It may be worth pointing out that Linux does not lack a central location;
rather, it does not force you to depend on a single source for security issues
to be reported and fixed. If you choose Red Hat, for example, they can be
your single source. You can also combine Red Hat with other sources for N+1
reliability. If you go NT, you are forced to depend on Microsoft. If you use
Linux, you have a choice of providers, and you can choose the best.
Rather... innovative, don't you think? ;-)
MS> Linux does not support important ease-of-use technologies such as Plug and
MS> Play, USB, and Power Management
>
> NT 4.0, which they're talking about in the article, doesn't have good
> PnP support either...
NT 4.0 lacks PnP, power management, and USB support. Exactly the things
they are claiming Linux lacks, but does not.
Furthermore, industry insiders have claimed that Microsoft *has* USB support
for NT 4, but is sitting on it to force people to upgrade to NT 5/Win2K.
MS> The Linux community continues to promise major SMP and performance
MS> improvements. They have been promising these since the development of the
MS> 2.0 Kernel in 1996"
>
> And it has happened. Slowly, but gradually, SMP is getting better... They
> don't seem to understand 2.2.x kernels aren't supposed to bring in a lot
> of new features...
The fact that SMP scalability improvements are going slowly still stands.
Microsoft may have scored a point here, albeit minor. Perhaps it can be
countered by the fact that NT scalability is poor, and does not seem to be
improving? Fight FUD with FUD?
"Microsoft continues to promise major stability, scalability, and management
improvements. They have been promising these since the development of MS-DOS
2.0 in 1982."
RE: Support for Linux is expensive
> They aren't much more expensive than commercial support for NT,
If you have ever called MS's support line, paid $35, and found out that you
will not be supported because you have an OEM disc, you will doubt how much
less expensive MS's support is.
My favorite part of that call was when the techie said that all Windows
discs are mastered on UNIX machines to prevent virus infection. :)
> And of course you can get FREE support in mailing lists/newsgroups/...
> which usually works better than M$ support...
Be aware that the same applies to the Windows newsgroups as well. The lack
of open source preventing those Windows newsgroups from performing optimally
should be stressed.
MS> How easy is it to find skilled development and support people for Linux
>
> Very easy... Just look at any technical Linux mailing list/newsgroup.
The lack of *skill* in your average Windows user might be pointed out.
> - "Who performs end-to-end testing for Linux-based solutions"
>
> Red Hat, MandrakeSoft and SuSE, just to name 3 of them...
Dell, IBM, H/P, Compaq...
MS> Linux system administrators must spend huge amounts of time understanding
MS> the latest Linux bugs and determining what to do about them.
It should be pointed out that any system administrator who does not take the
time to understand the latest bugs should be fired.
MS> A recent report from Forrester Research highlighted the fact that today 93
MS> percent of enterprise ISVs develop applications for Windows NT, while only
MS> 13 percent develop for Linux"
My favorite meaningless statistics: Linux has been experiencing roughly
two-hundred (200) percent annual growth. Linux has claimed 17% of the server
OS market as of the end of 1998. If this continues, Linux will own the
*entire* server OS market by mid-2001.
-- Benjamin Scott dragonhawk@iname.com
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