Author Topic: Hell freezes over...  (Read 12119 times)

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Offline KarelTopic starter

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Hell freezes over...
« on: April 17, 2018, 03:48:48 pm »
Quote
“After 43 years, this is the first day that we are announcing, and will be distributing, a custom
Linux kernel,” Microsoft President Brad Smith said on stage at an event in San Francisco.

https://www.businessinsider.nl/microsoft-azure-sphere-is-powered-by-linux-2018-4/
 

Offline BillB

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #1 on: April 17, 2018, 03:54:16 pm »
The End Is Nigh  :scared:
 

Offline Ampera

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #2 on: April 17, 2018, 03:58:24 pm »
Linux with 60% more bluescreen.
I forget who I am sometimes, but then I remember that it's probably not worth remembering.
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Offline tszaboo

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #3 on: April 17, 2018, 04:19:52 pm »
Actually this is more electronics: "Microsoft has designed an Arm Linux IoT cloud chip"
But you do realize that Microsoft is supporting the Linux foundation for a long time
 
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Offline Red Squirrel

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #4 on: April 17, 2018, 04:34:57 pm »
I thought this was going to be about the Leafs making the playoffs.  :-DD
 
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Offline Gribo

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #5 on: April 17, 2018, 04:45:37 pm »
That would be the Leafs winning the playoffs.
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Online tggzzz

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #6 on: April 17, 2018, 04:54:10 pm »
Quote
“After 43 years, this is the first day that we are announcing, and will be distributing, a custom
Linux kernel,” Microsoft President Brad Smith said on stage at an event in San Francisco.

https://www.businessinsider.nl/microsoft-azure-sphere-is-powered-by-linux-2018-4/

The most popular variant of Unix in the 1980s was Xenix - made and sold by Microsoft.
There are lies, damned lies, statistics - and ADC/DAC specs.
Glider pilot's aphorism: "there is no substitute for span". Retort: "There is a substitute: skill+imagination. But you can buy span".
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Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #7 on: April 17, 2018, 04:56:00 pm »
Actually this is more electronics: "Microsoft has designed an Arm Linux IoT cloud chip"
But you do realize that Microsoft is supporting the Linux foundation for a long time
I don't know whether people are willing to invest in a platform when Microsoft dropped it without much care last time.
 

Online tggzzz

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #8 on: April 17, 2018, 05:32:28 pm »
Actually this is more electronics: "Microsoft has designed an Arm Linux IoT cloud chip"
But you do realize that Microsoft is supporting the Linux foundation for a long time
I don't know whether people are willing to invest in a platform when Microsoft dropped it without much care last time.

Also see the history of Microsoft's PlaysForSure(TM).

"DRM servers related to PlaysForSure were turned off August 31, 2008, meaning that any operating system upgrade or migration rendered all content unplayable"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PlaysForSure
There are lies, damned lies, statistics - and ADC/DAC specs.
Glider pilot's aphorism: "there is no substitute for span". Retort: "There is a substitute: skill+imagination. But you can buy span".
Having fun doing more, with less
 

Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #9 on: April 17, 2018, 05:51:36 pm »
Also see the history of Microsoft's PlaysForSure(TM).

"DRM servers related to PlaysForSure were turned off August 31, 2008, meaning that any operating system upgrade or migration rendered all content unplayable"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PlaysForSure
That doesn't seem to be very related. You could point to a dozen well supported Microsoft products since that time. The IoT platform has been a solid and recent bust, though.
 
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Offline rdl

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #10 on: April 17, 2018, 06:03:10 pm »
Anybody remember Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio? I didn't think so.

They jumped on the robotics bandwagon big time about 10 years ago. Doesn't look like it's been updated since 2012.

Microsoft is real good at jumping on bandwagons.
 

