Thank you, Microsoft. Better late than never.

Flashback to 2003.

Reading daily updates on slashdot
Reading daily updates and comment threads from PJ on groklaw

I can't believe that 15 years later this lawsuit lumbers on.

How many tens of millions of dollars (hundreds of milions?) have both sides spent on this lawsuit?

I suspect open compute project welcomes additional testing resources for the benefit of everyone... as long as it doesn't involve an oppressive amount of process that simply serve to slow down progress.

But... Web scale IS different, so I can't blame the main sponsors for not prioritizing what isn't as important to them. Once you accept that ALL hardware fails, and that you can either pay more for more reliable hardware, or you can develop better software architecture to handle failures, you look at things differently. Spend your money once on good software engineering, instead of over and over on every server.

> Is modern IT taught how to do what you just said? Do they learn how to strike the right balance between Security and Usability?

The enlightened ones know about DevOps and design thinking. Everyone else who believes draconian IT desktop control is the right solution is simply wrong.

People are more productive when they have an environment they like / want / choose.

IT simply can't control all tablets, phones, home computers, and more and more workers telecommute and work remotely, so... the battle is already lost for total control. Next best thing it to step back, take a holistic view on priorities, risks, the new status quo, and how IT can HELP your customers and business succeed... and plot a new course based on making PEOPLE productive first.

The idea of NASA ground control needing to tell astronauts to "close outlook" on their massively expensive mil-spec laptops so they can do file transfers of OST files gives me acid reflux.

IT is a commodity. Sharp IT managers see that virtualization will bring extremely powerful APIs and with a little bit of workflow and orchestration magic, their needs for the most skilled IT talent will stay the same or reduce as quantity of work increases over time. As much as people in the IT trenches may wish things to not change, change will continue. Fewer people with less skills will be able to manager larger numbers of systems and services.

Google for just about anything IT related, and you'll find THOUSANDS of hits on how to do it. Step-by-step instructions. Video walkthroughs. Preconfigured VM images. Despite what us IT folks may think -- that's UNUSUAL and somewhat unique for computers and IT. How many people can google "ubuntu ldap kerberos" or "linux drbd mysql" and follow the steps?

The "master mechanics" become architects and software developers who design "cars" that require fewer visits to the mechanics. They design process that is simple. They implement service menus that look more like a fast food menu. They automate their jobs and move on to more interesting work.

... and that's in the best interest of the business. The business likes predictable systems and services.

Most of us slashdotters with low userid numbers can vouch for the fact that a whole lot has changed in the last 12 or so years.

IT used to be the wild west. UNIX was not widely well understood -- even by software developers. UNIX servers were inaccessible. UNIX servers were big bucks. Linux was obscure. Hardly any computer hardware or software did much of anything out of the box. Sysadmins, consultants, and IT workers were worth their weight in gold -- because that wasn't any other option.

Now... IT is mature. Hardware is cheap and reliable. Linux is ubiquitous. Linux admin experience is not rare. apt-get or yum can deploy massive amounts of useful, nearly preconfigured software in minutes that would have taken sysadmins WEEKS or MONTHS to build, deploy, patch, etc in the past.

When I first started in IT, building a server was an *ART*. Each one was unique -- from the hardware to the disk layout to the partitioning, to the OS, to the locally installed software. Building a server was like building a Stradivarius.

Now, building a server is like stamping a kazoo out of tin. I can make 500 kazoos a day. They're all the same. I don't even need to log into them once.

In the past, general IT folks were quite often the white hat security experts who learned by doing/experimenting. Now... most companies have security teams an intrusion detection systems that sound alarms if anyone runs nmap on nessus.

Your average IT guy USED to have endless opportunities to be a hero by introducing opensource software options that almost nobody else in the company knew about. Linux in the mainstream has changed all that.

A *GOOD* IT worker used to have almost magical abilities to do orders of magnitude more work. Now, large scale admin processes are much more widely understood, there are many more tools, and those magical processes are well documented and demystified so that even the junior IT folks can do them.

How many IT jobs today involve compliance? How rewarding is compliance-related work? I bet that some of the lack of willingness to suggest process improvements is somehow tied to the process baggage of IT compliance.

I still like my job, but it's changed a lot. I don't *just* do IT. I add value to my company. Today, IT needs to be much more closely integrated with the business. IT needs to be a business partner. I doubt any businesses today would hire a BOFH.

Handbrake is definitely the best free DVD ripping software under Linux

I downloaded the alpha 6 netbook remix, put it on a USB stick, booted it on a Dell Optiplex 755, installed it, patched it, and am running it right now.

I think the "netboox remix" interface actually suits a lot of what people use computers for today... a glorified web browser... while not distracting the user with all the other windows, window decorations, virtual desktops, etc.

I'm a power user who loves those things, but I'm surprised how I feel somewhat freed up by not having to worry about them.

I guess you have never heard of a Microsoft-only shop

Even Microsoft isn't a Microsoft-only shop.

How did Dell suddenly become the computing term trademark police? Just a few months ago, they were trying to trademark "cloud computing"!

http://www.computing.co.uk/vnunet/news/2224228/dell-cloud-claim-struck

Puh-leeze!