There are places where you will find GNU/Linux advertised these days. This may be the strangest, the side of a building next to a pharmacy. So, it’s about servers. The Penguin logo is prominent. Clearly, attitudes to GNU/Linux are different there. If size matters, the sign is about 10 stories tall… That has to gain some mind-share.
The government of Thailand has stood up to M$ and distributed low-cost GNU/Linux PCs to ordinary folk. That was years ago and the effect has been compounded. There’s a European connection too. A German aid agency has been promoting GNU/Linux for years as a tool to boost the local economy.
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That’s an old photo. I was working at IBM when they did this campaign. I was really into Linux at the time, and it was enormously exciting because Linux was serious business now that the IBM juggernaut was on board.
Windows was on the way out. They had this plan to phase out Windows from all their internal desktops… there was a huge Linux community within the company, doing cool stuff. All sorts of AIX and Windows apps were being ported over. It was totally badass.
Ah, 2001. What a year!
The post-script on this story is that the manager who Ok’ed spray-painting this logo on pavements around SF was fined by the city for graffiti. But we were all believers, back then. I suppose the post-post-script is that IBM’s Linux migration was about as successful as Munich’s.
Munich’s migration is a fantastic success. Last week I visited the Kreisverwaltungsreferat in Munich because I needed a new passport. Well, duh, it wasn’t possible because Linux didn’t play nice with the fingerprint scanner. It seems the IT department didn’t scour Ubuntu’s compatibility lists properly beforehand. Shame on them. Chuckle.
Viktor puked:
“Well, duh, it wasn’t possible because Linux didn’t play nice with the fingerprint scanner.”
You got that wrong dipstick. Most likely the company that made the scanner didn’t write any drivers for the Linux kernel. Linux “plays nice” with everything that plays nice with it.
As usual Viktor is without a clue and no clue bat is big enough to clue him in. You will forever be our Teutonic idiot Viktor.
Viktor wrote, ” It seems the IT department didn’t scour Ubuntu’s compatibility lists properly beforehand. Shame on them.”
So, City of Munich handles passports too? Maybe you should blame someone else like the folks who made the scanner. Why don’t they have drivers for Linux? FreeDesktop hosts a project that does work with a bunch of scanners. Here’s a demo of the software working.
For example,
“The AES 2501 fingerprint scanner vendor is Authentec and this sensor can be found in:
* Medion MD85264 USB sensor
* HP nx6125 notebook
* HP Compaq 6710b
* HP Compaq 6510b
* HP Compaq nx6320
* HP nx6325
* HP Compaq nc8430
* HP Compaq nc6320
* Compaq HEL80/81 notebook
* Fujitsu-Siemens P7120 notebook.
* LG P1 PRO Express Dual notebook.
* LG S1 Pro Express Dual notebook
* Lenovo 3000 N100
* Lenovo 3000 n200 notebook
* Toshiba Libretto U100
* Toshiba Portégé R200 notebook
* Targa Traveller 1577 X2″
LOL. Koz McRae and Pogson want to believe.
Here’s what they use:
http://www.dermalog.eu/en/products_solutions/fingerprintscanner/zf1.php
Viktor puked some more:
“Here’s what they use:
http://www.dermalog.eu/en/products_solutions/fingerprintscanner/zf1.php”
Didn’t bother reading his own link.
From Dermalog’s own site:
“The server software is ideally pre-installed, configured and tested in the DERMALOG Headquarters, so no or only little software installation is usually required at the clients’ sites.”
And.
“Thus, all of our hard- and software experts are capable of customizing our systems in a way that they perfectly fit any kind of requirements and can easily be implemented into existing systems, even from third parties.”
DERMALOG Civil AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems)
Operating Systems:
Microsoft Windows, AIX, Linux including Oracle Linux 5.5, Solaris 9 and recently Solaris 10 and Solaris 11
We are basing the assumption of the finger print scanner’s failure on Viktor’s statement. I do not trust your statement about the scanner Viktor. You offer no reason before or now to be trusted. Until I hear from a trusted third party that the scanner wasn’t functioning correctly, I will believe it to be working properly. Until then, Viktor, you can sit on it… and rotate.
The Kreisverwaltungsreferat is not the police. They don’t need a fingerprint identification system. And they don’t have one.
Grasping at straws. That’s what you do best, Koz McRae. I didn’t doubt for one second that you would search Dermalog’s site for “Linux” and paste the next best thing you found. Well, you found the wrong thing.
Congratulations on not being able to read.
And let me suggest for you to take the next flight to Munich to verify whether I was lying or not. I’ll book you a nice sleeping bag in a GNU/Linux nerd basement.
(That reminds me: how can you solve the hard human verification exercises? Aren’t they much too complicated for your little mind?)
Viktor puked some more:
“And let me suggest for you to take the next flight to Munich to verify whether I was lying or not.”
No thank you. I’ll let your lie or half-truth stand until it gets verified one way or another.
“Congratulations on not being able to read.”
The quotes I found are the only mention of operating systems. Other than that they are clearly avoided to the point of being unimportant.
Now Viktor, before you go blurting out some more garbage you may want to wipe your chin.
Found any acting gigs recently, Koz?
Found any acting gigs recently, Koz?
No, and I can’t play the glockenspiel either.
DERMALOG stuff can cause windows to crash completely Viktor. Lets just say its not the worlds most stable finger printer scanner software on any OS bar AIX.
Yes I trialed those only 3 months ago Viktor. Only OS that we found that could run it dependably was AIX. Anything less you ass was toast.
Mind you Windows 7 with Dermalog zf1 was quite impressive have it scan a finger nail instead of a finger print reboot windows. Linux same stunt would take the scanner off line requiring to be disconnected and reconnected.
So all it could have been is a finger nail got scanned by the person before you because the rolled there hand over.
Some hardware driving software is impressively bad its a pity zf1 got taken as EU standard for passport finger prints. It was the reason I had to trial it boss thought it would have been dependable at least with some OS combination.
No thank you. I’ll let your lie or half-truth stand until it gets verified one way or another.
Hmmm… that photo looks like a fake. I’ve spent enough time working with graphics to trust my eyes.
Also, despite several searches using different queries on different search engines, I could not find this picture anyplace else. No high resolution copy, no different angles, nothing.