Online nctnico

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #11 on: April 17, 2018, 06:08:09 pm »
Actually this is more electronics: "Microsoft has designed an Arm Linux IoT cloud chip"
But you do realize that Microsoft is supporting the Linux foundation for a long time
I don't know whether people are willing to invest in a platform when Microsoft dropped it without much care last time.
That is the problem with Microsoft. They have created a lot of 'new' technologies and then dropped them or made new versions incompatible. Look at Silverlight or Windows CE for example. In general relying on technology (other than the Windows platform) from Microsoft is a very bad idea.
There are small lies, big lies and then there is what is on the screen of your oscilloscope.
 

Offline Towger

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #12 on: April 17, 2018, 06:14:24 pm »
Is it compatible with Microsoft Bob?

Actually since all of Microsoft best products have been bought, copied or stolen it might be quite good.  Until they lose interest/politics and drop it.  VB6 forever...
 

Offline rt

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #13 on: April 17, 2018, 06:32:56 pm »
Linux with 60% more bluescreen.

Hence 'Azure' as I'm sure you're aware.
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Offline IanMacdonald

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #14 on: April 17, 2018, 06:43:05 pm »
 
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Offline Vtile

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #15 on: April 17, 2018, 07:26:48 pm »
 
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Offline senso

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #16 on: April 17, 2018, 08:52:41 pm »
Actually this is more electronics: "Microsoft has designed an Arm Linux IoT cloud chip"
But you do realize that Microsoft is supporting the Linux foundation for a long time
I don't know whether people are willing to invest in a platform when Microsoft dropped it without much care last time.
That is the problem with Microsoft. They have created a lot of 'new' technologies and then dropped them or made new versions incompatible. Look at Silverlight or Windows CE for example. In general relying on technology (other than the Windows platform) from Microsoft is a very bad idea.

Google does the same with their services..

How many chat apps have they made already, all incompatible with each other?
 
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Offline bd139

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #17 on: April 17, 2018, 09:27:53 pm »
You could point to a dozen well supported Microsoft products since that time.

There are no well supported Microsoft products. Even if you manage to get high up the support hierarchy to product managers you’re fucked. I have spent many years dealing with them on a daily basis and you would be insane to trust them in any capacity to be there when the shit hits the fan.

Every contract you sign is basically Emperor Ming’s wedding vows.
 

Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #18 on: April 17, 2018, 10:07:48 pm »
There are no well supported Microsoft products. Even if you manage to get high up the support hierarchy to product managers you’re fucked. I have spent many years dealing with them on a daily basis and you would be insane to trust them in any capacity to be there when the shit hits the fan.

Every contract you sign is basically Emperor Ming’s wedding vows.
"Support" meaning you can depend on it being there and being updated. Windows is well supported. Exchange is well supported. Office is well supported. There's a not insignificant list of well supported products.
 
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Offline bd139

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #19 on: April 17, 2018, 10:29:36 pm »
There yes. Updated yes. Working no. Our help desk didn’t like the ten calls a day asking who Al was.

“Reply Al” appeared in office 365 last year for a bit.

Couldn’t get that fixed for 4 months.

And then there’s the old Forefront refusing to receive mail from a domain with DKIM, SPF and DMARC configured properly. 2 months for a support resolution because someone had broken the configuration on our regional cluster.

And the two days downtime when their own consultants fucked up our migration.

That’s just office 365.
 

Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #20 on: April 17, 2018, 10:38:58 pm »
There yes. Updated yes. Working no. Our help desk didn’t like the ten calls a day asking who Al was.

“Reply Al” appeared in office 365 last year for a bit.

Couldn’t get that fixed for 4 months.

And then there’s the old Forefront refusing to receive mail from a domain with DKIM, SPF and DMARC configured properly. 2 months for a support resolution because someone had broken the configuration on our regional cluster.

And the two days downtime when their own consultants fucked up our migration.

That’s just office 365.
I never claimed Office365 is well supported. ;D Dance with the devil and pay the price.
 

Offline Towger

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #21 on: April 18, 2018, 05:23:34 am »
"Support" meaning you can depend on it being there and being updated. Windows is well supported. Exchange is well supported. Office is well supported. There's a not insignificant list of well supported products.

I think you have just listed most of them.

