Slashdot Mirror

If you want a high bitrate of 160k you should probably use bladeenc. I just read the speed section of the homepage. On the other hand L3enc works well with lower bitrates (120k). Since I like small & good stuff I would naturally go for l3enc. But there is also LAME which is a patch to the ISO mp3 encoder source, allows VBR (variable bitrate encoding) and is 5 times faster than the original. You might want to try some batch frontends that provide CDDB acess to ease your work. Check out at freshmeat, I've seen lots of those.

If you want a high bitrate of 160k you should probably use bladeenc. I just read the speed section of the homepage. On the other hand L3enc work well for a lower bitrate (120k). Since I like small & good stuff I would naturally go for l3enc. But there is also LAME which is a patch to the ISO mp3 encoder source, allows VBR (variable bitrate encoding) and is 5 times faster than the original. You might want to try some batch frontends that provide CDDB acess to ease your work. Check out at freshmeat, I've seen lots of those.

I started using BladeEnc on windows and when I went full time to linux tried out a couple of encoders before going back to BladeEnc. It has consistently shown itself to be of exceptional speed and quality.

Recently I ripped my modest collection of 25 albums over a period of a few days using ripit, a perl script which does a cddb lookup of the tracks, rips them, and then encodes them with bladeenc or lame.

I wouldn't consider ripping a cd collection without cddb these days, after doing it the easy way it would be far too painful to do it manually.

IMHO, this article shouldn't be on Slashdot! It should be here. If I want to look up software updates (Even epic ones like Apache), I go to Freshmeat. And thanks to the cool slashboxes, I don't even need to -go- to the site. Does anyone agree with me?

I'll refrain from making any comments about Andover.net.

It's just that you never hear about these Mac-like windowmanagers in the press because they're all getting excited about a Windows-like desktop system. But they're out there.
-----

Maybe I'm just a conspiracy minded freak, but since the X10 Firecracker giveaway a while ago, X10 went from almost 0 presence in my everyday haunts to almost weekly presence. Is it just coincidence, or has X10's advertising department or PR firm just spend a BUTTLOAD of money getting the word out? The weird thing is, they all seem to come up as stories on "legit" sites but read like press releases rather than reporting. For example, recent links & stories:

Slashdot:
10.Jul.1999: Promotional Freshmeat X10 Firecrackers
23.Jun.1999: More Firecracker Kits For Free
21.Jun.1999: Home automation gadgets for free

Freshmeat:
10.Jul.1999: Free Firecracker Giveaway from X10

Wired News:
19.Aug.1999: MP3s Rock the House
7.Aug.1999: Wireless DVD on TV

Of course, I'm already an advertising casualty because I ordered the Firecracker kit, and then after playing with it ordered US$50 more in stuff. And no, I'm seriously looking at the little camera and radio video transmitter they have for my apartment's web cam.

But don't be like me! This is a warning beacon! Stay back! *BEEP* *BEEP* This meme is under quaranteen! *BEEP* *BEEP* Danger Will Robinson!

Er...

Ethereal is nice. Tcpdump is sorta the old standby. freshmeat should have links to both.

I had a look at the page, there was some really cool information about how to use xdm in indirect mode, thanks!

Do you know wdm, though?
It looks much nicer than the xdm interface, and allows you to do a few tricks, like shuting down the computer or letting you choose your window manager...

---

Some anonymous coward wrote:

IRC does not scale

Doesn't scale? Actually, in some ways I'd say IRC scales better...if the traffic gets excessive, people start new servers on the network which are closer. (I'd say it scales approximately as well as large FTP sites like Simtel or Freshmeat; Freshmeat in particular is actually mirrored on a large number of sites and one is routed to a server semi-local to one.)

IRC does not have a user registration system

Depends on the network, actually. The largest IRC network admittedly has no facilities for nick registration (then again, the largest IRC network is next to useless for many reasons). Second- and third-generation IRC networks, such as DALnet and SorceryNet have NickServ programs that allow registration of nicks...if someone else tries to logon with your nick, they have to give your password within 30 seconds or their nick gets autochanged. (You can also specify hosts that don't have to give a password.)

