Slashdot Mirror

"The evidence suggests Microsoft "loves" Linux the same way abusive partners "love" their spouses -- a deep need in one area of the relationship that changes nothing elsewhere." Besides, didn't we hear all this changing of heart stuff before?

- http://www.infoworld.com/artic...
- http://ostatic.com/blog/system...

Linus' Systemd Indifference

A Google search shows many versions of this news with some actually saying that the decision to switch has already been made. Not so, according to another report at TechRepublic: "Ditching Linux for Windows? The truth isn't that simple, says Munich" http://www.techrepublic.com/ar... What is certain for the moment is that a study will be made internally by the Munich city council, the new mayor and deputy mayor are in favour of Windows (and even MS fans) and reportedly instrumental in bringing the Microsoft German head office to Munich. The final decision will be made by the elected members of the council. From the many comments on this piece of news at different sites, we can gather that Munich likely mishandled the process e.g. Limux (their version) is still at 10.04 which is really old and should have already been upgraded to 12.04 (used, for example, by Google and the French Police). Munich migrated some 14,000 workstations to Linux while in complete contrast the French police have 37,000 workstations running their version called Gendbuntu (Gendarmerie + Ubuntu) and their plans are that by the end of this summer to have it running on 72,000 workstations. http://ostatic.com/blog/french... The French police also claim they have saved 40% on the total cost of operation using Linux. https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/co...

In this case, "a hardened malloc" indicates not using brk(). A long, long time ago, I started designing one based on mmap() and size classes. My inspiration was glibc's tendency to allocate large anonymous requests as mmap() anonymous segments; Hoard's non-locking multi-thread allocator (different per-thread allocation regions); and the theory that stuff allocated close together in time and of the same size class often was freed at the same time. realloc() became a compacting call as well.

I gave up because testing malloc() on Linux was hard. I hadn't figured out how to get away from the existing allocator.

There's no SRPM for Chrome, so it's binary-only

Chromium is Chrome without the proprietary parts. It's not in Fedora for other reasons, mostly related to having to fork and bundle the libraries that it uses in order to add API hooks for needed functionality, which may or may not meet the "modified beyond a certain extent" exception to Fedora's policy on bundled libraries.

1) Chrome is not open source. It is based on Chromium, which is open sourced, but the build Google takes is not identical code. They can put anything in it they wish.

2) Fiddler is a proxy, as such, the browser will know it is not directly connected.

3) Even if one could capture all data as it would normally travel, it doesn't mean one would be able to understand everything it sends. If a blob of data goes to Google at some point, especially when already connecting to their servers with every other page doing adsense, exactly how are we mere, non-Google mortals going to know it is all above-the-board?

4) Again, RLZ might be open source, but their COMPILE of CHROME that contains it is not... so what you see might not be what you get. Open-source projects, like Firefox, Linux, OpenOffice, etc, are examined and compiled by third parties and not primarily distributed as a owner/maker binary. Even Chromium seems to be obfuscated in ways that make it unsuitable for others to compile and distribute: http://ostatic.com/blog/making-projects-easier-to-package-why-chromium-isnt-in-fedora

I am not saying Chrome *is* spyware. But I am saying it has the ability to be, and it might be, and we can't really know. It is being released by a company who has a lot to gain by gathering as much info as possible, and a lot of practice doing so (and a huge, unquestioning following).

No, just an software repository with open source libraries and applications. In Linux this is a none-issue and Linux do not have any guidelines or any other restrictions.

Well, Fedora apparently does.

Everyone is using the libraries of the system because it's a) easier then to maintain your own copy of the library and b) you get more users if your software is in the repository.

Also, you get pilloried if you ever break the ABI of a library in the repository without changing the soname. So everybody learns to play nice and keep backward compatibility, package older versions for legacy applications, and so on.
But it used to be much worse: I remember when a zlib vulnerability was discovered, a symbol name search through a repository shown it to be replicated in 20 or so statically linked copies in various packages, all of which needed to be patched ASAP. No wonder why Fedora is adamant on reducing the number of library clones.

