“AI” is probably simple machine learning?

reads article

Yes, it is.

Full support from Proxmox isn’t cheap, compared to even the new prices on VMware, if you look at the per processor cost that small businesses often have.

You’re joking, right? VSphere is AT LEAST 1400 per year for the base license, that hasn’t even got any support tickets - one Ticket is at least 300, 5 tickets is around 1200. Proxmox Full support starts at 340 Euros - with 3 Support tickets included. Then there’s also the fact, that Proxmox doesn’t have core limitations - meaning, you need at least two VSphere licenses for a 64-Core EPYC CPU. Oh, you want advanced networking or storage services? That’s even more.

As I said - it depends on processor count. I know a number of small businesses that will be paying $5k/year for VMware, not much more than Proxmox top tier (which is what they would want). Proxmox is about $1500 per processor, so would be $3k-$6k/year for these businesses. That’s a trivial difference when you look at VMware already being installed and running, no transition costs, no risk of migration. You’d burn up a few $k difference with a single issue.

WTF? You can’t even compare the 5k/year for VMware, just beacuse of the the single fact, that proxmox has UNLIMITED support tickets in the top tier. Not only that - it’s 1,1k per processor without any core limit - VSphere still has that ridiculous 32-Core Limit. In many cases, VMware also has support times up to 24 hours - proxmox has max. 2 hours

Frankly, as much as VMware annoys the shit out of me, I couldn’t recommend migrating to Proxmox for those businesses, today. At best I’d recommend planning a transition when they need to upgrade servers, and do it early as a parallel install to give transition time for the business.

SMB doesn’t have the luxury of test labs for this stuff - they don’t have the cash flow/finance room to justify it.

If they don’t, they don’t have the cash or finance room to justify their IT, period. For most SMBs, IT has become the utter lifeline for everything they do, that’s basically like when you are a machine shop without power. Meaning, the company is dead in the water for a serious period of time.

What? Have you looked at the prices? Proxmox and TrueNAS have ridiculously low prices compared to VMware support. If we’re talking about Nutanix and stuff, sure - they aren’t cheaper than VMware. But Proxmox and TrueNAS are dirt cheap in comparison - not only because the documentation is pretty damn good, your standard, run of the mill Linux admin can do both, while Nutanix and the likes is an entirely different animal.

That’s not the issue in IT anymore. There are loads of alternatives, but rebuilding existing infrastructure on these kind of scales is nearly impossible without causing some serious downtime, loss of money or maybe even loss of life in case of some medical facilities.

Yeah, the quality of Nvidia pro drivers is a crapshoot though. We’ve had so many issues, especially with OpenGL, it just isn’t funny anymore. Granted, AMD isn’t really that much better, but at least the cards cost a fraction and I have more confidence in AMD fixing the problem, than I have in Nvidia.

On one hand, I really, really want those idiots in the Kremel to cause a Kessler Syndrome…(In theory it could also prevent ballistic missiles)

On the other hand, that would be quite bad for the rest of us.

Google is just the complete opposite and empowers global surveillance.

I disagree with that. Yes, they enable it, but you can turn (nearly) everything off in the settings and with a few ground rules things are quite good.

Take TikTok, Meta or something like that…you can’t turn off most of the data harvesting and profiling.

It is. And I personally commend Google for this - they are pretty much the last manufacturer to truly give your the freedom, without crippling the device to hell and back. Sony and Samsung cripple the cameras when you unlock the boot loader, nearly all Chinese manufacturers don’t even give you the choice, Xiaomi has a “wait list”.

Say what you want about Google - they still aren’t as terrible as others.

for example production of base chemicals that are used in various other follow up products, lot’s of efficiency due to special membranes and so on.

GDP is not the only measure of the economy. In fact it’s a really bad one

I agree - which makes the rest of the numbers very odd, because most companies posted a substantial plus for 2023.

FFS, recession is not a fact. Stop with that Bullshit. Yes, growth is down to 0,2% - that’s not good, but it isn’t a recession!

Edit: To all the downvotes: You realize a recession is defined as “Not growing”? Meaning a 0,2% growth is still growth?

Smaller corporations have it easier, IF they took IT Security serious. For the simple fact, that there are just a lot less entry points and way less whack amole playing.

And Microsoft never took security as serious as they should have.

Edith: And I highly doubt, we’ll see a substantial change on Microsoft’s side. 1.: There’s less Money to be made. 2.: In some ways, their hands are tied because of the still ongoing Patriot Act/USA Freedom Act (which is a bullshit name) or rather the safe harbor stuff.

Well, since working in the industry, i can say with a very high confidence: There will be substitutes, but not for everything - at least at this point in time. There may soon very well be a breakthrough in material science, but at this point there is no alternative in some use cases (like gaskets, that have to sustain extreme temperatures and pressures…).

But i absolutely do agree with you.

I’ve been wondering for quite some time why everything is going to shit. Now I think I get the picture. Thanks for the enlightenment.

And yes, I fucking expect people to think about their decisions and take responsibility serious - even if they don’t have the means to get caviar or Champagne all the time. But hey, I’ll probably be labeled as boomer in the next few years, so whatever floats your boat!

Judging by all these downvotes, I guess that ship has sailed a long time and maybe I shouldn’t care so much 🤔

Oh i absolutely agree with you. Especially in cosmetics and other “day to day” products that are disposable.

But that’s also exactly the argument - make companies and customers dispose of these products correctly, because banning PFAS outright will have devastating consequences. (Like 3M just shifting production to China from Europe. Europe had the highest safety and production standards for PTFE - now they are going to be produced in china with absolutely no standards )

And if there is a proper way to recycle those PFAS, there is no need to shift production to places where there are no standards so you can get a porper goretex jacket (for example), because phasing out PTFE for something other that’s substitutable now has an incentive.

Maybe in the U.S., but not in Europe. We got the Nutri-Score, we got the animal wellfare labeling and we have open source databanks where you scan the barcode and get all the information about a product so you can actually make a decision.

And you are arguing that customers become mindless drones that don’t need to think about any consequences when they consume. Which is exactly why we have fucked up the climate.

Coming back to the purification plant, that’s the same thing if everyone would go shit in the Neighbors garden and flushing down anything down the toilet. We don’t do that, because we know it would fuck up the purification plant, clogg the toilet and turn the garden in to a literal dump.

Choosing what you buy is also the same thing as choosing what to eat. Sure, if you don’t know any better you may just eat junk food all day long. But the consequences are going to haunt you very much.

Is there really no alternative in shampoo & disposable coffee cups?

There is - but i personally think it’s up to customers to not just grab what’s on the shelf and do at least some basic research, because PFAS generally have to be marked on the bottle. Disposable coffee cups are just stupid all together.

This could have been done years ago but if industry can’t self regulate then bans it is.

I get the sentiment, but why not regulate stuff, before just banning it? And while we’re at it, how about educating the customer?

You do realize, many of those “forever chemicals” have no alternative? PFOA for example is essential for modern production, because there is no other material known to withstand the temperatures and pressures needed in the production processes? So the alternative is either not to use them at all, with ALL the consequences - or we have use a proper way to dispose them.

Purification Plants are the same argument analogy.

maybe we all are? 😵