IRC does not have offline messaging

Again, this varies with IRC network and server. IRC servers on DALnet, SorceryNet, and other networks that use the DALnet server software do have offline messaging capability as long as your nick has been registered. The tool is called MsgServ, and when someone logs on they'll get a message to the effect "x messages are waiting for you. Type /msg MsgServ read 1 to start reading".

IRC servers periodically split off because of the massive amount of traffic since IRC as a protocol forwards every single message, not just the ones the people on the other server are interested in seeing

I've got some news for you...so does AIM. So does ICQ. The servers by definition carry every message on them, not just the ones one is interested in seeing! You just see the ones you're interested in seeing because you're in a chatroom (the exact equivalent of a room on IRC) or you are in private chat with a person on your Buddy list (the exact equivalent of either private chat (/msg) or DCC chat in IRC).

The real reason IRC tends to lag is because of network conditions in GENERAL on modern IRC networks (like Undernet and DALnet and SorceryNet). They often have to cross country and worse...AOL actually uses multiple servers for AIM (and I expect for ICQ as well) but they're located in two or three places. I'll also note that IRC networks with two or three servers almost never experience lag problems; I've not yet run into serious lag on SorceryNet, for instance.

As a minor aside...I have run into problems with network lag with ICQ (at times I honestly wish you could select the server you connect to; sometimes ICQ is so slow as to be unusable) and I know folks who've run into it with AIM too. The problem isn't exclusive to IRC. Just three problems, I can easily give you a hundred more if you like.

Most of the problems I've seen with IRC versus "chat clients" such as AIM or ICQ mostly occur on EFnet (a first-generation IRC network which is mostly plagued by script kiddies). Modern servers such as DALnet and SorceryNet (and networks and private IRC servers using the DALnet ircii server) generally do not have the problems with script-kiddies and people on kick-frenzies, and have security for nicks and channels as well as less problems with netsplits. (And yes, I've seen the equivalent of netsplits on other chat clients; with ICQ "netsplits" you generally are unable to talk to the person even though they are still online.)

In fact, I'll even go so far as to note that there are problems with AIM and ICQ that do not exist on third-generation IRC systems. Firstly, it is well known that the name registration in both AIM and ICQ are insecure and it is possible to spoof nicks (BUGTRAQ has good info on vulnerabilities in the clients). Secondly, it is more difficult to secure non-private chatrooms in AIM (ICQ's chats are, essentially, the equivalent of invite-only IRC rooms; third- and even second-gen IRC servers allow one to set a room's mode automatically to only allow certain people in, or only allow certain people to post, and keep those configurations fairly permanently set even when one is not on IRC). Thirdly, you're relying on protocols which are largely proprietary and (as is being shown by the entire AIM debacle) permission for clones to operate can be revoked at a moment's notice leaving you to either buy a client from a proprietary vendor (if you use Windoze or maybe MacOS) or leaving you essentially SOL (if you use Linux or any other OS, or if you don't like giving AOL your dime so they can keep sending coasters, er, "try out AOL free for thirty days" CDs). It is rather difficult to start one's own ICQ server, and probably impossible to start one's own AIM server, if you don't like AOL's policies.

Other chat clients are even worse. Ichat, a common "web chat" util, pretty much has equivalent function to IRC but with none of the security features of even first-generation IRC servers...I personally have seen script-kiddies spoof nicks, do kicks of entire channels, effectively take over entire servers, commit DoS attacks on users...and there is no way to set operator status on a channel (it's only server-wide, the equivalent of an IRCOp) and no way to protect users or channels from this sort of sillybuggers (not even bots to guard a channel).

With IRC, on the other hand...third-gen clients allow all of the features of ICQ or AIM, with more security. IRC is an open protocol; clients are available for damn near every system under the sun (including DOS boxen as low as 8086's and old Amigas), most IRC servers are open-source (the complete source for the DALnet server, the base for most third-gen IRC servers, is available from their website; it's basically a version of the regular EPIC ircii server with extra features), and if you don't like the policies a server or network is doing you can get with friends and start your own server (this is exactly how SorceryNet started, btw; they thought DALnet's admins were being right bastards, so they took their toys and started their own network).

