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

[Paul Antoine]

Errk... to appease the spelling-pedants: that should be frugally... sigh

P.

Paul Antoine wrote:
> 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.)
> 
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