Re: OFFTOPIC: Regarding NT vs Linux

Olaf Titz (olaf@bigred.inka.de)
Sun, 21 Sep 1997 14:23:55 +0200


> those things and more for free, I was shrugged off. Lots of people there
> were predicting the demise of Unix and the dominance of NT.
> What I would like to know is how much of this hype surrounding NT is true?

Just business as usual, at least amon non-technical people. We have
about one weekly computer magazine in Germany that can be, and is
intended to be, read by management types _and_ at least somewhat
technically competent. This magazine has been predicting "Unix is
dead, NT will have taken over in the next two years" about since NT
exists (as vaporware).

I believe non-Unix people are really scared about Unix. I don't know
exactly why, but at least three factors come in: 1. fear of the
unknown, 2. Unix is perceived as an academic thing and such are
generally distrusted (*), 3. Micro$oft's propaganda machinery is far
better than that of all the Un*x community combined.

(*) I remember well how a new employee in software development was
told something which amounted to "don't ruin your reputation here by
telling management about your doctoral degree". That was about 10
years ago and in a Unix shop, incidentally.

Fortunately, not 100% of the computer user world is dominated by
those boneheads. It is really a nice thing to work with Mac users
(selling them Linux servers, among other things). Those are the people
who don't want to touch M$ products with a 10ft pole.

olaf