Slashdot Mirror

As Linux becomes more and more popular, the question becomes more and more important: which distribution should I use? I use SuSE Linux for several reasons. Firstly, it is the most LSB-compliant distribution. It comes with huge amounts of software (6 CDs of binaries for the Professional version, and (arguably) SuSE has the largest security team. SuSE updates are free and released often. Announcements are even GPG-signed. According to LWN.net research, SuSE has the best security after TurboLinux (which much less security-related bugs than RedHat.

On a more subjective note, many consider SuSE to be the most polished distribution, and YaST2 is considered one of the best all-around system configuration utilities.

The Slashdot Story Submission System or Four-S (pronounced "force") is a closely guarded Slashdot secret. As much as Slashdot claims to be anti-patent, in their well-known hypocritical nature, they have a patent pending for their story submission system. It is this very system's precision and robustness that explains why slashdot is so popular yet other similar slashcode sites get less hits than the average AOL user's personal homepage.

Like the formula to Coca-Cola, KFC's secret recipe, and the chemical structure of SPAM, the workings of the Four-S system was the question keeping me awake at night. After weeks of saving my allowance, obtaining a fake ID and making a few trips to the seedier parts of town, I finally had everything I needed to discover the truth behind one of mankind's greatest mysteries.

Thanks to a life-size inflatable tux doll and a keg of mediocre quality lukewarm beer, I had little trouble coaxing the secrets of the Four-S system out of Rob Malda. Between mugs of beer and unspeakable acts against nature (and vinyl inflatable dolls), in his drunken slurred speech, he explained the most intimate details of the four-s system.

R.M.: Well... Hey, you're kinda cute. Wanna see a cool trick I can do with a taco?

Me: Umm, I think I know what you have in mind - it won't work. When I was mowing a lawn last summer, I had an unfortunate accident and was involuntarily castrated. How that would effect the outcome of your trick should be self explanatory.

R.M.: Damn, that sucks. Hey, since you've taken yourself out of the gene pool, did you win a Darwin award?

Me: Did you win a Queer of the Year award? All fags like you should be given a Darwin award for taking themselves out of the gene pool. One more comment about my lack of balls and I'm deflating Tux!

R.M.: No, not Tux! I'm SO sorry! How can I make it up to you?

Me: The Four-S system. Tell me about it.

R.M.: Never. I'll take it to my grave.

Me: Damnit Rob, tell me or I'll shove my withered scrotum in your face. It's so nasty BME, Stileproject AND Steakandchese refused to post the picture!

R.M.: You make a compelling case, but no.

ME: Damn you, I'm so mad I don't feel like typing A HREF= anymore! Now you're gonna pay!

At this point I pull down my pants.

R.M: OH LORD OF ALL THINGS HOLY!!! I'M BLIND! OH THE AGONY! FOR GREAT JUSTICE, PUT YOUR PANTS BACK ON!

ME: Not until you tell me about the Four-S!

R.M.: Okay you win, I'll talk, I'll talk. Just put your pants back on.

ME: I don't trust you. Tell me about the Four-S first!

R.M.: Sigh. Okay, the Four-S. Most people think the Four-S stands for "Slashdot Story Submission System", they're wrong - it's just the public codename. It really is an acronym for the four steps involved in story selection. Scratch paper, spin, semen, shredder - That's what the Four-S really means.

During the first step, the "scratch paper" stage, hardworking monks here at Slashdot HQ carefully transcribe each story submission on to a piece of environmentally friendly recycled paper. For the "spin" step, these pieces of paper are then placed in a Kenmore dryer (set to air dry only, heat caused us to lose a whole day's worth of submissions once when the paper burst into flames!) for 5 minutes for a good randomizing effect. Now ready for the "semen" stage, one of the Slashdot editing crew opens the dryer door and proceeds to masturbate into the dryer. Whichever lucky paper happens to catch the wad of jism will be posted to the main page of Slashdot and then placed in the shredder. The reason for shredding a successfully submitted story is simple, if it's shredded, we can be sure we won't see the dried semen on it and accidentally post it again. Since we can only masturbate so many times in one day, you can understand why we're only able to post so many stories in one day - and why so many are rejected. This is exactly why the Four-S system is so much more versatile than other story submission systems.

