Loading
Penguins for President?
Is there any significance to what Web server/platform combinations 2004 presidential candidates are using?
As we swing into the thick of the 2004 electoral playoffs, it's interesting to see what kinds of platforms are running under the candidates' official campaign Web sites. Netcraft has a handy feature called "What's that site running?" that lets us see combinations of Web servers and OS platforms. So here's a quick rundown, in alphabetical order:
George W. Bush: Microsoft IIS on Windows 2000
Wesley Clark: Apache on Linux
Howard Dean: Apache on FreeBSD
John Edwards: Microsoft IIS "behind a computer running NetWare"
Richard Gephardt: Microsoft IIS on Windows 2000
John Kerry: Apache on Linux
Dennis Kucinich Apache on Linux
Carol Mosely-Braun: Apache on FreeBSD
Al Sharpton: Apache on Solaris 8
Joe Lieberman: Apache on FreeBSD
For what it's worth, the Republican National Committee is running Microsoft IIS on Windows 2000, while the Democratic National Committee is running Apache on Linux.
As of this writing, November 5, 2003, the RNC has an uptime of 4.26 days (maximum of 39.04) and a 90-day moving average of 16.91. The DNC has an uptime of 445.02 days (also the maximum) and a 90-day moving average of 395.38 days.
Draw your own conclusions.
Doc Searls is Senior Editor of Linux Journal.
______________________
Doc Searls is Senior Editor of Linux Journal
Webcast
How to Build an Optimal Hadoop Cluster to Store and Maintain Unlimited Amounts of Data Using Microservers
Realizing the promise of Apache® Hadoop® requires the effective deployment of compute, memory, storage and networking to achieve optimal results. With its flexibility and multitude of options, it is easy to over or under provision the server infrastructure, resulting in poor performance and high TCO. Join us for an in depth, technical discussion with industry experts from leading Hadoop and server companies who will provide insights into the key considerations for designing and deploying an optimal Hadoop cluster.
Sponsored by AMD
White Paper
Red Hat White Paper: Using an Open Source Framework to Catch the Bad Guy
Built-in forensics, incident response, and security with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
Every security policy provides guidance and requirements for ensuring adequate protection of information and data, as well as high-level technical and administrative security requirements for a system in a given environment. Traditionally, providing security for a system focuses on the confidentiality of the information on it. However, protecting the data integrity and system and data availability is just as important. For example, when processing United States intelligence information, there are three attributes that require protection: confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
Learn more about catching the bad guy in this free white paper.
Sponsored by DLT Solutions
- RSS Feeds
- Making Linux and Android Get Along (It's Not as Hard as It Sounds)
- Using Salt Stack and Vagrant for Drupal Development
- New Products
- Validate an E-Mail Address with PHP, the Right Way
- Dynamic DNS—an Object Lesson in Problem Solving
- Drupal Is a Framework: Why Everyone Needs to Understand This
- A Topic for Discussion - Open Source Feature-Richness?
- Download the Free Red Hat White Paper "Using an Open Source Framework to Catch the Bad Guy"
- Tech Tip: Really Simple HTTP Server with Python
- Please correct the URL for Salt Stack's web site
2 hours 11 min ago - Android is Linux -- why no better inter-operation
4 hours 26 min ago - Connecting Android device to desktop Linux via USB
4 hours 55 min ago - Find new cell phone and tablet pc
5 hours 53 min ago - Epistle
7 hours 22 min ago - Automatically updating Guest Additions
8 hours 31 min ago - I like your topic on android
9 hours 17 min ago - This is the easiest tutorial
15 hours 53 min ago - Ahh, the Koolaid.
21 hours 31 min ago - git-annex assistant
1 day 3 hours ago
Enter to Win an Adafruit Pi Cobbler Breakout Kit for Raspberry Pi
It's Raspberry Pi month at Linux Journal. Each week in May, Adafruit will be giving away a Pi-related prize to a lucky, randomly drawn LJ reader. Winners will be announced weekly.
Fill out the fields below to enter to win this week's prize-- a Pi Cobbler Breakout Kit for Raspberry Pi.
