Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2001 09:59:56 -0800 (PST) From: Peter Grigor <p_grigor@yahoo.com> To: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Prevalence of FreeBSD and UNIX among servers Message-ID: <20011204175956.52893.qmail@web20705.mail.yahoo.com> In-Reply-To: <007801c17ce9$78df5150$03e2cbd8@server>
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I certainly understand Jeremiah's points when it comes to _client_ type software...I do my editing using EditPlus on Windows...however the point of the original thread (I think) was pointed towards the *server* market. Even though Windows development tools are "easy to use", they still lack the elegance and reliability of Unix (ie BSD) development tools. There is a certain uncomfortability a developer has when developing for Windows...you sometimes just don't know what's going on behind the scenes...and have no way of finding out. Plus the operating system's design itself is inferior to Unix-type OS's. I wouldn't ever use anything by BSD for any web or ftp serving...and very quickly the open souce databases are catching up. The old saw is sad but true...Windows measures uptime in days; Unix measures uptime in years. Peter <^_^> --- Jeremiah Gowdy <jeremiah@sherline.com> wrote: > > the next few years. Notice that quality wasn't mentioned - they > are > > good enough for most people to resist changing. > > I hate to throw a pitch for the other team, but I evaluate all of my > software equally no matter who produces it. Microsoft Office XP and > Microsoft Visual Studio/Visual C++ 6.0 are more than good enough. > They are > excellent products. I've not seen one product comparable to either > one. > Star Office is primative compared to Microsoft Office XP, and the > only > development environments which even begin to compete with Visual > Studio are > also for the Win32 platform. I've seen Borland/Inprise/whoever's > offering. > It's about as impressive as Borland Builder, which is to say, not > very. > > Some people don't seem to understand that it's a good thing that > Microsoft > doesn't embrace the open-source platforms, because even with all the > (sometimes senseless) Microsoft hating, if they offered Internet > Explorer, > Office XP, and Visual Studio for FreeBSD and Linux, almost EVERYONE > would > use them. Most of the people who hated Microsoft would be lying > through > their teeth saying they weren't. > > My point is simply that people can sit an knock on a Microsoft > product for > having bugs and vulnerabilities, and that's fine. But Microsoft has > better > products in many of the important catagories. > > I would kill to be able to develop, compile, and execute my FreeBSD > programs > under Visual Studio. I already do when I'm making it portable. > > I'm all for the free software jihad. Consider me a card carrying > member. > But I try to look at these things realisticly. Saying Linux or > FreeBSD is > going to crush Windows any time soon, would be like the people who > two or > three years ago claimed that cable modems were going to put AOL out > of > business. > > The average user doesn't care about execution speed, the cost of > upgrading > their computer, Microsoft business tactics, free software, open > source, > security vulnerabilities, or anything along those lines. What they > care > about is ease of use, corporate support, compatibility, and > productivity. > Until the open source movement capture the hearts of the masses by > meeting > the needs _they_ think are important, significant inroads will not be > made > into Microsoft's market share. And the key is that with Microsoft > computers > dominating the desktop, most ignorant companies will avoid a > heterogeneous > setup. I know, I make my living setting FreeBSD Server/Windows 2000 > Desktop > networks. It takes a long time to break the ice. > > > > ___________________________________________ > Jeremiah Gowdy > > IT Manager - Senior Network Administrator > > Sherline Products Inc > 3235 Executive Ridge > Vista CA 92083-8527 > > IT Dept: 760-727-9492 > Sales: 1-800-541-0735 > International: (760) 727-5857 > Fax: (760) 727-7857 > ___________________________________________ > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Brian Raynes" <brian_raynes@dnr.state.ak.us> > To: "Anthony Atkielski" <anthony@freebie.atkielski.com> > Cc: <freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org> > Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2001 9:13 AM > Subject: Re: Prevalence of FreeBSD and UNIX among servers > > > > Anthony Atkielski wrote: > > > > > > According to an article in BusinessWeek: > > > > > > http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/01_50/b3761094.htm > > > > > > Non-Linux versions of UNIX are expected to slip from 14% of the > server > market to 10% next year, and Linux is expected to grow from > > > 27% to 32%. Is this really true? This would imply that > organizations > are actively junking UNIX systems such as FreeBSD to go to > > > Linux, which I find extremely hard to believe (I can't think of > any > reason why anyone would want to junk any xxxBSD to install > > > Linux, which seems like a step backwards). Anyone know where > these > figures are coming from, or how realistic they are? > > > > From other articles on these numbers, I believe that the trend is > to > > dump Solaris on Sun Microsystems machines for Linux on cheaper > Intel > > machines. I believe this is a cost issue - virtually free, with > little > > administrative cost difference is tough to compete with. Some > people > > also tend to lump the xBSD systems under the Linux numbers, because > both > > are free vs. the proprietary Unixes. There also seems to be a > trend for > > the owners of some of the proprietary Unixes to switch their > emphasis to > > Linux - maybe to reduce development and maintenance costs? That > might > > explain some of these numbers, too. > > > > I think that the increase in Windows is due to people tired of > betting > > against MS. I am recently converted to the xBSD and even Linux > camp, > > due to cost reasons and a little by quality and geek appeal. I was > > hearing my fellow Comp. Science students predicting Unix would > crush > > Microsoft back in 1988, when Windows 3.0 was in beta testing. > Nearly 14 > > years of harsh reality can eventually persuade people that things > don't > > always turn out in the way we think they should. Back then, I had > > difficulty making my peers understand why people would stick to DOS > over > > Unix, just to have Wordperfect and Lotus 123. Unix was also > incredibly > > more expensive than DOS or Windows. Now that everyone seems to get > > that, Unix finally has quality office productivity apps, but MS has > > meanwhile attained a certain air of invulnerability. Now, I'm > > predicting their aggressive anti-customer license control policies, > > along with outrageous pricing for applications with functionality > that > > can mostly be duplicated for free will serve to bite them very hard > in > > > > Brian Raynes > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > > with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message > > > > > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message ===== --------------------------------- Peter Grigor email: p_grigor@yahoo.com web site: http://www.alerx.com:8000/peter **Do NOT look directly into LASER with remaining eye** __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Buy the perfect holiday gifts at Yahoo! Shopping. http://shopping.yahoo.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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