Indeed, that probably goes for everyone here. Linus sounds like a cool guy. I especially agree with "I really hate big laptops. I can't understand people who lug around 15" (or 17"!) monsters. The right weight for a laptop is 1kg, no more." Mine is about the size of a hard cover book, and weighs about he same.

Depends on what you do with it. My "15-inch monster" isn't too bad - it's a Retina MBP, so it's relatively light and thin - and I use it as my primary machine, so I want a bit more "disk" space and screen space. I mainly move it around the house, so it's good that it's portable, but it doesn't have to be as portable as a road warrior's machine.

I wonder what distro Linux uses?

Well, at least earlier in 2012, part of the answer was "not OpenSUSE", at least on the laptop. He's apparently used Fedora in the past, at least; he probably doesn't use any of the Real Man's Linux Distributions, given that, at least back in 2007, he said "Funnily enough, the only distributions I tend to refuse to touch are the "technical" ones, so I've never run Debian, because as far as I'm concerned, the whole and only point of a distribution is to make it easy to install (so that I can then get to the part I care about, namely the kernel), so Debian or one of the "compile everything by hand" ones simply weren't interesting to me."

If he uses a GUI or a CLI? If GUI (which I doubt), which one?

Prepare to have your doubts busted; at least as of whenever he made the announcement (I'm not going to sign into my Google account just to read his posting, but the article in question is from April 2011), he was using Xfce, after switching from KDE 4 to GNOME 2.

Of course, "GUI or CLI" is a bit ill-stated. I "use a GUI" in the sense that I don't do a console login on my Mac and run on the console tty, but a lot of what I do is in a GUI app called "Terminal", so I'm using a CLI in a GUI. In the 2007 interview in answer to "What software do you use everyday? Your browser, desktop (if any), email client and so on?" he said "Well, ignoring the actual development stuff (make, compiler, editor etc), it ends up being mostly just xterms and "alpine" (the newer version of the venerable old "pine" email reader. Strictly text-based, thank you very much)." In the next paragraph he also included a browser, but it sounds as if it's in the "a lot is a CLI in a GUI" category.

Heck, Google only has a Gold membership, and we know they like Linux.

Surely they like to take and modify, but playing along and contributing is another matter.

Oh, and replying to your return rate article. Like a typical Windows fanboi you read something that re-inforces your bias and then stop reading. How about you read this article that is *relevant to the ASUS Eee* that we were talking about, http://ostatic.com/blog/asus-ceo-says-linux-netbook-returns-on-par-with-windows
This is from the ASUS CEO himself.

Now we have all embarrassed ourselves online in debates. One good way to avoid it is to read widely, including seeking out articles made with the opposite point of view. Also try and obtain figures and where they are given try and find out what biases are in the statistics (that is, the limits of applicability of the numbers or the methodology used to collect them). A little wider reading and you would have discovered that the MSI article was sensationalist (as they often are in the tech world) and its conclusion has been debunked by later articles - pointing out things like the Europeans are for more likely to adapt and adopt new tech than the US market (this true general, the Europeans don't have as much tunnel vision as the US through necessity and wide exposure to different cultures).

Look at it from a different angle; maybe it was his own fault. Maybe he forgot to lock the door.

Rene Engelhard , who is the principle maintainer of the OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice packages in Debian, is a member of LibreOffice’s Engineering Steering Committee. About the transition to LibreOffice, he said, "I am sure Debian and its users will benefit greatly from this transition; I expect not only an improved collaboration but also quicker development cycles." LibreOffice packages have already replaced OpenOffice packages in Unstable and Testing. There are backports for Debian 6.0 if you desire. When you upgrade to the next release, you will be migrated to LibreOffice. For more information see: http://debian.stevenrosenberg.net/index.php/2011/06/27/official-debian-announcement-on-the-move-from-openoffice-to-libreoffice/ http://ostatic.com/blog/debian-dumps-openoffice-for-libreoffice Red Hat is also a major contributor to LibreOffice: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/oracle-suse-red-hat-drive-70-of-libreoffice-development/9324 And it has the full support of Fedora: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/LibreOffice So, you are correct that not all Linux users have switched to LibreOffice. But it is true to say that all the Linux distributions have dropped OpenOffice.

