[dba-Tech] The latest Debian

Salakhetdinov Shamil mcp2004 at mail.ru
Mon May 13 15:43:57 CDT 2013


Hi Hans •-

Thank you for your reference on Linux history.

<<So what are we really arguing about here?>>
I personally not arguing but expressing opinion on Jim's (rhetoric) question how it happened that Linux is a more stable OS than MS Windows. And the fact that Linux kernel was based on Minix sources and not on (GNU) Unix ones doesn't matter that much.

Thank you.
--Shamil

Воскресенье, 12 мая 2013, 15:13 -07:00 от Hans-Christian Andersen <hans.andersen at phulse.com>:
> Hi Shamil,
> 
> > please correct me if I'm wrong  but Linux core was based on Unix sources
> 
> No. Linux is the kernel of the operating system. It was built from scratch,
> with only Minix, a bare-bones operating system meant for educational purposes
> by a university professor, as inspiration. Linux was not built upon freely
> available code or anything of that sort. Here is a breakdown of the history of
> Linux: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Linux
> 
> Perhaps you are thinking of the GNU Project, which attempted to create a
> standardised Unix platform. This is not Linux, but is still like the bash
> command line environment and all the basic command line tools, like 'echo',
> 'cat', 'touch', etc etc. You find this on pretty much every Unix operating
> system out there, Apple OS X included.
> 
> > A lot of academic and industrial research was done before Linux inherited it
> "for granted" in 1991
> 
> Microsoft Windows also benefitted heavily from many many years of research and
> development at academic universities - foundational things that were developed
> before Windows or DOS existed and Microsoft also hiring researchers and
> academics right out of university. I don't see the difference.
> 
> Plus, Microsoft "benefitted" from their relationship with IBM while developing
> OS/2, before parting ways and "inheriting" Windows. Microsoft has done a lot
> of "inheriting" in their history... going as far back as the origins of
> MS-DOS.
> 
> So what are we really arguing about here?
> 
> - Hans
> 
> 
> 
> On 2013-05-12, at 1:39 PM, Salakhetdinov Shamil <mcp2004 at mail.ru> wrote:
> 
> > Hi Jim --
> > 
> > Thank you for your posting and the questions you proposed to discuss.
> > 
> > I have just a WinPhone here so I'll post a very short note for today:
> > 
> > - please correct me if I'm wrong  but Linux core was based on Unix sources,
> and the first version of Unix appeared in 1974(?). A lot of academic and
> industrial research was done before Linux inherited it "for granted" in
> 1991(?) when Linus Torwalds assembled and released the first Linux version
> "just for fun". All the subsequent 20+ years were spent on polishing  and
> extending  of what was rather stable system from the very beginning. Of course
> this "just polishing" is a great work.
> > 
> > MS Windows NT (the foundation of Win7/8) was written from scratch just 20+
> years ago. As usual for MS they did experiment a lot with their OS during all
> that years - and they got a good result in just 20 years comparing to 40 years
> of Linux/Unix history. 
> > 
> > As for frustration from MS software - it's inevitable "natural" part of
> their business model :) But I personally was much more frustrated with MS
> software in the past than nowadays. MS always(?) stated that VB6/VBA are of
> limited use/history, and only C/C++ are for "true developers". I can't call
> myself a "true developer" as I currently mainly use C# but I have had a chance
> to participate in a rather large payroll system development originally written
> on C on MS DOS, then migrated to C++ and MS Windows 95 - and it's still
> working on Win7 and Win8, part of it as Web  service. Technical work of
> keeping this application inline with new MS Windows versions was minimal...
> > 
> > Comparing Oracle with MS Windows is not quite correct as DBMS development is
> thousands times easier IMO than development of OSes as MS Windows is.
> > 
> > Linux is more stable than MS Windows because its core and the principles of
> communication of its components are simpler than the ones of MS Windows.
> > 
> > Thank you.
> > -- Shamil
> > 
> > Воскресенье, 12 мая 2013, 12:25 -07:00 от "Jim Lawrence" <accessd at shaw.ca>:
> >> Hi Shamil and Gustav:
> >> 
> >> Taking this discussion from the other side, one big question remains.
> >> 
> >> Given that Linux was created with virtually no money and its various
> >> components are designed on very limited budgets, lots of volunteers, in
> some
> >> cases, working out of their basements, in their spare time, funded from
> >> donations or from tax incentives given out by other large companies which
> >> makes any money source, very tentative at best. It has not been until very
> >> recently that there is some stable money sources for Linux development. 
> >> 
> >> OTOH, given that Microsoft has a budget that is steady and in the billions.
> >> They can buy the very best developers, systems managers and sales staff
> >> (which in the case of Linux is non-existant). 
> >> 
> >> Therefore, comparing the two development environments it would be logical
> >> that Microsoft would be able to build a product superior in every way to
> >> Linux...but the opposite is true.
> >> 
> >> On comparison, does this suggest that a corporate entity can not produce a
> >> good product? Not at all, think of Oracle. It's prices are expensive but
> >> they have designed some of the best databases in the market. They a fast
> >> reliable, secure, innovative and the products run on all the major
> >> platforms.
> >> 
> >> Companies do not mind paying a good price for a product but they expect
> >> quality. Linux (and its related products) has set the bar and in twenty
> >> years Microsoft is now scrambling to keep up and the performance gap keeps
> >> getting wider.
> >> 
> >> My question is, why is this so? That rant/posting, though questionable may
> >> have given some insight in to the core reasons. Does anyone have a better
> >> suggestion as to the causes and subsequent results? 
> >> 
> >> I am willing to listen to any suggestion as no one is more frustrated than
> I
> >> have been, in the last few years, with Microsoft.
> >> 
> >> Jim  
> >> 
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> >> [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Salakhetdinov
> >> Shamil
> >> Sent: Sunday, May 12, 2013 5:20 AM
> >> To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
> >> Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] The latest Debian
> >> 
> >> Hi Gustav -- 
> >> 
> >> Yes, that article looks like a fake one or authored by a "psycho" with
> their
> >> superEGO bloated in the first part of the article and lost all their vapor
> >> in the second part. Taking such article into account doesn't look
> worthwhile
> >> from here...
> >> 
> >> And all that conspirology, Kremlinoligy as they say, looks rather stupid. 
> >> 
> >> Linux is a good OS, no doubt, and it doesn't need such articles to be used
> >> to prove its "superiority" over MS Windows, IMO.
> >> 
> >> Thank you.
> >> -- Shamil
> >> 
> >> P.S. Typed on WinPhone from the garden house located in NW Russia - doing
> >> some groundwork here :)
> >> Воскресенье, 12 мая 2013, 10:30 +02:00 от "Gustav Brock"
> <gustav at cactus.dk>:
> >>> Hi Shamil
> >>> 
> >>> I don't think so. Neither did Jim, so it seems, as that appended note is
> >> the
> >>> interesting part - written when the fellow had given the original blurb a
> >>> second thought. 
> >>> 
> >>> I don't get why some are so clever on behalf of Microsoft and its
> >> management
> >>> and are convinced, that MS is nothing but a bunch of idiots. In no
> >>> organisation anything is perfect, neither at MS, but when I think about
> >> it,
> >>> all the speakers and instructors I've met at MS developer events have been
> >>> people I would have a good time working with. More or less, of course, but
> >> I
> >>> don't believe they left all the bad guys back home at MS.
> >>> 
> >>> /gustav
> >>> 
> >> 
> >> 
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