WARNING!!! WARNING!!! THIS IS A RANT!!!

Tue Jun 19 21:09:43 PDT 2001

im a couple from mcse, and i have to say i hate win2k with a passion as well, i run a full linux environment, minus 1 box, yet that one box causes me the most problems.. and its frustrating to have to go through millions of steps to secure a box when linux can do them within a couple.  As for my view on certs, i dont have a problem with certs, when a person wants to hire someone, they want someone who knows what they are doing...certs show that the individual at least put some effort into it...althought u can't beat on-the-job experience, wouldn't u rather have someone who's ccna certified working on your router than someone who's not?  just my 2 cents =p.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ryuhei Yokokawa 
  To: Linux & Unix Advocates & Users 
  Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2001 5:28 PM
  Subject: [luau] Re: WARNING!!! WARNING!!! THIS IS A RANT!!!

  In my case I have to use Winblows because my parents are scared that I'll do something that they would not be able to understand at all.
  They are getting me a junky computer so that I won't have much power on the computer.

  >From: Dusty 
  >Reply-To: "Linux & Unix Advocates & Users" 
  >To: "Linux & Unix Advocates & Users" 
  >Subject: [luau] WARNING!!! WARNING!!! THIS IS A RANT!!! 
  >Date: 19 Jun 2001 16:10:38 -0700 
  > 
  > 
  >We are at WAR and don't even realize it. The world is full of people who are content paying for buggy software. Businesses that would never think of using a Microsoft product to replace one of their servers because it is not scalable, unsecure, and unstable, require employees to use Microsoft on the desktop even though it is just as unsecure and unstable. Everyone (except the new MCSE) sits around and complains that Microsoft systems crash too often and require constant reboots, but we continue using it, much like a crack addict complaining about how pitiful their life has become, but not able to stop. We all continue using Microsoft products and say it is Sun Microsystems' or Redhat's problem, they should do something about it, but we do nothing about it our selves. This only makes the battle more difficult for companies like Sun Microsystems, Red Hat (and the other linux and BSD vendors). 
  > 
  > 
  > 
  >Why do you use Microsoft products? Because someone holds a gun to your head? NO! You use them because you have been brainwashed into using them!!! People talk about Microsoft Office like we can't live with out it, yet until the mid 90's everyone used WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3. It was only a short six years ago that we migrated to Office and now the concept of migrating to something like Star Office, Applix, or Open Office is unimaginable, even though these products work fine with Microsoft file formats. Many of us talk about how great Open Source (I use this term loosely to refer to GPL, LGPL, BSD and many other licenses) is and how much better it is than Microsoft, yet we still use Microsoft. Most of us use Microsoft because we don't know anything else. We live in a world that is run by Microsoft and most don't even realize that there are other choices or how to use those alternatives (when was the last time you saw a Redhat or Open Office commercial on TV ! or in one of the technology journals your Microsoft touting boss reads). Others like myself use Microsoft because my work requires it and I can't convince them to change. I have had the change conversation with several people and I am amazed at how stubborn they are. I here things like "If it is fast, more stable, and more scalable why is it free. Nothing good is ever free." Everything about Open Source goes against everything a good capitalist believes in. "It is too complicated", but when I look at Windows 2000 I don't understand how anyone can call *nix complicated. Then there are the people who let their ego get in the way of good judgment. They say, "So your telling me I'm stupid, because I spent all of our budget on this Microsoft solution, when I could have gotten better software for less or no money and now I should throw all this away and replace it with Linux". No, I'm telling you that, however, when the time comes to upgrade or change, include Open Source in your ! decision process and fully weigh the advantages and disadvantages of all solutions, Open Source and commercial (and choose the best most cost effective solution). 
  > 
  > 
  >The only valid excuse I have ever heard for using an expensive and buggy Microsoft product is because you require an application that is not available on any of the alternatives (like Everquest or Half-life). There are an incredible number of posters to open-source web boards and mailing list who use Outlook as their mail client to complain about how bad Microsoft is and how much better Open Source is. 
  > 
  > 
  > 
  >Now with Microsoft's new licensing model we will have to pay every year to use a Microsoft product or they will lock us out of our files. Here in Hawaii we have had experience with how bad this idea is for the licensee and how much power it provides the licenser. Our experience is with leasehold homes. This is where you buy a house or condo, but someone else owns the LAND. You rent the land from the landowner for a specified amount of time and own your house. This seems like a great idea for people to buy inexpensive homes, by not having to purchase the land. The problem is, that when the lease ends, the landowner decides what to do with the land your house is located on. They can renew the lease but increase your lease rent 1000%, they can sell the land to someone else or offer to sell it to you for an exorbitant amount of money that you can't afford, because that is the reason you bought the house without the land in the first place. Now this is not exactly ! how Microsoft's new licensing works, but it gives a good idea of what could happen with this new licensing scheme. We own our computer and we have to rent our software from Microsoft or they will lock us out of our own computer. 
  > 
  > 
  > 
  >Then there is Microsoft's .NET. Which is what *nix systems have been doing for years on an Internet scale. Sun Microsystems, Oracle, and others have been working on this for the last couple years. The only problem was that Microsoft and every computer magazine said it was a bad idea and did everything they could to kill the idea in the public's mind so that Microsoft could introduce .NET and invent the diskless workstations and thin clients. 
  > 
  > 
  > 
  >AOL and Microsoft are in negotiations to bundle AOL client software with Windows XP. AOL owns Time Warner and there are rumors that Microsoft wants to buy AT&T broadband. It could only be a matter of time before we can only use MS Windows on any of the AT&T cable modem systems and how long will it be before AOL requires all Road Runner users to use AOL, which requires us to use MS Windows. In my not so humble opinion this is not a good thing. We own a computer, but lease the software on it and are required to use leased software if we wish to access the Internet (sure there are other choices to cable, but DSL is not available in most areas and going back to a pots modem is not an option). 
  > 
  > 
  > 
  >So make this a day that will live in infamy for Microsoft. Stop using that expensive, buggy, unsecure, software that we complain about and start using the Open Source alternatives we rave so much about. Write to all the vendors of our favorite applications that don't run on an Open Source platform and tell them to port it. Write to every magazine you have ever seen a pointless, uneducated, Microsoft biased article and tell them to stop killing trees prompting Microsoft's latest and greatest vaporware or undermining other good solutions that were not invented by Microsoft, so Microsoft can re-invent the solution in a proprietary format six months later and claim it to be the best thing since that other company introduced it six months ago. 
  > 
  >So I asked my accountant, do I get an agriculture 
  >exemption for my server farm? 
  > 
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