Linux, Windows or Mac Operating systems have their own advantages and disadvantages according to specific requirements established by an user or group of users (e.g.organization). Any analysis should be done according to this criteria. For example, it is hard to argue against Windows in the business world, because of after decades of use by it, everybody is familiar with Windows and try to stick to it. Another example, Mac and the graphics community. Or, Linux on Web community....it mostly depends on your environment, if you prefer one over another. Dante

I learned it at college in 1973 along with FORTRAN. Although, mostly despised at first by the Engineering & scientific community of the time, i currently consider its verbose structured more practical now (if properly modernized), because the current "modern" languages are more difficult to master every day. Not to mention the great variety of them. Back in the days, we basically had FORTRAN for Science in general, and COBOL for Business. At the time, one was a Systems Analyst and one had to analyze the system to mechanized with computers, write the program, test, debug it, implement and maintain it and do hardware maintenance, also. Nowadays, you cannot do all this due to the much bigger complexity of the systems environment, which required specialization. But, the sometimes unnecessary complexity of the current programming languages did not help, either. COBOL had a wonderful simplicity, because humans do talk that way. Never underestimate old things, just because they are old, as long as they perform and deliver. Dante

You have a good point. Leadership is inspired or improved through lectures based on historical cases or experiences, which is knowledge. The military system to prepare or improve leaders is a case in point. A fully agree that leaders are born, but they need to be improved and educated. Leaders can become managers. However, managers can or cannot become leaders in a true sense. Yes, managers are leaders in theory. They are being paid to lead us in business or administrative structures, but many became managers in spite of their dislike to be real leaders. They just needed the money, prerogatives and benefits that promotion entitled them. These cases are more common than not and any of us can relate to this every day.

I beleive both skills are equally important. However, according to the position you currently hold within the organization structure, either one should be more important than the other. Although, natural leaders/managers are born, a good education and a better training shall make up for certain deficiencies in character. Dante

Max: I recommend you to go to Wikipedia and search for "Power Supply Rail". I believe that very good article will answer most, if not all, of your questions regarding the subject.

Thanks Joel, i found the white-space. I appreciate your advice, sometimes being in a hurry is punishable. Dante

Dear Cesar: Welcome to the world of Computers…truth is what you see around you is very much alike anywhere over the world. I started as programmer in 1973. I am talking about FORTRAN, PL1, and Pascal. At the time, we despised guys programming in COBOL, because it was for BUSINESS… can you believe how misguided we were???? We considered ourselves-each of us- some sort of geniuses and the more difficult the programming language was, the better our ego felt, although it was really painful to master the language. At the time we were called systems engineers, because we really were. We had to deeply and in an integrated way analyze a system before we mechanized it/computerized it. We had to write the code entirely by ourselves and super-optimized it, because memory capacity at the time was microscopic by today standards. The de-bugging process was entirely by hand, hundreds of pages spread on the floor, checking command line by line. Before you fall asleep with this boring story, i will tell you that most of what you see around you, is about sore egos. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, giant egos themselves, dared to make a lot of money simplifying computing enough to reach normal, standard people. Their genius showed when they saw the opportunity to change the world not through us, geeks, but through the common guy. Through the common guy they reach the gold pot.....the BUSINESS OWNERS, who needed tools to simplify their common people employees and make them much more efficient or at least effective. I used to work for the government, military and private companies. Therefore, i seen the same you see around. In my humble opinion, you have master the profession or are about to, when you said that using open source or commencial/propietary is a matter of choosing the right tool to solve the problem at hand in the most efficient way, which generally is the most economical way. Here lies the secret..... ECONOMIC WAY ! Bill Gates and Steve Jobs saw this clearly and made immense fortunes in the process. The secret of our profession lies knowing several OS: Windows, Linux and OSx. You should know several programming languages: assembly, C, Java, and PHP. You should be familiar with the Security, Network and Telecommunications fundamentals, if you want to fully understand the nature of Cyber Space.....the NEW WORLD. My people always managed themselves by the " La forza dei fatti " -The force of the facts saying. It means we cannot deny the fact that proprietary code-Microsoft & Appl

Jeff: My apoligies for the writting style or lack thereoff k Thank you very much for the advice k i will re-do it k BT. Dante

Dear Cesar: Welcome to the world of Computers !! Truth is what you see around you is very much alike anywhere over the world. I started as programmer in 1973. I am talking about FORTRAN, PL1, Pascal. At the time, we dispised guys programming in COBOL, because it was for BUSINESS !!!!-can you believe how misguided we were ????-and we considered ourselves-each of us- some sort of geniouses and the more difficult the programming language was, the better our ego felt, although it was really painful to master the language.At the time we were called systems engineers, because we really were.We had to deeply and in an integrated way analyze a system before we mechanized it/computerized it. We had to write the code entirely by ourselves, optimized it-memory capacity at the time was microscopic by today standards.The de-bugging process was entirely by hand, hundreds of pages spread on the floor, checking command line by line. Before you fall asleep with this boring/jurassic story, i will tell you that most of what you see around you, is about sore egos. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs-giant egos themselves-dared to make a lot of money simplifying computing enough to reach normal, standard people. Their genious showed when they saw the opportunity to change the world not through us, geeks, but through the common guy. And through the commom guy they reach the gold pot.....the BUSINESS OWNERS, who needed tools to simplify their common people employees and make them much more efficient or at least effective. I used to work for the government, military and private companies. I used to work in mainframes-IBM & Burroughs-AppleTalk,Ethernet, wireless, microwave, satellite, HF,Citrix, VPN networks, security-physical & electronic-, Business continuity & Recovery, telephony-PBX & IP-, Data Centers,Backup Ops.,university professor, etc. Therefore, i seen the same you see around. In my humble opinion, you have master the profession or are about to, when you said that using open source or commencial/propietary is a matter of choosing the right tool to solve the problem at hand in the most efficient way, which generally is the most economical way. Here lies the secret.....ECONOMIC WAY ! Bill Gates and Steve Jobs saw this clearly and made inmense fortunes in the process. The secret of our profession lies knowing several OS:Windows, Linux, OS. You should know several programming languages:assembly, C, Java, PHP. And you should be familiar with the Security, Network and Telecommunications fundamentals, if you want to fully understand the nature