[Milsurplus] old software

[Peter Gottlieb]

I'm not sure I agree Microsoft is dying just yet but I will agree that a 
move toward *nix is something worthwhile to investigate.  Not only is IBM 
shipping Linux but has committed to convert the entire company to a mix of 
Linux, AIX and other Unix variants.  This is a very significant move.  HP is 
also now shipping laptops with Linux preinstalled.  The reason other 
manufacturers haven't is not because Microsoft is better but because 
Microsoft will not give them the most competitive pricing (which they need 
in such a commodity based market) unless they sell ONLY Microsoft OSes in 
*every* machine they sell.

There will be a place for Microsoft for a long time.  They sell a decent 
product.   But why not use an excellent product which costs less given the 
opportunity?


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "chuck maurer" <lomaurer at yahoo.com>
To: <Milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2004 2:19 PM
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] old software


> Ray,
> I am sorry about your problem with microsoft, but you
> have been caught in death throws of a large ugly dying
> obsolete company.  They are trying to find a way to
> survive in a UNIX dominated world and with their
> LONGHORN project delayed until at least 2006, maybe
> 2007 they might not make it.  Even APPLE's primary
> operating system is standard UNIX with a really great
> user interface.  And OSX has been APPLE's lead OS for
> the last 18 months.
>
> Your best attack would be to show management what they
> will loose with this approach and show them a good
> alternative to the obsolete Microsoft OS structure.
>
> The third largest super computer in the world is 1100
> Apple UNIX X-Servers hooked in a ring.  Even IBM and
> DELL are shipping UNIX as an alternative to Microsoft.
> You could probably port your old APL code to any
> number of current UNIX technology boxes.
>
> Chuck
>
> --- Ray Fantini <RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu> wrote:
>
>> The big software upgrade. For years at the
>> university we used Dec Vax
>> software, the hardware is always improving but the
>> same old software
>> with improvements has been around from the beginning
>> of time.  People
>> often don't realize the incredible amount of
>> software that was written
>> twenty or thirty years ago that is still running
>> today.
>> Now our friends at Microsoft will save us from the
>> terrine of old but
>> working software, PeopleSoft is the future.
>> Microsoft's  new software
>> is a web base environment  that is touted to replace
>> much if not all of
>> the old Vax, Unix , APL ( anyone remember that?) and
>> other  database and
>> information management software. All you need is an
>> almost unlimited
>> supply of money, to pay to upgrade all your servers
>> and workstations and
>> more money to pay the People Soft consultants to
>> write the temples and
>> merge your "legacy" files, along with telling you
>> that all your
>> hardware that you just bought is too old and
>> everything will be fixed in
>> the next revision. So I think it's only a matter of
>> time until
>> Microsoft comes and saves the government with a
>> massive, expensive
>> Peoplesoft implementation. Then maybe you will miss
>> those old text based
>> systems.
>> Ray Fantini KA3EKH
>>
>>
> ______________________________________________________________
>> Milsurplus mailing list
>> Home:
>> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/milsurplus
>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>> Post: mailto:Milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
>>
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Milsurplus mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/milsurplus
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:Milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
>