Posts by Damon Anderson

Other Shortcomings

I think that there are major shortcoming in the current hosting model that are not addressed at all in this article, and are specifically relevant to Cloud computing (IaaS). For example, when I price out a dedicated server, 90% of the available systems do not have RAID redundancy for data storage, and even if they do, they are still subject to a single point of failure in the system itself because they run on a single server. To me IaaS is not about temporary or burst requirements (as nice as these features maybe) it is about redundancy in hardware...

If I have 100 servers clouding up my virtual host, instead of a single partitioned server, I've got hardware redundancy and a far greater assurance of up-time and reliability. This is the real crux that the Cloud solves, and is (almost) non-existent in the current hosting market. In other words if the Cloud can competitively price against a dedicated server, then it is more than competitive in the current hosting market, because of the real gains in redundancy and improved reliability.

Linux? or Gnome/KDE?

Good article. I especially like the point that after 16 years Linux still fails to compete against MS. I recently relived this whole experience when, 10 years on from my last attempt, I loaded Linux with Gnome and couldn't tell if it had changed at all.

To clarify, I hate Windows. Hate, hate, hate. The best computer I ever bought? Mac LC. Lasted me 7 years without OS upgrades. It was a dream. Now? I hate Macintosh. As noted in the article, they don't even seem to want to compete. (Please note that was 2 less hates then Microsoft).

But both Macintosh and Windows show significant changes and, in some cases, improvements over the last 10 years. Gnome? Nothing had changed. In fact right after reading this article I read an article about the major improvements in Gnome 2.2. 2.2? It has been 10 years and it is still only version 2.2?

This has led me to a whole new thought. The problem is not Linux, per se. The problem is the desktop environments available for Linux. Gnome... I'm sorry, 10 years, version 2.2, still completely inflexible and non-intuitive: sucks. KDE... slightly better, still doesn't have basic functionality required for running alternate keyboard drivers (UniKey for Vietnamese for example), or a simple and easy way to mount a network share without resorting to a command line: sucks.

You're absolutely right. 16 years and still can't compete. Everyday I hate computers more. Where or where is the next real desktop environment?