The only problem is there are several IRC networks. I do know that at least some folks are working on various ways of letting them talk to each other, though...this includes gateways (I knew a person working on an experimental DALnet/ SorceryNet gateway, for instance) and clients that allow people even on different services to talk to each other (in essence the clients act as IRC/AIM/ICQ/whatever gateways).

• True type support
  Try xfstt or other font servers listed at Freshmeat.

• Less bulky wigets
  Tcl/Tk and Motif tend to be a bit on the mondo side. GTK and Qt have much cleaner, more PC|Mac -like wigets. This is an applications development issue for the most part.

• Games.
  Just wait. Meantime, there's always Quake....

• True type support
  Try xfstt or other font servers listed at Freshmeat.

• Less bulky wigets
  Tcl/Tk and Motif tend to be a bit on the mondo side. GTK and Qt have much cleaner, more PC|Mac -like wigets. This is an applications development issue for the most part.

• Games.
  Just wait. Meantime, there's always Quake....

The nominees were selected by their names being submitted to Vovida Networks on their web page. The information appeared on several web sites, including LinuxToday, Freshmeat, Linux Telephony, and others.

If you know who might need a host, email me at rob@freshmeat.net.

Where I work we are at the end of a project,
and are just starting to make use of a program called 'doc++' (see freshmeat.net).

There must be other tools like it (I believe that the GNOME people have something similar that creates SGML docbook documents). It takes inline comments in c/c++ code, above each declaration, and produces a design document (HTML or latex). This could be useful in the design process if used from the beginning (as suggested above) with a change log, and everything stays together in the code.

to me it makes not much sense to ditribute mp3 encoding (of a single file) over a network, as it can be done fast enough today IMHO-
what really matters is encoding large numbers of tracks , which in fact can be done quite easily using some little perl scripts & NFS, each system/CPU could process a single wave file.. have a look at my "spoon" (@ freshmeat) for simple workload distribution.
xris

If you're running Red Hat 6.0 or 5.2, this page gives instructions on how to use the truetype support that was rolled into the X font server in 6.0, or using Herbert Duerr's xfstt for Red Hat 5.2.

Debian 2.1, which I run, comes with xfstt, as well, and is available as a .deb on their site.

I understand that the other implementations of truetype support are better, but I've been using xfstt for well over a year now with little trouble. I think earlier memory problems have been handled. It is very easy to use and set up, and I can't imagine why any of the current distros wouldn't work with it.

Finally, if you are curious about the alternatives I skipped, there's already a HOWTO available at http://pobox.com/~brion/linux/Tru eType-HOWTO.html.


*sarcasm, it's only sarcasm.
----------
mphall@cstone.nospam.net

I have set up a few Beowulf machines for S&G. I used PVM, RH Linux 6.0/5.2, a 10/100 switch, and about 6 boxen. It worked quite well, except that it took a few days to get operating how I wanted. I wrote a couple applications to crunch numbers across the cluster, tested throuput, etc. For even more S&G I used MP3PVM to RIP a few CD's real fast. Fun!

Now this is all well and good, but wouldn't it be great if we could have a transparent virtual machine that runs across all the nodes? Something which you could use "/bin/bash" on as your command shell.

Now, I am not sure how this would be accomiplshed-- forinstance how you would effciciently share memory accross machines or decide how to break up tasks (break on thread, would be one way); this is just to open up conversation.

Imagine: Lower your SETI@Home WU time to mear seconds :) (is it far to run a distributed computer under a distributed computer?)

-AP

I have set up a few Beowulf machines for S&G. I used PVM, RH Linux 6.0/5.2, a 10/100 switch, and about 6 boxen. It worked quite well, except that it took a few days to get operating how I wanted. I wrote a couple applications to crunch numbers across the cluster, tested throuput, etc. For even more S&G I used MP3PVM to RIP a few CD's real fast. Fun!

Now this is all well and good, but wouldn't it be great if we could have a transparent virtual machine that runs across all the nodes? Something which you could use "/bin/bash" on as your command shell.

Now, I am not sure how this would be accomiplshed-- forinstance how you would effciciently share memory accross machines or decide how to break up tasks (break on thread, would be one way); this is just to open up conversation.

Imagine: Lower your SETI@Home WU time to mear seconds :) (is it far to run a distributed computer under a distributed computer?)

