[dba-VB] Visual Studio community edition

[Jim Lawrence]

Desktop stations of any kind are always brain-dead simple. A well configured server is a bear and that is if everything goes right.

I do remember how long I worked and you did as well to get Windows based servers and their associated software operational. After about fifty installs, hundreds of hours of reading, and maybe some MS instruction, it all starts to look real easy.

Linux servers are just another OS, nothing magic or simple. I have been working for a couple of weeks to get a headless Ubuntu server box optimized. OpenSSL installed...check; SAMBA server, user shares and communication running correctly...check; Telnet services, locally and remotely running...check. 

My direction is to have a detachable GUI, the networks Active-Directory, DNS, DHCP, webserver (IIS, Apache, InginX (?)) operational. The toys will be MondoDB, MariaDB, Elasticsearch ELK stack, Nodejs, a number of web languages and libraries would be fun...but my ultimate goal is to get ownCloud sharing stack fully operational. At the rate I am going, another month is a real possibility.

...But if my SiL was doing it, he would probably take afternoon to do the entire install while watching vids on his laptop. If he did it, I wouldn't learn that much though.

Jim 

----- Original Message -----
From: "John W. Colby" <jwcolby at gmail.com>
To: "Salakhetdinov Shamil" <mcp2004 at mail.ru>, "Discussion concerning Visual Basic and related programming issues." <dba-vb at databaseadvisors.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 28, 2015 7:32:46 AM
Subject: Re: [dba-VB] Visual Studio community edition

 >>Yes, I remember your driven by a large MS SQL backend DB application 
development story. Is it up&running?

It is up and running.  I have been using it for years.

 >>No any plans to migrate it to Linux/noSQL - Map Reduce ( 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MapReduce ) / CouchDB ( 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CouchDB ) ?

I would love to migrate it to MariaDB, however the C# code was written 
to target SQL Server specifically.  The bigger problem is that the 
database is used to pull data sets for sale.  I have an entire template 
database that I copy for each client order, and that template database 
has defined tables, views and stored procedures that I use to fill the 
order.  Once the order is filled, the order database becomes a history 
of what was done to fill the order, as well as a history of records not 
to be sold again should the client order another data set.

In the end there is simply no compelling reason to make the move. Yet.

The compelling reason long term is that the SQL Server is hosted on 
Windows 2008, and SQL Server itself is 2008 as well.  As we know, MS 
likes to force us to upgrade by dropping support (including bug / 
security fixes).  I don't know if you have ever looked, but licenses for 
new versions are EXPENSIVE!!!  Particularly for tiny companies.

So someday, in the next few years, I will likely be forced to do something.

I am in fact trying to get MariaDB running on my Linux Mint server / 
workstation here at my office.  Sadly, doing anything in Linux is a 
serious exercise in frustration compared to doing the equivalent in 
Windows.  MariaDB is installed.  I can't log in.  Breaking in as the 
root user isn't working as the Google search says it should.

I have an old Areca RAID controller which has to be firmware updated to 
work with the modern drives larger than 2 tb size.  In Windows, that 
involves downloading the file and using a program from Areca to find a 
firmware file and upgrade.  Dead simple.  The same exact process is 
required for Linux except...

Since I am just bringing this card up for the first time (in Linux) I 
have to start from scratch installing drivers, installing the software 
etc.  That involves figuring out what version of Linux... downloading 
the right thing from Areca... Typing in loads of crap in the command 
window... dealing with the inevitable (and I do mean inevitable) error 
messages.

So a simple (in Windows) 15 minute install turns into an hours long 
exercise in frustration (all of last night), and this morning the Areca 
card and three spanking new 3 tb drives are still a useless paperweight 
hooked up to the Linux machine.

For some reason, the Linux crowd seems to think this is supposed to be 
fun???  I have PILES of work backed up behind "simple" (on Windows) 
things that just aren't progressing on Linux Mint. Something always goes 
wrong somewhere.  And figuring it out ALWAYS starts with "what version 
of Linux" and goes downhill from there.

Google (And SUDO, and the command window for GOD's sake) is my friend.  
Except the last two are only very uneasy allies.

In my opinion the core of the Linux problem is simply that with so many 
distros out there, no company selling into the Linux environment can do 
anything in a consistent manner because nothing works the same on every 
distro.  And so the poor guy (me) trying to get anything done is tasked 
with sorting it all out for the specific distro chosen.

Linux is supposed to be free.  The problem is that the Linux cost is in 
all the stunningly stupid crap that has to be figured out to get 
anything more than the simplest install done.  And all that comes 
BEFORE, and stands in the way of, actually getting any work done.

Boy did that end up off-topic or what?  My frustration is showing.

On a lighter note, I have come to the conclusion that approximately 50% 
of ALL the internet content is "how to" articles for getting stuff done 
in Linux.

;)

John W. Colby

On 2/28/2015 3:14 AM, Salakhetdinov Shamil wrote:
> Yes, I remember your driven by a large MS SQL backend DB application development story. Is it up&running? No any plans to migrate it to Linux/noSQL - Map Reduce (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MapReduce  ) / CouchDB (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CouchDB  ) ?

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