Although I must admit – my use of linux has provided me a role when the AIX guys have a problem with thier Unix system – they go ask the Linux guy!

Still I wouldn’t advise working for a large company. They are lethargic and stuck on arcane ways of doing things. That’s why I chose a smaller more agile company when time came to give up the grey cube.

Hey Jason, if you hate MS Project, you should check out LiquidPlanner – http://www.liquidplanner.com. We built it just for people like you and it’s built on a fully open source stack. :)

-bryan

However let us not forget that when we give in to non freedom that it makes it harder for the next guy. We want freedom to be easy because in fact that is the only cost to freedom in this world today. How hard is it to be free?

So if I already make enough to eat and I work and contribute to freedom in general and some one comes along and tries to appeal to my sense of greed so that I’ll support non free… well that is not right.

This article makes me loose respect for this magazine. If I keep seeing this magazine support non free then I’ll have to abandon it completely.

I do, and have done this for a good bunch of years, though currently semi-disabled post some cervical surgery – if I go back to work in the computer environment it will most likely be MS again.

And am going to school now, working MS Server 2003 (for a MCSE certification). Installed on a Linux desktop and laptop under VirtualBox OSE, and 4 installs for class purposes under VirtualBox on a Win XP Pro box.

I seem to find myself more impressed with virtualization than the MS product I’m studying, but so be it – study on I will…

In accordance with this policy, I’ve done three Linux installs in the past month and a half.

We don’t have to work in a company who has the open source minded while we want to use the open source, we may affect the others slowly by showing them the benefits of using the open source products, thus people will realize the robustness of open source compare with proprietary products.

Example, we recently had that wonderful combination of an unreadable DVD from a client full of critical spreadheets & an account exec with a deadline to meet. The dvd did the rounds of the IT dept. with none of the Windows boxes able to read it. Lastly it comes to me (why me last? ‘cos I’m wierd & use stuff that Bill Gates doesn’t control), I slap it in my Linux box & wow! it instantly reads it.

‘How come your pc can read it?’

‘Duh! It’s Linux, it WORKS PROPERLY!’

Ok, it was probably pure luck, but so what? Little victories like that raise the profile & make people realise that MS isn’t the only solution in the world.

For example, I have a COT product required Red Hat ES4 (RHES4 out of the box) runs on GoBook VR2 laptop. The laptop has a new Intel GM965 video chip set and RHES4 doesn’t have it. Intel don’t have driver for Linux either but for Windows (why is that?). Contact Red Hat support, Intel support, and open-source support…..they all said, you’re on your own.

I have to spend so much time to configure the Linux, write video driver, update the kernel, X server, etc…instead of spend time to do the real work, writing application.

Like you said, because of food I will do the work…other then that, Linux still years away from competing with Windows for Desktop environment or application development capabilities and software compatibility.

I use to be a UNIX hacker …but my time has passed… I just want to complete the work as fast as I can, go home, enjoy life and food. Linux hinder me from doing what I want to do.

Good artical!!!!

You don’t have to write a video driver. It is already done.
Check out http://intellinuxgraphics.org/documentation.html

It’s no surprise a 3.5 year old SERVER O/S doesn’t support a new LAPTOP video chip. It was made for 4 year old server H/W. Try installing original Windows Server 2003 media on a modern laptop and getting accelerated graphics. You might have better luck with downloading the latest update 7 of RHES4 ISO from RHN instead of 4-update-nothing media you get from vendors. Anyway, RHES4 runs on fine new Intel video, just in plain VESA mode. If you need 3D on new h/w, you need a newer O/S, or backport a driver.

If you want to honestly compare against the “Windows for Desktop” environments on a new laptop, try a good, modern Desktop Linux distro, not an old Server distro.

-KM

I’ve even gone as far as including the line “would prefer an environment hospitable to Open Source” in my Objectives section of my resume. And it has worked well! I have interviewed with several positions that not only *let* me use Ubuntu but use it themselves as their dev platform, and gotten offers from two different companies that service and support Open Source products.

I currently work for a company that does not use Windows for anything, really. (Except the CEO and CFO’s desktops :) ) We use Solaris as our server platform and Linux for development. Oh, and some Mac OS X in there.

My point? My point is that it is very possible to develop a tech career using tools that you love and want to promote. And that Windows really, really, REALLY is not the only game in town.

Now, I really don’t mind Windows, overall. I also don’t mind that MS is a huge company and needs to make money and grow and all that. I do mind the anti-Linux FUD that is all over the place.

ah, well, gotta stop commenting for now, but that’s my story. Seeya

If we look at trends it becomes obvious that the principles in “Cathedral and Bazaar” still hold true as evidenced by how little by little OSS apps slowly take over. Aside from the oldies like Apache, PHP, MySQL and a sprinkling of others that have been around for 10 years or more it can be seen that the growth of domination or at least stiff competition of many open source projects with perhaps one of the more obvious examples being Firefox, these principles are at work and irresistable.

As computing becomes more and more ubiquitous the need for not only cross platform but platform independancy grows with it since the average user just “wants it to work” and cares not for nuts and bolts. At some point the OpSys must become a non issue. Because it is now possible to find OSS apps that run on windows and because the cost is at the very least less than proprietary apps, while one may not succeed every time at supplanting proprietary software, one can succeed often enough to begin to nudge the house toward open source, instead of “preaching to the converted” thus defeating the “enemy” from the inside. Ultimately this seems best for the advancement of the role of computers in the future and it is that subtle but relentless riptide that must win out. So aligning oneself with the prevailing winds right where the barricades are highest can be subversion rather than selling out.

Instead, make them use Project to plan and schedule Project’s software development. Then we’ll never hear from Project or the developers again…

OK, it means that I work in a smaller company. It means no expensive supplier parties or presents. But I know that all the (extra learning) time I spend (even at home) is spend well. It is not lost when a supplier dumps its product. It is not lost when company x buys company y and dumps your software z.

I know there’s no guarantee that my employer survives economic troubles, but if not I will try to find a rich and free environment again, rather than drown in monoculture.