Open source software support.

[computoman]

We would like to thank Revision3 for using so much free and open software even though they get money from Microsoft for advertizsng.

Just a sample:
Freebsd
Freenas
Apache web server
Bogohttpd
Zimbra email server
Ubuntu OS

[masherscf]

We would like to thank Revision3 for using so much free and open software even though they get money from Microsoft for advertizsng.

Just a sample:
Freebsd
Freenas
Apache web server
Bogohttpd
Zimbra email server
Ubuntu OS

I think that the audience like free & open software. But it's just not Microsoft that advertises. They're also sponsored by Adobe which has very high priced applications with open source alternatives. Why all the angst aimed at Microsoft?

[computoman]

I take it that you have never worked in a MS Gestapo-like IT shop where even mentioning the word Linux is a ticket out the door. Microsoft usually puts a lot of pressure on companies not to use and or squash existing use open source especially if you get their advertising dollar. I do not really use the open source products of Adobe except for flash. We are converting to gnash, which is not out for mswindows yet to my knowledge. With html5, flash may be doomed anyway. My brother works for a small town newspaper. They use mostly macs and adobe products though.

[masherscf]

I take it that you have never worked in a MS Gestapo-like IT shop where even mentioning the word Linux is a ticket out the door. Microsoft usually puts a lot of pressure on companies not to use and or squash existing use open source especially if you get their advertising dollar. I do not really use the open source products of Adobe except for flash. We are converting to gnash, which is not out for mswindows yet to my knowledge. With html5, flash may be doomed anyway. My brother works for a small town newspaper. They use mostly macs and adobe products though.

Well, I work in academia. That makes me the most aweful of end users.

I know that, as a grad student, it a was a bitch convincing the IT guys to let me use Linux, despite that fact the CAS and typesetting software I used for my research is better implemented on Linux.

Nevertheless, I don't blame this on Microsoft directly. I blame it on the general trend away from Unix based mainframes in academia in the 1990's and the shortage resulting of techs who are fluent in Linux.

This trend was probably enabled my Microsoft. But, we should also blame the relatively smaller cost per unit of computing power offered by desktop computers over mainframes.

At my present job, my office PC is so locked down by security features that it's little more than a print kiosk and doorstop. Most days I connect to the campus open wireless on my own laptop and do all my work from there. They spend so much energy proetcting computers from their users, I can't image them even consiidering Linux as an option.

[chuckles]

We would like to thank Revision3 for using so much free and open software even though they get money from Microsoft for advertizsng.

Just a sample:
Freebsd
Freenas
Apache web server
Bogohttpd
Zimbra email server
Ubuntu OS

It is all about NetBSD (http://NetBSD.org). :)

-chuckles-

[computoman]

freenas runs on freebsd, but I stand corrected Revision3 does use NetBSD.

[computoman]

Well, I work in academia. That makes me the most aweful of end users.


Most colleges do use Sun unix for their SCT Banner software on the business side. Most of the file servers and everything else is Microsoft, but that is beginning to change. My alma mater has already dumped a lot of Microsoft. You can do some neat things with high performace clusters in doing math calculations. Mathematica and the like are interesting programs. I can see why you might want to try linux in academia. My brother still teaches cs at the college and they only let him use linux in machines off the network or only in virtual machines on the network for the "learning unix with linux classes". Sometimes IT departments can be a bit big for their britches. I was an adjunct instructor for several colleges for about eight years. I also worked as a tech for a college for ten years, so I have seen both sides of the coin. I have seen students who have tried to use college machines as hacking tools even from an instructors office. I have had colleges who would not let me use certain software. Students come first, so I fudged a bit,

[phatlip]

Open source is awesome, but I for one would like to thank our Microsoft overlords for providing FREE software to Computer Science/Information System majors like myself though the MSDNAA program.

:)

[computoman]

"Free(dom) software" is not about the price, it is about being able to use it the way you want. Getting and using Microsoft is like buying a car with the hood welded shut. You can not work on the engine unless you break the seal and violate all kinds of agreements that can lead to legal problems. With free and open software you can easily work under the hood to modify your car to your needs so to speak. When was the last time Microsoft gave you the source code to their software FOR FREE? That is the freedom part.

[comhcinc]

pffft whatever.

microsoft is alot more open that apple. why do you never hear anyone bitching about them?

[phatlip]

pffft whatever.

microsoft is alot more open that apple. why do you never hear anyone bitching about them?

Not really. You can't download the source code for the Windows kernel like you can on OS X. Not to mention their other open source projects such as Web Kit etc.

http://www.opensource.apple.com/darwinsource/

[computoman]

I have seen some of what Microsoft calls free and open source code. the first lines in the document say "COPYRIGHT200X ALL RIGHTS RESERVED". That is not free and open at all.

[masherscf]

You can see the kernel for OSX. But, that's a far cry from being able to customize are compile your own kernel. Instead of installing modules and drivers for different devices like in windows an OSX, you could built support for all you hardware right into the kernal. It's much more stable and much faster.

I think any Linux users is a wannabe until they've compiled they're own kernel.

[computoman]

I started with the old slackware on floppy disks. On Redhat 7, you had to compile the early nvidia drivers ( this was long before they ever came out with easy install binaries for linux). Which meant everything had to be done from the command line, including searching the web and downloading the source files.After all that you could finally have a gui.

[tokenuser]

I started with the old slackware on floppy disks. On Redhat 7, you had to compile the early nvidia drivers ( this was long before they ever came out with easy install binaries for linux). Which meant everything had to be done from the command line, including searching the web and downloading the source files.After all that you could finally have a gui.I think I have a boxed Slackware distro around here somewhere from the mid 90's. Got the OS on CD - because it would take too long to download over 14k4 modem.

[computoman]

I did not really dl much software back then either. I just made the disk sets from a store bought cd set Since I did not have a cdrom drive on the scsci based system that was to be a slackware box.