I haven't seen one single landline direct-connection to the internet since the dialup/adsl days. Most consumers will have a router. The only exception is 3G/4G adapters, but the topic is about firewalling. And unless you're running a DPI appliance to check for binary malware, you're getting those in your windows machines anyway.

As can Windows. And you can also take the easy approach of just closing any external port besides the VPN, leaving only potential attacks on the TCP stack and the VPN layer. I actually find funny people that use firewalls on unix systems "as a checklist item"; Most systems don't even require firewall if properly configured. But yeah, lets badmouth windows and forget the ton of distros that allow remote root login via ssh *by default*.

No. If the user knew what was best - or at least the options available - he woudn't be asking this. Having guys following tutorials on the internet to configure stuff is not my idea of "secure", and he'd probably be better buying a dedicated appliance with a nice gui interface.While realizing that you exposed something from the internal system or used a weak password for root after your whole network was compromised does have its educational value, it is a dreadful experience for a non-unix nerd.

No, not really. Windows has the easiest internet-sharing and vpn configuration wizard you'lll find. And its not half bad, but...

I have an equivalent box, Instead of pfSense (which, besides the gui and the easy VLAN setup, is a crappy system for everything else), I run FreeBSD 9.2. And I use it everyday to tunnel into my windows machines with RDP via SSH :)

Well, that is well within the Unix tradition. ZFS is a *kernel* module, not a userland application. Just because the cli interface is comprised of 2 commands, it doesn't mean its monolithic. Its as monolithic as ifconfig and other complex utilities.
And I'd take anyday the zfs/zpool command format over the lvm ugly mess.

You say they are small. They aren't. They are the beef of the desktop market - hardcore gamers.

You can differ as much as you want. Competent Linux admins and Windows admins are paid about the same. Less on the linux side for most run-to-the-mill LAMP setups, more on Windows side for enterprise. You pay for competency first, and any above-average sysadmin will be proficient in several systems, not only Linux. But in the end, techies are a minority, way smaller than gamers. And just because you're a sysadmin, it doesn't mean you can distinguish good gear from bad gear. Lots of techies I know do use Linux. And FreeBSD. And DragonFlyBSD. And Windows. A good techie isn't usually a one trick monkey. The sooner you learn it, the faster you'll grow.

Actually, Foxconn are usually replicas of Intel desktop silks. When a chipset is released, it is often accompanied with reference schematics that are - basically - a skeleton version of the reference board for that chipset. Foxconn usually mimics it to a point where you can hold both motherboards and they seem to differ only in color. So they usually are as compatible as one can be.
Regarding "pushing capacitors to the limit", isn't really about that. Its about electrolyte degradation. And this can happen with any major manufacturer, as they don't control every step of the supply chain.
People that know what they're buying are buying ready-made workstations from Dell or HP or Apple, or building it with Tyan, SuperMicro or similar gear. Coincidentally, both Dell and HP are huge players in the server market, and they use Foxconn factories.

Yah, that shows. You're "that" kind of guy. Let me ask you, assuming you're running eg. databases on those servers, what happens when a bit is flipped on in memory and a write operation commits 0x10FE credit instead of 0xFE? Your redundant system will replicate this and silently propagate the error. Or when a block is misread from a single disk instead of using parity check? Are your clients aware that this can happen? Have you explained it to them?

So, you have Windows and Linux experience on a very narrow field. Good for you. I can actually setup an OpenBSD server way faster than you can install most Linux distros, does it mean its a good replacement for every workload? Not really.

I could give you several server scenarios where Windows would win hands-down, but you seem to have your mind made. I would start with most available iSCSI daemons, but when you need eg. complex, multi-level autentication for both machine and resources with a fine-grained ACL, you'll probably understand that Linux isn't always the answer.

Smaller companies often have no servers and have everything online, or have a in-house NAS and a bunch of desktops. This isn't the nineties anymore. Some corner shops may still have a couple of desktops doubling as servers (yah, I've seen it), but it is not that common.

Just because they are in a rackmount case, it doesn't make them "servers". And most providers describe in detail the hardware, and will give you explicit option for an entry-level server solution - you get what you choose to pay for. If you're dumb enough to get an i7 "server" with 32GB of RAM for database work, its your problem, not theirs.
Most desktop gear isn't even designed for a 24/7 operation, let alone having to support the cpu running at full capacity and indefinite amount of time. Desktop gear is not designed, both from a thermal and electrical perspective, for this kind of operation.

Just because you use entry-level server gear/workstation gear for desktop work, it doesn't make it desktop :) And the cost isn't that big of a difference - a small entry-level xeon workstation/server isn't that much more expensive than the desktop gear. The problem is, most "regular" consumers aren't even aware of this, because the corner shop and the shopping mall sells computers that look like a christmas tree, not workstations.

Unfortunely, yes. No major motherboard manufacturer even cares about niche market. And the IC manufacturers, they don't really care, either.

Higher income buyers are buying trendy Apple, Andoid tablets and Microsoft laptops, not linux workstations.

No, they just don't care about that. But you do get the smugness of the illusion that the manufacturer uses fairy dust instead of building it like everyone else.

Now, you're just assuming stuff. I'd say wolves are quite the majority of animals in wolfpacks, and the major ingredient in wolf stoo.

Who is using COTS desktop boards on servers? Traditionally, Intel desktop cpu lines do not support ECC memory. And you talk like there is no option for servers besides Linux.

I assume you speak from experience. I'd blame it on the sysadmin, not the operating system.

Get out of the basement sometimes. Try to vent out at least some of that frustration of yours.

I don't really see where you got that idea. The british empire had what was probably the most well-oiled war machine at the time - and Germany gave them a run for their money.

If you mean "leaders were well aware of the consequences of war in your own backyard because it had happened a decade and a half before", yeah. No redneck reasoning here. And when the Americans realized this, they bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They've witnessed the horrors of the invasion of China and what is now Korea a couple of years before. (Hint: google "nanking massacre" - it makes the german seem inefficient by comparison).

You seem to forget that WWII was also fought in Africa. And Asia. Germany was fighting every major country on Earth at the time (with the exception of Japan), and had taken control of France and Netherlands, both with colonies in Africa.

Even after the USA entered, if Germany had invested into expanding their submarine fleet as it was proposed internally (and, at the time, they had the biggest submarine fleet in the world), it would not have been difficult to cut the US supply lines to the allies by taking control of the Atlantic. Again, bad decisions.

Germany was close to eliminate the RAF supremacy, if they didn't went to take vengeance on the Berlin bombing instead. And they did have lighter, cheaper rocket technology, and instead they invested heavily on the V-2.

And a healthy dose of luck, in the form of bad decisions from Hitler and his generals. Just by themselves, it wasn't clear they would win against Germany.

I have no experience whatsoever with ipv6, but try to google "ipv6 ipv4 interoperability" and you will find lots of info about it.

I have no idea where you got that information. Check http://www.tcpipguide.com/free...

That's why they only get a million a pop. If weren't for those pesky nerd pirates, they could make a million and 49 dollars a pop.

No professional career is worth millions of dollars a year, even if you're running into burning buildings or doing the other crap you mention. Btw, writing is way easier than acting, at least for me. It has to do with talent. But - BUT - if someone builds a business model around your specific skill/trick/whatever that generates millions in revenue, aren't you entitled to a cut? That's how professional sports work. Acting careers. Writing careers. Inspiring spokesman. Religious leaders. Politicians. Bankers. Whatever, all those people making millions a year. They're just taking a cut of the profit their work generates. If you don't like it, that's your problem.