[clue-tech] Mephis linux

[David L. Willson]

 - Nate, you and I have different perspectives.  You seem to stand in the tech mercenary circle, or the troglodyte circle, maybe... :-)  I stand firmly in the Free software enthusiast circle, and that tends to define my perspective.  Nonetheless, here are my further comments.

> 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.

 - Yes, exactly that.  For the first time, we can write a simple app, post it, and run it from any workstation with a recent operating system.  That's a first.  Every previous iteration of portability has required extensive debugging, installation of a hosting application, and/or a recompile per platform.

> 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.

 - Like Jed said.  Not true.  If it were true, WordPerfect and Navigator would have more market share.  There's an elephant in the room, in case you hadn't noticed, and it throws the game a bit.

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

 - I'll have to take your word for it.  I'm only familiar with Windows, Linux, and MacOS.  Of them, Linux is the most powerful, flexible, easy to use, easy to deploy, and cost-efficient, in my humble opinion, of course.

> 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.

 - I was.  My point is that FLOSS is replacing rich and costly platform products with rich and Free alternatives.

> 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...

 - Not sure what you're saying here.  Linux and FLOSS are growing.  Other things can die or not die on their own merits.  It's better for Linux, in fact, if other things live.  Variety and competition breed core standards and true innovation.  Only Microsoft is stupid enough to think that destruction of the competition is a good thing, and I hope they're coming slowly around on that point.

> 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?"

 - So, you never hear, "Is there anything free/Free/OpenSource/GPL that does that?"  I do.  Pretty often in fact, but then, I'm listening, because I'm a Free software enthusiast, and I am always building my software and human relationships from that "yes, plenty" perspective.