Me: Wow, that explains a lot. So how did you come up with the Four-S anyway?

R.M.: I was up late one night trying to write a script to randomly pick story submissions, but everyone at Slashdot HQ kept complaining it wasn't random enough. After debating for hours, my throat was becoming sore and I was starting to go hoarse. In frustration, I finally yelled, "Well how do you propose I make it more random, use the for..(cough)..se?" At that moment, the idea dawned on me.

Me: Why am I not surprised?

R.M.: Now that you have this information, you have entered a circle of trust. Promise me you won't tell a soul about what I have told you today!

Me: (With fingers crossed) Sure, I promise.

The Slashdot Story Submission System or Four-S (pronounced "force") is a closely guarded Slashdot secret. As much as Slashdot claims to be anti-patent, in their well-known hypocritical nature, they have a patent pending for their story submission system. It is this very system's precision and robustness that explains why slashdot is so popular yet other similar slashcode sites get less hits than the average AOL user's personal homepage.

Like the formula to Coca-Cola, KFC's secret recipe, and the chemical structure of SPAM, the workings of the Four-S system was the question keeping me awake at night. After weeks of saving my allowance, obtaining a fake ID and making a few trips to the seedier parts of town, I finally had everything I needed to discover the truth behind one of mankind's greatest mysteries.

Thanks to a life-size inflatable tux doll and a keg of mediocre quality lukewarm beer, I had little trouble coaxing the secrets of the Four-S system out of Rob Malda. Between mugs of beer and unspeakable acts against nature (and vinyl inflatable dolls), in his drunken slurred speech, he explained the most intimate details of the four-s system.

R.M.: Well... Hey, you're kinda cute. Wanna see a cool trick I can do with a taco?

Me: Umm, I think I know what you have in mind - it won't work. When I was mowing a lawn last summer, I had an unfortunate accident and was involuntarily castrated. How that would effect the outcome of your trick should be self explanatory.

R.M.: Damn, that sucks. Hey, since you've taken yourself out of the gene pool, did you win a Darwin award?

Me: Did you win a Queer of the Year award? All fags like you should be given a Darwin award for taking themselves out of the gene pool. One more comment about my lack of balls and I'm deflating Tux!

R.M.: No, not Tux! I'm SO sorry! How can I make it up to you?

Me: The Four-S system. Tell me about it.

R.M.: Never. I'll take it to my grave.

Me: Damnit Rob, tell me or I'll shove my withered scrotum in your face. It's so nasty BME, Stileproject AND Steakandchese refused to post the picture!

R.M.: You make a compelling case, but no.

ME: Damn you, I'm so mad I don't feel like typing A HREF= anymore! Now you're gonna pay!

At this point I pull down my pants.

R.M: OH LORD OF ALL THINGS HOLY!!! I'M BLIND! OH THE AGONY! FOR GREAT JUSTICE, PUT YOUR PANTS BACK ON!

ME: Not until you tell me about the Four-S!

R.M.: Okay you win, I'll talk, I'll talk. Just put your pants back on.

ME: I don't trust you. Tell me about the Four-S first!

R.M.: Sigh. Okay, the Four-S. Most people think the Four-S stands for "Slashdot Story Submission System", they're wrong - it's just the public codename. It really is an acronym for the four steps involved in story selection. Scratch paper, spin, semen, shredder - That's what the Four-S really means.

During the first step, the "scratch paper" stage, hardworking monks here at Slashdot HQ carefully transcribe each story submission on to a piece of environmentally friendly recycled paper. For the "spin" step, these pieces of paper are then placed in a Kenmore dryer (set to air dry only, heat caused us to lose a whole day's worth of submissions once when the paper burst into flames!) for 5 minutes for a good randomizing effect. Now ready for the "semen" stage, one of the Slashdot editing crew opens the dryer door and proceeds to masturbate into the dryer. Whichever lucky paper happens to catch the wad of jism will be posted to the main page of Slashdot and then placed in the shredder. The reason for shredding a successfully submitted story is simple, if it's shredded, we can be sure we won't see the dried semen on it and accidentally post it again. Since we can only masturbate so many times in one day, you can understand why we're only able to post so many stories in one day - and why so many are rejected. This is exactly why the Four-S system is so much more versatile than other story submission systems.