DuckDuckGo, which he likes to remind us of in nearly every article about search engines.

Of course, DuckDuckGo simply scrapes Bing results and gives them to you, with a bit of sugar from Wikipedia and a few other sources. The sole benefit over using Bing directly is that it strips your IP from the query to Bing (however if you include personally identifying information in your query, obviously that gets passed on to Bing).

You can get similar results with an anonymizing proxy or Scroogle. Ask.com also has an enhanced privacy mode that you can select.

http://ostatic.com/blog/duckduckgo-a-new-search-engine-built-from-open-source

It seems like silverlight on linux isn't a problem:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/sep07/09-04silverlightpr.mspx

http://ostatic.com/blog/microsoft-brings-silverlight-2-to-linux

I'm surprised that some smart person out there hasn't already hacked something together, maybe even by rooting and reverse-engineering a Roku.

Nearly half of RedHat's profits come from investments http://ostatic.com/blog/red-hat-invests-and-supports-its-way-to-another-solid-quarter rather than its Open Source support business. The Open Source support business has very little gold to mine

Download a statically compiled .tar.gz from the site that has all of it's own dependencies

Chromium does this, and the package manager ends up unable to package security holes that are eventually discovered in the dependencies. That's why Chromium isn't in Fedora.

Download source, './configure' 'make' 'make install' (and before you say 'this is beyond the end users capabilities, they have to go through more shit with installshield

Installing an MSI or InstallShield package doesn't require the use of a keyboard. The command line does, unless you use an on-screen keyboard. What "shit" are you talking about, other than simply presenting a wizard listing things that correspond to all the common options for ./configure? Most "shit" can be bypassed by just pressing Enter to choose the most common configuration. The answer to that, of course, is including a wizard script ./menuconfig that uses Xdialog or something.

But this leaves the problem of not having a compiler and the right -dev packages installed. Should the wizard try to detect whether it's running on Ubuntu or Fedora and run the distribution's counterpart to sudo apt-get install build-essential some-library some-other-library first? And should it come with full forked copies of the source code to these libraries, with all their (as of yet unknown) security holes that the package manager can't patch?

Hmmm.. The article includes no cited data AT ALL about known or estimated usage rates.

Oh, I dunno. There seem to be lots of very large, (including the world's largest in Brazil) migrations to linux, that all seem to be going very, very well, (and for long periods of time). Exemplis gratis:

http://ostatic.com/blog/brazilian-ministry-of-education-embraces-open-source-in-a-big-way

http://www3.sd73.bc.ca/content/open-source-education

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_adoption

Et cetera, et cetera, etc. Only the ignorant, nowadays, claim that 'linux doesn't count' or some such nonsense.

Its not 2004, and one is a very poor statistical sample.

Ubuntu alone has 12m installs hitting repo servers for updates.

http://groups.google.com/group/openmanufacturing
"We bring free and open source software development methodology to the physical world."

I help moderate that list, which ranges over a variety of related topics. There are many other related places you can look at or ask questions at, too; some other links to get started which are often more shelter-related:
    http://www.inhabitat.com/
    http://www.os-house.org/english/os-house/home
    http://ostatic.com/blog/open-source-house-launches-design-competition

Other general resources:
    http://makezine.com/
    http://www.appropedia.org/

I assume the post was in regards to application GUIs. One thing OSX has is really polished software. Companies and individuals pay for applications like Transmit, which is just an SFTP client and doesn't really have anything functionality wise over it's freeware competitors. It's just polished. Same for a lot of OSX applications, and now we're seeing it in iPhone applications also.

