Most of what you talk about is outside the scope of a data center.

On 2015-10-25 15:42, Eric Oyen wrote:

time may be money, but sometimes its worth it to have alternatives.

I like alternatives.  I run Mint on my desktop.  I've been fortunate enough that it just worked so it was cost effective.  I like buying discounted hardware and putting Linux on it.  I would have difficulty leaving home with a Mac that might cost $2k or more.... yikes.

Still time is money.  All things being equal, a top end programmer might make $40 - $60 plus per hour W2 plus benefits.  Is it cost effective to have that person or someone else compile a driver for their hardware?  Probably not unless they have a very specific need. They need something that gets them to work as fast as possible.  I think that was the one of the points of the article.

I used Windows for years, even though I have never been a fan of M$.  Why because it did the job.  Until several years ago I did not like Linux on my desktop, even though I tried to go M$ free on two prior occasions dating back to 2000.

I think what you are describing is a business niche or someone with Linux admin skills messing with their own hardware.

Sure, on a mac everything "just works" (well, mostly). The issue here
is that all IT personnel need to know how to deal with any OS on their
network, including being able to edit and compile drivers for
specialized hardware. I have an old mac here (its a series 2007
vintage white book) and I managed to get linux working on it. The key
is finding the correct drivers. If one doesn't exist, but is close to
another in the same chipset, it isn't that hard to modify it to work
(or, it may just work anyway). The kicker is getting the source info
from the manufacturer (in the case of apple, its Intel). SOmetimes
they are helpful and sometimes they aren't .

-eric

On Oct 25, 2015, at 2:09 PM, Keith Smith wrote:

"Linux is only free if your time is worthless." - A guy that owns a data center told me he buys Mac because he does not have the time to fix driver issues.... etc.  Time is money!!

</snip>

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