jeff fisher, MCP www.turbofish.com
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ed Leafe Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 12:52 PM To: ProFox Email List Subject: Re: [NF] Linux Personas On Mar 20, 2007, at 1:00 PM, Jeff Fisher wrote: > Tell me what I got wrong. OK, here goes: > Oh come on Ed, I've been reading the 'Hate everything Microsoft' > stuff from > you for years. For you, it's more like open source vs. Microsoft. Gee, I was always accused of being a Mac bigot because I preferred them over Windows machines. Now you have concocted some other religious cause as my motivation. You only got serious with Mac after they built the OS on BDS. I'll say it as clearly as I can: use the best tool for the job at hand. If you have the choice between two or more tools that both can do the job, it is in your interest to go with the open source tool. I haven't seen that yet, nor is it reflected in your last paragraph. > One of the biggest reasons you started Dabo is because you wanted > to get > away from a Microsoft product and into 'open source'. No, it was because as a consultant, I saw the number of calls I got for Fox work dropping precipitously, and I needed to figure out my next move if I wanted to stay busy. I looked at several alternatives, including a few Java options, before deciding that I wanted to program in Python. That decision was based on two things: Python is an absolutely wonderful language to code it, and no company could ever buy it out and bury it. <snips> The open source argument again. <snips> > MapPoint vs. Google Earth? Google Earth is a great way of getting > maps, > viewing different areas and so on but with MapPoint, I can load in > my own > data from a wide variety of sources and make maps that are useful > for my > needs. Can't do that with Google Earth. That's great for you; if I had that need I would probably still be using MapPoint, too. But I needed it for maps, directions, and the like. > In fact, MapPoint is just > Microsoft's old direction software [can't remember the name] but > with the > ability of real statistical analysis, census information,... Again, if that were my needs... but it isn't. Then why even trying to compare the two? > If there was an open source alternative, you would choose it. > Doesn't matter > if the open source alternative lacked the features of what it was > attempting > to replace or the stability. Now that's a total crock. Re-read what you wrote above and tell me that it's possible to read that and not conclude that the person you wrote it about is an incompetent religious nut. Religious nut? I believe this is about Linux/Open Source unless you are calling that a religion. > There are actually very few open source products that even come > close to > what is out there. For example, over the weekend, I loaded up > ubuntu on a > spare PC. I typically use this PC to as a print server, messing > around box, > and to play music while I work. On the windows side, I use > applications like > MediaMonkey, JetAudio, and Winamp to play music. Anything like that > out > there for Linux? Not even close and I have tried quite a few > alternatives > now. They won't play my MP3's, did find something to play my WMA's > but no > way of creating a playlist. Can't help you here, since I don't use Linux as my every day machine; I just use it as my server and as a development machine. I use my Mac for all my multimedia needs. BTW, MP3s are no problem to play. Most of the Microsoft-developed formats, though, are crippled by licensing restrictions. IOW, it isn't a matter of technology, but of legal departments, and the Microsoft world definitely has the advantage there. > Most of the interfaces look like they were > developed way back in '95 and even then, most won't work at all. I don't know why you continue to rant about media players; I never mentioned them. But you seem to continue to imply that I somehow made this argument, since you are countering so vehemently. It is just an example. You can pretty much take your pick from any leading software that runs on Windows and compare it to an Open source Linux version. > Some of > them required that I go back to a command line to install - haven't > seen > that in the rest of the world for decades. That's funny - I remember the exact opposite argument being used against those toy 'Mac' machines by a bunch of DOS users. Yep, and that was way back in '92 And if you had to install anything from a command line in Ubuntu - well, then you just didn't bother to learn how to do it the easy way. That was the only way it could be done. <snips> > Open source is for the most part, so behind the rest of the world. > There are > only a few exception to the many failed projects or should be dropped > projects. Not going to bite that flame bait. Instead, I'm going to click 'Send', which will forward this email over a BSD sendmail implementation on my Mac to the Postfix SMTP server on my Ubuntu machine over TCP/IP, where the /etc/aliases file will redirect the message to Mailman, which is the list server for ProFox, and which is written in 100% Python. Before it reaches the list server, though, it will be filtered through ClamAV for viruses, and SpamBayes (also 100% Python) for spam content. Once it reaches Mailman it will be forwarded to Postfix with a list of email addresses that are subscribed to the list, and also to a Python script that filters out [OT] messages, and passes the non-OT mail on to the ProFoxTech list. The message will be passed to a Python archiving script that will use the MySQLdb module to directly insert the message to the MySQL database that is used for the archives. You can view those archives at any time by using a browser that understands HTML and JavaScript by typing in the URL for the archive. That browser will then use the public DNS system to resolve the URL into an IP address, where it will pass a request to my Apache server. Apache will recognize the address as one that is handled by the Zope app server, and will pass it along to Zope (also 100% Python). The Zope server will take the request, run a query against the MySQL database, take the results and format them nicely, and then return it back through Apache to your browser. -- Ed Leafe -- http://leafe.com -- http://dabodev.com All open source I see - just proves my point that much more. Ok, I'm sending this on my 2003 E server from Outlook 2007, store many gigs of data from Microsoft newsgroups on my SQL 2005 server, while developing applications using VFP, .NET 2003/2005. Of course I'm sending this through my email server also running 2003 E and my web site also runs on ASPX. Haven't checked out what my ISP uses. Firefox over IE Not a big fan of MySQL - it is so dated compared to well, just about everything else out there. Example; they were so proud of just getting to use SP. Tons of better news readers out there than OE. I choose to buy one - none of the others really fit my needs. Office 2007 over OO - OO has a long ways to go before it comes close to MS Office Many free text editors out there, many of which are open source but still a long ways from what I get from EditPlus and UltraStudio And on and on. Open source isn't always the best choice. Believe it or not, sometimes the best answer comes from Microsoft or some other company that you actually have to pay for software. _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
