Re: Pardon my french... was Re: X11 non open-source?

[George Bonser <grep@oriole.sbay.org>]

On Thu, 9 Apr 1998, Orn E. Hansen wrote:

>   It's not a very good description is it? But do you see, how much
> damage this can do to commercial Unix vendors?  Who have commercially
> based system, with complete software and fully functional systems but
> have to live with a bad reputation... made by Linux *geeks* ?  That
> isn't very funny, do you think?  You guys *claim* to hate MicroSoft,
> but you are probably one of it's greatest fans.
> 
>   You see, here at home I make a lot of software for myself... but its
> still just "half" done.  It works, but I don't have time to fully support
> it, or time to implement complex features which would require a lot of
> people working in a cooperative way... full time.  People with skills,
> not just a few guys with an attitude.

What you say is true and this touches on what I was trying to say the
other day. We must be VERY CAREFUL not to promote Linux as a finished
desktop replacement for Windows users because it is not. We need to
concentrate on promoting Linux for what it CAN do very well while
continuing to polish the other aspects.

I would say that Linux, in its current state makes a FINE replacement for
NT as a nameserver, WINS server, pop3 and SMTP server, web server, file
server and print server.  In other words, sendmail, qpopper, bind, samba,
and LPRng work. There are no per-user limitations. INN works well too for
a moderate sized site.

For a business network needing a mail and name server, I would not
hesitate to suggest that they consider a Linux rackmount PC for a total
cost in the $1000 range as opposed to $3000-$5000 for a similar NT system
that will not be as stable or perform as well.  I WOULD NOT suggest at
this point that they convert their desktop workstations unless ALL of
their work can be done with Netscpae and xterms. (There are a few of these
that qualify but not very many).

We can EASILLY blow this thing if we try to promote Linux as a really
great desktop OS.  We can make great inroads if we stick to what we know
works and push that.



George Bonser

If I had a catchy quip, it would be here.

http://www.debian.org
Debian/GNU Linux ... the maintainable operating system.

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