It's the economy, stupid (was: Switching to Windows NT)

Someone asked about the risks and advantages of "Switching to Windows
NT" a few days ago. I tried to state that apart from the various cost
factors, NT is technologically inforior to "even" free U*ices like BSD
or Linux that switching will make sense in only a very few cases. The
responses to my mails were mixed but mainly centered around two
points: 

1. The critics are proud to be geriatric corporate slaves, while I am
   28. Point taken.
2. If PC magazine says NT is good, NT is good. FUD.

The latest contribution to this public self-humiliation of Microsoft
advocates it Ben Z Tels from the Netherlands. Welcome, Ben!

* Ben Z Tels <optimusb(at)stack.nl> writes:
> From: Robin S. Socha <r.socha(at)control-risks.de> writes:[1]

Here, David, please *read* this article. If you can, prove it
wrong. "Prove" as in "I've sufficient evidence that John Kirch is
wrong", not as in "I've heard from a friend that NT is totally
KeWL". Ok?

		 <http://www.kirch.net/unix-nt.html>

Now on with the show...

[debugging commercial software impossible]
> It can, if you set it up to. That's what Dr.Watson is for; it's
> 95/NT's utility for generating/reviewing core dumps as necessary.

Neither dump core. Even if they did, the information obtained would be
totally irrelevant because you couldn't fix the problem. Case closed.

[NT is real notworking system]

> [...] NT has only been set upt to facilitate the connection between
> several different computers. A so-called peer-to-peer network. However,
> if you really wish, you can have a whole set of terminals which run
> their programs off of the server's shared disk(s) as well. 

Running which applications, David? Under which licences? Sharing which
configuration files?

> So that if the server goes down, nobody can work anymore. 

Use a high availability system and an OS that goes down less often than
NT. For you to understand the analogy (you may look this word up in a
dictionary), replace HAS with "female person of negotiable affection"
and OS with "high-school cheerleader".

> And you can ALSO connect alot of dumb NetPC's or whatever the hell
> they're called and have them working COMPLETELY off the server. And
> they will completely crash if the server goes down.

Could we get real for a moment now, David? You are questioning the
basic concept of networking here. I think you should reconsider your
statement.

[...]
>> NT is, face it, a dirty little hack that provides primitive file-
>> and print-services.
>
> No more or less primitive that what you would find on Solaris
> 2.5.1 or even on FreeBSD 2.2.6-stable. You can share drives, or
> parts of them. You can protect drives, or parts of them. You can
> allow people to make use of a device (printer, modem, external T3
> connection, what have you) or not. Not dissimilar to what most of
> the well-known Unix-flavors do. You will find, in fact, that NT is
> quite a capable OS.

Pardon me? Both U*ices come fully equipped with networking tools. And
you can get the rest *free*, ie GPLed GNU tools. Here, let me quote
Kirch <http://www.kirch.net/unix-nt.html#conclusion>

"What is not trivial, however, is that a networked operating system in
this price range [NT] should ship without a telnet server, SMTP server
(e-mail), disk quotas, news server, or at least a DNS server that
works to customers' satisfaction (many NT administrators feel
compelled to go with third party DNS solutions). In order to match the
functionality of a BSDI installation, additional Microsoft products
and third-party solutions would bring the final price of a comparable
NT solution to around $4,000, according to BSDI. Maggie Biggs, a
senior analyst in the InfoWorld who specializes in database technology
and application design, development, and deployment via intranets and
other networks, estimates a price of $4,636 for a comparable Windows
NT 4.0 solution in her article which compares NT 4.0 to Red Hat's
commercial Linux (for only $49.95). Here one sees that successful
marketing can often distract customers from considering their need for
functionality."

>> There are no applications that can be run off the server like under
>> Unix.

> Ridiculous. Any user can run any program from any disk that he has
> at least reading rights for.

*yawn* David? I said "like under Unix", not about a the substantial
budget you have to spend on Microsoft's "per server" or "per seat"
licensing scheme. Here, David, some more clues for you...
<http://www.aberdeen.com/research/comp/onsite/case1/body.htm>

[The old, old, old, Win95 Beta fun-thing]
> Very good. Any credibility you had, you just threw out the window with
> that last remark. 

Excellent reasoning here, David: "I don't know it, so it doesn't
exist". But, David, of course it's happened, and the list of programs
MS is looking for on your disk is published on various sites on the
Net.

> Content of the disk being sent to Microsoft..... Very good young
> man, 

Well, here we go again. There's a number of small points I'd like to
make here: 

a) I'm not female. Sorry for the two young gentlemen who are probably
   experiencing major difficulties accessing their accounts now, but,
   you know, "telnet considered harmful".

b) I'm on this list. Don't fscking Cc: me, I filter Cc:s, anyway.

c) Yes, I'm 28. If you're another geriatric, brainwashed power luser,
   please get the hell out of my life. I've seen guys like you fired in
   my previous jobs, and it'll happen again. It's called "incompetence,
   ignorance and inability to calculate costs realistically".

> A for effort, D for preparation. Now run along home.

I didn't say "entire disk" but "what programs are on the disk". Either
way, it's a criminal offence anywhere on this planet except the US.

Robin

Footnotes: 
[1]  Could you *please* set your reply-string to an RFC-compliant
     format? 4 lines is a massive waste of bandwidth and the subject
     is in the subject line, anyway (duh).

-- 
The One and Only Robin S. Socha
<http://www.kens.com/robin/>
Cc: me and I'll kill -9 you

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