As White Shade points out, it's often not hard to find FOSS applications that have great functionality written into them. However, without a sell-able product in mind, polished GUI might not be a top priority at the current stage of development (versus perhaps THE top priority in a proprietary alternative). This alone might answer why many users drop a free and open source app to buy an alternative.

It's not just about the desktop manager's GUI, it's also about the application GUI. It's also worth noting that it can be about how the application integrates with the desktop environment. I wouldn't exactly classify the OSX IM client Adium as proprietary, as it's based on the same GAIM foundation as Pidgin, but it remains a good example of one application integrating into the OS's usability MUCH better than a similar alternative.

Standard OTR, practically-out-of-the-box Growl ('pop under' notification) support, real theme customization, etc, Adium clearly has an edge in appealing to users. Pidgin could implement all that for KDE, and then it wouldn't work for Gnome (or even earlier versions of KDE). Pidgin could do it for Windows, but it would still have to be done all over again for the various desktop environments in Linux.

Pidgin, of course, is one of the better applications for Linux. I agree that Linux desktops are quite pleasant to use, but too many Linux applications are not. Many bundled apps like Totem, Audacity, Kopote always rubbed me the wrong way. Supposed OSS alternatives to mainstream applications, such as GnuCash, can only be classified as GUI nightmares.

There's just not enough consistency, not enough guidance, and not enough incentive for developers to produce extremely polished applications for Linux. The best we presently have are well ported applications, or a rare application that only fits into the specific environment it was developed for (and not the 99% of other linux setups).

FUD much? There was no practical difference in the return rate. Something which has been discussed many times.

The first "netbook" that started all the craze was the XO... everyone wanted one, even paying twice, donating one to schools to get one of those. And run Linux. The first next ones (asus, msi, etc) consolidated the trend, and run linux too. Till last year, most if not all netbooks had Linux as alternate (if not main) OS. And a bunch of distros/interfaces of linux specialised in netbooks started to show up (eeebuntu and similar, ubuntu netbook remix, moblin, android, etc)

Then the campaing started. Microsoft using a chainsaw to manage to show XP in an XO. Then saying that Linux netbook returns were 4 times higher than Windows ones (at least what an msi exec said, an asus one denied that). Some vendors giving lesser options/specs for Linux netbooks than for Windows ones. And linux offers and showings in netbooks starting to fade

The next incoming market for Linux in small pcs are arm based net/smart books. Started with linux in general, then Android, but recently started a push to say that the right OS for that platform is another Microsoft one, Windows CE.

Clearly this is not a smoking gun... the room of Neo's "guns, lots of guns" is tiny compared with the amount of weapons Microsoft is using in all fronts to try to stop the flood. Will it succeed? I only hope that not.

The first "netbook" that started all the craze was the XO... everyone wanted one, even paying twice, donating one to schools to get one of those. And run Linux. The first next ones (asus, msi, etc) consolidated the trend, and run linux too. Till last year, most if not all netbooks had Linux as alternate (if not main) OS. And a bunch of distros/interfaces of linux specialised in netbooks started to show up (eeebuntu and similar, ubuntu netbook remix, moblin, android, etc)

Then the campaing started. Microsoft using a chainsaw to manage to show XP in an XO. Then saying that Linux netbook returns were 4 times higher than Windows ones (at least what an msi exec said, an asus one denied that). Some vendors giving lesser options/specs for Linux netbooks than for Windows ones. And linux offers and showings in netbooks starting to fade

The next incoming market for Linux in small pcs are arm based net/smart books. Started with linux in general, then Android, but recently started a push to say that the right OS for that platform is another Microsoft one, Windows CE.

Clearly this is not a smoking gun... the room of Neo's "guns, lots of guns" is tiny compared with the amount of weapons Microsoft is using in all fronts to try to stop the flood. Will it succeed? I only hope that not.

What I'm trying to convey here, is that netbook manufacturers never planned to keep Linux for a long time.

