[Lvlug] Session 1 Presentation

[Faber Fedor]

On Tue, May 07, 2002 at 09:12:44PM -0400, dann wrote:
> Faber, over all, I think your presentation is excellent.  Here are some
> suggestions I have:
> 
> 
> IMG1:  The agenda does not match the rest of the presentation quite
> clearly. <snip> This is nit-picky, I know.

True, but it's the kind of thing I'm looking for.

> IMG4:  Bullet one can be very dangerous.  I read a lot how corporate
> America does not want to hear about technical changes, but just wants
> useable systems.  

Yes, but you are aware of the meaning of the phrase "disruptive
technology", yes?  It has a special meaning.  A "disruptive technology"
is the technological equivalent of a "paradigm shift" (to use a buzzword
from a previous generation).  A disruptive technology come sfrom out of
nowhere, is pooh-poohed by The Big Boys, doesn't do everything that the
Big Boys can do and it *still* manages to topple the Big Boys.  The 8080
was a disruptive technology.  Hydraulics in construction equipment was a
disruptive technology.  There are several other examples cited in the
book "The Innovator's Dilemma" which is the book that defined the term
"disruptive technology".

> IMG10:  You tackle some pretty weighty issues here, and do a pretty good
> job.  

That's just a response to the MS FUD that was being bandied about a
couple of months back.

> IMG11:  Final bullet is very opinionated.

Yeah.  I'll have to rephrase that.

> IMG13:  I believe someone pointed out that we slack users do not like to
> be referred to as pee-poles.  We are people too.  Sometimes when we are
> drunk, we may use people as pee-poles, but rarely do we end up in a
> situation where we ourselves are the pee-pole.  That is just not the "roll
> your own," pro-active style.

You read it wrong.  It didn't say "pee-poles", it said "pepole" (pron.
pee-POL-ee). It's Bajorran for "hard-working, reliable, intelligent
persons".  It's derived from the name of a race of people that used to
inhabit the northern  continent.

> IMG14:  Maybe "and/or" cdwriter.  Usually if you buy a copy of Linux you
> get distro support for a small fragment of time.  There is always the
> option to purchase support contracts.  So saying "Only support comes from
> the community" may not be the message you want to convey.  Unless you mean
> that the Linux community will generally only provide support, not actual
> configurations, hand-holding, etc.  Perhaps you would want to say
> something like "Various avenues of free, community support."  But, you
> have to becareful about this too since in a business setting free equates
> to "no one responsible."

But doesn't the last phrase "Paid support is available from the
distribution makers and third party companies" allay what you say?  OR
do I need to rewrite the page?  

WRT this, I was reading (but did not finish) an article about how good
the support for Linux was from several companies (HP, Caldera, IBM and
Linuxcare, IIRC).  You can read about it at
http://www.networkcomputing.com/1309/1309f3.html

> IMG15:  What is an off the shelf, cookie-cutter application?  Are there no
> off the shelf, cookie-cutter applications for linux?  I believe the
> emphasis in this bullet is Microsoft compatiblity.  

I beleive that there is still some "roll your own"-ing that need to be
done with any Linux distro.  The same is true of Windows, IM!HO, but
it's not perceived as such.  And yes, the emphasis is on Microsoft
compatiblity.

> IMG16:  This comparison could get hairy.  

This is just a quickie chart; I have an entire session devoted to this
where I'm going to go into more detail.

> IMG18:  The first three bullets talk about fine-tuning.  Is there a way to
> combine this information and emphasize the fine-tuning?  

I'll see what I can do about that.

> Also, mentioning
> ext2/ext3 filesystem seems too specific for the more generalized
> atmosphere of the presentation.  

Good point.

> IMG20:  "text interface most powerful and flexible"  Are you referring to
> the command line here?  I believe you are, but I do not recall anyone
> calling it a text interface before.

No, I'm talking about piping text from one program to another.

> What do you mean by computer-to-computer usage?  Enlighten me

I think I need a better way to say this, so let me throw out my idea and
see if we can come up with a better way:

I state that Windows assumes that there is a human interacting with the
computer or to put it another way, that every computer action (okay, not
*EVERY* action, work with me here) is initiated by a human action.
Hence, things are geared for that;  How does one add a new virtual
server to IIS?  Click on Start -> Program -> Microsoft Option Pack 
-> MS Internet Information Server -> etc., etc., etc.

Linux/Unix doesn't make this assumption; the initiator of an action can
be a human, another program, or another computer. Because of that,
Linux/unix needs a mechanism that is similar across all three
initiators.  That's where text files and piping come into play; every
human and computer can read ASCII text (how many computers can read MS
Word format?  My Palm Pilot can't) and every human can learn the concept
of piping (just as they learn the concept of clicking) but not every
computer can't be taught to click on a menu option.  How does one add a
virtual to server to Apache?  Let me count the ways: 
    1. Through Webmin (there's the clicking interface), 
    2. type everything into a text file and append it to httpd.conf 
	(who types it into a text file?  either a human or a program)
    3. Have a small program pull relevant information from a database
        (yes, I know you can right a VB.NET application to do this, but
        there is a major difference between writing a VB application and 
        doing a "mysql | awk >> httpd.conf" at the commandline)

Have I gotten my idea across?

-- 
 
Regards,
 
Faber                     

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