[Linux-aus] Re: Utter tripe in CIO magazine

[Greg 'groggy' Lehey]

On Friday,  7 April 2006 at 10:22:26 +1000, Martin Pool wrote:
>
> On 07/04/2006, at 10:01 AM, Jonathan Oxer wrote:
>
>> On 4/7/06, Minnie Constan <MConstan at austexhibit.com.au> wrote:
>>> Which issue of CIO magazine?
>>
>> http://www.cio.com.au/index.php/id;1404610049
>
> Ironically this is quite a good (if ungrammatical) description of
> many Linux installations:
>
>    [...] it takes a bit of effort for an albatross to get airborne.
> However, when they do they become an aeronautical marvel.  A bird
> that is capable of flying nearly 2000 kilometres in a single day.

It's a strange mixture of understanding and completely missing the
point.:

> Everywhere you looked in Dunedin there seemed to be someone sporting
> a black T shirt with a penguin on it. I must admit that I found
> their earnest technological enthusiasm somewhat nauseating.

There are times when I find people a little too self-congratulatory,
but it's strange that a CIO should find technical enthusiasm
nauseating.

> I suspect my current cynicism is perhaps a reflection of the painful
> lessons Unix devotees like me learned back then. In the end, what we
> thought was an advantage was in fact a huge negative. Unix's
> independence and source code availability actually resulted in a
> loss of control over the development of the operating
> system. Everyone ended up doing their own thing. The result was many
> hybrid versions of Unix, which meant there was never any certainty
> whether a program could or could not be ported to an alternative
> Unix environment. Even in its simplest form the goal of open systems
> proved elusive.

Having been the (and written the book), I can only say that he's
completely wrong here.  People *have* learnt the lesson; Linux is the
standard (and as a BSD person, I can point out that the BSDs ensure
that the sources are compatible enough with Linux to be able to build
just about any product).  In those days, vendors tried to "enhance"
their UNIX by adding incompatible, proprietary changes.  Today's
problems are elsewhere.

> When I look at Linux it seems another case of history repeating
> itself. Those devotees in Dunedin may think they are going to slay
> the Microsoft dragon, but I think that all they really do is
> highlight their own business naivety.

Certainly "those devotees" are not businessmen.  And I'd agree that
many people are paying too much attention to "slaying the dragon" (and
in an inappropriate way IMO), but that has nothing to do with history
repeating itself.  He doesn't explain what he means.

All in all, more a FUD article than anything else.  He certainly
doesn't come out of it looking as if he knows what he's talking about.

Greg
--
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