Microsoft looking for FreeBSD Skills 243
After last Sunday's story about Microsoft looking
for Linux skills, Alfred
Perlstein wrote in with the news that talented FreeBSD admins can also find themselves positions with
Microsoft, in particular, at Hotmail. The Hotmail guys do seem to have
a sense of humour though; witness hostnames like
rotate-the-shield-harmonics.hotmail.com.
This smells of "port" (Score:2)
MS Office, Explorer, all that stuff. (I'm pretty sure that Explorer already exists for x86 and sparc Solaris boxen, but nowhere else). With all of the newbies from windows land flooding into the linux and BSD* worlds, I bet that they could actually attract a few people who are moving to something they don't understand by using some software on UNIX that they already know.
Of course, that would be some type of low level concession, since if we can't have our customers on our platform, we'll have our customers on your platform, but still, I think the bucks are there.
So when are they going to start hiring Plan9, Eros, and Pick programmers?
It would be interesting to see them port some of their software that relies so heavily on ActiveX and all that other stuff. They may have to bring that stuff with them when coming to Linux/BSD
Just my $0.02
Re:This smells of "port" (Score:1)
Man's unique agony as a species consists in his perpetual conflict between the desire to stand out and the need to blend in.
hotmail (Score:2)
They got what you ask for (Score:5)
Hotmail in Sunnyvale, CA
[snip] We need someone to administer the Hotmail system of 45 million plus users...[snip]... solid troubleshooting skills, system installation and configuration, fundamentals of security, [snip]
No wonder Hotmail is easier to crack than a cookie jar.
_____________________________________
I doubt it... (Score:2)
I doubt it. When people switch from Microsoft to an alternative OS, like a BSD or Linux, isn't it, in part, to get away from Microsoft? I've never heard anyone say, "I like Microsoft products so much I am going to start using Linux instead of NT." I guess one could argue that people may like Office, but not Windows, but I don't know - Office has that Windowy feel about it.
Anyway, I seriously doubt Microsoft would start promoting software that would adversely affect their core business - the Windows OS. I would wager that the reason they want these BSD folks for the Hotmail group is because Hotmail still runs on a bunch of FreeBSD servers, which were suppose to be converted to NT boxes. (The conversion process has been riddled with problems, hence the reason only part of Hotmail uses NT, the other half using non-Microsoft solutions.)
Sounds good to me. (Score:4)
I can think of a couple of reasons that MS/Hotmail would want Linux/BSD people.
1. They wish to port various tools (Office, Encarta, FrontPage) to Linux or BSD. This is most definetly not a bad thing, and is, IMHO, good. The plethora of tools for LInux/BSD can only be a good thing.
2. They recognize the value of BSD(in Hotmail's case) and are willing to hire people to keep it going. This is also a good thing. If they recognize that BSD works well enough not to replace it with NT or some such, that can only be a good thing.
3. They plan to use it as a FUD generator. Inthis case, I don't think they would hire people with Linux/BSD experience, because generally, those people wouldn't find faults, only differences. IMHO, the most clued computer people are those who see things more as differences, and not faults.
4. They want to make Windows/Linux integration easier. SOunds good to me.
5. They want to make a Linux distro. Neither good nor bad, really - thanks to GPL, they can't possibly take over the market, and another distro probably wouldn't hurt anything.
Basically, I see this as a win-win situation all around. I hope we see more of this sort of thing coming out of Redmond soon.
Re:This smells of "port" (Score:3)
Some other hotmail domains (Score:4)
judge-jackson-won't-look-for-us-here.hotmail.com
bork-bork-bork.consumers.hotmail.com
here-come-the-clowns.legal.hotmail.com
And don't forget:
what-me-worry.linux.hotmail.com
Hotmail hostnames (Score:4)
- 216.33.238.149: rotate-the-shield-harmonics.hotmail.com
- 216.33.238.147: ham-in-a-can.hotmail.com
- 216.33.238.148: 27eyedwalleyedbass.hotmail.com
And I complained when they called our server "mrhankey".Too much being read into this (Score:2)
Re:Sounds good to me. (Score:1)
This is no more significant or strange or thought provoking than if any other company wanted administrators for any other operating system.
