Re: How to Save The World

["Marcus J. Ranum" <mjr () ranum com>]

Crispin Cowan drank the Kool-ade and wrote:
> AdI live with a Linux desktop and Mozilla browser day to day, and for the vast majority of web sites, it works fine.

If people didn't tolerate IE-only websites, there wouldn't be any. Whenever
I encounter one I usually contact their help desk and tell them how much
it bummed me that I couldn't buy $500 worth of goods because they won't
adhere to basic web standards.

> The problem is that the bulk of sites that don't work are the most "corporate" ones: web casts.

You mean garbage like those things that let you automatically flip
powerpoints for a remote user to present a talk? Garbage that has
become popular because sales reps and marketing weenies are
apparently too stupid to tell their meeting attendees, "next slide,
please..." as they pause to collect their thoughts?   Yeah, we need
that garbage in order to do business. Not.

> Most of the webconference software out there does not work with anything other than IE/Windows.

Then don't use it. It won't hurt you. Honestly. I have clients who want to
hit me with some garbage presentation-flipping software periodically. I
tell them, "sorry; that stuff doesn't work on my network."  It's never
cost me business. Never. Gird up your loins like a man and just say
"no, that's silly."   I mean, COME ON, how do you think we built
civilization before there was powerpoint?  [Mental picture of what a
clusterf*ck the Roman Legionnaires getting a powerpoint briefing
on "how to crush Gaul for dummies"]

> IMHO, this is by far the largest hole in the Linux desktop market that holds companies back from switching.

You've been drinking the Kool-ade, Crispin.

When they say "we're not switching because Linux doesn't have XYZ"
that's the same bullsh*t as the "security is a performance problem"
song. It's just the quickest excuse they could reach for to make you
shut up and go away with your tail between your legs. They aren't
switching to Linux because they're morons who have totally bought
into the current software-as-commodity crack-induced hallucination.
They actually expect that a platform is going to come pre-loaded
with all the garbage they "need" - so they can avoid the real effort
of thinking over the problem they are trying to solve. After all, if it's
stupid web-meeting presentation garbage they need so badly, they'd
pay for it, right? No graduate of Harvard Business School is going to
blow the cost-benefit analysis of "operating system: $150.00, net
meeting garbage: free" versus "operating system: free, net meeting
garbage: $19.95" - if there were a _real_ market there, it'd get filled
real fast.

But - don't mistake me for a free UNIX fan. Free UNIX is a disaster.
Free UNIX (including Linux) is turning into the same kind of poxy
garbage-bloated tuna-fish reeking cesspit of shovelware as Windows.
In an attempt to bypass the "it doesn't have XYZ" excuse from
customers, Linux-heads are busy turning Linux into a more
pimped-out bloated curb-feeler fur-covered dashboard bucket
of slop than Windows. After all, if it's got more useless features
than Windows, customers lose their excuse to not use it, right?

Wrong.

They'll just come up with another excuse.

And Linux will still be a bloated cesspit. I'm not saying it's trivial
to put on 300lbs of fat and no muscle. But it's a darned sight
easier to put it on that it is to lose it again!

Lest you think this rant is not on the topic of security, let me
show you why it's relevant: we got onto this topic because of my
standard "customers complain security is slow" rant. What I
didn't mention in that rant is that when you're dealing with
excuse-makers they will simply come up with another excuse
if you crush the first one. If we made a high-quality stateful
proxy firewall that ran 14GB/sec - customers would then
complain that "it's hard to manage" or "it complicates the
routing path" or some other nonsense. Behind every excuse
you knock down, there will be another one.

As Sun Tzu said, "when you are dealing with motherf*ckers
who make endless excuses - cut the first one's head off,
and the excuses will suddenly stop."

mjr. 

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