[GRLUG] value of time and why I run Linux

[Michael Mol]

On Mon, Aug 3, 2009 at 11:15 AM, Adam Tauno
Williams<awilliam at whitemice.org> wrote:
> On Sun, 2009-08-02 at 10:57 -0400, Michael Mol wrote:
>> On Sun, Aug 2, 2009 at 10:25 AM, Adam Tauno
>> Williams<awilliam at whitemice.org> wrote:
>> >> your machine reboot because a bunch of patches got downloaded, or having
>> >> something break because a "patch" was downloaded a control issue, but
>> >> because I want something that works and doesn't freeze up because of a
>> >> code picked up in passing from a google search.
>> > I use an Vista VM quite a bit and other than things getting mucked up my
>> > installers [and I am testing alpha/beta software] I don't really have
>> > any stability issues.  Starting with XP I think most of the Windows
>> > workstation stability issues were resolved,  the once a week reboot for
>> > updates doesn't bother me.
>> The kernel is rock solid from XPSP2 onward.  The changes they've made
>> to their graphical shell in Vista weren't so well-thought-out, though,
>
> I'd say that is putting it kindly.  I wonder if the UI changes would
> have made more sense [had more of a context] if so many features hadn't
> been yanked from the released version [WinFS and other features I can't
> remember now - but remember reading about].

It's not the UI changes that drive me nuts these days, it's the
instability and high overhead of the underlying code. :-/

>
>> and Explorer is now much more sensitive to badly-behaved shell
>> extensions (and other things) causing system-wide UI hangs.
>
> True.  But I cut them some slack for this;  writing a stable and
> pluggable asyncronous system is *HARD*.  Somedays it seems like the
> choices are (a) pluggable or (b) stable.

Believe me, I know it's hard to get right.  It's still infuriating.

>
>> Their official patch cycle is monthly, but they occasionally push out
>> high-priority patches in response to urgent threats, and they
>> occasionally push out patches that override your local "ask me before
>> installing" settings.
>
> Yep, but we [and most enterprises?] operate our own WSUS servers; so we
> control the release of updates.  I usually dribble them out a few every
> week verses the once month slam - especially during periods then they
> come out fast-and-furious.  A WSUS server is pretty easy to setup.

Yeah.  Not something we've done, though we do have a Squid proxy set
up to cache things.

>
>> Additionally, my workspace grows as I use it, with a number of
>> programs and tools running long-term and concurrently, text editors
>> acting as temporary paste buffers--enough that I'll hibernate rather
>> than log out.  Coming into the office and discovering Microsoft
>> decided my computer was going to reboot, no ifs, ands or buts about
>> it, means time wasted as things grow back to where I'm most
>> productive.  More exciting is when I'm still at the office when the
>> system decides it's going to reboot; I get a window saying the system
>> is going to reboot to install system updates in N seconds.
>
> If your network policy permits it can you just turn off automatic
> updates?  I do that on both my Microsoft and LINUX boxes.  Then I
> manually run updates when it is convenient for me - such as NOT running
> any updates before I go on vacation.

Our network policy lets me do just about anything except run Linux
natively on my workstation, with Windows in a VM. I could probably do
that if the apps we wrote weren't as performance-sensitive as they
are, and didn't require the use of specialized hardware drivers; When
we brought in an intern to do graphic design and A/V work, I set him
up with exactly such a setup.  It took him a while, but he's able to
decently use Cinelerra and the Gimp now, whereas he was trained in
class with Adobe Premiere.  I've acquainted him with Blender, and it
looks like the biggest stumbling block transitioning from 3DSMax is
going to be the differences in UI paradigms.

If you can't tell, we weren't particularly interested in dropping
several thousand dollars for up-to-date versions of those tools...

(Speaking of the Gimp...Has anyone else noticed that recent versions
have weird painting artifacts in the canvas widget? I thought it was
an Ubuntu thing, but I'm seeing it on Gentoo as well.)

-- 
:wq