RE: Microsoft Windows, will rule in the next 8 years in the marke t

From: William B Ferguson <wbfergus@xxxxxxxx>
To: Oracle-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2005 07:43:46 -0700
It doesn't really matter to me which way (OS) the world goes. I'm just a
peon and use what I'm told to use, but I do have to agree with this =
post.
I'm (kind of) lucky in that I do everything, DBA, development, SA, LAN
Admin, computer support, etc., so I actually have the power to get =
things
setup correctly. Luckily I have a small office here, only 13 users, but
pretty much follow the same steps as below when I get new machines in. I
re-install all the software (not just Windows) from scratch. I rarely =
have
a problem with any machine, and those problems are generally hardware
related.

My primary desktop usually has a dozen or more windows open at once, and
the machine is left on all the time (so I can remember where I was and
what I was doing the next day). I might HAVE to reboot the machine 3 =
times
a year, depending on how often I use something that's done in java
(yuck!).

My servers (which are now Win2003, used to be HP-UX) only need to be
rebooted when there's a software upgrade, Oracle or OS. This makes no
difference between HP-UX or Win2003, the number of rare reboots is about
the same.

If people are having problems with their machine (regardless of OS), =
after
getting a good backup of all the data files, get the machine setup up
RIGHT, instead of trusting that somebody else did it right.=20

Remember Murphy, he'll get 'ya!

------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Ferguson
U.S. Geological Survey - Minerals Information Team
PO Box 25046, MS-750
Denver, Colorado 80225
Voice (303)236-8747 ext. 321 Fax (303)236-4208

~ Think on a grand scale, start to implement on a small scale ~




-----Original Message-----
From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx =
[mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of tomday2@xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2005 7:17 AM
To: Oracle-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Microsoft Windows, will rule in the next 8 years in the =
marke
t


<rant>

If you have to work with windows and it has to be up all the time then =
you
have to do it right.

In a large corp. they may order 200 or so desktop systems at a time.=20
The only way to put Windows on these in a timely fashion is to "ghost" =
it
--- copy the disk image from another system.  If you order from Dell or
whatever the machine will come already ghosted.  You don't think that =
they
have the time to sit down with the CD and actually, individually install
Windows?

Ghosted machines are not reliable because of small differences in the
mother board, installed cards, etc.  If you install Windows from the CD
Windows is able to take each individual machine's qwirks into account.

I worked once at a place where everything had to work and our SA refused
to accept any machine that came with the operating system installed.  He
would burn the disks down to bare metal, install DOS 3.3 from floppy =
(the
last stable DOS, he claimed) and then install the operating system from
CD.

Management was unhappy because it took a long time to upgrade people to
new hardware.  However, I worked there four years and no one ever had
their machine lock up unexpectedly and I never took my Oracle database
down except when I wanted to make a cold backup to copy to another =
machine
- about 5 times.

I am amazed at the stories I hear of people who have to endure an =
unstable
Windows environment.  I regularly work with 20 open windows and some of
these I'll leave up for months.  My machine does not freeze or lock up,
does not unexpectedly terminate programs, etc.

Why does Windows need so many security patches?  Because it's the OS of
choice for the everyday user.  Why do bank robbers rob banks?=20
Because that's where they keep the money.  Why do hackers hack Windows?
Because that's what most people use.  So of course MS has to keep trying
to stay one step ahead (or behind) of the hackers.

What's this myth about Unix being secure?  Original Unix had NO security
features.  It used to be laughablely easy to crash a Unix system (there
was even a system command to do it) and just about as easy to make
yourself a super user.  Unix, in all it's flavors, is constantly being
patched.  It's just that it requires much more skill (you can't just run =
a
download patch from the vendor) and it's usually done by some SA in a =
back
room.  Very few Unix systems sit on clueless users' desks.  If Linux =
ever
approaches Windows in popularity then we will find out just how secure =
its
basic concept is.  I imagine that there are hackers today embedding
trapdoors in Linux source code and looking for the payoff years from now
when that code has become the accepted standard.

</rant>

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.  We now resume your normal
programming.
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RE: Microsoft Windows, will rule in the next 8 years in the marke t

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