Dude WTF is going on with Slashdot. The story submission is totally borken. It just says "Please Enter A Reasonable Subject" and "You've Provided an incorrectly formated url..." when there is no problem. It won't let you submit a story!

I am surprised to read the Slashdot community is not praising the advanced 3D technology used in Avatar. This was the first 3D film I saw without the old stupid cardboard framed glasses, and I must say, the experience was great.

The 3D perfectly augmented an already great movie. It was like watching a play (you know, which has depth perception) but doing things impossible in a play, like being on an alien world. There weren't any gimmicky shots where things jumped out at you. This wasn't Michael Jackson's Thriller in 3D at Epcot Center. Rather, the 3D let you see depth to an already greatly composed movie, both graphically and with great camera work -- not to mention the the story which was pretty good. Overall, It wasn't the best movie, maybe not even a great movie, but it was a damned good movie, and the 3D technology has really matured.

I would definitely use/purchase such technology to play video games.

BIOS BOOT PASSWORD

Developers, Developers, Developers!

When I meant reliability, I didn't mean Windows software was reliable. I mean reliability as in support from the Vendors and from Microsoft. If you have a problem in your enterprise, and you use Microsoft software, they will go to great lengths to fix the problem for you. They really do have great business support (because you pay them a lot for the support and they want your continued business). The same for Red Hat Enterprise, which is why many corporations are switching to Linux servers over Window's Servers. Red Hat did a great thing for the Linux Community.

About the admins.. yeah, when I wrote that I was thinking it might not be right, but I was thinking you need a REALLY good admin to be able to lock down a Linux desktop. That's just not a normal admin, that a specialist admin. That is going to cost your more. It's kind of like those Consultants who do Exchange Server. Exchange server is a beast. Those guys make 150k to 300k a year.

This was exactly my point, and you are the first one to actually agree with me 100%. People have taken this as a flame war against Linux. I love Linux for servers. In fact, I will never use a Windows box as a server, unless the company wants to run SharePoint or something. What's the point? I believe Linux is the best server solution out there, for many reasons. Many businesses concur. Most of the companies I work for have both Windows and Linux servers, but the major systems usually run on Linux (unless they are a .NET shop).

But for the desktop, the business needs [of locking down everything] just aren't as plentiful or powerful as the Windows based solutions. You have countless vendors who offer lockdown software, which hook into the Windows API (probably even hidden API's given to the Vendors by MS themselves), plus the support of MS for locking down the workstations across the enterprise.

I agree, That is one of the benefits, that you can choose what components of the desktop you will deploy. However, this does require greater expertise and I would think it would cost more to a business for someone like this. Maybe not, as Windows System Administrators get paid a lot too.

In fact, the first Unix shop I worked at didn't even use full desktops, but simply as you said, had a Windows Manager and a menu for launching a terminal and a few X applications. It was called Step or something, I believe...

Well, one of this points I was trying to make, since the Windows desktop has been around so long, and vetted, is that there are lots of applications (some pricey) available that let you lock down the desktop really easily. Like it or not, the Linux desktop isn't as mature. Even though, as I have learned in this thread, there are programs, like for Gnome, to lock down aspects of the GUI, they are open source projects not projects made by money making corporations.

As Linux geek myself, this doesn't justify going with Windows in my mind, but to a business, its all about reliability and support. Try to convince your CTO or CEO to go with a Linux desktop and lock it down using open source tools and hire expensive and expert Linux Admins, while the other guy arguing the Windows side simply says "People have been locking down Windows for years, and I have negotiated prices from 5 vendors for their lockdown software, and MS is willing to give us support to help us lock down parts of Windows for deployment in our enterprise as well".

It goes along with the whole notion, no one ever got fired for buying Microsoft. It's the same reason Red Hat is doing so well. They are a company that makes money and offers support. This is why my former company went with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, instead of Fedora or Cent OS, which is basically the same. We virtually NEVER use the support contract with Red Hat, but the business always want to buy the "paid" version just in case. This doesn't exist with Gnome or KDE. But if you have an issue with the Windows GUI, call up one of those many Vendors who sell lock down software or call up Microsoft. And for $100 a ticket or whatever they charge, they will be happy to tell you how to piss off your employees even more when they have to call IT in order to change their classpath for Java on their machine, because that tab in the system properties gives an "Inaccessible, Please Contact Your System Admin" when you click on it...

After doing some reading, I see your point with SELinux.

As far as your application/OS comment, it is my understanding that KDE/Gnome is more of an application to Linux but the Windows GUI is more a part of the OS so to speak. I know X is a part of Linux, so don't get me wrong, but many vendors have programs which tie into the Windows API to "magically" implement restriction settings and change the behavior to cater to every businesses' crazy needs when rolling out the desktop across the enterprise. Whereas in Linux, it up to the makers of the desktop to provide features, or of course, since you have access to the code and underlying structure, you can just manually configure it. Luckily, another poster in this thread talked about a configuration tool for Gnome which should do many of the lock-down settings.

Thank for you the help. I will definitely look into this tool.