Me: Wow, that explains a lot. So how did you come up with the Four-S anyway?

R.M.: I was up late one night trying to write a script to randomly pick story submissions, but everyone at Slashdot HQ kept complaining it wasn't random enough. After debating for hours, my throat was becoming sore and I was starting to go hoarse. In frustration, I finally yelled, "Well how do you propose I make it more random, use the for..(cough)..se?" At that moment, the idea dawned on me.

Me: Why am I not surprised?

R.M.: Now that you have this information, you have entered a circle of trust. Promise me you won't tell a soul about what I have told you today!

Me: (With fingers crossed) Sure, I promise.

The Slashdot Story Submission System or Four-S (pronounced "force") is a closely guarded Slashdot secret. As much as Slashdot claims to be anti-patent, in their well-known hypocritical nature, they have a patent pending for their story submission system. It is this very system's precision and robustness that explains why slashdot is so popular yet other similar slashcode sites get less hits that the average AOL user's personal homepage.

Like the formula to Coca-Cola, KFC's secret recipe, and the chemical structure of SPAM, the workings of the Four-S system was the question keeping me awake at night. After weeks of saving my allowance, obtaining a fake ID and making a few trips to the seedier parts of town, I finally had everything I needed to discover the truth behind one of mankind's greatest mysteries.

Thanks to a life-size inflatable tux doll and a keg of mediocre quality lukewarm beer, I had little trouble coaxing the secrets of the Four-S system out of Rob Malda. Between mugs of beer and unspeakable acts against nature (and vinyl inflatable dolls), in his drunken slurred speech, he explained the most intimate details of the four-s system.

R.M.: Well... Hey, your kinda cute. Wanna see a cool trick I can do with a taco?

Me: Umm, I think I know what you have in mind - it won't work. When I was mowing a lawn last summer, I had an unfortunate accident and was involuntarily castrated. How that would effect the outcome of your trick should be self explanatory.

R.M.: Damn, that sucks. Hey, since you've taken yourself out of the gene pool, did you win a Darwin award?

Me: Did you win a Queer of the Year award? All fags like you should be given a Darwin award for taking themselves out of the gene pool. One more comment about my lack of balls and I'm deflating Tux!

R.M.: No, not Tux! I'm SO sorry! How can I make it up to you?

Me: The Four-S system. Tell me about it.

R.M.: Never. I'll take it to my grave.

Me: Damnit Rob, tell me or I'll shove my withered scrotum in your face. It's so nasty BME, Stileproject AND Steakandchese refused to post the picture!

R.M.: You make a compelling case, but no.

ME: Damn you, I'm so mad I don't feel like typing A HREF= anymore! Now you're gonna pay!

At this point I pull down my pants.

R.M: OH LORD OF ALL THINGS HOLY!!! I'M BLIND! OH THE AGONY! FOR GREAT JUSTICE, PUT YOUR PANTS BACK ON!

ME: Not until you tell me about the Four-S!

R.M.: Okay you win, I'll talk, I'll talk. Just put your pants back on.

ME: I don't trust you. Tell me about the Four-S first!

R.M.: Sigh. Okay, the Four-S. Most people think the Four-S stands for "Slashdot Story Submission System", they're wrong - it's just the public codename. It really is an acronym for the four steps involved in story selection. Scratch paper, spin, semen, shredder - That's what the Four-S really means.

During the first step, the "scratch paper" stage, hardworking monks here at Slashdot HQ carefully transcribe each story submission on to a piece of environmentally friendly recycled paper. For the "spin" step, these pieces of paper are then placed in a Kenmore dryer (set to air dry only, heat caused us to lose a whole day's worth of submissions once when the paper burst into flames!) for 5 minutes for a good randomizing effect. Now ready for the "semen" stage, one of the Slashdot editing crew opens the dryer door and proceeds to masturbate into the dryer. Whichever lucky paper happens to catch the wad of jism will be posted to the main page of Slashdot and then placed in the shredder. The reason for shredding a successfully submitted story is simple, if it's shredded, we can be sure we won't see the dried semen on it and accidentally post it again. Since we can only masturbate so many times in one day, you can understand why we're only able to post so many stories in one day - and why so many are rejected. This is exactly why the Four-S system is so much more versatile than other story submission systems.

