Month: May 2007

A recent CNN in depth article by Fortune senior editor Roger Parlof is a real eye opener for me, just while I am porting one server from Novell 5 something to Novell 6 something…..

Microsoft threatens to sue Fortune 500 users of open source software to drive them into paying Microsoft royalties for using open source software. Now I ask you: “The world turned upside down?”.

Microsoft and Novell struck a deal in November 2006 whereby they agreed on a sort of non aggression pact. Earlier Novell had acquired the German Suse Linux company and had become more an open source software company like Red Hat than the proprietary software company they were before. Its business model had changed into earning money from giving support to customers and from giving software trainings to customers rather than selling software licenses.

According to that deal Microsoft even bought (and paid) Novell for coupons (for Novell support contracts) that Microsoft can resell to customers….

Oakay I agree: I am a fossil nerd: I started computing in university by feeding punched cards into a card reader rather than typing instructions on a keyboard….

From 1987 onward I have (well now I mention it: already for 20 years) set up and maintained servers that run on Novell software. Why? Because downtime is almost non existent with a server running Novell. Once you understand a bit how it works, it is easy to maintain, easy to back up and easy to port. I never use the latest version of its (not of any) software until they are a patch of 20 or major service packet of two down the road.

When it was introduced I have looked seriously into the first Graphic GUI oriented personal computer that Steve Jobs introduced with his Lisa computer. My conclusion was that any GUI would rather slow your personal computing than quicken it. Ever since that proves to be true for normal office work: Writing letters, making calculations and keeping your books. Imagine: You know your shortcut keys and you don’t have to open a window before you start typing something. Moreover opening windows with a mouse each time you want to type something seems nice, but leads to stress and repetitive stress injury.

So I never became an Apple or Mac(intosh) aficionado.

For the same reason I am still a Word Perfect addict. You can see what you do. The last DOS version (WP5.4) was one of their best (in those days Word Perfect was still run by the sturdy Utah boys), although I now use one of their later flavors.

After Microsoft introduced Windows 95 (in its usual way shortly before 1996) I took the step for some computing (mainly the exploration of the Internet) to Windows in fall 1996, but not for office work!

In the meantime I have experimented with several Linux flavors and releases, but each time concluded the learning curve was a bit to steep and stiff and too time consuming to merge office work on the one hand and multimedia work on the other hand…

Since Microsoft is now distributing Vista and has discontinued the support of the reasonable stable Windows 98 SE, I am on the verge of making the step to Linux for good, as there are various features of Vista I do not like and because the most pimped up stand alone computer I use with Windows XP, mainly for the web and for photo work, crashes minimally twice a day, mostly on Adobe products or even only Firefox.

Wasn’t in Microsoft’s history:

1. Dos a “me too” clone of CPM?
2. Excel a “me too” clone of Lotus 123?
3. Word a “me too” clone of Word Perfect?
4. Windows a “me too” clone of Mac OS?
5. IE a “me too” clone of Netscape?

Probably the list is much longer!

Now look who is crying!

Linus Thorvalds answers to the Cry are here in Information week.

I really am getting fed up with the Microsofts of this world and getting more serious about making the step to Linux, yes probably the Suse flavor.

Thanks Geen Stijl for the hint!