LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Bryan Wetton <bryanw@box.net.au>
  To  : Linuxsa <linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au>
  Date: Sat, 1 Apr 2000 09:50:09 +0930

FW: Win2000Mag UPDATE - Special Edition by Mark Minasi, March

Interesting read!

Regards
Bryan Wetton
Adelaide SA
http://www.box.net.au/~bryanw/
'A Southerner from the North'

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Win2000Mag UPDATE [mailto:update@list.winntmag.com]
> Sent: Saturday, April 01, 2000 8:17 AM
> To: bryan wetton
> Subject: Win2000Mag UPDATE - Special Edition by Mark Minasi, March
> 
> 
> ************************************************************
> WINDOWS 2000 MAGAZINE UPDATE - SPECIAL EDITION BY MARK MINASI 
> Mark Minasi, contributing editor for Windows 2000 Magazine, provides 
> insights and analysis on today's hot Windows 2000 and Windows NT 
> trends.
> http://www.winntmag.com/update 
> ************************************************************
> 
> This UPDATE Special Edition is sponsored by
> 
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> 
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> |-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-
> March 31, 2000 - In this special issue, Mark Minasi offers a 
> surprising suggestion: Microsoft should ship a version of Linux.
> 
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> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Want to sponsor Windows 2000 Magazine UPDATE? Contact Jim Langone 
> (Western Advertising Sales Manager) at 800-593-8268 or 
> jim@win2000mag.com, OR Tanya T. TateWik (Eastern and International 
> Advertising Sales Manager) at 877-217-1823 or ttatewik@win2000mag.com.
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> Microsoft Ought To Ship a Linux
> 
> Now that Windows 2000 (Win2K) is shrink-wrapped and on the shelves--
> and has been for more than a month--there won't be much excitement 
> coming from Redmond for a while. And don't tell me about Windows 
> Millennium Edition (ME). I've seen it, and there's not much excitement 
> there. It's not reasonable to expect a Win2K update version any time 
> soon; that was a lot of code, and reworking it won't be an overnight 
> job. How, then, can Microsoft remain in the news, while offering 
> useful new products to its customers? Simple. Ship a version of 
> Linux. Wait, wait, don't go--hear me out. This isn't going to be a 
> Windows NT-bashing or a Linux-bashing piece.
>    Linux is a fascinating OS. Thousands of volunteers have reverse 
> engineered and cloned the UNIX OS, resulting in a robust OS that's 
> completely open source, which means, among other things, that when 
> you get Linux, you also get the Linux source code. Although Linux 
> is not the solves-all tool that many Linux proponents claim, it 
> does have several undeniable advantages. It ships with Apache, the 
> most-used Web server software in the world. It ships with Sendmail, 
> the email program that transfers more Internet email than any other 
> piece of software. It ships with BIND, by far the most-used DNS 
> server software on the planet. With Samba, another free piece of 
> software, you can pop Linux onto an Intel box, run Samba, and mimic 
> an NT server. The network then thinks that you're running NT (or 
> Win2K, for that matter) on that box as a file server when you're 
> actually running Linux. Benchmarks show that some systems actually 
> work more quickly running Samba to mimic NT than they run on NT 
> itself! The point I'm trying to make is simple: Linux is in many 
> ways a worthy competitor or, more likely, complement to Win2K and 
> NT. Many networks that currently use Win2K or NT could benefit from 
> a bit of Linux.
>    The problem with adding Linux to an NT network, however, is the 
> culture shock required for an NT expert to start installing and running 
> Linux networks. The biggest hurdle a Linux tyro faces is probably the 
> complexity of configuring Linux. I've installed the Red Hat, Mandrake, 
> Corel, Caldera, Slackware, Debian, SuSE, and Storm distributions of 
> Linux on a variety of machines. The main difference between each Linux 
> version is its setup program. Some, like Debian's, are very complex; 
> others, like Caldera, Corel, and Mandrake, seek to make putting Linux 
> on a system as easy as putting Windows on a system. But despite the 
> honest efforts of Linux vendors, getting Linux on a given piece of 
> Intel hardware remains more difficult than getting Win2K or NT on that 
> hardware.
>    That's where Microsoft could profit from Linux. Say what you will 