Me: Wow, that explains a lot. So how did you come up with the Four-S anyway?

R.M.: I was up late one night trying to write a script to randomly pick story submissions, but everyone at Slashdot HQ kept complaining it wasn't random enough. After debating for hours, my throat was becoming sore and I was starting to go hoarse. In frustration, I finally yelled, "Well how do you propose I make it more random, use the for..(cough)..se?" At that moment, the idea dawned on me.

Me: Why am I not surprised?

R.M.: Now that you have this information, you have entered a circle of trust. Promise me you won't tell a soul about what I have told you today!

Me: (With fingers crossed) Sure, I promise.

The Slashdot Story Submission System or Four-S (pronounced "force") is a closely guarded Slashdot secret. As much as Slashdot claims to be anti-patent, in their well-known hypocritical nature, they have a patent pending for their story submission system. It is this very system's precision and robustness that explains why slashdot is so popular yet other similar slashcode sites get less hits that the average AOL user's personal homepage.

Like the formula to Coca-Cola, KFC's secret recipe, and the chemical structure of SPAM, the workings of the Four-S system was the question keeping me awake at night. After weeks of saving my allowance, obtaining a fake ID and making a few trips to the seedier parts of town, I finally had everything I needed to discover the truth behind one of mankind's greatest mysteries.

Thanks to a life-size inflatable tux doll and a keg of mediocre quality lukewarm beer, I had little trouble coaxing the secrets of the Four-S system out of Rob Malda. Between mugs of beer and unspeakable acts against nature (and vinyl inflatable dolls), in his drunken slurred speech, he explained the most intimate details of the four-s system.

R.M.: Well... Hey, your kinda cute. Wanna see a cool trick I can do with a taco?

Me: Umm, I think I know what you have in mind - it won't work. When I was mowing a lawn last summer, I had an unfortunate accident and was involuntarily castrated. How that would effect the outcome of your trick should be self explanatory.

R.M.: Damn, that sucks. Hey, since you've taken yourself out of the gene pool, did you win a Darwin award?

Me: Did you win a Queer of the Year award? All fags like you should be given a Darwin award for taking themselves out of the gene pool. One more comment about my lack of balls and I'm deflating Tux!

R.M.: No, not Tux! I'm SO sorry! How can I make it up to you?

Me: The Four-S system. Tell me about it.

R.M.: Never. I'll take it to my grave.

Me: Damnit Rob, tell me or I'll shove my withered scrotum in your face. It's so nasty BME, Stileproject AND Steakandchese refused to post the picture!

R.M.: You make a compelling case, but no.

ME: Damn you, I'm so mad I don't feel like typing A HREF= anymore! Now you're gonna pay!

At this point I pull down my pants.

R.M: OH LORD OF ALL THINGS HOLY!!! I'M BLIND! OH THE AGONY! FOR GREAT JUSTICE, PUT YOUR PANTS BACK ON!

ME: Not until you tell me about the Four-S!

R.M.: Okay you win, I'll talk, I'll talk. Just put your pants back on.

ME: I don't trust you. Tell me about the Four-S first!

R.M.: Sigh. Okay, the Four-S. Most people think the Four-S stands for "Slashdot Story Submission System", they're wrong - it's just the public codename. It really is an acronym for the four steps involved in story selection. Scratch paper, spin, semen, shredder - That's what the Four-S really means.

During the first step, the "scratch paper" stage, hardworking monks here at Slashdot HQ carefully transcribe each story submission on to a piece of environmentally friendly recycled paper. For the "spin" step, these pieces of paper are then placed in a Kenmore dryer (set to air dry only, heat caused us to lose a whole day's worth of submissions once when the paper burst into flames!) for 5 minutes for a good randomizing effect. Now ready for the "semen" stage, one of the Slashdot editing crew opens the dryer door and proceeds to masturbate into the dryer. Whichever lucky paper happens to catch the wad of jism will be posted to the main page of Slashdot and then placed in the shredder. The reason for shredding a successfully submitted story is simple, if it's shredded, we can be sure we won't see the dried semen on it and accidentally post it again. Since we can only masturbate so many times in one day, you can understand why we're only able to post so many stories in one day - and why so many are rejected. This is exactly why the Four-S system is so much more versatile than other story submission systems.

