Political Agendas and Ambiguity
Saturday, 18. March 2006, 22:24:21
Now Newsforge obviously has the agenda of pushing Free software because that's what the magazine is all about. So when this article I submitted mentioned that Ace Hardware was moving to Windows machines, Newsforge decided not to publish it. That and because no one at Ace could exactly say what it was that Windows REALLY offered Ace over Linux. As an editorial, I personally believe that a change in management or influence from an outside company changed Ace's upper management's collective mind.
Presented below is the article in its entirity as it was originally written.
Ace Hardware Switches from Cross-Platform to Windows-Only
By Sean "Nz17" Robinson
Milt's Ace Hardware of Vernal, Utah, U.S.A. is just one of the numerous Ace Hardware franchises spread about the continental United States. And like many of the other franchised stores, it has bared witness to Ace's gradual shift over the past several years from running its point-of-sale front-end on GNU/Linux to running its P.O.S. exclusively on Microsoft Windows.
Milt's had been resisting this change for quite awhile, and the reasons were numerous: employees were already trained to use the simple curses-like front-end; the Windows version, until recently, was missing many of the features already deployed in the Linux version; the Linux version has been very stable and dependable; and the operating system switch-over and subsequent employee re-training for the O.S. and graphical user interface would lessen productivity for weeks.
Milt's was given little choice though, when all Ace Hardware stores were recently given the news of an impending mandatory switch-over from Linux to Windows, and thus Milt's had to finally give into corporate desires.
Ace Corporate's given reasoning for the switch is that it wanted to simplify the computer network infrastructure within its stores, and change the user interface on the front-end to an "easy-to-learn" graphical one. Instead of the traditional client-server model, Ace wanted to use the typical Microsoft Windows peer-to-peer model, wherein each node on the network acts as both a client and server.
Why Ace Corporate was unable to achieve its goals with its stores' current operating system, GNU/Linux, is unknown, and upper management's sparse notices offer no clues. Perhaps the prevailing presence of Microsoft Windows was an influence, or then again maybe its programmers were unable to find a satisfactory widget toolkit for Linux, or even perhaps it was unable to find adequately trained Linux programmers and interface designers. In any event, the choice has been made, and now its stores are incorporating the changes within themselves.
Employees and management in the franchised stores are taking this change with some apprehension. Employees are wary of learning an unfamiliar, nested, tabbed GUI, and store management is unfavorable in some aspects towards the switch, what with past inadequacies of previous incarnations, having to install the new O.S., learning an entirely new environment to manage and secure, and the additional employee training. However, management is in favor of receiving some new computers to replace the older ones at work that were previously running Linux but are unable to run current versions of Microsoft Windows.
Though Milt's is just one of dozens of stores across America experiencing this switch, its sentiment is undoubtedly a representation of its fellows. While its near future certainly includes the presence of Microsoft's current operating system, Windows XP, the future platforms of Ace Hardware's front-end and back-end software is yet unknown. Perhaps some cross-system GUI toolkit may come into play, such as wxWidgets or QT, that would allow for its software to be platform independent and once again be present on the stores' O.S. of choice. Certainly many more company subordinates would be happy with that configuration.
Anime Podcast ASO Radio
Presented below is the article in its entirity as it was originally written.
Ace Hardware Switches from Cross-Platform to Windows-Only
By Sean "Nz17" Robinson
Milt's Ace Hardware of Vernal, Utah, U.S.A. is just one of the numerous Ace Hardware franchises spread about the continental United States. And like many of the other franchised stores, it has bared witness to Ace's gradual shift over the past several years from running its point-of-sale front-end on GNU/Linux to running its P.O.S. exclusively on Microsoft Windows.
Milt's had been resisting this change for quite awhile, and the reasons were numerous: employees were already trained to use the simple curses-like front-end; the Windows version, until recently, was missing many of the features already deployed in the Linux version; the Linux version has been very stable and dependable; and the operating system switch-over and subsequent employee re-training for the O.S. and graphical user interface would lessen productivity for weeks.
Milt's was given little choice though, when all Ace Hardware stores were recently given the news of an impending mandatory switch-over from Linux to Windows, and thus Milt's had to finally give into corporate desires.
Ace Corporate's given reasoning for the switch is that it wanted to simplify the computer network infrastructure within its stores, and change the user interface on the front-end to an "easy-to-learn" graphical one. Instead of the traditional client-server model, Ace wanted to use the typical Microsoft Windows peer-to-peer model, wherein each node on the network acts as both a client and server.
Why Ace Corporate was unable to achieve its goals with its stores' current operating system, GNU/Linux, is unknown, and upper management's sparse notices offer no clues. Perhaps the prevailing presence of Microsoft Windows was an influence, or then again maybe its programmers were unable to find a satisfactory widget toolkit for Linux, or even perhaps it was unable to find adequately trained Linux programmers and interface designers. In any event, the choice has been made, and now its stores are incorporating the changes within themselves.
Employees and management in the franchised stores are taking this change with some apprehension. Employees are wary of learning an unfamiliar, nested, tabbed GUI, and store management is unfavorable in some aspects towards the switch, what with past inadequacies of previous incarnations, having to install the new O.S., learning an entirely new environment to manage and secure, and the additional employee training. However, management is in favor of receiving some new computers to replace the older ones at work that were previously running Linux but are unable to run current versions of Microsoft Windows.
Though Milt's is just one of dozens of stores across America experiencing this switch, its sentiment is undoubtedly a representation of its fellows. While its near future certainly includes the presence of Microsoft's current operating system, Windows XP, the future platforms of Ace Hardware's front-end and back-end software is yet unknown. Perhaps some cross-system GUI toolkit may come into play, such as wxWidgets or QT, that would allow for its software to be platform independent and once again be present on the stores' O.S. of choice. Certainly many more company subordinates would be happy with that configuration.
Anime Podcast ASO Radio
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