[clue-tech] Mephis linux

[Nate Duehr]

On Nov 18, 2008, at 11:01 PM, David L. Willson wrote:

>> This is an exciting time to be in the software industry.  Things  
>> are changing, and changing for the better.
>
> Could you elaborate on why you believe this, David?

Heh... should I respond?  I guess I will...

> DHTML (HTML/CSS/JavaScript) works way better than it ever has.

With a decade of frameworks and browser wars, you can finally get a  
graphical interface that rivals a good Borland Turbo Pascal Client/ 
Server app from 1995.

> Linux is easier to use and more flexible than it ever has been.

Desktops, no way.  If it were true, it'd have better than 1% of the  
user base.

Servers, AIX and HP-UX are just as easy and "flexible", and Solaris  
isn't too far behind.

> Zimbra, OpenFiler, and Untangle are beautiful and apparently  
> viable.  Lots of other non-suck large FLOSS projects are out and  
> coming out all the time.

Three applications that mimic 10 year old software are finally  
viable?  Wow.  You could have been doing Zimbra's work with Outlook/ 
Exchange, OpenFiler's job with a NetApp on nicer custom tuned  
hardware, and Untangle for free with SonicWall all this time so you  
could focus on new development and technologies instead.

> There are three big, committed Linux shops.

... that mainly cater to server operators and farms, something Linux  
has always been good at, but so have Solaris, HP-UX, and AIX, none of  
which have been dropped by those companies who also support Linux now,  
but didn't see compelling reasons to stop making their own OS's.   
RedHat still continues on with proprietary tools only available to  
paid customers too...

> Normal people are choosing Free software, and beginning to  
> understand what that means.

I'll have to take your word for it on that one.  No one I know starts  
any conversations about free software with me, nor do they care.  They  
start the conversation with "I want to do X.  What's the best software  
out there to do that?"

--
Nate Duehr
nate at natetech.com