-AP

Having the source code available pretty much ensures that anyone can do anything they want to the system. Some people will want to slow everything down because they can't keep up with the rate of change to the system. However, they will be unable to remain competitive with the fast moving systems over time. Some others will try to add in non-libre components to the free systems in order to control them, but most of us know better and will route around that kind of damage.

By far the worst threats are software patents and other forms of legal monopoly that artificially prevent free systems from competing. However, even those can be routed around given enough time and effort (and hacking of the legal system). bladeenc and the MP3 patents are a good example of how we might go around such measures.

It's also important to keep in mind that we have the source code. For the same reasons that the linux apocalypse could happen, we could one day find ourselves all switching to the HURD, or one of the BSD deviates, or some competitive new kernel that runs well on hardware that doesn't even exist yet. The only pieces of the free systems that won't survive the transition are the ones without source code and the hardware-dependent pieces.

Hi Mom!

But www.fast.no seems to be running Linux. Anyway...according to the Uptime List, FreeBSD has much higher uptimes than Linux. Looks like it is the choice of the folks that don't reboot. I think those are mainly to be found in commercial environments like this one. Quite funny - a search for my nick/handle only finds results on /. and [fm] :)

installwatch

gnome rpm work station

I could list more....just go to www.freshmeat.net and search for rpm.

Conversion of the Psion file formats, and synchronization to off-palmtop applications, is the sticky point. Psion supports this only through PsiWin under Windows; the list of apps it works with is impressive, but it's only Windows (not even Mac).

The point that people often miss is that, while the PalmPilot etc. are really designed to extend your PC's data (a PDA), the Psion etc. are really computers in their own right. I do almost everything right on the Psion itself (you can even develop OPL software right on it); so as long as I have a Linux backup solution, I don't really need anything else.

But if conversion/synchronization is a concern, check out psiconv (you can find it on freshmeat) which is an effort to reverse-engineer the file formats to convert them to open formats. Psion Word to HTML has been done already.

I am very happy with my Psion 5. The 5mx is worth checking out; same great palmtop, but 2x faster, 2x the memory (16MB), and has a Java JVM built in. Actually, ANY device (Ericsson, etc.) that runs Symbian's EPOC is worth checking out! It's a very impressive, tight, responsive, multi-threaded operating system.
--

I know there has been a lot of positive press, but just forget about it because Linux is a rehash of the old Share-ware concept, plus it [Linux] is Unix, a non-standard, fragmented operating system that no one uses and nobody wants that.

Selling Linux will do no good anyway because the product is too unstable and causes blindness in laboratory tests with Mac users.

Businesses will not buy Linux because there is no one to sue. Ignore the fact that anybody who has tried to sue Microsoft has typically ended up bankrupt, and wishing they had attempted something less risky such as using the money to purchase lotto tickets. End users don't want Linux because it is too hard to use, so it's generally a bad investment.

Besides, everyone who competes with Microsoft fails. Linux is just like the OS/2 thing and we all know where that ended up. Billy crushed it like a bug! He's going to do the same thing to these companies, just you wait. Never mind that under-cutting a free product is impossible. Billy will find a way to pay people to take Windows, and still make money.

Linux has failed to make serious inroads into the corporate marketplace. Just forget those fortune 500 companies that IDC surveyed. Forget that Linux had over 200% growth in 1998. Those International Data Corp. guys can't be trusted because they aren't independent like Mindcraft.Moreover, the system lacks the applications - graphics, word processing capabilities, databases - to compete with Microsoft's personal computer business.

People won't develop these applications anyway, because they will pay too much for the development tools.

Don't believe the stuff you read over at freshmeat.net. There's a lot of false Linux propaganda on that site that you can't trust. Also forget you saw Wordperfect, Star Office, The Gimp, Oracle, Informix, DB2, and a million other productivity and mission critical applications, free or proprietary.

You're obviously a Religious Open Source Cult member if you buy any of that stock. Never mind that I'm probably selling most of my Microsoft stock as we speak, and putting it in mutual funds because keeping it is getting too risky.

If you have comments or suggestions about this article, please feel free to flame^H^H^H^H^Hemail me at HERE.

- greg

I know there has been a lot of positive press, but just forget about it because Linux is a rehash of the old Share-ware concept, plus it [Linux] is Unix, a non-standard, fragmented operating system that no one uses and nobody wants that.