Congratulations to our winners so far:
- 5-8-13, Pi Starter Pack: Jack Davis
- 5-15-13, Pi Model B 512MB RAM: Patrick Dunn
- 5-21-13, Prototyping Pi Plate Kit: Philip Kirby
- Next winner announced on 5-27-13!
Free Webinar: Hadoop
How to Build an Optimal Hadoop Cluster to Store and Maintain Unlimited Amounts of Data Using Microservers
Realizing the promise of Apache® Hadoop® requires the effective deployment of compute, memory, storage and networking to achieve optimal results. With its flexibility and multitude of options, it is easy to over or under provision the server infrastructure, resulting in poor performance and high TCO. Join us for an in depth, technical discussion with industry experts from leading Hadoop and server companies who will provide insights into the key considerations for designing and deploying an optimal Hadoop cluster.
Some of key questions to be discussed are:
- What is the “typical” Hadoop cluster and what should be installed on the different machine types?
- Why should you consider the typical workload patterns when making your hardware decisions?
- Are all microservers created equal for Hadoop deployments?
- How do I plan for expansion if I require more compute, memory, storage or networking?
Developer Poll
Comments
Re: Penguins for President?
i never knew of this connection, and it's distressing that you point it out. you've clearly never went to the population international web site. if you had, and had read between the lines of their careful wording and creatively-constructed graphs, you would realize that their general theme is not really philanthropic, but that there are too many non-white people in the world and something needs to be done to control their population. as i said, read (and actually think about) the wording. check the graphs and see how they are carefully crafted to make sure european and north-american countries show up as normal, while other countries (especially african and those with dark-skinned populations) show up red. look at them again and you will see highly-questionable scaling and arbitrary boundaries to make this happen. a perfect example is their 'trees per capita' graph.
the other organizations you say he supported sound similar, although i have never investigated them so i don't know for sure.
pure conjecture here, but maybe that's why he chose to set up shop in Washington instead of the much more obvious/easy-on-the-IT-infrastructure-costs California, looking at the diversity (or lack thereof) of their respective populations. this was an especially questionable decision at the time because their only major customer at the time was IBM...
the kind of attitude prommulgated by the organization you say he donated to, unfortunately, still is a good bastion of the Republican party.
Re: Penguins for President?
Seems the "read the rest of this comment" got botched somehow.
or perhaps the one who is "providing an initial $100 million for a 10-year commitment to launch the India AIDS Initiative" including "condom distribution"? source (http://www.gatesfoundation.org/GlobalHealth/HIVAIDSTB/HIVAIDS/IndiaMission/IAIFactSheet-021111.htm)
All good bastions of the Republican party, I know. . .
Re: Penguins for President?
Here are the third parties (see www.politics1.com)
An addendum:
The American Party: Solaris 8 & Netscape Enterprise
Communist Party USA: RedHat & Apache
The Constitution Party: FreeBSD & Apache/FrontPage/php
Green Party: Debian & Apache/mod_perl
Libertarian Party: FreeBSD & Apache/php
Socialist Party: Red Hat & Apache
Socialist Workers Party USA: Unknown
The Natural Law Party: IRIX & Rapidsite/Apache/FrontPage
Prohibition Party: RedHat Linux & Apache
Reform Party: Linux & Apache/php/frontpage
Re: Penguins for President?
>>Socialist Workers Party USA: Unknown
Ain't that the truth!
Re: Penguins for President?
Shouldn't that be Red Flag Linux?
Re: Penguins for President?
Just remember, SCO is represented by David Boise's law firm who is going after open source. Boise supports the Democrat Party.
Also, remember, Senator Fritz "Disney" Hollings is a Democrat who wants to regulate the IT industry. Democrats supports micromanagement of our lives. MPAA & RIAA support the Democrats.
Re: Penguins for President?
That is ridiculous! Like all mega-corporations and industry lobby groups, these organizations support BOTH the Republican and Democrat parties. You really have to find out who they give more money too to make any kind of point here.
Re: Penguins for President?
