In comp.os.linux.advocacy, High Plains Thumper
<highplainsthumper@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote
on Fri, 04 Jan 2008 08:40:45 -0700
<fllk20$q62$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>> The Ghost In The Machine on Thursday:
>>> Dusty Hendrix wrote:
>>>> "The Ghost In The Machine" wrote...
>>>>
>>>>> A rant, indeed a rant.
>>>>
>>>> Yet another COLA bozo who makes his living writing
>>>> proprietary Microsoft software but then complains how evil
>>>> Windows is.
>>>
>>> OK, so you're on record as not liking alternatives, then?
>>>
>>> Good.
>>>
>>> Let me know when Microsoft puts Symbian out of business.
>>> Last I heard Symbian has about 70% of the mobile OS market.
>>
>> That is correct. Microsoft is good at PR, so it was successful
>> at pretending that desktop PCs /WERE/ the computer. Should it
>> not matter that there are several billions of smart phones
>> (miniature PCs) out there? Microsoft is very,very good at PR
>> (poker face). It manages to convinced people that only an O/S
>> (even for phones) with "Shutdown" under some "Start" menu at
>> the bottom-left corner of the display is the 'standard'-- the
>> only standard which is 'user friendly' (read: like Windows).
>> But guess what? After about 10 years in the field and huge
>> spending (losses too, which they hid by combining divisions),
>> Microsoft has only 6% market share in this area.
>
> Future is in virtualisation and thin clients. It is easier to
> manage a handful of "terminal servers" serving thin clients
> instead of a slew of thick clients.
How "thin" is thin here? I see a multilayer problem, and
the Web brower is getting extremely fat -- to the point
of becoming a development environment itself (Javascript
can do Erastothene's Sieve without much difficulty,
for example). Contrast this to dumb glass tube terminals
which might have have to make a decision on where to put
the cursor based on 8-bit codes, but that's about it.
X terminals are somewhere in the middle and are very
rare nowadays. Nowadays it's cheaper to get a new or used
Laptop and slap Linux on it running an X server and using
SSH tunnelling.
>
> In April last year, Microsoft did an "about face" and now is
> working to support thin clients, albeit at roughly twice the cost
> of their thick client licenses. They are not yet supporting per
> user license. (One has 1,000 machines but only 500 users must
> pay 1,000 licenses, not 500.)
Gosh, how nice of them to overcharge us! :-P Of course
part of the problem with a "thin" client is authenticating
that client; think of a laptop on a corporate network,
for example. Best I can do there is put something in .ssh
and that would allow login to a server; the server can
also use HTTP for session authentication if the laptop
has a web browser (even Dillo can handle cookies).
My previous employer had exactly this problem, as they used
X Windows to draw their stuff -- and X has an inherent
remoting capability, which can be exacerbated by various
proxies to allow more than 1 user to share a window or
desktop (the most obvious one nowadays is VNC).
>
> There are merits in this as the servers maintain the software, an
> upgrade to a server upgrades all thin clients.
Actually, it doesn't ... but never mind; I'm being
pedantic. Suffice it to say that the thin clients do
not need to upgrade nearly as often as the servers since
the thin client protocol is relatively simple, and that
lessens IT work. Of course upgrading the server allows
the thin clients to access the new version -- transparently.
No doubt that's what you meant, and it can be a *big* advantage.
> Also having
> software managed at server level has better control over viruses,
> trojans, root kits, etc. Server can't be back doored or
> "bypassed" through an infected thick client, since thin client is
> essentially a terminal. Backups are simplified since they are
> done as server level. It is inherently easier to backup user files.
>
> This is where Linux shines. With Linux running an alternative to
> Windows API's to run software applications negates the need for
> the Windows operating system. Vista is the best thing that ever
> happened to Linux.
And the worst thing to happen to Microsoft. :-)
>
>>> Microsoft. Where did you want to go today?
>
> I still remember Corel Linux showing, "Where do you want to go
> tomorrow?" when mouse was hovered over the "Start" button. :-)
Heh. Can't say I remember that, but that's because I've not
used that distro.
>
>> Anywhere which is warmer. Scottt Douglas lives in Canada and I
>> think that the cold weather prevents blood from reaching all
>> of his brain cells.
>
> As Microsoft and some major software houses with heavy Microsoft
> ties will not want "food taken off their plate" (AKA maintain the
> monopoly), the FUD campaigns against Linux and other alternative
> operating systems will continue.
>
> Best form of freedom is for people to simply try Linux and other
> FOSS software out, judge for themselves.
>
If they're aware of it. At least the "buzz" is still
around Linux, and if Microsoft denigrates Linux in their
ads, it is also *mentioning* Linux -- a double-edged sword.
--
#191, ewill3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Error 16: Not enough space on file system to delete file(s)
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