OT: linux overhead (was: Re: OT: printing filepro on SERIAL PORT Linux)

[D . Thomas Podnar]

On Sat, Dec 09, 2006 at 10:42:06PM -0500, Brian K. White wrote:
> All this having to constantly keep up with a wheelbarrow full of
> different dists each with their own pile of versions in use
> is a perfect example of the overhead of linux.

Agreed. There is no such thing as Linux, at least, not in the singular.

> I'm guilty myself using suse but really only because sco killed
> themselves, not for the typical reasons everyone else rushed to it (or
> grew up on it never having seen anything else in person)
> 
> Each one of those dists probably needs almost as much work as one whole
> traditional platform like osr5 or aix, etc...
> Maybe a little less since all the linux ones will have some things in
> common, but then thats probably offset by the fact that each linux dist
> changes a lot more often than any of the commercial platforms ever did.

Linux is a classic case of "programming by exception". Every version,
and every kernel release, is a new test and requires a change or two.

Our focus is definitely on "releases of Linux that are sold and supported
commercially", such as Red Hat, Suse and Mandriva, and their directly
related cousins and descendants.

Fedora takes the most time, because it changes so fast.

Free Linuxes, well, if BackupEDGE works with them that is just swell.
Clients that don't value their OS typically don't value their data.

> so I can only assume that one of these is true:
> * you hired more staff to keep the quality, thoroughness, testing, rate
> of product development all up to par and had to jack up the price.
> * the staff and the price stayed the same and something about the
> product now suffers compared to before. be it the perfection and
> thoroughness of the app itself, rate of development, quality of support
> (for an os that was just released a few weeks ago how in depth and
> arcane can the support possibly get compared to osr5 that changed so
> rarely)
> * the staff and quality of the app and quality of support and product
> development and price of the app all stayed the same and you are working
> like a dog 23.5 hours a day now.
> 
> I don't like any of those.
> -bkw

I haven't done any programming for years on products. (although I write
and maintain our product invoicing and license management system in filePro)
But it is 8:45pm on a Sunday night and I'm here doing product QA testing.
Draw your own conclusions.

Tom Podnar