NT is backup software (Score:1)
Interesting, NT is only backup software. They finally realized it.
BSDers have always been more open towards Windows (Score:4)
Basically, BSDers promote BSD on the server and Windows (or Mac) on the desktop. They realize and accept that Windows is good on the desktop and resign themselves to the fact that BSD will never be able to compete in that area.
Linuxers on the other hand, tend to take the Linux everywhere philosophy and only use Windows with much bitching and moaning (sometimes hypocritically).
Wouldn't be interesting if Microsoft adopted the BSD attitude though?
Re:Some other hotmail domains - unresolvable (Score:1)
[OT] Re:hostnames (Score:1)
--
Defining BSDers and Linuxers is hard. (Score:1)
Re:Sounds good to me. (Score:2)
Hmm. My first thought was "Fat chance. Read the Halloween Documents." But then I thought about it a bit longer. Maybe this is MS looking to the post-trial world, and trying to be ready for it. If the final decision forces them to open up their OS, then under their current corporate architecture, they've lost their revenue base. Or have they?
If they can manoeuver themselves to be a supplier of desktop applications under a "commodity O/S market" or whatever, then ...well, what then? Is that a bad thing, a good thing? Would they matter? Show of hands -- who here is willing to drop vi or emacs for Word2K? Nobody? I didn't think so. Though most people might be happy with Office, I'm not sure the Linux crowd would be all that interested. Hmm.
My first instinct was just to dismiss your comment out of hand (my guess is they simply want people to administer Hotmail, which entails no strategic scheme -- they just want the damn thing to work). But maybe there is something to your point.
As things are right now, Microsoft really has nothing to gain by embracing Linux or anything about Linux -- they're in the dominant position, after all. But tomorrow, after the court case is over with, maybe the playing field will be different, and MS will have to embrace the current opposition. In that light, this could be their move in that direction. I'm sure they wouldn't be doing anything to support Linux if there was no anti-trust issue in the background...
Re:Hotmail hostnames (Score:3)
nexus.hotmail.com. A 209.185.243.9
wonka.hotmail.com. A 209.185.128.201
avu.hotmail.com. A 206.159.213.26
skittles.hotmail.com. A 209.185.128.207
bud.hotmail.com. A 209.185.128.248
law-entrance.hotmail.com. A 209.185.130.253
cholesterol.hotmail.com. A 209.185.128.202
27eyedwalleyedbass.hotmail.com. A 216.33.238.148
lalala-and-stuff.hotmail.com. A 216.32.182.248
partner.hotmail.com. A 207.82.250.213
eieio.hotmail.com. A 216.32.182.247
metrics.hotmail.com. A 209.1.113.62
moo.hotmail.com. A 209.1.112.25
graph.hotmail.com. A 209.1.112.251
h0h0-is-my-friend.hotmail.com. A 216.32.182.246
devnull.hotmail.com. A 216.32.183.42
venus.hotmail.com. A 207.82.250.129
natkit.hotmail.com. A 216.32.183.200
ham-in-a-can.hotmail.com. A 216.33.238.147
snickers.hotmail.com. A 209.185.128.205
goobers.hotmail.com. A 209.185.128.199
rotate-the-shield-harmonics.hotmail.com. A 216.33.238.149
netops.hotmail.com. A 216.32.183.201
oero.hotmail.com. A 209.185.128.206
Everytime MS posts a Unix job ... (Score:4)
Somone jumps to an unwarrented conclusion, and then that person is moderated to the top the
The idea that MS is going to "port" (sic) their software to FreeBSD is entirely offbase, give the facts at hand. Uruk obviously didn't read the linked article, or the header which clearly indicates that this is Hotmail, which has always been a unix shop.
Re:Hotmail hostnames (Score:1)
"...It was a walleyed bass...with 27 eyes! It was a 27 eyed walleyed bass!!"
in my humble opinion... (Score:1)
They want Solaris admins (Score:2)
Honestly, this is a little embarassing for Microsoft, but on the other hand it shows a certain willingness to use what works well. On the other hand, it wouldn't be good PR if the number one free email site fell apart over a conversion to Win2K.