I'm a Democrat and I can distinguish between Boise and the party. The proper criticism of the Democrats starts with the DNC which runs the party and is effectively run by the DLC. The DLC represents the effects on the party of many sins. One of those sins is pandering to Hollywood, but the big historical sin is trying to win by appealing to Southern states, as opposed to their traditional FDR constituencies, which perhaps would include you. And the Democratic party could become worse very quickly, as for instance, because Soros is trying to buy up the party.
Now on the good side, if the secondary leadership of the Democratic party sees a way to win that is actually responsive to people's needs, a lot of them will go with it. The mayorality election in Philly is an example of the movement of the secondary leadership of the party toward a winning strategy, in the particulars of this case, kicking Ashcroft's teeth in. So who want control of every bit of your life?
Yah, I know you are complaining about file sharing, not Aschcroft, but get real.
Re: Penguins for President?
It's intersting how eveyone bashes Ashcroft, but have they really looked at the Patriot Act? It's not that much different than the wire-tap rules we have now, it only expands the mediums. I don't hear anyone complaining how it's a violation of privacy...
Re: Penguins for President?
In general, I would say business wants to micromanage your life, not necessarily the democrats, and I definitely don't think the republicans are any less guilty.
At least the democrats don't try and fix the elections?
Re: Penguins for President?
yeah the democrats are stand up guys...cough chicago, cough florida, cough cough, when it comes to elections. They don't ever try and subvert the process and throw random stones until they hit something.
Re: Penguins for President?
Hey it was the Republicans who dressed up paid staffers as "regular folks" and sent them out on the Florida streets to fake popular outrage against the recount.
It was the Republicans who fought hard to invalidate votes in counties where they expected more Democratic votes (while leaving other counties alone).
It was the Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices who ruled that the recount was infringing Bush's rights (who gives a f*** about the candidate's rights -- consistent judicial precedent holds that what's important is to do right by the voters). Meanwhile, talking out of the other side of their asses, they said that this decision *could never be used again*. It was a one-time decision and would not set any precedents. In effect, it was Bush's "Get Into the White House" card, only to be played once, in the history of the nation.
It was Republicans who insisted that military ballots which were clearly mailed after the deadline be counted, simply because they were expected to vote Republican.
Finally, it was the Republicans who threw valid black voters off the rolls in Florida, under the pretext that they were trying to remove felons from the rolls. The only felony those people committed were being likely Democrat voters.
Meanwhile, "true believers" like yourself excoriate Democrats for simply requesting what every candidate would do in the same situation, a hand recount of the ballots.
What kind of warped, f***** up world do you sick cynical bastards live in, anyway? I'm taking my country back now, thank you very much.
Re: Penguins for President?
Interestingly enough, in spite of all your baseless left-wing conspiracy theories, all final official counts (released after all the hoop-la) listed Bush as the winner. Search USA-Today and the Miami Herald for the study they spearheaded to see how you are wrong.
Re: Penguins for President?
You can have my country when you pry it from my cold dead fingers.
Re: Penguins for President?
Why is it always the far left cooks that have to debase themselves with base language and humor? And do they try to be ignorant of the corruption on their leftist side, or is this a genetic mutation of deficient sequencing?
Further, it constantly amazes me how allergic they are to common sense. Instead of discussing ideas, they have blind knee-jerk reactions to defend whatever party they subscribe to that day.
I must stop. This is akin to ducks in a barrel.
AMEN!!!
That is all - That was just seriously the best comment I've read all day.
Re: Penguins for President?
At least the democrats don't try and fix the elections?
You made some sense with your first sentence and then blew it all with this. Mindless, kneejerk reactionary. Guess you're not aware of the origin of "Vote early. Vote often." or haven't heard of the Daley machine. Jump off the party band-wagon and vote for individuals based on their policies and what they do or don't support.
Yes it's a just a bit of fun
Come on, of course this is just a little goofy data point.
Kind of fun.
You remember fun, right? For folks with a stuffed penguin for a mascot, we are getting to be a little too serious sometimes.
Re: Yes it's a just a bit of fun
Tux got stuffed?!?! Noooo!!!!!
it's the party, stupid!