Selling Linux will do no good anyway because the product is too unstable and causes blindness in laboratory tests with Mac users.

Businesses will not buy Linux because there is no one to sue. Ignore the fact that anybody who has tried to sue Microsoft has typically ended up bankrupt, and wishing they had attempted something less risky such as using the money to purchase lotto tickets. End users don't want Linux because it is too hard to use, so it's generally a bad investment.

Besides, everyone who competes with Microsoft fails. Linux is just like the OS/2 thing and we all know where that ended up. Billy crushed it like a bug! He's going to do the same thing to these companies, just you wait. Never mind that under-cutting a free product is impossible. Billy will find a way to pay people to take Windows, and still make money.

Linux has failed to make serious inroads into the corporate marketplace. Just forget those fortune 500 companies that IDC surveyed. Forget that Linux had over 200% growth in 1998. Those International Data Corp. guys can't be trusted because they aren't independent like Mindcraft.Moreover, the system lacks the applications - graphics, word processing capabilities, databases - to compete with Microsoft's personal computer business.

People won't develop these applications anyway, because they will pay too much for the development tools.

Don't believe the stuff you read over at freshmeat.net. There's a lot of false Linux propaganda on that site that you can't trust. Also forget you saw Wordperfect, Star Office, The Gimp, Oracle, Informix, DB2, and a million other productivity and mission critical applications, free or proprietary.

You're obviously a Religious Open Source Cult member if you buy any of that stock. Never mind that I'm probably selling most of my Microsoft stock as we speak, and putting it in mutual funds because keeping it is getting too risky.

If you have comments or suggestions about this article, please feel free to flame^H^H^H^H^Hemail me at HERE.

- greg,

Open Inventor has already been ported.

You can buy it from TGS.

It's a bit pricey, though. (surprise)

There are also a couple of open source implementations ( Scene and Coin), in varying stages of development:

Open Inventor has already been ported.

You can buy it from TGS.

It's a bit pricey, though. (surprise)

There are also a couple of open source implementations ( Scene and Coin), in varying stages of development:

Xwrits reminds you to take wrist breaks, which will hopefully help you prevent repetitive stress injury. It pops up an X window when you should rest, you click on that window, then take a break.

1. Elitism. While Slashdot is not uniformly as technical as some of the readers (Alan Cox, Tom Christiansen, and Bruce Perens all read Slashdot and I won't claim to be as skilled or as knowledgable as them :), it seems oriented towards a more technical audience. It has not, in the past, been a forum for informing people not already interested in the material it covers. It has also not, in the past, been a place as technically inclined as Freshmeat.
2. As for Jon's ability to get to the root of complex problems, I sometimes disagree. He has a knack for simplifying complex issues, but I don't always feel that he simplifies them accurately; he has and seemingly always has had an agenda behind his writing, and it appears to influence his writing. Whether I disagree or agree with the apparent agenda is a non-issue; in fact I agree and disagree about evenly.
3. Slashdot, in the past, has not catered to people trying to learn what the Internet is. It has largely catered to people around the same level technically as Rob Malda, and the other editors have influenced this. However, it feels like Jon Katz' contributions are a good bit afield of the others'.

1. Elitism. While Slashdot is not uniformly as technical as some of the readers (Alan Cox, Tom Christiansen, and Bruce Perens all read Slashdot and I won't claim to be as skilled or as knowledgable as them :), it seems oriented towards a more technical audience. It has not, in the past, been a forum for informing people not already interested in the material it covers. It has also not, in the past, been a place as technically inclined as Freshmeat.
2. As for Jon's ability to get to the root of complex problems, I sometimes disagree. He has a knack for simplifying complex issues, but I don't always feel that he simplifies them accurately; he has and seemingly always has had an agenda behind his writing, and it appears to influence his writing. Whether I disagree or agree with the apparent agenda is a non-issue; in fact I agree and disagree about evenly.
3. Slashdot, in the past, has not catered to people trying to learn what the Internet is. It has largely catered to people around the same level technically as Rob Malda, and the other editors have influenced this. However, it feels like Jon Katz' contributions are a good bit afield of the others'.

