OT: Is Bill Gates the Anti-Christ?

[Thermodyne]

If I seem to be pro MS, then it is because I am a realist. Hey, I don’t love them, but I don’t hate them either. Personally, I think American business could take a few lessons from them. Cost cutting and job outsourcing might look good for the next dividend, but it is a poor substitute for actually going out and making money. And I also think that MS could benefit from listening to their customers a little more.

As for what Linux can do, can it deliver a single set of office apps (same suit for every user, office xp in this case) to 500 plus clients in 28 locations? Clients are 486’s through P4-2.4c’s, and run win 3.1, 9x, 2k, and XP? It also has to deliver 2 UNIX apps and a web based Sequel app. All processing has to take place on the servers, do to the limited abilities of the older systems and TC’s with current software. It also has to support about 100 thin clients from the same servers. Tech support is limited to 1 tech per 125 systems (actually it never gets better than 1/200), and because of distances, 75 percent of service calls need to be handled remotely. Each user gets the same desktop based on what group they are in. And to access the UNIX apps, trust relationships need to exist with two disjointed NT domains. Also, any location needs to be able to access resources, such as printers, in any office. Then toss in domain wide security, backups, web mirrors and Email just for kicks. Now, you get two of the 5 techs to run the servers, 1 of them for the wan and firewall, and two to support the rest. Of course it also has to do the normal domain stuff too.

Also, do to the limited amount of bodies, new features must already be proven out in the real world. Testing on site is very limited. Then just to make life unbearable, management approval lead time is often 18 to 24 months. Not to mention that the approved equipment/software list come from above and is politically influenced (here it is, use it).

[minipol]

Wow, your departement is understaffed! And because of it, it seems as if you haven't got a lot of time to learn new stuff. Anyway, it's a very spread out company if they have 28 locations and about 500 clients. That's roughly 18 workstations per location. And running such old hardware. I have been a sys admin in the past but boy my job was easier than this. 2 locations, some 60 clients and i had time to study.

[Thermodyne]

It’s a division of a state government. We deliver entitlement services, so most of our funding is spent before the ink is dry on the budget. Some of our offices have three systems and the new trend is offices with one system. Average is prolly 10 systems per field office, with the balance here at the main facility. Only thing served up in the field offices is anti-virus, and that is delivered from XP systems. All of the other servers are located here in the data center. Citrix farm is up to 7 quad processor units now. Big new push on now is disaster “resistance”. So the next few IT budgets will go to setting up remote locations for the server farms.

As to not studying, that would not be true. But most of my time is spent on security issues. I actually still have an AS300 in the data center, but unless the budget needs to be amended, it has done its Last piece of work. I also run some Redhat at home, but it is not in the same class as XP IMHO. And with what XP costs me, I don’t se any reason to abandon it.

[David E. Gervais]

ok,.. you ready for my opinion?...

About Bill Gates, He was in the right place at the right time and made very good choices. The end result he got filthy rich. Is he a bad person (the anti christ) NO!

About MS Office etc.. I'm a Gamer and an artist. Why the heck would I want to install Business Crap on my computer? Software like Office would just take up room on my HD that would be better served by a new game or save-games for my existing ones.

My computer very rarely (once or twice a year) crashes and this has been true of Win95, Win98, and now WinXP Home. My brother has virtually the same exact system as me, but he has a 1ghz and I have a 1.46ghz CPU. His computer is fully loaded with all that 'Business' crap like Office, Publisher, etc. His computer runs like a turle on valium and crashes almost every other day. My brother has little or no games installed on his computer. To me this is proof positive that Business software is all crap.

But I'll say it again,.. "I'm a Gamer and an artist, what do I care about all that business software crap?"

Nuf said.

Cheers!

[deccan]

Incidentally, since I'm planning on getting a new computer with Windows XP pre-installed, can anyone point me to a good guide on getting the Microsoft junk (learning tutorials, Windows Messenger etc. that I never use) uninstalled so that XP can run at max performance?

[Thermodyne]

Originally posted by deccan:
Incidentally, since I'm planning on getting a new computer with Windows XP pre-installed, can anyone point me to a good guide on getting the Microsoft junk (learning tutorials, Windows Messenger etc. that I never use) uninstalled so that XP can run at max performance?

Yep, I have a link at home to a good tweak site. Some of the stuff is turned off by adjusting the service settings, and some of it requires a little pokeing around in the regestry.

I'll post the link for you tonight.

[Kamog]

According to Forbes, Bill is still the richest:

code:

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Rank  Name                       Worth ($)     Age  Residence            Source 

----  ----                       ---------     ---  ---------            ------

1     Gates, William Henry III   46.0 billion  47   Seattle, WA          Microsoft

2     Buffett, Warren Edward     36.0 billion  73   Omaha, NE            Berkshire Hathaway

3     Allen, Paul Gardner        22.0 billion  50   Mercer Island, WA    Microsoft, investments

4     Walton, Alice L            20.5 billion  54   Fort Worth, TX       Wal-Mart

4     Walton, Helen R            20.5 billion  84   Bentonville, AR      Wal-Mart

4     Walton, Jim C              20.5 billion  55   Bentonville, AR      Wal-Mart

4     Walton, John T             20.5 billion  57   Bentonville, AR      Wal-Mart

4     Walton, S Robson           20.5 billion  59   Bentonville, AR      Wal-Mart

9     Ellison, Lawrence Joseph   18.0 billion  59   Redwood Shores, CA   Oracle

10    Dell, Michael              13.0 billion  38   Round Rock, TX       Dell

11    Ballmer, Steven Anthony    12.2 billion  47   Redmond, WA          Microsoft

12    Anthony, Barbara Cox       11.0 billion  80   Honolulu, HI         Cox Communications

12    Chambers, Anne Cox         11.0 billion  83   Atlanta, GA          Cox Communications

14    Kluge, John Werner         10.5 billion  89   Palm Beach, FL       Metromedia

15    Mars, Forrest Edward Jr    10.4 billion  72   McLean, VA           Mars, Inc.

15    Mars, Jacqueline           10.4 billion  64   Bedminster, NJ       Mars, Inc.

15    Mars, John Franklyn        10.4 billion  67   Arlington, VA        Mars, Inc.

18    Johnson, Abigail            9.8 billion  41   Boston, MA           mutual funds

19    Redstone, Sumner M          9.7 billion  80   Beverly Hills, CA    Viacom

20    Ergen, Charles              8.9 billion  50   Denver, CO           EchoStar

21    Newhouse, Donald Edward     7.7 billion  73   Somerset County, NJ  publishing

21    Newhouse, Samuel Irving Jr  7.7 billion  75   New York, NY         publishing

23    Pritzker, Robert Alan       7.6 billion  77   Chicago, IL          hotels, investments

23    Pritzker, Thomas J          7.6 billion  54   Chicago, IL          hotels, investments

25    Johnson, Samuel Curtis      7.4 billion  75   Racine, WI           S.C. Johnson & Son

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