As with all companies, they could n't care less what they sell with their laptops as long as it sells for profit. In theory you might be right that they didn't plan to invest further in Linux, but there's no way that they will kill a product which is already sellilng. The disappearance of successful Linux notebooks even though they are popular and don't cause any extra costs through returns clearly points to pressure from outside.

And you say this because avast doesn't report anything? I'm looking at the Norton report below, which seems prety indicative of precisely the drive-by downloads Norton is reporting.

Drive-By Downloads (what's this?)

Threats found: 165
Here is a sample:
Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/user?destination=feedback

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/Linux2/project/1/Alternative/limewire

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/user?destination=gta2%2Fhome%2F1%2Falltopics

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/Linux2/project/1/Alternative/winamp

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story/1/Tag/mozilla

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story/1/Username/Joe+Brockmeier

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/ettercap/users

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/gta2/home/1/alltopics/

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/feedback

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story

And you say this because avast doesn't report anything? I'm looking at the Norton report below, which seems prety indicative of precisely the drive-by downloads Norton is reporting.

Drive-By Downloads (what's this?)

Threats found: 165
Here is a sample:
Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/user?destination=feedback

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/Linux2/project/1/Alternative/limewire

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/user?destination=gta2%2Fhome%2F1%2Falltopics

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/Linux2/project/1/Alternative/winamp

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story/1/Tag/mozilla

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story/1/Username/Joe+Brockmeier

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/ettercap/users

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/gta2/home/1/alltopics/

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/feedback

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story

And you say this because avast doesn't report anything? I'm looking at the Norton report below, which seems prety indicative of precisely the drive-by downloads Norton is reporting.

Drive-By Downloads (what's this?)

Threats found: 165
Here is a sample:
Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/user?destination=feedback

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/Linux2/project/1/Alternative/limewire

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/user?destination=gta2%2Fhome%2F1%2Falltopics

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/Linux2/project/1/Alternative/winamp

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story/1/Tag/mozilla

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story/1/Username/Joe+Brockmeier

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/ettercap/users

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/gta2/home/1/alltopics/

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/feedback

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story

And you say this because avast doesn't report anything? I'm looking at the Norton report below, which seems prety indicative of precisely the drive-by downloads Norton is reporting.

Drive-By Downloads (what's this?)

Threats found: 165
Here is a sample:
Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/user?destination=feedback

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/Linux2/project/1/Alternative/limewire

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/user?destination=gta2%2Fhome%2F1%2Falltopics

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/Linux2/project/1/Alternative/winamp

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story/1/Tag/mozilla

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story/1/Username/Joe+Brockmeier

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/ettercap/users

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/gta2/home/1/alltopics/

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/feedback

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story

And you say this because avast doesn't report anything? I'm looking at the Norton report below, which seems prety indicative of precisely the drive-by downloads Norton is reporting.

Drive-By Downloads (what's this?)

Threats found: 165
Here is a sample:
Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/user?destination=feedback

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/Linux2/project/1/Alternative/limewire

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/user?destination=gta2%2Fhome%2F1%2Falltopics

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/Linux2/project/1/Alternative/winamp

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story/1/Tag/mozilla

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story/1/Username/Joe+Brockmeier

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/ettercap/users

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/gta2/home/1/alltopics/

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/feedback

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story

And you say this because avast doesn't report anything? I'm looking at the Norton report below, which seems prety indicative of precisely the drive-by downloads Norton is reporting.

Drive-By Downloads (what's this?)

Threats found: 165
Here is a sample:
Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/user?destination=feedback

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/Linux2/project/1/Alternative/limewire

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/user?destination=gta2%2Fhome%2F1%2Falltopics

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/Linux2/project/1/Alternative/winamp

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story/1/Tag/mozilla

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story/1/Username/Joe+Brockmeier

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/ettercap/users

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/gta2/home/1/alltopics/

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/feedback

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story

And you say this because avast doesn't report anything? I'm looking at the Norton report below, which seems prety indicative of precisely the drive-by downloads Norton is reporting.