I think what this AC-run-amok really is trying to say is that the GPL sucks. Although I agree, there is a problem: which license out there is better? I haven't found it yet.

But you are just really kidding, aren't you? If you really had a conviction on the matter, you would be trying to come up with a better license. Until then, I will do all I can to promote all things GPL. And there's many more like me--don't believe me? Just check out how things are getting licensed on Freshmeat!

If you use Pine, there is a package called PGP4Pine which you can find at
freshmeat. It lets you use PGP seamlessly in Pine. I haven't personally had time to set it up but a bunch of my friends use it and recomend it.

There are many X10 control proggies despite what other people have been posting. You can control your house with a Linux box. See freshmeat.

The differences between the two projects include 1) size of the images, 2) number of supported NICs, and 3) available features. Nonetheless, they aim for compatibility between each other and it is often worthwhile trying both and finding out which one works better for your particular configuration. (As a co-author of Etherboot, I am somewhat biased).

Rather than asking your questions on Slashdot you probably stand a better changes getting answers to your technical questions, if you subscribed to the combined mailing list for the two projects. There also is an archive of all the messages ever posted on this list.

Both Etherboot and Netboot allow to load the Boot Prom image from floppy disk while you are still testing your environment. Once everything works, you can decide to burn an EPROM and eliminate the need for the floppy disk. Of course, with modern NIC cards things are easier, because some of them already include a FlashPROM.

Another very promising project is NILO. It has originally been started by one of the Etherboot authors and it is currently being written from scratch under commercial sponsorship (the entire project will is GPL'd). See the home page for all the details.

Eventually NILO will probably obsolete Etherboot and Netboot for everything but very special purposes. It currently is under active development and while we would appreciate more alpha testers it isn't really very useable for real-world applications. There will be announcements on Freshmeat about the progress of this project.

We're getting way off topic here, but I'll answer anyway, since it's a legitimate question.

There is a new, but supposedly fairly decent open source IDE called Code Crusader (obviously playing on the name of the commercial Code Warrior, which incidentally has just been ported to Linux). If you're just looking for a graphical debugger, you might want to try DDD, which works as a friendly and powerful frontend to traditional command-line debuggers like gdb and dbx (nicely hiding their complexity). I don't know the URL's to either of these offhand, but you can find them via the AppIndex at Freshmeat.

I'm a command-line guy myself on my own time, but I do use Microsoft's IDE at work and understand that some folks work better that way.

Div.
But my grandest creation, as history will tell,

But I'll reproduce it here as well:

Now, I don't believe that the bounty model is going to take the world by storm as the open-source model has, but I do think it'll survive as a niche.

I think there are two flawed assumptions made in this essay:

1) That software developed in this model is only developed in this model.

2) That open-source software must start out that way in order to be of high quality.

Point-by-point:

1: It's Not The Community Model

As Eric Raymond stated in The Cathedral and the Bazaar:

It's fairly clear that one cannot code from the ground up in bazaar style. One can test, debug and improve in bazaar style, but it would be very hard to originate a project in bazaar mode.

The new bounty model is a model that fits just this first step. The program gets written. After the bounty has been collected, the program is now open source, and has all the benefits that any other open source program has.

2: It's Not The Inspired Developer's Model

3: It's Not The Annoyed Developer's Model

That's right - it's a new model. While we have seen that the Inspired and Annoyed Developer models can work, that does not mean that other models don't work. Many problems in the world are solved by people who need something fixed, but don't have the skills or time needed to do it. So they pay someone else to do it. It's a time-tested model that works.

But again, once the program has been created and released, these Inspired and Annoyed Developer models will start to be applied, as people start to use the program and fix the things that bother them, re-write the things they believe could have been done better, and add functionality that will make the program even more useful.

5: It's Technically Difficult

It's funny that you called this your weakest point, but I actually believe it was your strongest. This model has never been tried before, and the logistics are going to take some time to iron out. It could fail simply because people are too afraid to make changes needed to make use of this new model.

Another Approach

I don't believe your forum model would work all that well. In your model, many developers will state what they wish to work on. Some will go ahead and do it anyhow. Others might simply be blowing hot air. Businesses will not want to wade through the hundreds of postings on such a site to see if anything comes close to matching their needs.

