Re: Changed to: Interactive Tax -- MIDRANGE-L

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Adam Lang
Systems Engineer
Rutgers Casualty Insurance Company
http://www.rutgersinsurance.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "jt" <jt@ee.net>
To: <midrange-l@midrange.com>
Sent: Friday, December 28, 2001 6:15 PM
Subject: RE: Changed to: Interactive Tax


> James,
>
> Sure...  If he did something worthy of a Nobel prize...
>
>
> But the prize for developing a good OS goes to Rochester, IMV...  (In
spite
> of my harping on areas of weakness.)

And they are getting their money for it, too.

> Linus DID have a good idea, which was a free *nix...  But he's leveraged
> that idea WAY beyond all proportion of the value of the original idea.  He
> got caught up in his own hype, IMHO...

How is it leveraged beyond proportion of value?  I BELIEVE it is a better
sever OS than NT.  That in of itself is good.  Many Unix shops are switching
to Linux due to cost and performance.

> Last I heard, ALL changes to Linux go through him.  That's pretty poor,
IMV,
> but that's always the way it's been in the Linux world, so is the CW...
> That's just one symptom of what I'm talking about.

All changes for the AS/400 go through IBM.  All changes for Windows go
through MS.  The point you are missing is that ALL changes for Linux do NOT
have to go through Linus.  You can take the code, add your own changes, an
use it.  No one can stop you.  How much of the AS/400 OS are you able to
hack?  Yes, Linus approves all changes to HIS kernel tree.  NOTHING stops
you from making your own kernel tree.  The reason no one really does is
because, at this point, it really makes no sense to.  I really do not see
why you view this as such a bad thing.  I'm sure IF 3 to 4 separate forks of
the kernel came out, you would then bitch that there are too many versions
of the kernel to make it feasible.  I know you like your AS/400.  Don't
worry.  Linux is not threatening you there.  No need to run into a shell and
hide.

> Let me clear up one thing about my previous post...  If I was IBM, I'd
> donate the $40M software, too.  Linux has the best "game" in town, as far
as
> going up against MicroHard...  But almost all the hype around Linux, and
> Linus and ESR personally, is due to their ability to wage a "religious
war"
> against M$...  That has been my observation, anyway...

That is not clarifying your previou post.  That is contradicting it.  You
said IBM SHOULDN'T donate the software.  Like I said before, ESR is a prick.
If you ever really read much of the Linus interviews, he can really care
less about MS.

And most of the hype around Linux is the fact no one is forced to take MSes
crap involving low and mid level server OS choices.

> The OS itself, was just recently exhanced (in 2.4 IIRC) to have DB
> journaling.  This was heralded as another GREAT LINUX ADVANCEMENT...  This
> is the kind of hype I have a hard time stomaching.  But there's no real
> evaluation of OS vs. OS in this industry, much...  That's my gripe, more
> than having anything against Linus and ESR...  They ARE masters at what
they
> do.. which is marketing...  (As opposed to writing an OS, or profound
> thinking, as is the CW on these two...  Again, JMHO.)

Yes, it was a great Linux advancement ... for Linux.  They in no regards
said it was their idea, and if a person did, then they are clueless.  All
Linux did was incorporate ResierFS into the mainstream kernel.  There are
several other journaled filesystem choices out there for Linux.  The best
one is apparently the one donated by Irix.  IBM also donated journaled code.
You can load anyone you want.  Linux did not create journaled file system.
It can't.  Linux is just a kernel.  Others have to develop it.  You
misconstrued the meaning of it being a linux advancement.  It was, linux
advanced to a new level by now offering that functionality because other
developers ported/wrote the filesystems for it.