Drive-By Downloads (what's this?)

Threats found: 165
Here is a sample:
Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/user?destination=feedback

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/Linux2/project/1/Alternative/limewire

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/user?destination=gta2%2Fhome%2F1%2Falltopics

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/Linux2/project/1/Alternative/winamp

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story/1/Tag/mozilla

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story/1/Username/Joe+Brockmeier

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/ettercap/users

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/gta2/home/1/alltopics/

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/feedback

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story

And you say this because avast doesn't report anything? I'm looking at the Norton report below, which seems prety indicative of precisely the drive-by downloads Norton is reporting.

Drive-By Downloads (what's this?)

Threats found: 165
Here is a sample:
Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/user?destination=feedback

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/Linux2/project/1/Alternative/limewire

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/user?destination=gta2%2Fhome%2F1%2Falltopics

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/Linux2/project/1/Alternative/winamp

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story/1/Tag/mozilla

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story/1/Username/Joe+Brockmeier

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/ettercap/users

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/gta2/home/1/alltopics/

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/feedback

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story

And you say this because avast doesn't report anything? I'm looking at the Norton report below, which seems prety indicative of precisely the drive-by downloads Norton is reporting.

Drive-By Downloads (what's this?)

Threats found: 165
Here is a sample:
Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/user?destination=feedback

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/Linux2/project/1/Alternative/limewire

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/user?destination=gta2%2Fhome%2F1%2Falltopics

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/Linux2/project/1/Alternative/winamp

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story/1/Tag/mozilla

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story/1/Username/Joe+Brockmeier

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/ettercap/users

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/gta2/home/1/alltopics/

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/feedback

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story

And you say this because avast doesn't report anything? I'm looking at the Norton report below, which seems prety indicative of precisely the drive-by downloads Norton is reporting.

Drive-By Downloads (what's this?)

Threats found: 165
Here is a sample:
Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/user?destination=feedback

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/Linux2/project/1/Alternative/limewire

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/user?destination=gta2%2Fhome%2F1%2Falltopics

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/Linux2/project/1/Alternative/winamp

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story/1/Tag/mozilla

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story/1/Username/Joe+Brockmeier

Threat Name: Process Started
Process name: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/ettercap/users

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/gta2/home/1/alltopics/

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/feedback

Threat Name: Direct link to Process Started
Location: http://ostatic.com/searchtag/all/story

The link in the Slashdot abstract, to http://ostatic.com/ causes Norton Security to throw a fit about no fewer than _164_ drive-by downloads on that site. What an unfriendly link to provide. Serves me right for attempting to actually read the article.

You're PC is infected with multiple malware/viruses. 1 of the viruses is called Norton. So first remove that Norton virus by going to Add Remove programs, then go to http://avast.com/ to install a virus scanner, and scan for viruses. The ostatic website is clean.

The link in the Slashdot abstract, to http://ostatic.com/ causes Norton Security to throw a fit about no fewer than _164_ drive-by downloads on that site. What an unfriendly link to provide. Serves me right for attempting to actually read the article.

"On linux, there is not one note app that can deal with a tree of documents or even import it"

Konqueror, Using Konqueror

he is a she...

http://ostatic.com/member/shoe

1. Fully and legally support bytecode interpreter and hinting for fonts. Bonus points for including decent fonts as well.

Isn't this what Freetype is all about?

2. Support all major audio and video codecs. I shouldn't have to break any laws to get support for my digital media. Bonus points for not having to buy another codec pack when I upgrade my OS.

Canonical (the money behind Ubuntu) does this:
http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/19/166230
http://ostatic.com/blog/canonical-opens-codec-sales-and-potential-can-of-worms#rss
http://blog.canonical.com/?p=37
I believe that Fedora has done this in the past for Mp3s. I think that Linspire/Xandros has done this in the past.