Me: Wow, that explains a lot. So how did you come up with the Four-S anyway?

R.M.: I was up late one night trying to write a script to randomly pick story submissions, but everyone at Slashdot HQ kept complaining it wasn't random enough. After debating for hours, my throat was becoming sore and I was starting to go hoarse. In frustration, I finally yelled, "Well how do you propose I make it more random, use the for..(cough)..se?" At that moment, the idea dawned on me.

Me: Why am I not surprised?

R.M.: Now that you have this information, you have entered a circle of trust. Promise me you won't tell a soul about what I have told you today!

Me: (With fingers crossed) Sure, I promise.

The Slashdot Story Submission System or Four-S (pronounced "force") is a closely guarded Slashdot secret. As much as Slashdot claims to be anti-patent, in their well-known hypocritical nature, they have a patent pending for their story submission system. It is this very system's precision and robustness that explains why slashdot is so popular yet other similar slashcode sites get less hits that the average AOL user's personal homepage.

Like the formula to Coca-Cola, KFC's secret recipe, and the chemical structure of SPAM, the workings of the Four-S system was the question keeping me awake at night. After weeks of saving my allowance, obtaining a fake ID and making a few trips to the seedier parts of town, I finally had everything I needed to discover the truth behind one of mankind's greatest mysteries.

Thanks to a life-size inflatable tux doll and a keg of mediocre quality lukewarm beer, I had little trouble coaxing the secrets of the Four-S system out of Rob Malda. Between mugs of beer and unspeakable acts against nature (and vinyl inflatable dolls), in his drunken slurred speech, he explained the most intimate details of the four-s system.

R.M.: Well... Hey, your kinda cute. Wanna see a cool trick I can do with a taco?

Me: Umm, I think I know what you have in mind - it won't work. When I was mowing a lawn last summer, I had an unfortunate accident and was involuntarily castrated. How that would effect the outcome of your trick should be self explanatory.

R.M.: Damn, that sucks. Hey, since you've taken yourself out of the gene pool, did you win a Darwin award?

Me: Did you win a Queer of the Year award? All fags like you should be given a Darwin award for taking themselves out of the gene pool. One more comment about my lack of balls and I'm deflating Tux!

R.M.: No, not Tux! I'm SO sorry! How can I make it up to you?

Me: The Four-S system. Tell me about it.

R.M.: Never. I'll take it to my grave.

Me: Damnit Rob, tell me or I'll shove my withered scrotum in your face. It's so nasty BME, Stileproject AND Steakandchese refused to post the picture!

R.M.: You make a compelling case, but no.

ME: Damn you, I'm so mad I don't feel like typing A HREF= anymore! Now you're gonna pay!

At this point I pull down my pants.

R.M: OH LORD OF ALL THINGS HOLY!!! I'M BLIND! OH THE AGONY! FOR GREAT JUSTICE, PUT YOUR PANTS BACK ON!

ME: Not until you tell me about the Four-S!

R.M.: Okay you win, I'll talk, I'll talk. Just put your pants back on.

ME: I don't trust you. Tell me about the Four-S first!

R.M.: Sigh. Okay, the Four-S. Most people think the Four-S stands for "Slashdot Story Submission System", they're wrong - it's just the public codename. It really is an acronym for the four steps involved in story selection. Scratch paper, spin, semen, shredder - That's what the Four-S really means.

During the first step, the "scratch paper" stage, hardworking monks here at Slashdot HQ carefully transcribe each story submission on to a piece of environmentally friendly recycled paper. For the "spin" step, these pieces of paper are then placed in a Kenmore dryer (set to air dry only, heat caused us to lose a whole day's worth of submissions once when the paper burst into flames!) for 5 minutes for a good randomizing effect. Now ready for the "semen" stage, one of the Slashdot editing crew opens the dryer door and proceeds to masturbate into the dryer. Whichever lucky paper happens to catch the wad of jism will be posted to the main page of Slashdot and then placed in the shredder. The reason for shredding a successfully submitted story is simple, if it's shredded, we can be sure we won't see the dried semen on it and accidentally post it again. Since we can only masturbate so many times in one day, you can understand why we're only able to post so many stories in one day - and why so many are rejected. This is exactly why the Four-S system is so much more versatile than other story submission systems.