Microsoft has gained a well deserved reputation for dropping products on a whim.  Companies (customers) have invested time and money in these, only to be f#ck#d over.  Not every company is large enough to rewrite systems every time MS change their mind/management.  Just look at Silverlight and LightSwitch as a couple of more recent examples.  They they are wondering why they are losing market share, quite simple, no one in the industry trusts them any more.

BTW, who in MS thought it would be a good idea to redefine CSV as Character Separated Value, then decided the default character would be different in different countries so should be buried down in Regional Settings?   WTF were they thinking?

My current problem is a bug in Windows 1703 breaking a report writer.  The fix is to delete an update.  But these computers are running Pro, so are set not to load updates as they come out.  So they are now loading the full 1703 Windows update, which contains the unfixed bug.....
« Last Edit: April 18, 2018, 06:35:55 am by Towger »
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #22 on: April 18, 2018, 06:19:36 am »
A large financial company in the U.K. built their front office stuff on silverlight. That was expensive to replace.

Now it’s Qt.
 

Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #23 on: April 18, 2018, 01:24:34 pm »
A large financial company in the U.K. built their front office stuff on silverlight. That was expensive to replace.

Now it’s Qt.
QT as in QuickTime?
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #24 on: April 18, 2018, 01:27:39 pm »
 

Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #25 on: April 18, 2018, 01:30:02 pm »
https://www.qt.io/
Figures, I thought QuickTime didn't make much sense. ;D Time for caffeine!
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #26 on: April 18, 2018, 01:32:18 pm »
Caffeine. Brilliant idea! :D
 

Offline Electro Detective

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #27 on: April 19, 2018, 08:59:56 am »
MicrosLimeux Command Prompt:
"Dude, where do you want to go to today?"   :D

Ummm...     :-\

"No!"   >:D


 :horse:

 

Offline KarelTopic starter

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #28 on: April 19, 2018, 12:44:27 pm »
Ontopic, do you think that, in the nearby future, the following joke will become reality?

Quote
"What do you anticipate Microsoft will do next?"

...

Microsoft will switch to Linux and keep selling their software on top of Linux. And it will cost the Windows users as much as before.

At the same time will the Linux community get face-stomped by hordes of Windows users, all trying to learn everything there is to learn about Linux and in record-breaking time.

Some long-time Linux supporters will switch to Microsoft in a heart beat like cold-hearted back-stabbers, while others die the slow death of the White Knight in
the most epic drama the Linux community has ever seen, before the Linux community itself disappears and we will all have turned into "the new Windows user".

Once it's all done and over, and Microsoft has taken over Linux with its hordes of Windows users, will you either be the new slave of the Microsoft empire or you will
have found refuge under a tiny bridge, just next to the one where all the FreeBSD trolls live, and where you'll then be telling tales of Linux's past.

 

Online nctnico

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #29 on: April 19, 2018, 01:08:39 pm »
I think Linus will find a way to set all Microsoft offices on fire before that happens  >:D

Joking ofcourse
There are small lies, big lies and then there is what is on the screen of your oscilloscope.
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #30 on: April 19, 2018, 01:27:10 pm »
Ontopic, do you think that, in the nearby future, the following joke will become reality?

Already is on the way. We've already got bits of NT in there (compare systemd to windows component designs)
 

Offline Electro Detective

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #31 on: April 20, 2018, 09:38:22 am »
I think Linus will find a way to set all Microsoft offices on fire before that happens  >:D

Joking ofcourse

Someone close please ask the gent nicely to not burn any Office before 2010  :)

 

Offline Fred27

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #32 on: April 20, 2018, 09:47:21 am »
Has anyone got anything more interesting to add, other than general MS backlash?

The first chip lined up for this looks interesting - the MediaTek MT3620. It's an ARM A7 with dual M4s. No idea about the company but it sounds like a good combo of high level Linux with some real time low level microcontrollers. I know there's the BeagleBone, but those PRUs don't seem easy to work with.

Anyone have any opinion on the hardware or more concrete info they can share?
 

