Robert Pogson

I have long contended that GNU/Linux is GNU/Linux and the differences between distros are mostly cosmetic. Thus, a novice should take what is available and put it to work. If a novice is going to install a distribution then the number one factor is having a guide rather than what particular distro is chosen. An experienced installer will have half a dozen options to overcome any obstacle while a newbie will be stopped without a guide. Of course, there are few obstacles to installing GNU/Linux on a PC these days. The obstacles are usually corner cases like some peripheral not working or not knowing what application does what.

An article describing tests of three popular distros illustrates this. On assessing usability for 7 factors, the reviewer found all three had very similar scores. Ten years ago, distros started being fairly easy to install even by a newbie ( I was one.) but there were persistent problems with displays and device drivers for a few years more. Lately, the vast majority of installations just work. This past year I installed a release of Debian GNU/Linux and their testing distro on every type of PC in my school and a bunch from the neighbourhood. Even the testing distro stopped encountering difficulty as it was debugged long before release. Upon release, it will be as smooth as silk.

A few observations:

1. Boot to desktop 64s! Very slow, these days. That could be due to a notebook drive and/or the virtual machine.
2. The hardware failure was some random scanner, probably not crucial to the “success” of the installation
3. You will miss a lot of fun if you do not check out the slides in TFA

There are many more factors than 7 that could have been tested. Updates, local services, games, etc. all may affect choices. Installing and trying things out from several distros is an option users of that other OS lack. Installing using a package manager is cool. It’s fast and you use the same tool to install the OS as the applications. Be sure to visit Distrowatch.com to help choose your distro.

IBM has one and they will build to your specifications if you want to customize it.

• Up to 256 Power7 cores in a rack
• Up to 8TB of DDR3 RAM in a rack
• 4 gHz (more or less) CPUs
• only 30 KW power consumption
• lots of I/O

I could find floor-space for one but I would not know where to get that much power/cooling in our building. This thing is designed to run UNIX, or GNU/Linux. That other OS need not apply.

Imagine what you could do with a thing like that…

• run 80000 thin clients
• do a million transactions per second
• keep up with Google
• host a million web sites
• do a lot of maths
• build Debian GNU/Linux in an hour

UPDATE: The Register has an interesting analysis showing why these beasts are competing well against Oracle’s offerings. There is also a brief description of the Power7 server lineup.

M$ has repeatedly had server failures affecting their global business. The latest is a prolonged down-time for Volume Licensing Service Center. Is their system too complex for anyone to keep it running? Why share their pain? Use GNU/Linux. At least, with GNU/Linux, if something breaks, you can fix it. The licence allows you to run as many copies as you want, examine the code, modify the code and distribute it under the same terms.

Last year, I worked at a place that was heavily invested in that other OS and would not switch. This year, I work at a place where things working is valued more than loyalty to M$. It is a refreshing change that allows me to sleep soundly. Last year, I had several major problems with that other OS. I had “critical” updates that just had to be done for all web-connected machines and try as I might I could not get all of them to update on cue. Randomly some would update and others would not. It usually took me three days to update clients and I had to update servers when they were not needed by the system on my time. Of course, many re-re-reboots were required and often a server would require me to respond via keyboard to some nonsense during the boot process. It was very frustrating. This year, most updates of Debian GNU/Linux can be done on demand in seconds with rare re-boots. I need far fewer servers to do the job, too. Last year, I needed 7 servers just to run one school. This year, I think one is enough but I have two so I can play with different releases and provide thin client services in the lab. I spend my time creating new services on my LAN instead of maintaining that other OS as a full-time job.

What we need in IT are simple, modular systems that we can build without disrupting our whole system. With malware, re-re-reboots, broken updates, EULA from Hell that restricts us from doing all kinds of reasonable things with software and hardware, high costs of licensing and maintenance, and sluggish service, that other OS is a burden, not a blessing. With Debian GNU/Linux we get all our hardware and software resources working for us, getting the job done.