Howard Owen hbo@egbok.com Everything's Gonna Be OK Consulting
Re:Hotmail hostnames (Score:1)
Re:Too much being read into this (Score:2)
Still, I'm surprised they haven't made another go at converting Hotmail to W2K (perhaps they will now that it's in production). They are going to be billing it (W2K) as a unix competitor and trying to convince people to migrate from unix to W2K, and getting Hotmail converted would be a good case study for them.
On the other hand, maybe their tech managers just want to stick with technology their staff already knows.
Dana
Re:hostnames (Score:1)
Hotmail runs on FreeBSD. What's the big deal? (Score:2)
Re:Defining BSDers and Linuxers is hard. (Score:1)
Just because I don't have a sig don't mean I aint watchin'
Funny thing about Microsoft (Score:4)
Re:Hotmail hostnames (Score:2)
note that this doesn't work with a (in my eyes) properly configured dns.
Re:They got what you ask for (Score:2)
All of the recent problems that Hotmail experienced related to security were a result of bad (cgi) programming, not bad system admins.
Re:BSDers have always been more open towards Windo (Score:1)
If they can put up with Windows as the desktop then what's wrong with having to put up with Linux moving towards being something for the destop too?
Linux users are dreaming of not having to use windows ever again. this isn't a bad dream. sometimes it gets in the way of reality. but when someone suggests using linux for something that the MacOS or another OS can do better (like most media stuff) then that's just plain wrong. but i've always seen people correct what appears to be bad advice.
as a community, i've seen some good people do the check and balances that keeps the community healthy. it won't always be successful, since there are TONS of linux users today. but this doesn't make the whole "linuxers" a bad group.
Re:BSDers have always been more open towards Windo (Score:1)
At least, that's my take on the situation.
Re:They want Solaris admins (Score:1)
servers are FreeBSD and back-end (read: database)
servers run on Solaris
Re:They want Solaris admins (Score:1)
It would NOT be a good idea for them to botch a conversion and deny their 45 million accounts e-mail access, even for a week... and these aren't meant to be beta-testers, either. Not all of these folks are spammers or trolls using throwaway accounts, either.
To convert the entire system -- interface, backends and all -- might mean re-designing an entirely new Hotmail optimized for an NT variant rather than BSD/Solaris.
Hotmail has *always* run FreeBSD (Score:1)
Remember that Hotmail was not always part of Microsoft. Seems like everyone's forgotten that...
Hotmail ran FreeBSD from the get-go (and possibly Solaris and Linux also?), LONG before they were part of Microsoft. Microsoft bought it later, attempted to move it to NT, failed, and so they left it as it was.
My guess is Microso~1 simply needs FreeBSD people to maintain Hotmail as it's always been. This doesn't have anything to do with porting or any new open wource project or any other weird ideas that have been posted here.
*T? (Score:1)
Re:I doubt it... (Score:1)
I have to disagree with that. To switch operating systems simply to "get away from Miscrosoft" seems a pretty poor reason to switch at all. If your current OS does everything you require and does it well, why switch? However, if there is an alternative out there that better fulfills your needs, then by all means switch. But don't do it for some superficial reason like "Microsoft sucks!" or "I hate Apple!" or whatever.
Granted, there are often better solutions than MS products for specific problems, but for many users, Windows provides everything they need and does it quite well.
In a perfect world, operating system choice would not rank on a level with religious choice, but unfortunately that's not this world.
Re:BSDers have always been more open towards Windo (Score:1)
Re:Funny thing about Microsoft (Score:1)
VA and REDHAT on the other hand, don't need to post job openings, because they seem to be hiring already established Open Source developers and giving them some money to live on why they code stuff that they're interested in.
everyone wants to make money, what matters more is how much they contribute back. until MS-Tyrant, change and contribute like IBM has and SGI moving towards it, then i still would side with the anti-MS people.
the Linux People are putting money back into the economy, creating not so much new techonlogy but a different way of making money and software and saving the world.
i mean, thanks to linux, i have a job at good rates and wouldn't have liked it as much if i had to fix problems with NT being the only cheap solution (of course there's always FreeBSD).