> about Bill and the boys, they've always made a good setup routine--not 
> perfect, but better than the competition. Do you remember when IBM 
> tried to wrest control of the desktop from Microsoft in 1992? OS/2 was 
> a rock-solid multitasking OS that shipped with an impressive array of 
> accessory programs. It lacked third-party made-for-OS/2 applications, 
> but it could run Windows applications well. In my opinion, OS/2's 
> downfall was its terrible setup program. OS/2 performed great once you 
> got it running, but getting it running was a nightmare. In contrast, 
> Windows 3.1 (which shipped 7 days after OS/2 2.0) sported a slick setup 
> program that worked most of the time without much trouble; you just 
> clicked OK a dozen times or so, and your system was up and running.
>    Who, then, could write a better setup routine for Linux? Linux setup 
> programs often have trouble detecting video boards and network 
> interface cards and get a bit of heartburn sniffing out the kind of 
> mouse your system has. Microsoft has hardware detection down cold. 
> Microsoft developers could even write a version of their setup routine 
> that checks to see whether Win2K, NT, or Windows 9x is already on the 
> hard disk and, if it is, the setup routine could simply read the 
> Registry to see what hardware is on the system.
>    But wouldn't it be pointless for Microsoft to create a setup routine 
> for Linux? After all, wouldn't the company have to reveal its source 
> code, giving away whatever clever things the developers came up with? 
> Well, anyone shipping a Linux version must, under Linux's software 
> license, reveal the source code of anything that they do to the base 
> OS. If Microsoft comes up with a kernel change that makes Linux run 
> better on a 16-processor system, then yes, it would have to reveal that 
> code. But setup routines aren't part of the base OS.
>    Furthermore, vendors don't have to ship the source code to Linux 
> add-ons either. Applixware sells an Office-like software suite for 
> Linux and doesn't provide the source code. Likewise, Corel doesn't ship 
> the source code with WordPerfect for Linux. Microsoft could exploit 
> this policy to add another irresistible feature to its version of 
> Linux--setup wizards. Sendmail is powerful, but it's nightmarish to 
> configure. Samba's not as bad, but you can spend a lot of time getting 
> a basic Samba server running securely. Apache and BIND are considerably 
> easier, but they still involve a learning curve. What if MS-Linux 
> included setup wizards or easy-to-use front ends for these essential 
> tools? Linux distributions currently ship with a GUI administrative 
> tool called linuxconf, but in my experience, it's prone to crashing 
> without an explanation when you ask it something difficult. Microsoft 
> need not ship the source code for these wizards, and although some in 
> the Linux community wouldn't be happy about it, no less than Linus 
> Torvalds himself is currently involved in a closed-source project. It 
> clearly makes sense to open some software projects, but in some cases, 
> a closed-source approach is acceptable as well.
>    The list of software that Microsoft could offer to enhance its Linux 
> version could go on and on. Why not make the company's Services for 
> UNIX package more Linux-specific, creating the most NT-friendly Linux 
> on the market? 
>    Okay, put down the poison pens. I hope you'll notice that you 
> received this newsletter the day before April 1, and I admit that my 
> proposal is a bit tongue-in-cheek. But Linux has a lot to offer NT (and 
> vice versa), and I've often wished that the road from NT to Linux was 
> smoother. Microsoft could offer the leadership to make that happen. 
> 
> Mark Minasi
> Contributing Editor, Windows 2000 Magazine
> help@minasi.com 
> 
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> Find out about his talks on Win2K, NT, and Linux, find links for his 
> 12 current books, or sign up for his free e-newsletter at
> http://www.minasi.com.
> 
> |-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-
> 
> WINDOWS NT MAGAZINE UPDATE SPECIAL EDITION STAFF
> Contributing Editor - Mark Minasi (help@minasi.com)
> Ad Sales Manager (Western) - Jim Langone (jim@win2000mag.com)
> Ad Sales Manager (Eastern and International) - Tanya T. TateWik 
> (ttatewik@win2000mag.com)
> Associate Publisher/Network - Martha Schwartz (mschwartz@win2000mag.com)
> Editor - Gayle Rodcay (gayle@winntmag.com)
> Copy Editor - Judy Drennen (jdrennen@winntmag.com)
> 
> |-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|
> 
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