Me: Wow, that explains a lot. So how did you come up with the Four-S anyway?

R.M.: I was up late one night trying to write a script to randomly pick story submissions, but everyone at Slashdot HQ kept complaining it wasn't random enough. After debating for hours, my throat was becoming sore and I was starting to go hoarse. In frustration, I finally yelled, "Well how do you propose I make it more random, use the for..(cough)..se?" At that moment, the idea dawned on me.

Me: Why am I not surprised?

R.M.: Now that you have this information, you have entered a circle of trust. Promise me you won't tell a soul about what I have told you today!

Me: (With fingers crossed) Sure, I promise.

The Slashdot Story Submission System or Four-S (pronounced "force") is a closely guarded Slashdot secret. As much as Slashdot claims to be anti-patent, in their well-known hypocritical nature, they have a patent pending for their story submission system. It is this very system's precision and robustness that explains why slashdot is so popular yet other similar slashcode sites get less hits that the average AOL user's personal homepage.

Like the formula to Coca-Cola, KFC's secret recipe, and the chemical structure of SPAM, the workings of the Four-S system was the question keeping me awake at night. After weeks of saving my allowance, obtaining a fake ID and making a few trips to the seedier parts of town, I finally had everything I needed to discover the truth behind one of mankind's greatest mysteries.

Thanks to a life-size inflatable tux doll and a keg of mediocre quality lukewarm beer, I had little trouble coaxing the secrets of the Four-S system out of Rob Malda. Between mugs of beer and unspeakable acts against nature (and vinyl inflatable dolls), in his drunken slurred speech, he explained the most intimate details of the four-s system.

R.M.: Well... Hey, your kinda cute. Wanna see a cool trick I can do with a taco?

Me: Umm, I think I know what you have in mind - it won't work. When I was mowing a lawn last summer, I had an unfortunate accident and was involuntarily castrated. How that would effect the outcome of your trick should be self explanatory.

R.M.: Damn, that sucks. Hey, since you've taken yourself out of the gene pool, did you win a Darwin award?

Me: Did you win a Queer of the Year award? All fags like you should be given a Darwin award for taking themselves out of the gene pool. One more comment about my lack of balls and I'm deflating Tux!

R.M.: No, not Tux! I'm SO sorry! How can I make it up to you?

Me: The Four-S system. Tell me about it.

R.M.: Never. I'll take it to my grave.

Me: Damnit Rob, tell me or I'll shove my withered scrotum in your face. It's so nasty BME, Stileproject AND Steakandchese refused to post the picture!

R.M.: You make a compelling case, but no.

ME: Damn you, I'm so mad I don't feel like typing A HREF= anymore! Now you're gonna pay!

At this point I pull down my pants.

R.M: OH LORD OF ALL THINGS HOLY!!! I'M BLIND! OH THE AGONY! FOR GREAT JUSTICE, PUT YOUR PANTS BACK ON!

ME: Not until you tell me about the Four-S!

R.M.: Okay you win, I'll talk, I'll talk. Just put your pants back on.

ME: I don't trust you. Tell me about the Four-S first!

R.M.: Sigh. Okay, the Four-S. Most people think the Four-S stands for "Slashdot Story Submission System", they're wrong - it's just the public codename. It really is an acronym for the four steps involved in story selection. Scratch paper, spin, semen, shredder - That's what the Four-S really means.

During the first step, the "scratch paper" stage, hardworking monks here at Slashdot HQ carefully transcribe each story submission on to a piece of environmentally friendly recycled paper. For the "spin" step, these pieces of paper are then placed in a Kenmore dryer (set to air dry only, heat caused us to lose a whole day's worth of submissions once when the paper burst into flames!) for 5 minutes for a good randomizing effect. Now ready for the "semen" stage, one of the Slashdot editing crew opens the dryer door and proceeds to masturbate into the dryer. Whichever lucky paper happens to catch the wad of jism will be posted to the main page of Slashdot and then placed in the shredder. The reason for shredding a successfully submitted story is simple, if it's shredded, we can be sure we won't see the dried semen on it and accidentally post it again. Since we can only masturbate so many times in one day, you can understand why we're only able to post so many stories in one day - and why so many are rejected. This is exactly why the Four-S system is so much more versatile than other story submission systems.

