Re: [tlug] google ditching windows and going for open source software

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>]

Nguyen Vu Hung writes:
 > Dear Professor,

Wash your mouth out with soap!

 > > The BSA's numbers can be characterized as the bottom rung of "lies,
 > > damn lies, and statistics".  I just don't trust their numbers.

 > I couldn't find any other sources to cite.
 > A bad reported number is better nothing right?

Depends.  In this case it is because you use it to back up an even
higher estimate.

 > > Well, aside from the legal liability, *if* you have moderately skilled
 > > people, it's much easier, cheaper, and more reliable to automate
 > > common tasks with *nix systems.

 > We don't have such resources.
 > 
 > Google could do it because most of their staffs have a MA+ or MS+
 > degree, if not PhD.

Actually, the people I know at Google barely got their bachelor's
degrees (in one case because he was already employed by Sun, in the
other because the problems she was facing at the help desk of a major
supercomputer center were a lot more interesting than the ones posted
by the CS teaching staff ;)  The kind of people you need for workflow
optimization tend to be self-trained hackers rather than professional
software engineers.w

The best way to get such resources is to find people who might turn
into hackers, and put them in an OSS environment.  They'll grow like
weed.

 > I don't have the latest statistic but 10 years ago, 90% of the population
 > here is farmer and/or unemployed :)

I know things have changed a lot there in ten years, though.  Eg,
Vietnam comes up in the Nikkei a lot, as a market now, by contrast
with 10 years ago when it was a very cheap place to put low-tech
factories.

<hat type="professor" field="economics">In any case, China still has
about 40% dirt-poor dirt farmers, but they're experiencing rising
wages in all other industries, even non-skilled occupations.  What
matters is the balance of supply and demand in the particular sectors,
not the reserve army of agriculture and unemployed.</hat>