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posted by martyb on Friday June 30 2017, @10:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the thank-you-captain-obvious dept.

Bryan Lunduke at Network World calls out what other mainstream media have been too timid, or bought out, to call out. He starts by pointing out that choosing Microsoft Windows for your organization should get you fired and that if you haven't already replaced Windows, across the board, you absolutely stink at your job.

There. Finally the topic is broached in mainstream media and a proper discussion can now start among decision makers who can arrange complete migrations to GNU/Linux, Chrome/Linux, one of the BSDs, or a combination of them.

As Microsoft security problems continue to escalate since even the pre-networked, MS-DOS days, managers and front-line grunts will find themselves increasingly culpable for selecting unviable software, such as Microsoft Windows. If they wish to pay big bucks for maintenance, there are plenty of companies around to participate in the money. Canonical, Red Hat, M:Tier are just a sampling.

[Ed. Note: I debated whether or not to run this story — in some respects it's just the Windows vs *nix argument all over again. Also, there are proprietary programs which are critical for certain industries which currently only run on Windows. On the other hand, gaining a mention like this in the more mainstream media, does that mean we are approaching an inflection point? Witness the increased displeasure with Windows 10's telemetry and the difficulty in completely blocking it. What programs do you use that are only available on Windows? What keeps you from moving to another OS? --martyb]


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by requerdanos on Friday June 30 2017, @03:57PM (2 children)

    by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Friday June 30 2017, @03:57PM (#533516) Journal

    What programs do you use that are only available on Windows? What keeps you from moving to another OS?

    None, and nothing; I switched away from Windows when Windows 10 came out and hijacked my laptop along with it.

    Switching is in the past, not future, of myself and of many other people.

    Pure laziness had kept me from completely switching up to that point, but that was the point at which it was more trouble *not* to switch than to just use unix(-alikes) instead of Windows. I am running about 95% Debian GNU/Linux, 3% BSD, and even 1% GNU/Mach-Hurd as a learning experience (one day [not soon] it will probably be the one true OS, and I want to be mentally ready when it happens).

    Some uname strings...

    Linux localhost 4.12.0-rc5-amd-1 #1 SMP Mon Jun 19 10:12:40 EDT 2017 x86_64 GNU/Linux

    FreeBSD localhost 11.0-RELEASE-p1 FreeBSD 11.0-RELEASE-p1 #0 r306420: Thu Sep 29 01:43:23 UTC 2016 root@releng2.nyi.freebsd.org:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC amd64

    Linux localhost 4.9.0-3-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.9.25-1 (2017-05-02) x86_64 GNU/Linux

    GNU localhost 0.9 GNU-Mach 1.8+git20170102-486/Hurd-0.9 i686-AT386 GNU

    I strongly tend toward free software as both a principle of right and wrong and also a practical matter; those very few Windows apps whose functions have not yet been replaced run usually in wine, which gets better and better with time. The intractable ones that refuse to work in wine run fine in a virtual machine.

    It's interesting having this perspective. I keep thinking, how can anyone not see that Windows is a sinking ship? But of course, I understand that that has been the extremest non-pragmatic view. I suspect that the roles are being reversed, and sooner or later "Let's keep Windows" will become the extremest non-pragmatic view.

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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by LoRdTAW on Friday June 30 2017, @04:52PM (1 child)

    by LoRdTAW (3755) on Friday June 30 2017, @04:52PM (#533553) Journal

    and even 1% GNU/Mach-Hurd as a learning experience (one day [not soon] it will probably be the one true OS, and I want to be mentally ready when it happens).

    I don't see it ever taking off. You want to sell me on a new OS? Go look at how plan 9 was designed. Brilliant is one word to describe it. That's what people should be looking at for design influence.

    • (Score: 2) by requerdanos on Friday June 30 2017, @07:09PM

      by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Friday June 30 2017, @07:09PM (#533628) Journal

      one day [GNU/Mach-Hurd] will probably be the one true OS...

      I don't see it ever taking off...

      Well, I guess that was about 50% sarcasm and 50% hope-springs-eternal anyway.