As a Canadian, I have little care who wins, but I would like to make an observation. In the US, it's about the party, not the man. That's how someone like George W can run the place. If you can recognize talanted people and pick them to do what they do best, you're on the right track, and it seems that the democrats have that.
The republicans were probably donated the computer goods by M$ and haven't given it a second thought. The Democrats probably have educated people running their shows.
So yes, there is something to this.
Re: it's the party, stupid!
actually, it's the stupid party! Or, the party of the stupid! Or you could go on calling bush and his co-conspirators liars, murderers, thieves, polluters, corrupt, deceitful, arrogant, ignorant, war-mongers, belligerent, bastards, fools; *****, that's just scratching the surface. I apologize if I wasted a hyphen or two.
Re: it's the party, stupid!
Another dumb Canadian is heard from! Look at the people elected in Canada. Good grief!
Re: it's the money, stupid!
More likely, the Democrats have about half the budget of the Republicans and have to shop around much more for a cheap hosting company. Cheap hosting companies run Linux or FreeBSD. I doubt the campaign staffers on either side know the difference between Windows and Linux.
Re: it's the party, stupid!
For the most part, the OS situation is not relavent to how well a politician does his or her job. For the most part actually, republicans are usually with more money then the democrats. This is noncense
***** Canada.
so there.
Re: it's the party, stupid!
you are an idiot,
I am sorry.
Re: it's the party, stupid!
In the US, it's about the party, not the man. That's how someone like George W can run the place.
I doubt you could be more mistaken. Much like the Democrats in the last two election cycles, you underestimate the man and act like he pulled a fast one on you when he ends up winning. So obviously it can't be the man's touch, or his ability to raise campaign funds, that gets him elected. No, it has to be something underhanded and sneaky.
Oh, and by the way, in case you haven't been paying too much attention, but it's the Democrats who are the party of the big campaign donors...
Re: it's the party, stupid!
I doubt *you* could be more mistaken. pResident Bush *did* pull a fast one.
Re: it's the party, stupid!
What?
The average contribution to Howard Dean was <$80 last time I checked, and Bush has huge fundraising dinners for a few thousand dollars per plate.
Re: it's the party, stupid!
Several national papers that generally support democrat candidates did a study about a year ago. Turns out that Bush (and the GOP, in general) had a larger amount of donors and the mean gift was low, in the $100-250 range. Democrats were the "fat cats" and had fewer donors but the donations were much higher...and when disclosed the donor's adjusted gross income was higher for those donating to the democrats....so I guess Bush is passing all these tax cuts to help his rich, democrat-voting (or at least donating), buddies
Re: it's the party, stupid!
actually, when you look at the break down, Democrats get a lot more money in the big-donation way. From a study in 2002 ( you can read the article in a Washington times piece from 18 Dec.)
"But among the fabulously wealthy, the Democrats cleaned house. Donors of $10,000 or more gave $140 million to Democrats, while only $111 million went to Republicans. Among those individuals who gave $100,000 or more, the Democrats raised $72 million compared to the Republicans' $34 million. And when it comes to the millionaires' club - those kicking in $1 million or more - the Democratic Party skunked the GOP, $36 million to $3 million. Needless to say, despite the near-parity in overall amounts - $384 million to the Republicans vs. $350 million to the Democrats - the number of individual donors to the GOP exceeded those to the Democratic Party by more than 40 percent."
Re: it's the party, stupid!
the washington times is one of the three most unabashedly right-wing media outlets (along with the NY post and Fox News). I trust their coverage about as much as I trust the coverage at newsmax.com (or it's cousin on the left, counterpunch).
Re: it's the party, stupid!
If you don't want to believe plain facts because they come from an 'unabashedly right-wing media outlet' as you put it, read it straight from the horses mouth: the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. I'd give the link, but I can't find the exact link at the moment. You can search the site yourself at http://www.opensecrects.org
I think it's telling that you'd label those news outlets as such only because they actually tell the whole story. Who would you consider an unbiased news outlet? CNN? ABC News?
Sad...