Offline Distelzombie

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #33 on: April 20, 2018, 10:13:21 am »
https://www.qt.io/
Rotating rubic cubes on a screen while wearing a VR headset? Very task-oriented marketing.

Offline bd139

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #34 on: April 20, 2018, 12:26:45 pm »
Ignore that shit. That’s for the CTOs
 

Offline Distelzombie

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #35 on: April 20, 2018, 04:41:42 pm »
Ignore that shit. That’s for the CTOs
I love it.
"Why doesn't our computer system look like this? Get them to do it"

Offline bd139

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #36 on: April 20, 2018, 04:46:51 pm »
Yep. Dear CTO. Stop watching Minority Report and go and make tea!
 

Offline KarelTopic starter

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #37 on: May 08, 2018, 07:41:51 am »
 

Offline bitwelder

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Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #39 on: May 08, 2018, 09:07:02 am »
Hell freezes over indeed:

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/05/07/microsoft_announces_net_core_30_including_windows_desktop_applications/

Whats next? Edge browser on Mac and Linux?
They can stick Edge in a very secure and warm place.
 

Offline Electro Detective

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #40 on: May 08, 2018, 10:03:59 am »
Hell freezes over indeed:

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/05/07/microsoft_announces_net_core_30_including_windows_desktop_applications/

Whats next? Edge browser on Mac and Linux?


They can stick Edge in a very secure and warm place.


Sorry, full house, IE secured all the floor space a while back,

please find alternative storage facilities     ;D

 

Offline jmelson

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #41 on: May 08, 2018, 06:53:18 pm »
No idea about the company but it sounds like a good combo of high level Linux with some real time low level microcontrollers. I know there's the BeagleBone, but those PRUs don't seem easy to work with.

Use the Machinekit install (now mainline available) and it is pretty easy to set up and use (as long as you don't mind a little assembler programming.)  5 ns instruction cycle and direct access to I/O!  Wow, really cool!

Jon
 

Offline KarelTopic starter

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #42 on: May 08, 2018, 07:48:26 pm »
Quote
Microsoft: Our most popular server product of all time runs on Linux

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/05/08/microsoft_linux_sql_server/
 

Offline KarelTopic starter

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #43 on: May 09, 2018, 09:24:51 am »
"Introducing extended line endings support in Notepad"

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/commandline/2018/05/08/extended-eol-in-notepad/

After how many years?  :palm:
 

Offline Fred27

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #44 on: May 09, 2018, 10:33:06 am »
The first MT3620 Azure Sphere dev boards are available for pre-order. They seem quite expensive for what they are.
https://www.seeedstudio.com/productDetail/3052

Still no info on whether those M3 cores are easily user programmable.
 

Online tggzzz

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #45 on: May 09, 2018, 10:45:19 am »
The first MT3620 Azure Sphere dev boards are available for pre-order. They seem quite expensive for what they are.
https://www.seeedstudio.com/productDetail/3052

Still no info on whether those M3 cores are easily user programmable.

The hardware, as you imply, is the easy part. Such devices normally fail due to poor programming environments and poor inter-processor communication software mechanisms.

The only one that has Got That Right is the XMOS xCORE processors, programmed in xC (i.e. Hoare's CSP/Occam), with C/C++ as an escape route.
There are lies, damned lies, statistics - and ADC/DAC specs.
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Having fun doing more, with less
 

Offline Fred27

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #46 on: May 10, 2018, 08:07:22 pm »
Some more info including a demo of how to code on the device. (Skip to about 45 minutes for code.)


If you can't be bothered watching the video, some of the interesting stuff it shows:
  • coding in C which I assumed was running on one of the Cortex-M4F cores, but apparently was on the Cortex-A7
  • the usual Visual Studio deployment and debugging experience
  • OTA update of configuration and device code via Azure
In the Q&A at the end it was stated that the demo C code was running on the A7 core. Targeting the M4Fs is apparently coming later. There was no interaction with Linux shown. Perhaps this OS only accessible by the device manufacturer? Maybe this is less like a Pi / Beaglebone equivalent than I thought.
« Last Edit: May 10, 2018, 08:35:16 pm by Fred27 »
 

Offline metrologist

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #47 on: May 10, 2018, 08:58:05 pm »
"Introducing extended line endings support in Notepad"

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/commandline/2018/05/08/extended-eol-in-notepad/

After how many years?  :palm:

OMG  :scared:

is it really true? Will I need to install the April Win10 update? That would suck because I just got my HDD filled up enough to still let the OS run, but not enough room to install any more updates, and that module crashes every boot WoHoo! I was enjoying that...
 

