[Linux-aus] The Great Debate 28 May 2007 - Linux vs Windows

[Paul Antoine]

Bruce has an excellent point:

> The ACS should be representative of the whole ICT sector, and should
> not promote or participate in debates like those that have been put
> forward.
> 
> Imagine if a specialist medical organisation did a debate on:
> 
> "Ultrabrand (R) Stainless Steel Hip Replacements are better than the
> community produced ceramic ones..."

The ACS is indeed endorsing Microsoft's products... something a national 
body of professionals should never do. (Or do at their peril... all 
products can fail to perform in certain scenarios!)

The primary reason the ACS does this is that the "professionals" who are 
part of the ACS know which side of their bread is buttered... no one 
ever got fired for recommending a "solution" from Microsoft, SAP, 
Oracle, Dell... etc.

Such people are rarely truly professional; they are merely making sure 
they get paid as highly as possible and continue their promotion curve 
by not rocking the boat.  True professionals aim for the *most 
appropriate* solution... unafraid of staunchly defending the merits of 
that solution.

As a seasoned executive I feel that running a business frugal (i.e. NOT 
cheap :-) is to me a very big part of being an IT professional. Why buy 
an MS server license for print/file serving when the money could be 
better spent elsewhere, even if that is for other MS products that 
fulfil specific business needs???  Likewise, a true professional will 
gladly use an MS product where the price/performance/feature criteria 
are best met by such.

As someone who has worked extensively with Universities I can tell you 
they are in a quandary: many CS students enrol *expecting* to be taught 
product familiarity in order to earn a large salary.  Few expect or see 
the benefit of being taught the theory that will enable them to keep 
current throughout their careers, and in fact make them *better* users 
of those same proprietary technologies!  Instead they can expect to 
spend $1000's to get product qualifications as the product-du-jour 
changes(or expect their employers to do so!)

/rant off

Paul Antoine

NB: "product familiarity" is NOT a skill!  I just want to slap 
recruiters who advertise them as such. A DB admin ought to be able to 
admin *any* DB (manual-reading as necessary.)