Software

How far is a desktop from a server?

There is an interesting post at The Open Source Advocate blog – “Win the desktop, and you will win the server“. Tristan Rhodes, the author of the blog, suggests that in order for an operating system to conquer the server market, it should first conquer (or fight reasonable well for) the desktop market.

I have to admit that when I just read the article, I felt almost like agreeing. But something kept buzzing me from the inside, so I kept that tab open for a few days. Now that the post was processed at the back of my brain, I have to say that I don’t agree with that point.

There is, of course, a correlation. Once sysadmins start using something they like on the desktop, it’s pretty soon that they try to see how well that thing handles server tasks. So, of course, people using Windows on the desktop were checking out how to make a server out of it.

But. I don’t think that conquering the desktop is the only way to the server. Not at all. There are more ways, I somehow feel that those other ways are actually simpler. For one thing, Linux has never been particularly good with desktops. However, only the stubbornest and the most ignorant of sysadmins will argue against Linux server superpowers.

Furthermore, real sysadmins (which are, of course, in the minority) clearly understand the differences between a desktop computer and a server. What’s good for one might not be so good for the other.

And then there is this whole “enterprise” issue. Big companies (aka “enterprises”) aren’t about desktops. They are about support services, customizations, and having someone to blame. If there is someone on the other end of the twisted phone cord, they’ll grab him with both hands.

The historical examples in the Open Source Advocate’s blog post might be related or they might not. The times were different anyway. But even if these examples are related, they aren’t as heavy as they seem. There are many factors to consider (prices, distrubution, documentation, hardware requirements, etc).

What do you guys think?

Preupgrading Fedora 9

Fedora 9 is coming Real Soon Now ©. I mentioned before that I am desperately waiting for this release, since it brings KDE 4 and Firefox 3. One thing that I haven’t seen noticed anywhere until I read this interview is “preupgrade”. It sounds pretty cool:

By now, the “preupgrade” package should be available in updates-testing for Fedora 8. Enable the updates-testing repo and install it. It currently shows up as “Upgrade Fedora” in your Applications -> System menu.
From there, it’s very simple – follow the screens to choose what to upgrade to, wait for everything to download, hit “Reboot”, and the upgrade will begin!

Basically, what happens is that Fedora 9 installer is downloaded together with all the required packages, while you are still using Fedora 8. Once everything is in place, you can simply reboot and upgrade your system, without burning any CDs or DVDs or waiting for long downloads while having nothing to do.

Twinkle – sudden popularization of Cyprus

There was an sudden boost in searches for Cyprus yesterday. The reason for that was a bug in Twinkle – a Twitter client for iPhone. For some reason, Twinkle was identifying current location wrong for a whole lot of users. Instead of being somewhere in the States, they were said to be Nicosia, Cyprus. That probably felt very surprising for them, especially considering the fact that not many of them knew what or where Nicosia, Cyprus was. Hence, all the searching.

There is a rumor going around that it was the work of Cyprus government, desperately trying to keep tourism levels up. You, of course, should believe whatever your tin foil hat tells you to believe…

Microsoft support – a myth or reality?

gapingvoid, a blog well known for cartoons drawn on the back of business cards, has this post about monetizing on open source software – a very old discussion, as we know it. In that post, one IT guy is quoted saying:

“If something goes wrong with Microsoft, I can phone Microsoft up and have it fixed. With Open Source, I have to rely on the community.”

What’s your first thought after reading that? Mine was “Have you ever even called Microsoft support?“. It seems that a lot of people believe in this notion of Microsoft support magically fixing whatever problem they might have with any of the Microsoft product.

The question really is – will they? Myself I never had any experience with Microsoft support, but I know quite a few people who did. Most of them seem to agree that Microsoft support is pretty much like any other technical support service of any other company. Meaning that to get anything good out of it, you have to know how to get through to knowledgeable people and you have to know how to convince them to spend some time with your case. Otherwise, you’ll get into an endless loop of answering machines, checklist questions, and advices like “Please, reboot your computer and call us back“.

I have to say that that makes sense to me. Microsoft is the biggest desktop software vendor. Desktop computer users tend to be the most uninformed and untrained category of users (no offense intended). If even half of them believe in magic of Microsoft support, imagine what Microsoft has to go through to keep their support costs reasonable. If you have a serious problem, you’d probably need to get through all that protection and prove that you know what you are doing and that your case deserves attention. Getting through requires knowledge, experience and patience. How many people of those who believe in Microsoft support actually have the knowledge, experience and patience to get through? I don’t think many do. Am I wrong?
P.S.: By the way, there is an interesting discussion in the comments to that original post.

On the battles of the software industry

Here is a quote from Scott Rosenberg’s insightful post, titled “Clash of titanic business-press cliches” (emphasis is mine):

Are Microsoft and Google in conflict? Of course. They have fundamentally different visions of where computing’s headed — visions that the Times article, by Steve Lohr and Miguel Helft, ably lays out. But it’s not as if they are feudal fiefdoms fighting over some fixed patch of ground. Their conflict will play out as each company builds its next generation of software and services, and the next one after that, and people make choices about what to buy and what to use.

Those choices are the key to the outcome. In a battle, civilians are mostly bystanders or casualties. In the software business, civilians — users — determine who wins.