Online nctnico

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #48 on: May 11, 2018, 07:24:28 pm »
"Introducing extended line endings support in Notepad"

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/commandline/2018/05/08/extended-eol-in-notepad/

After how many years?  :palm:
You can express that in centuries! MSDOS exists for nearly half a century so there you go.
There are small lies, big lies and then there is what is on the screen of your oscilloscope.
 

Offline KarelTopic starter

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Offline bd139

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #50 on: July 25, 2018, 08:40:25 am »
Believe me no one wants powershell on Linux. 90% of the windows admins I know don't want it on windows because it's a fucking pile of shit through and through. They're literally trying to blur the lines between the platforms here to maintain relevance. It's a total impedance mismatch. It's really like hooking people on their first dose of crack cocaine and then hoping they will come back for more because they are now dependent on it.

Anyone who has used powershell for windows automation knows that it's a fucking dirty great big minefield of pain once you get over the "ooh this is cool" phase. It's basically a fucked up object oriented bastardisation of Perl mixed with .Net but underneath the pile is still WMI and COM. Ultimately it's a stack of shit 100 levels deep that if anything even goes slightly awry it's game over for 2 days.

Example: Literally I spent two fucking days of my life a couple of weeks back trying to get Import-PfxCertificate to run over a WinRM connection to set up a signing certificate on local account on a build farm. Turned out that there was a KB article which required a registry frig to fix, an AD setting that needed to be changed in LSP, an account setting that needed to be changed and then it didn't work with the originally provisioned account so a new one had to be set up which required a bounce through the company's helpdesk to cover secpol. When that didn't work and MSFT support went "we don't know how to fix it", we actually logged in by hand to 30 boxes and deployed the certificates manually.

That is your life with powershell. Automation with it is a waste of time.

Don't use it on Linux. You don't need it. How do you solve the above problem on Linux? Stick a file in /etc/pki. Ansible's copy task does the job instantly. Bob=uncle.

Fucks sake. Good job I'm paid by the hour to handle this shit.
« Last Edit: July 25, 2018, 08:43:24 am by bd139 »
 

Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #51 on: July 25, 2018, 10:04:21 am »
Believe me no one wants powershell on Linux. 90% of the windows admins I know don't want it on windows because it's a fucking pile of shit through and through. They're literally trying to blur the lines between the platforms here to maintain relevance. It's a total impedance mismatch. It's really like hooking people on their first dose of crack cocaine and then hoping they will come back for more because they are now dependent on it.

Anyone who has used powershell for windows automation knows that it's a fucking dirty great big minefield of pain once you get over the "ooh this is cool" phase. It's basically a fucked up object oriented bastardisation of Perl mixed with .Net but underneath the pile is still WMI and COM. Ultimately it's a stack of shit 100 levels deep that if anything even goes slightly awry it's game over for 2 days.

Example: Literally I spent two fucking days of my life a couple of weeks back trying to get Import-PfxCertificate to run over a WinRM connection to set up a signing certificate on local account on a build farm. Turned out that there was a KB article which required a registry frig to fix, an AD setting that needed to be changed in LSP, an account setting that needed to be changed and then it didn't work with the originally provisioned account so a new one had to be set up which required a bounce through the company's helpdesk to cover secpol. When that didn't work and MSFT support went "we don't know how to fix it", we actually logged in by hand to 30 boxes and deployed the certificates manually.

That is your life with powershell. Automation with it is a waste of time.

Don't use it on Linux. You don't need it. How do you solve the above problem on Linux? Stick a file in /etc/pki. Ansible's copy task does the job instantly. Bob=uncle.

