Re: (OT:) Stolen from another group (Liberals, divert your eyes! ;)

"witfal" <nospam@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:f9j8l6$ckg$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On 2007-08-10 19:52:18 -0700, Tegger <tegger@xxxxxxxxxx> said:
My mistake. I assumed Xnews was a Linux newsreader.

That's a common error. I thought it was *nix only at first too.

However, I thought you meant you had done a port snoop on me and
discovered
that my server runs Red Hat Linux, which it does.

My router/server is a roll-your-own Alphaserver 800 5/333. I cannot
remember what version or kernel I'm running because I haven't had to do
anything with it in several years.

The big problem with running a non-Intel platform like Alpha is the lack
of
easy software. Lots of what the server now runs had to be compiled from
new
source, since what came with the distro was mostly broken, right out of
the
box.

You're a computer rebel. I like it.

It's a fun challenge to be non-MS in every way. I refuse to install
anything
remotely associated with MS on my Macs. My two PCs are a lost cause,
so I just put up with the garbage, but one is dual-boot Ubuntu for now.

It IS a fun challenge to be non-MS in every way. But the focus is on
"challenge." I looked into a Linux/Star-Open Office solution but could not
get a version of Linux that would reasonably quickly install and boot on my
laptop. Since the goal of having a PC isn't to "play with Linux" but to
"create and edit documents, spreadsheets and databases, surf the net, read
the news, locate documents, find and listen to music and irritate NeoCons"
the time spent fiddling with Linux to get it to work lost its charm after a
while. I still have some room reserved for Linux on the disk but right now
it's not worth doing.

Part of the issue is probably the platform - it's a 3.5 year-old Compaq
laptop. If I could afford new hardware with known or better Linux
compatibility, I could probably get it running conveniently and go. But my
more contemporary PC is dedicated, full-time, to getting work done and I
couldn't just shut it down while I fiddled with Linux.

The flip side is that I've got several MS servers at work and they have
proven extremely reliable and perform very well. It would be, IMHO, hard to
find a better value in a database server than MS SQL Server. While it is
true that the licenses are not cheap, it's easy to operate a lot of servers
and databases with very few DBAs. We have one for dozens of application
systems and databases and, if he gets hit by the proverbial bus, I could
easily take over for him while we found someone new. And SQL-DTS and
SQL-SSIS are probably the greatest things since the clustered index. And
they're included in the product at no extra charge.

MS is not cheap but I find a lot of value in it. Aside from the servers, we
get a lot of work out of VBs embedded in MS-Office and other products.

However, I do use OpenOffice on that laptop with Windows. The way that
laptop gets used, OpenOffice is a very attractive solution and I like it
fine. Organizations that don't consider options to Windows and Office are
probably making a mistake. But they've got to keep an eye on the support
costs.

I switch Linux versions like some change shirts. It's fun playing around.



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