Closed Minded

Zvezda · 07-30-2002, 11:12 PM

Just need to vent!!! today the company I work for will be putting in service a Win 2K server for our tech staff its for file downloads tips and tricks How To's and non crucial application downloads there so closed minded that they would not even take my Linux Samba solution in consideration I could just scream there so far up Microsofts
Backend. Has any one elsegot the same suppresion from others when you mention Linux?

MasterC · 07-31-2002, 02:10 AM

Oh yeah, definitely. I will show someone linux from every angle, the pocket book, the security, the functionality, the usability, how far it's come, the media options, interactions between winbloze boxes and linux, and so on, but it's like raging zombies sometimes! Just the other day my good friend said (after a good 20 minutes of an excellent display of linux abilities) "If I were going to use Linux, that (distro here) would be the one I'd use, but I ain't gonna use Linux." I said, "You can always dual boot, and if it doesn't do everything you'd like, you can simply arrow down and boot into WinME". "Nope".

I really don't get it sometimes, but I will keep trying. Oh well...

trickykid · 07-31-2002, 04:54 AM

Moved. Not really a Linux specific technical question.

Mara · 07-31-2002, 02:18 PM

Fortunatelly, in my neighbourhood really many servers run Linux (or other Open Source software). For those using other OSes (mainly Windows) Linux is considered an option.

c0n · 07-31-2002, 05:00 PM

At my work we had a problem with our Win DHCP server producing ip conflicts daily...I'm not talking about 2 or 3, closer to 100-150 per day...I had just started playing with Linux so a friend at work who is pretty literate with Linux worked with me on building a DHCP server. They allowed us to put it on the network after testing it on a small network for 2 weeks. For 6months it ran with no problems, then one day IP conflicts started showing up again, the net admin (MCSE) decided it was time to pull the Linux box. So we were/are back to the same as before.
Also, we were in a meeting and our IT manager asked us to come up with ways to save money for the company. I decided to start out with small suggestions. I suggested that our guys in the field have Open Office installed on their laptops/pc's because all they do is type up a report in M$ Word and email it up to the main office. That is the extent of their computer use. I provided all of the reasons for my thinking...i.e. very very inexpensive (why spend 400 or whatever for a M$ license for a word processor?), the documents could be saved as M$ Word files so that people could read them in Office etc.....I wasn't too shocked when he declined the suggestion...he wondered why it was so inexpensive and how we would get support for it......I, along with 2 co-workers explained it to him and he said, "well, we'll have to research it" One of the guys in our groups said, " I've been using it for 6months with no problems, it works" boss declined because "what would our customers think if we sent them documents that were created on "cheap" software". I said, you ask for suggestions, we provide you with a way to save the company thousands of dollars (we have almost 1200 people in the field) and you are concerned that our customers will think we can't afford "real software"? I said, first of all, they wouldn't know that it hadn't been sent in anything other than M$ Word and secondly don't you think that finding a way to save the company thousands of dollars would be considered innovative? he had no rebuttal and just went to the next topic. That's the mentality i deal with everyday....Granted, for some things our people need M$...we use Autocad/Microstation intensely, but for people who just write reports in Word and the occasional spreadsheetand email them, something like Open Office/AbiWord would be great.....

Thymox · 07-31-2002, 06:53 PM

At my Uni, there were several Linux boxen (all SuSE), but I was never allowed to use them. They were not linked into the Uni-wide Novell network (they didn't know how... and they couldn't be bothered to read how to either), and were on the Computer Sciences floor of a fairly large building. If you wanted to use them, you had to put in a request to the head of the computing department... and if you weren't on a computers course (and I don't mean a course that simply uses computers, like the graphics design ones, I mean CS courses), then you were rejected out-right. I protested on many occasions, to no avail... I was on a Biology course so therefore I will have no need to use Linux computers so they weren't prepared to grant me use!

There have been some debates as to the use of Linux computers in education in general, and a couple of silly people that wrote letters to PC-Plus (UK) were stating that 'using Linux in computers is simply absurd... it would take far too long to configure all of the machines and maintain them' (or words to that effect). Now, I think that this is really short sighted of them... no one was suggesting that a complete move to Linux would be a good idea in the short term! Surely configuring one Linux box in a school wouldn't be too taxing, and as they become more comfortable with using Linux, perhaps either adding more Linux boxen, or changing some of the Windows boxen over to Linux? For my part, I'm hoping to at least show the benefits of using Linux, and possibly convert a few people, when I become a fully-fledged teacher.

OK, I think I can step off the soap-box now, and calm down a little.

ascii2k · 08-01-2002, 10:53 AM

My employer ranks at the top in close minded-ness.. My title is "Unix Specialist" so aside from the fact that I really enjoy/believe in Linux I'm going to pull for Linux because it's my job. Of course no one else in the IT department wants to hear about it. The company is going to be making some big changes in the near future. i.e Switching to Active Directory, switching to M$ Exchange, etc. Would they even consider Linux for any of these things?? NO!!!! They insist on continuing to be led around on a leash by M$. Oh, our DNS servers are running Linux. WooHoo. I know thats a start but come on, almost any 2 cent OS could do that. And, I did convince them to let me build a machine for a Linux MySQL database server. But, they would only let me have IDE drives and 1 processor!! and then they complain about it being slow. Sheesh.
OK. I'm calm now...sorry about that. Sometimes it just seems pointless(for me) to even fight for Linux.
/end venting

Bert · 08-02-2002, 05:44 PM

The windows vs. linux thing is well a bit tired really.

I'm developing stuff using Microsoft's .net with some consultants who have been brought in. Today over a pub lunch, one of the consultants said,

"I really hate those tossers on places like slashdot.org, they've built an anti-Microsoft culture based on pure hate ... "

"Yeah ... " the other consultants agreed, "You know, with that linux ("lye-nuks") you have to recompile your kernel which I think is really dangerous ... "

Yes, I put them right. Yes they later conceeded defeat. If you really want to know how, I argued that you have to take responsibility for your OS instead of relying on a corporation which does not share your goals for your systems.

But these are reasonable people. I was down the pub with them! OK, they're in their early/mid thirties so they're really the IT boom generation of pro-windows people, but why the hostility?

My theory was that people are naturally hostile to anything they don't rally understand. One of them conceeded "well GNU's development model is quite good", the others mumbled in agreement.

We had a problem later with a ghosted binary XP image onto a new piece of hardware and I managed to pick out the drivers and get it up and running and the consultants couldn't figure it out - I know how DOS looks and loads drivers because of linux!

The fact that this topic even came up in conversation at the pub I suppose is testament to how rapidly the linux ("li-nux") OS is advancing. Those consultants are running scared as their intellectual capital is under threat. One even said that the long term cost of running linux is more than a windows solution!

But today, I completely forgave windows people who hate linux. As Derek Bok said "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance ... "

neo77777 · 08-03-2002, 10:00 PM

At my work we've finally seen some light - we are going to replace IIS web/ftp servers with proftp/apache+tomcat for JSP support running on RH7.3, finally. Recently I got my "own" linux workstation (350 MHz Compaq Deskpro) running Slack 8.1, and I see more ppl in IT converting to linux, even our Lotus Notes developer asks the company for getting Domino server for linux, so I can say linux sweeps all the awards now amongst IT here in US where the stock market and economy as a whole bouncing like a ball.