Re:This smells of "port" (Score:1)
Re:Hotmail hostnames (Score:2)
My understanding... (Score:1)
Re:My understanding... (Score:1)
Win NT not good for dynamic content (Score:2)
Re:I doubt it... (Score:1)
Re:*T? (Score:2)
Trademarks only mean you can't sell a product and call it UNIX. You're still allowed to say the word UNIX to your heart's content, as long as a reasonable person wouldn't confuse you for the person who owns the trademark.
Re:MS *is* porting Office and IE to Linux (Score:2)
Or Mainsoft is, with MainWin for Linux [mainsoft.com] (Mainsoft's MainWin is what Microsoft used to port IE5 to UNIX [mainsoft.com] (and IE4 before that [mainsoft.com]).
Re:Hotmail hostnames (Score:2)
So I believe that the all-numbers is merely a convention (and not a requirement) and also an InterNIC restriction.
Re:My understanding... (Score:2)
Re:I doubt it... (Score:2)
...but that's insufficient reason to believe that nobody's done it. Most users of Microsoft OSes on the desktop may still be using a Microsoft OS on their desktop, but I would not be in the least surprised to hear that at least one member of the Slashdot audience dumped it in favor of Linux (which does not ipso facto mean that people will ever do so en masse - I don't expect to see any such move, at least in the short term, and possibly not in the long term - it just means that it's probably foolish to take the fact that nobody you've met has done so as an indication that nobody's done so).
Musings... (Score:1)
This means making MSFT money, while supporting BSD. Then taking that MSFT money, not putting it _into_ BSD (the whole free thing that we keep chatting about) but _also_ not putting it into MSFT.
Seems cheaper then just buying their stock and holding it in a brokerage account you won't let your friends see now that you're wondering what'll happen to Red Hat's valuations.
Microsoft's money is so green even the Government doesn't know how they do it. Sounds like a plum to me, even _with_ reservations about working for MSFT, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em and turn 'em around from the inside since they're hiring you _specifically_ because you aren't an MSFT fan.
Then again, I don't suppose Einstein woulda worked for Germany no matter what they'd paid him, so... there you go.
Re:*T? (Score:3)
Then you presumably mean *ebian *NU/*inux, not *MS. *MS is an operating system developed by *igital *quipment *orporation (now a part of *ompaq), running on *axes and, in its *pen*MS incarnation, on *lpha-based systems as well. (Not to be confused with *VS - formerly known as, I think, *S/*S2 *VS, or whatever, and now called *S/390 - a descendant of *S/360, running on *BM mainframes.)
Re:This smells of "port" (Score:2)
Wouldn't the shouts of "assimilation" come in the opposite direction of what we're expecting? From the Microsoft supporters?
We're seeing the possible advent of Microsoft software on the *nix's & the *BSD's, not the possible advent of *nix & *BSD software on Microsoft OS's. If they were truly assimilating, wouldn't they take our technology, and add it to their own? Instead, they're taking their technology, and putting it into a market where they've already found out that they can't compete unless they adapt, not by forcing us to adapt.
Re:Hotmail hostnames (Score:1)
I believe the name of the song was "Story of Earl". The song with the great line, "She could only say two words, which were dog and pussy. We have out later that she was trying to say dog-pussy, one big long hyphenated word.
peace freaks
don
Y'all are missing the point (Score:1)
Thus you got all of these silly names like SunOS, OSF/1, Irix, and yes even Linux (instead of Sun Unix, Digital Unix (eventually appeared), SGI Unix, and Linus' Unix). It has nothing to do with what you can or can not call it in your meaningless Internet babbling.
Since "UNIX(tm)" got turned over to a trade group, the joke is obsolete, except for the old timers, although it still somewhat applies because Linux and *BSD will never be UNIX certified unless someone forks over some cash.
Re:BSDers have always been more open towards Windo (Score:3)
1) They don't use the term Linux when they mean OpenSource OS. (The Linux camp is heavy into this idea...OpenSource==Linux.)