Re: it's the party, stupid!
Those two don't correlate. How do you compare average of one campaign to highest in another and come out with something meaningful? It's like me stating that your anus smells worse than my cologne....
Re: it's the party, stupid!
and that's not meaningful? or does your cologne really suck?
Re: it's the party, stupid!
Forgive me, I should have been more clear.
First, I'm Canadian, so I don't pay much attention to it. But if I did, I would be a Republican.
Second, I was implying what should be, not what is. I know that big money and industry have more punch than a bunch of grass-roots organizations. At the end of the day, (or, the end of November) many people vote republican simply because it makes them feel like part of the elite. How's that for branding?
I am saying that if you want to pick the person who has the best potential leadership ability, pick the one who has good people. Linux people are good people, therefore those who have Linux people would make the best leaders.
I have no illusions of this happening, I was just commenting on my observations.
Re: it's the party, stupid!
Check your facts Mr. Canadian. The Democrats are the one's that cling to the party instead of voting on their beliefs. Also, Bush has at least chosen individuals that are highly qualified for the positions. Check back during the Clinton years.... the people that supported them the most got appointed regardless of qualifications. To name one, his head of the Department of Education.... the guy came from the district with the worst rating in education. After 8 years, the Department of Education "lost" a few hundred million dollars and had no paper trail to find it.... nice.
Re: Penguins for President?
Now this is silly. I hope that no one seriously considers voting for anyone based on what OS hosts their website. I don't particulary care for either party, but I hope we realize that the candidates themselves probably don't know what their website is running (or should they have to, they've got an IT staff).
Y'know I love Linux, but this is really goofy, and I'm probably taking this way too seriously, but that's life.
Re: Penguins for President?
Now this is silly. I hope that no one seriously considers voting for anyone based on what OS hosts their website.
Disagree entirely with this view - what you show of your public face says a lot about you. There are only two possibilities here - the OS you host your website on is either irrelevant, or it isn't.
If it's irrelevant, then this information says, at worst, nothing.
If it is relevant, then your choice of OS says a lot about your views on Freedom vs. constraint, monopoly vs. Competition, lock-in vs Choice. As OS choice is a public face of a candidate's views and it's actually not a huge technical issue to choose one over the other, I would say that this is highly relevant.
Someone who claims to support freedom but runs their website on the OS of a constraining, monopolistic, locked-in company will be laying themselves wide open to accusations of hipocrisy.
Take note, candidates - we're watching your every move!!
Re: Penguins for President?
Ummmmm... So in other words, they are free to pick any server software they want as long as it is not M$.
Re: Penguins for President?
It just goes to show that they have poor judgement in picking people (their IT staff), or that they pick people with poor judgement, or that they pick people that pick people with poor judgement, or... Ok, I'll stop now.
I disagree
It shows a lot about a person and their values (or at least the values of the people hosting/providing their web service).
Re: I disagree
As far as the candidate is concerned, it means nothing. These are people who are concerned with economics and policy, not what server their platform is being hosted.
Re: Penguins for President?
At this stage in a campaign, the IT staffs are likely to both care about their politics (usually very dedicated party loyalists) and their web servers. And the correlation appears very strong. Regardless, it is at least some evidence that republicans, though not necessarily the candidates themselves, and democrats have different preferences.
I agree
That's why it's important to also use google.
Democrats Rule: 583,000 hits
Republicans Rule: 423,000 hits
Combine this with the OS information above and you can make a reasonable decision.
Re: Penguins for President?
It's posted under "The Lighter Side" intended as trivia or humor. The only thing silly is that some people are reading more from it than what is presented.
Re: Penguins for President?
... I somehow doubt the question "Windows or UN*X?" was really high in their "Should I host here?" question list. This "survey" and what it implies is retarded. No offense.
Re: Penguins for President?
And though I'm reluctant to place much importance on a single example, it does tell us something about their approach to searching out the best solutions, as opposed to just buying what all the other kids are buying...
Re: Penguins for President?
Posting the same whiny comment twice is retarded. No offense.
Re: Penguins for President?
It's called humor jackass