[SATLUG] Pokes at Microsoft Part III

[Al Castanoli]

On Tue, 2007-03-06 at 21:04 -0600, Robert J Hewitt wrote:
> Ok Ok Ok I concede that what Microsoft has done in the past is questionable
> and such.  

[...]

>             So this leads me to ask this question of all the people who hate
> Microsoft and just have to be so hateful towards:

> 1.       DO you hate it because you have to buy it with a new computer.

> 2.       DO you hate it because of a personnel incompetence with Hardware

> 3.       DO you hate it because it has a direct impact on you personnel
> financial standing

> 4.       Or do you hate it just for the pleasure of hating it (and if so
> maybe therapy is in order)

I've been working professionally as a sysadmin off and on since 1983,
and had been a COBOL programmer in the mid 1970's during my first tour
in the Navy.  I worked on CP/M desktops and transportables until the I
was issued my first GRiD Compass, and never saw the advantage of DOS
over CP/M.  I worked mostly on UNIXes, including PC/IX than ran on some
of the earliest PCs, then XENIX on i386es until Microsoft quit selling
XENIX and licensed it to SCO.

I worked in the Operations Dept. that used UNIXes from AT&T, BSD, HP-UX,
IRIX, AIX, Concurrent, and a few others until the mid 1990's.  Then, on
my last tour before I retired, I had to oversee security on Windows 3.11
and WindowsNT.  I had many more UNIX servers and workstations than
Windows machines, doing most of the work, but a few administrative folks
(clerks and managers) used Windows machines instead, so I had to keep
their desktops secure and was an early subscriber to the NT Bugtraq
list.  Ten percent of my machines (the Windows ones) ended up taking 90
percent of my time, even taking year 2000 testing and preparations on
the UNIX machines.

Since I retired from the Navy in the late 1990's, I've left jobs I
really liked because some lemming in management decided to replace my
UNIX and Linux servers with Windows, and I won't support that.  I don't
mind integrating Windows systems into the mix, if they're the best tool
for the job, and there are times when this happens, such as applications
servers to run WebTrendz or specialized controls over instrumentation
where the vendor doesn't use anything but Windows.  Some of my first PIX
firewalls ran on NT.  But I don't agree with replacing functioning UNIX
servers with Windows just for the sake of running lemmingware.

The last SATLUG presentation I gave was on load balancing Exchange using
Linux DNS servers a few years back, when we were having our meetings at
the Cisco offices in San Antonio.  I still run about a dozen Samba
servers to support file sharing and printing, but I rarely have to
reboot these systems when security updates and patches come out for
them... the last one had been up 274 days when a DST patch required a
reboot.  None of the Windows admins I work with ever get close to that
kind of uptime, because they're having to reboot after updates nearly
every month.

I don't hate Windows, but I do hate having wasted all that time trying
to keep Windows machines secure and I hated having to leave jobs and
start the interviewing process again just because my UNIX servers were
being replaced by Windows (which cost the companies more money to
maintain than they expected when they made that poorly advised
decision), mostly because of Microsoft's deceptive marketing that made
managers think zero administration was a coming thing.  I hated all the
downtime we had a few years ago because of SQL injection worms taking
down large segments of the Internet, when only Windows servers were
afflicted.
 
I don't hate Windows and take no pleasure in hating the effects Windows 
has had on industry and my career, but OS flamewars are nothing new,
and are both tedious and off-topic for this list.

Al Castanoli


>              I remember the first computer I was ever given, and it was a
> built system (Don’t Laugh) it was a Tandy 1000, all systems befor were my
> dads and I only got the permission to use it.  The Tandy had no HD and only
> a 5 1/4 floppy drive.  Back then HD’s were to expensive for up to own (and
> my dad new Mr. Myers when he only had one store that he ran Now called Altex
> Electronics).  This system grew and grew till it was in 2 separate cases and
> two  5 ¼ full height MFM Hard Drives mounted into a PC Case. I was lucky
> enough to have a dad who believed in supporting my addictions.  Needless to
> say I never bought a system until I was 34 and it was a Dell system in need
> of repair ( so I got it Cheap). And this is how I got Windows XP finally
> before it was Windows 2000 pro and windows 98, and before it was windows 95
> and MS-DOS all the way back to the Tandy.  I never used Linux and the only
> time I ever tried something out side of DOS was SCO Unix and it came to me
> on something like 2 dozen floppies 3 ½ For a time back when I had a friend
> who let me have a copy of OS2 Warp  I liked the games that was about it
> though.  As for Linux it was also only for the games and I have found that I
> like some of the other features it has.  I will never be a programmer and
> don’t have the skill or ability to do it (Pull an Engine from an old Truck
> and rebuild it Yes but programming nope) So I will also sit back and enjoy
> the fruits of others who are better then I am and say thank you.  In the End
> it really does not justify the attitudes people have,  to the common person
> it is almost a form of computer hatred without any real reason for it.  It’s
> like the KKK guy on Jerry Springer,  He could not give an intelligent reason
> for hating the other individual of a different race.  No I am not calling
> anybody a racist or unintelligent, but maybe a little over zealot over the
> whole Microsoft issue.  SO lets just end this with a simple statement “
> Can’t We All Just Get Along”
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> RObert        
> 
>  
>