2) They don't really give a damn if Apple, Microsoft, Linux, or whomever uses thier code. Its a complement that you want to borrow their code.
3) Promotion of OpenSource means *ALL* of it, be it BSDed, GPLed, or whatever the OpenSource licence. The rising tide floats all boats.....
4) Know its a multi-vendor world and work to live in it accordingly.
5) Don't see big companies as the enemy, but rather as someone else who will use the code. And, if they are lucky, the bug fixes will come back, if not...oh well. Hence, the BSD crowd tends to be less upset when a company charges money for the code/improvements to the code.
Microsoft will be more than happy to take code from BSD. And, if they are going to produce an environment that can run Linux software, it will be some form of add-on module to NT. They won't throw away all of the work they did on VMS^H^H^HNT.
Not only FreeBSD. (Score:2)
Here's another interesting tidbit about hotmail which we must remember. Hotmail is it's own company, (except for that whole "being owned by MS" thing) But as of late, they're company policy has been to not use MS software for anything... This is, of course, until MS forces it upon them to migrate to W2K (sometime mid-next year) But i *severely* doubt that that will really go off.
Moving to Linux??? Re:They want Solaris admins (Score:1)
And why would they want to do this?
Using BSD/Solaris:
"We are using what we have already. It was part of the purchase."
Going to GNU/Linux would offer a 'validation' to GNU/Linux, not to mention run the risk of having to give out the hotmail source code (that GPL thing).
If they are going to move, it will be to MS products. Remember: They "Eat their own dog food". Moving to anything BUT Micro$oft products would be an admission that they can't make their own tools scale to do the job.
Re:I doubt it... (Score:1)
And I can count at least two other friends that completely left Windows for Linux on their home systems.
So, I would say that there is definately people switching from Windows to Linux.
Re:Sounds good to me. (Score:2)
(Raises hand)
I would. In a heartbeat, as long as the price was something I could afford. I find both vi & emacs almost intimidating with their REQUIREMENTS of learning the keyboard shortcuts. I can use vi to edit any file that I mess up and as a result am forced to boot into my system -- but that's the extent of where I use it. I've tried emacs. It's big, it's slow, it's powerful, and it's not for me. If we lived in a command line only world, I'd use it more than anything else, but this is the age of the GUI, like it or not, and I'm looking for something that's functional, stylish, ergonomic & streamlined.
For some reason, Microsoft products seem to fill out these categories fairly well, even if they skimp out on the stability & the software becomes horribly bloated by features most people will never use.
I don't want to spread around pro-Microsoft or pro-Linux FUD, because I'm quite happy with my dual boot system. But like any reasonable computer user, I have gripes with both sides of my computer. Microsoft releasing some of their prodcuts for Linux would definately help to reduce the number of gripes I have with Linux.
No one seems to be able to think anymore (Score:5)
The Linux job was for a marketing person who would guide their strategy to respond to the competitor, Linux.
This job is for a support engineer for Hotmail.
Stop trying to read anything further into this. No, they are not porting Office applications to FreeBSD. No, they are not coming up with a Linux distro of their own. Just the simple fact that they'd require 100s of people, not just 1, should be a clue. Also, maybe actually reading the job descriptions might tip you off. *sigh*
Re:Hotmail hostnames (Score:1)
Re:Hotmail hostnames (Score:2)
Re:Also in the news today... (Score:2)
Think about what would happen if Microsoft took a cue from McDonalds. About 90% of the people that post on
"Flame Microsoft? We'll see you in court."
Even MS hasn't stooped to McD's level yet...
Re:Funny thing about Microsoft (Score:1)
You need to learn to be less caught up in yourself and what you think is your movement and open your eyes to the world around you. Linux and the OSS movement are not godsends to the industry, but I think great idea's that still have a LONG way to go.
Re:Hotmail hostnames (Score:2)
Re:This smells of "port" (Score:1)
Re:Hotmail hostnames (Score:2)
...phil
The truth about MS and Unix (Score:3)
Many of you may not remember this, but when windows95.com was launched, it ran BSD/OS 2.0 because Windows couldn't handle it. Big deal.
