux distributions are still mainly concentrated on the server market where they are strongest but there is quite a lot of activity and success in the Linux desktop arena...

The best thing about OSS *nix OSes.... They are open... they will continue to be taylored and improved and optimized...

Oh a side note... the one and only things that has kept the Microsoft OSes from advancing as a true operating system is, the marketing = profits = success philosophy, and the fusion of the UI to the operating system as a mean to accomplish the end. Having started with a veritable lock on the market ( see VHS/Beta Max) locking their customers in has always been more important than the quality of the product, because as long as they don't have a choice....

[Artoo]

Yep - I accept that I'm the layman on the OS front - but I still liked the DEC OS - what was it? DCL? Or at least the user interface - you couldn't delete your whole filestore with one easy command. And some of the IBM mainframe OS's. And even our own ICL (subsumed by Fujitsu?) - one of the pioneers of virtual memory. Sigh!

But I accept the inevitability of Unix (ptooy!) derivatives. As N.C said - biodiversity can't be bad.

And, there's always hope - Betamax still survives in the pro video area.

I'll let you know how I get on with Linux - and keep the thread going - we might attract some others whom I know are interested in these things.

[DevineHerring]

rm -fr /*.... oh fsck!

[Edited by DevineHerring on 20th April 2004 at 12:27]

[Artoo]