How I Spent My Christmas Vacation

Sounds like Linux won!

Question: If some fool bought one copy of that new unOS from Redmond and put it on a virtual server, could all the machines connected to that VS run the new unOS from Redmond? And how does the thieves-den in Redmond make any money at that rate? TC, sell that stock NOW!

Quoting:could all the machines connected to that VS run the new unOS from Redmond?

No. You need CALs for that. Client Access Licenses. Yes, MS has the audacity to charge separately for each connection you want to open to the server. Most Windows installations have one to five CALs. If you open more connections, either the new connections are refused or the oldest connection is dropped. The latter usually happens on non-server installations. For example, try taking over a standard Windows box with RDP (remote desktop) from two machines at the same time.

Sander, Thanks for the explanation, I really do not know anything about how the license stuff works. So the best practices for this is: Just Use Linux.

A large percentage of time in the proprietary software world is spent dealing with license issues. It's not uncommon to find yourself battling tech support for days trying to get software activated so it works, and heaven forbid you need to move anything to a new server or add users. You could be down for another couple of days. It's seldom easy.

amen, rijelkentaurus. My fave is when the CD key doesn't work so you can't even install your new overpriced crudware, and have to call support, and after hours on told they tell you "sorry, our key-generator server is down, call back in a couple of days." That is a 100% true story, and it is a 100% mystery to me why people continue to roll over for this kind of dumb stuff.

100% true story, and it is a 100% mystery to me why people continue to roll over for this kind of dumb stuff...."

It's going to have to hit the tipping point soon. In a recent email exchange with Danijel, we discussed how frustrating it can be to get the "Linux Community" to band together long enough to get some focused marketing done. I am all but convinced that will never happen, however; something needs to be done fairly quickly. I have said before that someone with money and an idea are going to come in and take our options away from us. That came close to happening with the goS system on the Everex machines. Thankfully, the system was just bad enough for it not to sell...Unthankfully, now hundreds of thousands of people now think the goS system IS Linux...

That can't do anything but hurt.

When we do finally get the news "out" that all this licensing nonsense is just that...nonsense, we are going to see a steady march to our side of the boat...but until we reach that "tipping point", the inertia will remain dominant.

h

I would like to know how much the licensing issues add to the cost of the software, also, and to code bloat. I wouldn't doubt that the size of the code would only be reduced by a little, but the cost of the development would go down dramatically. There has to be much time spent on creating, testing and debugging the "locks" on proprietary software (and they still can't get it right and workable most of the time!). If you're using proprietary software, you're paying for the privilege of being locked out of your software at the most inconvenient time.

Front page on LXer today: http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?stor...

Thats going to help LInux.