3. Support multi-monitor automatically when I connect a monitor (like Mac or Windows).

The backend support is there. You can do xrandr --auto whenever you add or remove a monitor. I fail to understand why none has made a GUI frontend to the xrandr command line. (This is a pet peeve of mine.)

4. Work well on laptops. I should not see error messages about my hard drive failing to soft-reset every time I wake my laptop up from sleep.

Please permit me to reply with something just as useful as your original complaint:

Works for me.

That's a good clarification, and was sorely needed after the flames of some less enlightened Ubutu fanbois.

However, I'd like to point out that there are several problems with Kubuntu's implementation of KDE 4.x. You can also check this. Funny thing is, most of the problems people experience with Ubuntu are absent in other distros (e.g., in my box I use Slackware and I haven't seen those horror stories).

That's why I say that Ubuntu is buggy. Ubuntu's QA needs to be better, and the distro layout should be better (i.e., include Flash and Java out of the box, make things stable, and so on).

Ubuntu undoubtedly has potential; but there's something that's killing them. I don't know what it is, but it's making them do releases that are more and more unstable. In this way, they negate whatever advantage they could get. ("Linux? Oh yea, it came in my netbook but I wiped it clean, it never got my screen right and apps crashed every time!").

I hope Open Source and Linux, and Sun and Apple can bring ms to its crouching duck-walk position as much as many others would like to see. But, MANY open source developers are simply going to have to come up with more polished user interfaces. App installation is STILL going to have to:

-- become as simple as click on the .tar, no yum /apt-get/ whatever
-- be as smart as installing with a click (after permissions have been determined valid and authorized)
-- and the installer will ALSO have to be smart enough to know how to just search for the Internet-available-but-signed-trusted choices of file are

I have on occasion probably used yum and apt-get and to a greater extent rpm and tar files. It SHOULD be easier. I am sure it IS easy. But, for me, it does not always work. If I have a need to get Rhyme working, and not all the deps are there, it's a show-stopper to face "repository not found", "dependencies (collide/incompatible...)"

But, that's just me and i have to sort these things out so i have less to complain about. BUT...

Joe Brockmeier has, :

http://ostatic.com/blog/open-source-windows-dont-count-on-it

"Open sourcing Windows wouldn't be a simple thing -- it took Sun years to comb through Solaris to start open sourcing it. If I recall correctly, Sun announced the initiative about a year before any code was released as open, and then other bits have been coming in dribs and drabs since. Windows would probably take even longer -- so, going from closed to open would take a couple of years and cost the company momentum even if they chose to do it.

There's also the legal bits. It would probably take Microsoft a very long time to review the code and ensure that it can be open sourced. I also suspect the company would be hesitant to show its code to the world in its present state -- no doubt, it'd take a while to go through the code just to scrub the comments. There's also the matter of third-party code that would need to be rewritten or relicensed to open source it. It's much easier to start a project using an open source license than it is to go from proprietary to open source."

It seems that this article referred to by the main article speculates incorrectly, saying that:

he explained that this move allows him to spend more time with his family

whereas Alan actually wrote:

I'm not going to be spending more time with the family, gardening[1] or other such wonderous things.

a few lines below.

..that will definitely be craved by many Slashdot users, and not because of the gift shopping or use of public terminals. Question is how long it will take before Firefox sees its market share diminish because of this feature, and, consequently, how long it will take Firefox to include it in an update.

Considering that private browsing appears to already be included with 3.1 and the betas were around Sept 9th the last time I checked, I don't think the Moz folks are quaking in their boots yet. The feature is likely to hit both browsers roughtly at the same time.

http://ostatic.com/168982-blog/are-you-ready-for-firefox-3-1

There is valuable data that you can get from an analytics package, but not all analytics packages need to be invasive at the client-side. A ton of accurate info (including bot traffic) can be obtained from server-side packages like Webalizer and AWstats. These do not invade the user's privacy and give you an accurate idea of what is hitting your servers. That being said, it is not as easy to process the information just from the server side. However, best of all, these apps are free and Open Source!