[CentOS] Headline - Linux misses Windows of opportunity

Thu Sep 29 15:37:23 UTC 2005
Lamar Owen <lowen at pari.edu>

On Thursday 29 September 2005 11:21, Les Mikesell wrote:
> Why is it news worth publishing that some piece of hardware somewhere
> crashes in a way that no one else can reproduce?

Slow news day.  

But, more to the point, it's not the fact that it broke that bothers me.  It's 
the attitude that it is Always Foolish to switch from Linux to Windows and 
that Anyone and Everyone that does so has been paid off by MS.  That's all.  
Linux is not perfect, and is not the solution for all IT problems.

> > Sorry for the rant, but it is ridiculous to automatically dismiss a
> > real-world problem.

> Problems happen all the time. Why is this one newsworthy?  If someone
> made such a big deal out of every Windows BSOD

Slashdot. 'Nuff said.

> there wouldn't be room 
> to publish anything else?  The problem could almost certainly have been
> fixed as well by replacing the problematic hardware (even if the problem
> is in the Linux driver it will be fixed by using something different).

Not having specifics we cannot state that authoritatively.  In any case, if 
Win2k3 works fine on the same hardware, is it a hardware problem?

> Would it still be a big news item: "PC crashes,owner buys replacement!"?

Depends on the cause of the crash and how slow a news day it is.  On really 
slow news days you learn all kinds of odd things.  Like a gerbil that was 
born with two heads or something.
-- 
Lamar Owen
Director of Information Technology
Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute
1 PARI Drive
Rosman, NC  28772
(828)862-5554
www.pari.edu