Rudi Leibbrandt

I went to Vienna for the Sybase Development Tools Boot Camp in November, my first trip to Europe. Haven't seen much yet, except the duty free sections of the airports, after my 10-hour flight from Johannesburg, and a nice three-hour stopover at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. Then the two-hour trip to Vienna, and a half-hour taxi ride to the hotel here in Vienna. When I arrived here at the Trend Albatros, it just started to snow. Now, to all you Europeans, that possibly doesn't mean much, but the last time I saw snow was in 1982. (It doesn't snow much in South Africa.) Back then, I was 4 years old, and I can't really say that I really understood what the fuss was about. (But Dad, I see snow every day on TV....) I work for Sybase South Africa in Johannesburg. I used to run Professional Services for our division, but decided that I would like to take on the responsibil... (more)

Is Linux Enterprise Ready?

No doubt this topic has been debated to death; however, as I have a different perspective on this issue, I reckon it's worth writing down. Over the past few weeks I've been involved with one of our local customers who, after a lot of consideration, has decided to make the jump to Linux. This was no quick decision, mind you, and was more than a "I'm tired of paying Microsoft for licenses" thing. Why the Move? Linux made its way into the organization when I chose to use it as a desktop system while I was still consulting for the customer as a DBA and J2EE developer. (Yeah, I know, ... (more)