In the bounty model, there are fewer posts, because only a few companies that are seriously interested in seeing a project completed will post projects. Some developers will undoubtedly look through this list, and even though they aren't currently interested in something, might find something that sounds interesting and want to give it a shot.

99 little bugs in the code, 99 bugs in the code,
fix one bug, compile it again...

artistic license

You may charge a reasonable copying fee for any distribution of this Package. You may charge any fee you choose for support of this Package. You may not charge a fee for this Package itself. However, you may distribute this Package in aggregate with other (possibly commercial) programs as part of a larger (possibly commercial) software distribution provided that you do not advertise this Package as a product of your own. [ heh.. Microsoft P++ ? ]

hrm, it's not gpl.. and it is rather confusing. will they have to provide the source to the changes that they made or just point to where to get a real version of perl? [point 3-a, 3-c in the license.]

It's on its way....

Display ghostscript

afbackup is pretty painless to setup, speedy backups, can run over ssh, prompts by email when tape changes are needed, reasonable restores of entire backup sets, but is very slow for selected file restores.

burt is wicked fast for backups, tcl-based interface, imho elegant, and can run over ssh. afbackup was better documented and offered an emergency restore option that i preferred at the time.

i ruled out amanda because it is complex and tends to want a holding disk the size of an entire backup set.

Funny you should ask. There's an interpreter available:
LAGII 0.1.5

That's the key to the whole idea, really. I hope these new sites can cooperate with places like freshmeat to publicize and fund new and promising developments. Then maybe the pointy-hairs will realize, "hey, paying programmers to develop openware is a great idea." I think it's important for the less technical-saavy employers to realize the code they're paying to have written isn't being "given away." Instead, it's being given to hundreds or thousands of other potential developers to see and use and possibly improve at no additional cost.

FreshMeat never hosed my browser...

... at least as far as building "online community." I've been thinking about this for a bit, and I think this is simply a property of the interface. Follow a healthy USENET group or mail list on a topic you care about for a while, and notice the percentage of posts that actually engage what another person has written. It's so high that USENET developed the (sometimes software-enforced) protocol that you ought to provide at least as much original as quoted text. Now, look at the comment threads on slashdot. See the difference? And /. has a higher percentage of interaction than other sites such as freshmeat or themes.org.

Now, "weblogs" (awful name) are superior to USENET groups and mail lists in (1) filtering noise and highlighting useful information, and (2) providing archiving and search capabilities. But that's not the same as building "community", unless you simply mean a group of people with similar interests and viewpoints. But it doesn't get people interacting at the person-to-person levels that old-fashioned NNTP and SMTP (or the even more old-fashioned face-to-face) do.

I also find that newsgroups and mail lists can provide an opportunity for more thoughtful discussion. I've many times sat on a USENET or mail message for a day or two before responding, in order to give some thought or do some research before responding. With slashdot? Why bother responding to a toping that's no longer on the splash page?

As for the closed vs. open debate -- both are good in there own way. There are times that I want to mix it up in the rough-and-tumble marketplace of ideas. There are times I want to quietly discuss issues with folks who are moderately like-minded. It is wonderful that both kinds of fora (open to the world and unmoderated, limited subscription and moderated) can exist.

Kernel updates could be tossed in with general software update notifications, stuff that isn't really big news, just YA update.

Maybe have a raw steak for an icon, as a reference to freshmeat

The original Anonymous Coward wrote:

What exactly are Linux's strong points? It's not user friendly or easy to setup, has few apps, a chaotic development, is not all that fast (even *BSDs are faster). The only thing going for it it the fact that it's not Microsoft. Face it guys, Linux has been around for 8 years and hasn't progressed very far. It's a hackjob, a makeshift OS for the Microsoft haters. QED

First off, blind assertion does not equal truth. If it is truth, than it flies in the face of the experiences of most people here, so some references or examples are pretty much required. If I were to assert "The sky is blue", few people would argue, if I were to assert "The sky is pink", I would need to support that statement, or it will be dismissed out of hand.

