Re: [SLUG] Verizon DSL -- Anything I Should Know?

From: Paul M Foster (paulf@quillandmouse.com)
Date: Wed Aug 22 2001 - 00:09:12 EDT


On Tue, Aug 21, 2001 at 02:33:17PM -0400, David wrote:

> David wrote:
> I'm on Mauricio's side on this one sorry but I'm not very educated on Linux
> but I do use it from time to time. But......I'm wondering what the
> difference is in what OS the ISP uses..Whats that go to do with the
> connection to the customer?The way I see it is if you have a connection then
> all is good..Right?
> Please reply to inform me (I'm willing to learn why the ISP using Win2k
> IIS makes a difference to N*x users) with an answer to this.
> Dave

There are several reasons why Windows OSes are problematic for ISPs.
First is things like Code Red, which only directly affects Windows
machines. Security experts generally agree that Microsoft has never been
good at security. Likewise, Microsoft saw fit to include macro
capabilities in a lot of their software, which has led to almost all the
email viruses you've heard about in the last few years. Security experts
also generally agree that security is enhanced when the source code for
your products is available. The source code for Windows isn't available.

Second, a Linux box can handle more simultaneous connections than a
Windows box. And remember, most of the internet runs on *nix/Linux.
There are good reasons for that. *nix/Linux boxes are hard to crash, and
the software plumbing inside them is pretty simple. Windows boxes are
exceptionally easy to crash, and the plumbing is very complex.

Third, Linux boxes are far easier to configure and administer than
NT/2000 boxes. In fact, until recently, it was very difficult to
remotely administer an NT box. Conversely, *nix/Linux boxes have always
had this capability built in natively.

Fourth, Windows has some... idiosyncracies. I'm not an expert at this,
but it's apparently very easy to misconfigure them. The results are
annoying more than anything else. Windows software often doesn't conform
to internet standards, and its techs seldom know much about those
standards.

Fifth, Microsoft has a long history of co-opting standards. They call it
"embrace and extend". For example, the rules of HTML say that for every
"table" tag in a HTML document, there must be an "end table" tag. When
Netscape hits a page that has no "end table" tag, it won't display the
page; it will be blank. On the other hand, Internet Explorer doesn't
care about this tag, despite the fact that the standard insists on it.
The result: IE will display the page fine. But here's the rub: certain
tools that build HTML code leave out those "end table" tags. This is in
Microsoft's best interest, since they can say, "See, it displays in IE
fine. You should switch from Netscape." Microsoft has used all kinds of
tactics like this over the years to crush their competition. The result
is that they're now before the Justice Department.

If you're the average user, you may not notice any difference, whether
your ISP uses *nix/Linux or Windows. You get your mail, you download
your MP3s, you surf. Not much difference.

However, more to the point, this is a Linux list, full of penguinistas.
For the reasons above, and many others, they generally don't like
Microsoft, and have little respect for Microsoft's products. If they can
avoid them, they do. Their "team" is Linux, so that's who they root for.
Imagine being at a football game where one side of the stadium is all
Team A fans and the other side is Team B. You like Team B, but you sit
on the Team A side of the stadium. You may not make it out alive,
considering how seriously some people take their football. ;-}

I don't believe the original poster intended to promote Windows, only an
ISP he was satisfied with. But sometimes that's enough to set off
people in the Linux camp. If someone appears to deliberately post
anti-Linux or pro-Microsoft comments on a Linux list, we call them a
"troll" (from the fishing term). They get on lists to disrupt things.

HTH,

Paul



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Fri Aug 01 2014 - 19:56:37 EDT