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Poking the Hornets Nest!
Deb Shinder, Editor of WinXPnews dared to insinuate that Linux might not be the most perfect creation since the dawn of the universe and got mail bombed by the Linux Weenies. She should have known that was coming. Here is her answer to them which makes all the same points I have been making for years.
Followup: Commercial Software vs. Open Source Battle Lines
One way to ensure that the mail will flow in is to open up the "commercial vs. open source" discussion, and last week's editorial was no exception. We received a lot of passionate responses (some of them too passionate to print) on both sides.
Of course, I was accused of having been "bought" or "compromised" for daring to write about a study that suggests Linux/UNIX might not always be more cost effective than Windows. *NIX fans wrote to proclaim that their Linux machines get fewer viruses than their Windows machines - never addressing the obvious fact that virus writers are going to go after the OS with the largest installed base.
A couple of folks mentioned that there is a third alternative: Apple. With the advent of OS X, though, the Mac just runs another variety of UNIX. Is it more stable than Windows? Of course it is; Apple is able to control the hardware as well as the software, while Microsoft has to deal with supporting their OS on a huge diversity of machines made by hundreds of different vendors (as well as those that are "home made").
Several messages started or ended with "I'm typing this on a *NIX computer that hasn't had to be rebooted in 3 weeks (or 6 weeks, or 3 months, or whatever)." That's great, but proves nothing; my primary XP workstation has gone over 180 days without a reboot, and many of our Windows servers have been up continuously for well over a year.
We also got some responses from Linux admins who took issue with the idea that many open source advocates support socialism. In fact, one pointed out that it's generally true that it costs more for a business to run Linux and that those who make their livings supporting Linux are thus capitalists in every sense of the word. Interesting point!
One reader said that I implied Windows has no learning curve. I didn't mean to, only that generally, the learning curve is less steep, especially for those transitioning from one version of Windows to the next as opposed to moving to Linux.
The MySql model of software licensing was mentioned by reader Paul R. as the "best of both worlds" - with a license required for commercial use (with support and services available), and open source for non-commercial use.
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