Fucks sake. Good job I'm paid by the hour to handle this shit.
Powershell seems to be pretty well received in the admin world. It's a bit unfortunate Microsoft is pushing it at the cost of any and all GUIs, but it seems to work pretty well. It has to, of course.
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #52 on: July 25, 2018, 10:11:50 am »
I really doesn't work well. You need to use some of the non windows tools to see how bad it is.

We've got 1-2 people managing 400+ machine fleets with ansible for example.

Powershell / windows DSC team, similarly sized deployments are at 8-10 people and most of them are bogged down in weird edge cases and problems.
 

Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #53 on: July 25, 2018, 10:12:57 am »
I really doesn't work well. You need to use some of the non windows tools to see how bad it is.

It is merely better than clickops.
Non Windows tools?
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #54 on: July 25, 2018, 10:13:24 am »
Updated post above to clarify.

To note I'm the platform decision maker here and we're shifting away from the human-centric windows admin world as a whole. It is very difficult to reliably automate windows.
« Last Edit: July 25, 2018, 10:14:56 am by bd139 »
 

Offline rrinker

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #55 on: July 25, 2018, 08:28:39 pm »
 Maybe you need to find some people that actually know PowerShell? I've done some pretty wild stuff, far beyond basic admin automation. The biggest complaint I had with PowerShell was the idiotic need to right-click, mark and paste, but Windows 10/Server 2016 fixed that and now you can do normal Control-C/Control-V copy paste stuff.
 The biggest problem people seem to have is treating it like a programming language (sometimes I fall into that trap myself) - it's not, it's a scripting language. There IS a difference.
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #56 on: July 25, 2018, 08:54:56 pm »
I know powershell very well. I’ve written heaps of modules for it. So have the rest of our guys. We know it inside out. What you find when you take it to bits is a whole stack of nasty. When everything is working fine, wow amazing. But we have piles of problems which require taking the entire stack to bits from the top to the bottom due to the awfully strong coupling inside it and the sheer layers of legacy windows crap it wraps.

It’s a tangled mess of DCOM wrapped in a layer of shit and marketing.

What’s worse is that if you compare it to Linux for example is the documentation stops immediately beneath the powershell and it becomes MSFT internal magic then. Linux it’s manpages all the way down.

For ref, we use ISE as the shell. Comes with windows :)
 

Online tggzzz

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #57 on: July 25, 2018, 09:28:54 pm »
What’s worse is that if you compare it to Linux for example is the documentation stops immediately beneath the powershell and it becomes MSFT internal magic then. Linux it’s manpages all the way down.

Are Microsoft still doing that?

I first ran into that kind of attitude in ~1999, when trying to script internet exploder. The docs/APIs implied one thing; in reality IE honoured half the API, and which half depended on what you were trying to do :(

As I tell people, I'm not clever enough to run Windows. Initially they laugh, then they realise why I say that.
There are lies, damned lies, statistics - and ADC/DAC specs.
Glider pilot's aphorism: "there is no substitute for span". Retort: "There is a substitute: skill+imagination. But you can buy span".
Having fun doing more, with less
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #58 on: July 25, 2018, 09:44:42 pm »
Well it’s a bit iffy. Basically Microsoft were forced to open up their internals and provide documentation. These are nearly puked out here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/openspecifications/dn646765.aspx

But not a lot has changed from your 1999 assertion. Most of it is wrong, not documented at all or the API is terribly engineered or does something completely different to the documentation. And you find when you take the powershell modules to bits that they don’t all actually talk to documented APIs. And then there’s the NT Zw API for example which is a massive undocumented surface area. This pile of shit only becomes apparent when you have to delve into WinDbg territory.

I’m clever enough to take people’s money because I know how to run Windows marginally better than they do. That’s all I’m saying. Also when I’m doing MSFT stuff I get paid by the hour open ended only because I can’t actually give you an honest estimate up front on that side of things.