You've all been hearing about the MS new XML initiative, guess where a shitload of development and testing went on for that, MSN-Linkexchange with FreeBSD. Of course it failed miserably due to protocol implimentation, but hey, its development thats not on Windows.
Now, I wouldn't be too suprised if MS ported IE to Linux, however don't expect Office or anything like that, they'd have to rewrite the thing from scratch almost due to all the WIN32 specific stuff. IE has already been ported to Irix and Solaris, but its not like it works the same as it does on Windows. I tried to navigate MS's intranet with IE5 for Solaris, hah! it didn't work for shit. Same thing with Outlook for Solaris, barely worked. There's a long way to go, and MS has more important places to pay attention.
800.com [OT] (Score:1)
Apache Modules (Score:2)
Front Page's success in owning the non-skilled content development market comes from Microsoft understanding that they need to make it interoperate with the most popular Web server.
If they can get Microsoft Wallet to interoperate, it could become a defacto standard as well.
Re:*T? (Score:1)
It's a lot of hassle to type
Windows NT
every single time, so you use '*' to expand it.
Windows isn't their "core business" (Score:1)
>promoting software that would adversely
>affect their core business - the Windows OS.
I'd wager that they make more money from MSOffice than MS Windows; and from various support options for their software products than the software itself.
Does anyone have a reference to an actual breakdown of their product profits? What is MS *really* making big bucks on?
Re:Sounds good to me. (Score:1)
Re:Hotmail hostnames (Score:1)
Re:Hotmail hostnames (Score:1)
Anyway, it has plenty of legitimate uses.
Besides, what's the point. Reverse lookups are trivial.
Re:BSDers have always been more open towards Windo (Score:1)
It's a case of while Linux gets the publicity, FreeBSD "gets the work done." Many high-volume trafficked web sites use FreeBSD, including Hotmail.
Re:My understanding... (Score:1)
Re:BSDers have always been more open towards Windo (Score:1)
If I don't recieve a mail after some time, I will have to assume that you are just painting everything with a brush dipped in a bucket of your own personal bias. A similar process can be used to achieve racism, sexism, and other forms of prejudice.
I dislike being characterized by an extrapolation of your narrow world view.
-jwb
Re:I doubt it... (Score:1)
AFAIK some Unix sysadmins left Hotmail recently... (Score:2)
Re:I doubt it... (Score:1)
BTW, my PC has no windoze partition because I never felt the need for windoze, so I never got around to installing windoze on the partition I left for it. I decided to never do it, and started using it for a swap partition. I stopped doing that because somebody pointed out that the kernel tables to manage all that mem was inefficient. Anyway, I use windoze for swap space. Hah.
#define X(x,y) x##y
Re:Sounds good to me. (Score:1)
I wouldn't be able to get my dad to use Linux unless Microsoft Office has been ported. So I am hoping that they do port it and I am thinking that for them to do it will require the anti-trust case to break up Microsoft into seperate smaller Microsoft's that don't say decide not to port Office because it will effect NT's market share.
At the moment though, they reallly have to get thinking, what would happen if Linux takes off in the Desktop market with Word Perfect and Star Office? and there is no Mirosoft Office for Linux and that leaves NT for dead. While that is my dream, it is really something for Microsoft to think about, because if that did happen their only hope would be Micorosft Office to keep them alive and whopps they didn't port that to Linux because they wanted to use it to protect NT which is dead anyway.
AussiePenguin
Melbourne, Australia
ICQ 19255837
Re:They got what you ask for (Score:1)
-jhp
Re:Sounds good to me. (Score:2)
Huh?
Emacs and vi are text editors. Word is a word processor. They serve two significantly different functions. I wouldn't want to use Word to edit source code, and I wouldn't want to use emacs or vi to produce a term paper.
If MS were to release Word for Linux, at a reasonable price, I'd probably buy it and use it, and have one less reason to boot Windows. But I wouldn't stop using emacs.
Microsoft Monsters (Score:2)
-Akikage
How do you know? (Score:1)
No paranoia man (Score:2)
Before you get paranoid about people getting paranoid, please read the comment and think about it.
