[mdlug] OT: No BSA in Linux

[Joseph C. Bender]

Robert Meier wrote:
>> Robert Adkins wrote:
>>> Garry Stahl wrote:
>>>> Bob Dion wrote:
>>>>   
>>>>> Do you have a receipt for that software?
>>>>>
>>>>> http://advantage.hanleywood.com/default.aspx?page=article355
>>>>>
>>>>>   
>>>>>     
>>>> Better yet, ditch all windows.
>>>>
>>>>   
>>>     If that was only possible...
>>>
>> Anything is possible... if you are willing to work at it.
> 
> Ditching all Windows, is easier than either deleting spam or
> 	 repeatedly rebooting and re-entering into an application
> 	 that crashes.
> 
	Great.  Tell that to businesses that require Windows-only 
business-specific applications.

	My point is that there are a lot of caveats.  For personal use, it's 
actually fairly easy.  For business use?  Very difficult for a lot of 
things, interestingly enough.  Every time I hear someone say "Switching 
is so easy, everyone should do it" (or the equivalent thereof), I grit 
my teeth.

	Case in point:  I run Linux as the native OS on my laptop.  This being 
said, I have a VMWare installation so that I can run Win2k.  I *have* 
to, I don't have Linux-equivalent applications for the phone systems 
administration that I do.  Or QuickBooks.  I'm waiting for Intuit to 
port QB to Linux, or GNUCash not to suck.  I'm betting on Intuit.
	
	All of this being said, I've had great luck deploying Linux and OpenBSD 
based file-servers, HTTP servers, and firewalls.  Small businesses love 
being able to deploy file-servers with relatively few additional costs 
to them, and not having to worry about the licensing biting them in the 
butt later.



>   o My mother and father have been Windows-free since before 1999.
>     (Neither are very computer literate,
>      nor tolerant of applications that don't work.)
> 
	This is great!

>   o When I did my 2001 year-end backups on my dual-booter,
>     I found that without intending to,
>     I had not booted into Windows during calendar year 2001.
> 
>      B. Make your windows data folders (e.g. MyDocuments) visible to linux.
 >
	Good luck with data stability if the Windows filesystem is NTFS.  I've 
still had NTFS mounts in R/W mode get trashed.




-- 
Joseph Bender
Bendorius Consulting
P: 248-434-5580
F: 248-434-5581
jcbender at bendorius com