 

Offline KarelTopic starter

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #59 on: February 21, 2020, 07:32:31 am »
Microsoft is planning to bring its Defender antivirus to Linux systems this year.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-defender-atp-is-coming-to-linux-in-2020/
 

Offline rdl

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #60 on: February 21, 2020, 04:02:14 pm »
Quote
Microsoft is planning to bring its Defender antivirus to Linux systems this year.

Good luck with that.
 

Offline Wilksey

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #61 on: February 21, 2020, 04:35:17 pm »
Bloody Azure, corporate lock in dictates we use Microsoft - including Azure, nothing but hassle.
Had to migrate from AWS to Azure, jesus, come back Amazon, all is forgiven.
Azure is constantly down with our dev ops team having to poke the Microsoft support to do something or other, we loose external IP addresses, we loose internal IP addresses between machines, the network setting somewhere in some Microsoft hub providing our VLAN or some shit goes tits up and we end up with connection errors and the fault screen of our monitoring system lighting up like a frigging Christmas tree.

Solution: You'd think move back to AWS, nope, re-utilise our 6+ year old servers in a data centre which are half dead, and not being used any more as too many power spikes have rendered them unstable.  Good - replace the PSU's? Nope, poke and hope.

Remember kiddies, cheaper ALWAYS = better!  :palm:
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #62 on: February 21, 2020, 05:26:14 pm »
LOL AWS is a nightmare too. Had to dig someone out of a complete cascade failure because of a then undocumented set of limits in SQS last year.  :palm:.
 

Offline Wilksey

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #63 on: February 21, 2020, 05:44:01 pm »
bd139 - I'm afraid I don't share your experiences with AWS, we had instances running for a few years with no hassle no fuss, just churning away.
 

Offline KarelTopic starter

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #64 on: June 03, 2020, 07:35:43 am »
"Lenovo Brings Linux® Certification to ThinkPad and ThinkStation Workstation Portfolio,
Easing Deployment for Developers & Data Scientists"


https://news.lenovo.com/pressroom/press-releases/lenovo-brings-linux-certification-to-thinkpad-and-thinkstation-workstation-portfolio-easing-deployment-for-developers-data-scientists/
 

Offline KarelTopic starter

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #65 on: July 12, 2021, 01:33:44 pm »
A look into CBL-Mariner, Microsoft’s internal Linux distribution

Yes, you read the title right. Hell is freezing because at Microsoft we have our own Linux distribution
called Mariner or more exactly CBL-Mariner where CBL stands for Common Base Linux.

https://blog.jreypo.io/2021/07/09/a-look-into-cbl-mariner-microsoft-internal-linux-distribution/
 

Offline duckduck

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #66 on: July 13, 2021, 04:13:06 pm »
What’s worse is that if you compare it to Linux for example is the documentation stops immediately beneath the powershell and it becomes MSFT internal magic then. Linux it’s manpages all the way down.

For ref, we use ISE as the shell. Comes with windows :)

This.

Good documentation at Microsoft is getting to be pretty scarce in the past decade. There are tons of "Here's how to get started" and "Follow these steps" and it is very difficult to find information on how things work in order to troubleshoot when things don't go all unicorns and rainbows. One ends up creating many experiments to try to figure out how things work. For Microsoft's SaaS offerings things get even worse. It seems that MS have made the strategic decision to offer no documentation whatsoever that covers how things work. I suspect that this has to do with the fact that MS would love to have you talk to a salesperson about their professional services, or sign up for a Premier Support contract.

With the Linux ecosystem, it can tend to be a little bit the opposite, but at least the information tends to be there. Additionally, there are many helpful greybeards, and you can always look at the source code if you care that much. Development is done in public, so the chances of talking to someone that can answer a hard question are much better.

EDIT:

Microsoft have had their own flavor of debian for years that they run on the SDN switches in their datacenters.
« Last Edit: July 13, 2021, 04:18:14 pm by duckduck »
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #67 on: July 13, 2021, 04:24:19 pm »
Indeed. We had some trouble last week because we're trying to auto-deprovision users from Azure AD and it turns out that the native API and GraphQL ones aren't logically consistent  :palm:

At the same time, let's tar and feather Amazon too. Their documentation is far worse and some of their stuff is completely broken. I was on a presentation the other day with some very senior AWS folk and managed to break their demonstration pretty badly.

