Wow, the world is really a flood of FOSS-related FUD. In my radar today we got this piece of trash from Rob Barrett. Let me point out the ways:
- Powershell is a Bash wannabe – I know for a fact that Powershell is a copycat of Bash. Which one is the tried and tested command shell? Of course, it’s Bash. Any Linux distro has it, so does Mac OS X.
- FOSS = Higher Support Cost notion – Well, it’s a case-to-case basis. For some, initially, the support cost is high. The long term is a different story though, an organization can actually save. Many factors affect support costs. Availability of competent labor and initial support funds, what country you conduct your operations (which will reflects the labor force salary cost), how entrench on closed systems you are. Mr. Barrett sounds like he’s jumping to the scenario that FOSS = High Support Cost dead on, which is not always true.
- Choice is a bad thing – True, there are a lot of Linux distros out there. Mr. Barrett makes it seem bad to have a lot of choices. It can only seems bad if one is accustomed to only to the “one choice mentality”. Personally, using Windows for a long time can be a prison experience altogether.
- Windows 7 Features – Who needs Aero when you can have Compiz Fusion (or maybe soon Compiz++), and you don’t need to have a monster of PC to run it (based on my personal experience). I bet DirectAccess is Microsoft proprietary answer to VPN, but no thanks. I’ll go with OpenVPN, at least it’s open source, without the usual Microsoft lock-in mannerisms. BitLockertoGo? HA! Another MS lock-in BS. What’s the use of TrueCrypt? One can use it to encrypt USB flash disks. Applocker? There’s a lot of security mechanism like that on Linux (SELinux and AppArmor of course). UAC? Heck, sudo is very mature compared to UAC, and that’s a fact! Speech Recognization? if your’e a well-bodied being, keyboard still rules! Touch-screen and handwriting recognition? just “feature candy” if you ask me.
Me, switch to Windows 7? HA! Over my dead body!
Time to break my blog vacation once and for all 
It seems HP has just released their Linux netbook today, the 
College Girl Drops Online Class, Reason: Ubuntu?! :O
Published January 18, 2009 My Comments , News Leave a CommentWow, I “kind of” blown away by this story because it’s a first time I heard a local news outfit anywhere said Ubuntu
But I was a little sorry for the girl too, because I feel Dell doped her. But I have to say, ignorance and haste are part of the reason too. You don’t plunge to Linux just right away if you don’t know someone personally that do Linux, face-to-face interaction is the best. She should not have acted upon on peer recommendation that just fast, she should have insisted for a Ubuntu demo machine or find a friend that could have lended her an Ubuntu machine so she could play around with it, to get a feel of it. She should have though that Windows and Linux are very different, so the usual things you do on Windows may not work on Linux (point on the Verizon DSL CD and the Microsoft Word as a requirement for the online course, although, her school should have not “advertised” that MS Word is only requirement).
Moral Lesson: Don’t get into Linux when you don’t know what you are getting into…