Secondly, the original poster's assertions are either false, or so poorly defined that they couldn't be called "truth". It's not "user friendly"? What do you mean by "user friendly", I find Linux very user friendly, since it allows adminstrator-type users to access everything while restricting normal users from demolishing their system trying to install a pretty screensaver. I have set up many Windows 95/98/NT and Linux boxes, and I find RedHat much easier to install and configure than Windows.

"Has few apps"? Have you looked at Freshmeat.Net lately? I don't know what you call it, but I don't call that "few". A "chaotic development"? Linux development is carefully managed and delegated. Microsoft is rumoured not to even let their programmers have full access to the code of the program they are working on.

The blanket assertion that "even *BSDs are faster" is flawed on many levels. The tone is along the lines of "even this slow thing is faster than what you like", when most people consider the BSD's to be fast. I mean, "even horses run faster than you", what kind of comparison is that? It also isn't true without that tone. From everything I've heard, OpenBSD and NetBSD are generally slower than Linux. FreeBSD is faster only for certain situations, and only on the Intel platform. If I'm wrong, show me real references.

"The only thing going for it is the fact that its not Microsoft". No, it also has "it's a fast, stable, general purpose operating system that works incredibly as a server and darn good as a desktop system". Also, "It's Free, both in the speech and in the beer sense!". These are big things going for it in many peoples books.

"Linux has been around 8 years and hasn't progressed very far"? In 1991, Linux was barely more than an idea, in 1992, it still didn't know what SCSI or Ethernet were. Now it's a full blown operating system competing tooth and nail with megacorporations for being the platform of choice in the server room. I'd say it's progressed very very far.

"It's a hackjob, a makeshift OS for the Microsoft haters", I don't even know what this means, much less how to respond to it.

"QED", Latin for quod erat demonstrandum which was to be demonstrated. This being here means either the poster has no idea when to use "QED", or the entire goal of the post was not to answer the question "What exactly are Linux's strong points?" but to demonstrate that it is a "hackjob, a makeshift OS for Microsoft haters". Not only is that a pretty silly goal for a post, but it is a failure, because the post demonstrates nothing of the sort.

In all, I think the post solidly deserved its -1 score. (No I didn't moderate it, otherwise I wouldn't be able to post this).

As coincidence would have it, I just noticed something called bnc4all on freshmeat. It's a bouncer rather than tunneling or using an encrypted alternative. If you want to increase security while still allowing plain old ftp clients to connect, it may be an option. I have no experience with it, and no idea of its utility.

On the other hand, ssh/scp rocks. First choice if you can do it.

You raise a good point. However, good design can be and is done with text. For example, Freshmeat was likely designed with a text editor of some variety because the HTML of the pages is the output of PHP scripts. It is a nice looking, well designed page. There are others, many others. I'm not saying that text is a better way to go, that is purely a matter of personal taste. However I disagree with your suggestion that most pages designed with a text editor are particularly bad looking.

Here's a start, learn to respect your brother *NIX.

Moving to Linux lets the company avoid the fee of about $85 to obtain a license for the Microsoft Windows operating system, the second most expensive component after the hard disk.

Oooh, neat... What's the third most expensive? The monitor? The CPU? Video card?

[...] although the Linux OS in question generally costs much less than retail copies of NT.

www.pricewatch.com lists retail versions of NT Workstation between $120 and $220. If Linux generally costs less, does it sometimes cost more?

The Linux Store will sell only over the Web, Wise said. It will begin marketing with ad campaigns on sites popular with Linux users such as Slashdot or Freshmeat.

Look closely at the links on the original article -- The last one points to www.freshmeat.org, not freshmeat.net.

The Linux Store got its start as a Scottsdale, Arizona, manufacturer of generic "white box" PCs called CPU MicroMart [...]

ObEditorializing: I've dealt with CPU Micromart before. They shipped my order four weeks late to the wrong address, and stuck me with about $200 in COD for a product I had already paid for. YMMV, of course, but be warned.

-D

dcross@cryogen.com

"Headlining" software is simply software which big companies are releasing as Open Source, and isn't necessarily Free Software - an example is the Apple source license, which allows Apple to terminate your rights to the code - a decidedly non-free aspect of the license.

In any case, most [new] free software projects aren't announced on Slashdot, but most of them do use the GPL.

Yes. It's documented in the Freshmeat FAQ.

Get the glibc version of Netscape. Worked for me.