The key metric for software is how the vendor reacts. Amazon had it fixed double-quick, within 48 hours. I've had to keep support cases open for nearly a decade with Microsoft who failed to issue anything past a registry hack.

With Linux it's much much much worse. It can be a complete minefield. If you look at the sheer amount of quality control work that goes into a Debian release you'll understand this. A lot of the upstream vendors are unresponsive or plain asshats. On top of that any problems that span an interface boundary between two applications (DBus is a good one) turns into a shit slinging match. I used to contribute patches to things but gave up around the time github started gaining in popularity as the public record for patch acceptance is pretty poor. Maybe a 25% hit rate on getting a merge. 75% of patches fall on silence, rejection or politics and I quite frankly don't give a shit about any of that these days.

 

Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #68 on: July 18, 2021, 09:26:04 pm »
Indeed. We had some trouble last week because we're trying to auto-deprovision users from Azure AD and it turns out that the native API and GraphQL ones aren't logically consistent  :palm:

At the same time, let's tar and feather Amazon too. Their documentation is far worse and some of their stuff is completely broken. I was on a presentation the other day with some very senior AWS folk and managed to break their demonstration pretty badly.

The key metric for software is how the vendor reacts. Amazon had it fixed double-quick, within 48 hours. I've had to keep support cases open for nearly a decade with Microsoft who failed to issue anything past a registry hack.

With Linux it's much much much worse. It can be a complete minefield. If you look at the sheer amount of quality control work that goes into a Debian release you'll understand this. A lot of the upstream vendors are unresponsive or plain asshats. On top of that any problems that span an interface boundary between two applications (DBus is a good one) turns into a shit slinging match. I used to contribute patches to things but gave up around the time github started gaining in popularity as the public record for patch acceptance is pretty poor. Maybe a 25% hit rate on getting a merge. 75% of patches fall on silence, rejection or politics and I quite frankly don't give a shit about any of that these days.
Asshats, egos and politics in the Linux sphere? I'm shocked.
 
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Offline KarelTopic starter

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #69 on: August 13, 2021, 05:08:17 pm »
Facebook, Google, Isovalent, Microsoft and Netflix Launch eBPF Foundation as Part of the Linux Foundation

https://www.linuxfoundation.org/press-release/facebook-google-isovalent-microsoft-and-netflix-launch-ebpf-foundation-as-part-of-the-linux-foundation/
 

Offline SiliconWizard

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #70 on: August 13, 2021, 07:14:45 pm »
Facebook, Google, Isovalent, Microsoft and Netflix Launch eBPF Foundation as Part of the Linux Foundation

Looks good. :-DD
 

Offline KarelTopic starter

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #71 on: September 10, 2021, 06:38:21 am »
Yes, it's happening, hell's frozen...

After years of calling the GPL a cancer, they start to distribute their own, GPL licensed, Linux distro:

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=CBL-Mariner-August-2021
 

Offline SL4P

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #72 on: September 10, 2021, 07:41:27 am »
I remember years ago, the gubmint were trying to break MS into two groups.

My personal choice for that was -
  • Operating Systems
  • Business Applications (Office etc)
  • Development / environment Tools (SQL, C# etc)
  • Hardware (Keyboards, mice etc)

Other developments like phones etc would become completely new entities.

They could share IP, but would need to be done openly to encourage third party innovation.
In the US commercial environment, this is highly unlikely.
« Last Edit: September 10, 2021, 07:43:11 am by SL4P »
Don't ask a question if you aren't willing to listen to the answer.
 
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Offline bd139

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Re: Hell freezes over...
« Reply #73 on: September 10, 2021, 03:20:56 pm »
There is only one group now: cloud.

Even OS and Office are consumed by it.

Everything else is sidelined or on life support. I know a coupel of people who have quit recently.
 


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