On Friday 25 November 2005 11:23, Xiaofan Chen wrote:
> Do not get me wrong. I like Linux and I like open source. However I do
> think that the free alternative is not that cheap after all in the coporate
> setup.

hmmm... i think it depends on how you set it up.. if you have a thin-client 
like setup (say harddiskless), with computers booting off the network, and 
saving data on centralised file servers, and maybe doing work off central 
compute clusters (which could be formed by the thin-clients themselves), it's 
actually quite cheap in terms of deployment (you do not need to constantly 
upgrade your PCs every 2-3 yrs).. and regular administration/maintenance 
(easier to apply patches, updates.. do backups..)

> Nanyang Technology University of Singapore has a massive Exchange Server
> 60,000 or more). It is said to be much cheaper than SUN and Digital Unix
> based solution.

hmm..  but cheaper than Linux??!! "Say It Isn't So!!"

> Outlook is very convenient with the same organization. Between
> organization, it is not much useful.

it is useful for spreading virii.. d:

> Web-based is the buzz word now. In the real world, I hate the web

AJAX is the buzz word.. 

> service thingy. After they move the AS400 terminal based ERP application
> to web-service, I need to spend 10 minutes on a 1minutes task originally

Yeah.. the only good web-based software i've used that is comparable to local 
software, is probably gmail.. but that's probably because of their massive 
computational and communication resources.. i doubt that many other orgs  
could build truly responsive web-apps..

> I do not agree that "bottom-posting doesn't add complexity". To scroll
> to the bottom adds a bit of complexity involved. To leave two empty

the whole point is to "not force anyone to scroll".. 

> lines waste bandwidth. Start from the empty line is the natural thing
> to do --> top posting adds less complexity.

it's unnatural to leave blank spaces at the top.. hence, it's silly for 
clients to assume that everyone wants to top-post.. if they want to do that 
by default, fine.. but at least give users an option to turn it off.. forcing 
people to delete the few blank lines at the top for every single email is 
silly, and painful on the user..

cheers..

with metta,
shawn tan.
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