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From: mdharm@muddcs.cs.hmc.edu (Matthew Dharm)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.os2.advocacy
Subject: Re: Linux thoroughly insulted by Infoworld!
Date: 19 Jan 1995 21:33:12 GMT
Organization: Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA
Lines: 73
Sender: mdharm@hmc.edu
Message-ID: <3fmlqo$llg@jaws.cs.hmc.edu>
References: <950116203411@lambada> <3fk4hi$iu8@solaris.cc.vt.edu> <1995Jan19.015527.16465@cs.cornell.edu> <3fm171$hes@ivory.lm.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: muddcs.cs.hmc.edu
I think that the big difference of oppinion here is caused by
different needs. I'm currently a college student, but I've also
worked for both large and small firms, so here's my $0.02.
AS A COLLEGE STUDENT:
---------------------
I've found linux to be invaluable for me at college. It
provides me with direct internet connectivity which DOS and WinDoze
can't even come close to. Yes, it does take some time to keep up with
kernel revisions (I'm about 10 versions back -- I'll catch up this
weekend), but the power it gives me is incredible. I can run almost
any well-written portable program with (at most) minimal changes to
config files, Makefiles, and header files.
AS A IS DIRECTOR FOR A SMALL FIRM:
----------------------------------
One of my jobs has bees as IS director for a small company.
We publish law books, and our entire opperation fits into <= 15 rooms
and a warehouse at another site. We needed a cheap, lightweight, UNIX
system to run some accounting software and for network monitoring.
Linux was the perfect choice. Kernel 1.0.9 was sufficient, and while
we don't have internet connectivity, the networking functions of linux
were perfect to our needs. As for technical support: Yes, there were
times that I wished that I could have called someone for professional
help. But, then again, one time I called WordPerfect, and had them
refuse to help me because (they claimed) our registration number was
incorrect. I much prefer linux, with man pages and source code to
read, than some other DOS/Windoze programs which cost my boss a
fortune in long distance charges to get support for. Most times that
I called support for one package in particular (a WinDoze publishing
app.), I was told that there is no way to do what I want, and it
should be part of the next version. Most of the things I wanted to do
could have been hacked into the source code in <=15 minutes (I know
this because I actually wrote a C++ program to read the exported
datafile and process it to my needs -- for those who are interested, I
needed the index to be generated sorted not alphabetically but
numerically. i.e. 5,10,15 instead of 10,15,5 which it was putting out
because 1 comes before 5). Overall, my Linux experience was a good
one here.
AS AN ASSISTANT IN A LARGER FIRM:
---------------------------------
Here, my position was not such a high one, so OS choices were
out of my hands. However, my opinion was asked concerning certain
tasks, and I have to say that Linux was not the best choice for what
we needed. We needed internet connectivity that we could guarantee
would not die. If it did, we needed it back up immediately. We were
running a server of sorts, which took requests and sent out
information. If the system went down for an extended period of time
(i.e. 2 hrs.), we were, in a word, dead. Mission-critical is an
understatement. We also needed to guarantee security. Here,
professional technical support was a necessity. We decided to
purchase an OS (nameless here, I'm not writting an endorsement) which
would give us that support. So far, our problems have been handled
quickly and professionally. No complaints about our choice here.
Realistically, the choice of OSes is very dependant on what you plan
to do. How much time do you have? How critical is it? Linux is a
good OS and I think that many more people could benefit from using it.
But not everyone would make a good linux user. Some people just want
a computer which they can turn on and get a nice, friendly, graphical
OS like WinDoze. I'm not plugging Microsoft, but they do have a place
in the computer market. Not everyone wants to know about system
functions like ioctl calls and /etc/passwd files.
Well, that's my oppinion.
---
Matthew Dharm -- mdharm@hmc.edu
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