Use the preview button! (Score:1)
Settle down man (Score:2)
Jumping to an unwarranted conclusion? I figured my post had "speculation" written all over it. It was my thoughts attached to the article, which is what I thought comments were for. Sorry for being so unpopular.
Oh, and by the way, I did read the article, and I do realize that they were looking for admins for hotmail. I just don't think that it's way out in left field for them to consider hiring BSD programmers after looking for linux programmers, with the given facts that both are increasing in popularity and practically none of their products run on these platforms.
If you don't like the comment, ignore it. Don't just whine or meta-whine.
If *I* had a nickel for every time somebody posted a comment that said "Oh woe is me, slashdot is going down the drain that people can express themselves and throw ideas out there" then I'd be a rich, rich man.
It's just a comment, so settle down.
Hotmail (Score:1)
Re:Sounds good to me. (Score:1)
Please. Hold your applause, I know you do too.
Re:I doubt it... (Score:1)
At Home I have completely switched from Microsoft to Linux for my own personal uses (12 months ago). The Firewall/proxy here is Linux too.
Note: There is two windows computers in this house that I have no control of. They are my dad's and he won't switch to Linux untill M$ Office is ported. If it wasn't for me he'd probably using wingate on a win98 for the proxy.
I am also replacing the M$ Proxy at school with Linux. M$ Proxy is too bloated and does less than Squid which is way more powerfull and less bloated.
AussiePenguin
Melbourne, Australia
ICQ 19255837
Re:Pretty amusing that they use the "enemy" =) (Score:2)
microsoft.com, msdn.microsoft.com etc are all running on Windows 2000 domains now with Active Directory. Yes, that's right, the world's largest web sites with 6TB of downloads a day run Windows 2000.
Why break something (hotmail) when it generally isn't broke....it wouldn't be running BSD if microsoft started it.
MSN runs some unix servers because microsoft outsource the service. Unlike people here, Microsoft don't let 'political' reasons dominate business decisions. Who cares? They're all good operating systems.
Now, if you saw microsoft.com running linux (ROFLMAO if you could even get to the servers) then you'd have something to sing and dance about.
Re:No paranoia man (Score:2)
Egad, you're addressing the wrong person! (Score:2)
No, I said that the person who responded to you, who is the person to whom I was responding, said that, which they DID [slashdot.org].
Yeah, I did (Score:2)
You want paranoia? I could have said, "It's only a matter of time before CmdrTaco jumps ship and goes to work for microsoft!!!!"
Please note the following (Score:2)
GNU/Linux is very viable as both a server and desktop platform. Almost all free software (even evil copylefted software that you can always port no matter who added their two-cents to the code) has been ported to other Unix-like operating systems. BSD deserves a lot of respect as an operating system.
Why can't we all just "get along"?
Re:Hotmail hostnames (Score:2)
If I were a paid Microsoft Lackey ... (Score:2)
It's a case of while Linux gets the publicity, FreeBSD "gets the work done." Many high-volume trafficked web sites use FreeBSD, including Hotmail.
Not true. It is a case of BSD starting out with a solid base of code while Linux was written from scratch. FreeBSD had the misfortune of having its legal status put into question at a critical juncture -- a period of time where people like myself were looking for a good, open UNIX for our PCs and ended up joining the Linux camp because it was unambigiously free, while *BSD looked like it might be shut down by the attourneys of Berkely.
Fortunately for us all, the legal issues were resolved and BSD is thriving in its own way, here to compete with and cross-polinate with Linux. Had there not been this legal limbo during those critical few months, we would probably all be dancing on the BSD bandwagen, and Linux would be the "alternative" OS.
Argue the pros and cons of BSD and Linux if you like, or even the BSD License vs. the GPL if you like, but save your prejudicial innuendo for an appropriate forum such as alt.flame please.
Oh, and by the way, as parallel examples of Linux performing similar duties to BSD, consider deja.com and google.com. Both OSes are excellent and have many things in common, not the least of which they both outperform any and all of Microsoft's offerings by orders of magnitude.