Me: Wow, that explains a lot. So how did you come up with the Four-S anyway?

R.M.: I was up late one night trying to write a script to randomly pick story submissions, but everyone at Slashdot HQ kept complaining it wasn't random enough. After debating for hours, my throat was becoming sore and I was starting to go hoarse. In frustration, I finally yelled, "Well how do you propose I make it more random, use the for..(cough)..se?" At that moment, the idea dawned on me.

Me: Why am I not surprised?

R.M.: Now that you have this information, you have entered a circle of trust. Promise me you won't tell a soul about what I have told you today!

Me: (With fingers crossed) Sure, I promise.

• SuSE Linux Enterprise Server
• SuSE Linux Firewall on CD
• SuSE Linux eMail Server III
• SuSE Linux Connectivity Server
• SuSE Linux Database Server

Can't just look for the daemon

True, so he should look at his OS distribution's hardware compatibility list. I can't speak for FreeBSD, but SuSE, for instance, has a link to their hardware compatibility database on their front page.

Oddly, this is backwards from the Windows way. Instead of seeing what is supported on the hardware package, you check for support from the OS vendor. This also makes me wonder what the purpose of even listing "Windows" on a hardware package is. After all, since no one knows what a Linux or a BSD is, it obviously works on Windows. Maybe it is sort of like labelling water as fat-free.

Yes it's a scam. The fact is that they count on people not passing the LCA.
They do this by promising people that have no chance of becoming a Linux
admin. Most of the time these are people that can't even use windows
computers.

SuSE Linux is LSB and FHS complient. This of course makes it have less compatability with all other distributions because (Red Hat is an egregious offender) the norm is to be non-complient. :-(

SuSE is LSB compliant.

The authors' choices seemed unnecessarily limited to me. It is kind of hard to have a "best" of anything if you only sample a few of them.

For instance, they did not mention Mandrake except when talking about the Sims. Mandrake kicks ass though IMO SUSE comes close.

The window manager choices were also sparse. Lightweight WMs like Sawfish and IceWM weren't mentioned. Everyone knows about Gnone and KDE, how about telling people about the WMs they don't know about?

And when it comes to text editors, no new ground was broken. What about FTE? It is the best cross-platform (Linux, Windows, OS/2 and others) editor I have come across: full-featured yet relatively small and easy to use.

Jeez, it seems that *anyone* can start a Linux site these days!!! :->

Mirror Site #1

Mirror Site #2

Mirror Site #3

Mirror Site #4

Mirror Site #5

Homer Simpson laughing and saying, "It's funny 'cuz it's true!"

Red Hat isn't the be-all/end-all of Linux distros, in fact it's not even one of the best ones. (They do a lot of good work for the community and they work hard to gain visibility for themselves and Linux in general. That's great and I appreciate them doing it, but the Red Hat distro just isn't that good.)

Rock Linux is hard. SuSE and Mandrake are easy. Red Hat and Slackware are somewhere in the middle.

I guess my point is, anyone who can install Windows can install Linux. If you're putting something together for someone who isn't capable of installing Windows, Linux is probably a better choice for them since you can set it up right and feel reasonably secure in the knowledge that it's going to stay that way. I've been using Windows for a long time, and I've never seen a Windows system that didn't need a reinstall within a year. Conversely, the only reason I reinstalled Linux was because I wanted to switch to reiserfs. (Yes I know win2k will upgrade your fat32 to ntfs without a hitch, I've done it about 20 times. e3fs will upgrade e2fs without a hitch, too, or so I'm told, but I wanted reiser.)

Sorry for the rambling. My basic point is that you're right. I guess I should know better than to post before coffee.

If the author of ProgramX doesn't fix a security hole, then debian might, or redhat might, or suse might, and as soon as one does the others can grab their fix and incorporate in their distribution.

At the end of the day, it comes down to what you're used to, really. If you've never used any OS before, you could probably learn Mandrake 8.1 just as fast as Windows XP. If you're used to Windows, Linux is obviously going to seem more difficult. And vice versa.

I don't have any mod right now, so I'll just flame you.

Support services love stupid users like you. After all, they get paid 299 bucks for a problem which the user could have easily solved by walking through HOWTOs for 15 minutes or (heavens forbid) use a search engine to look for solutions.

So, buy paid support from SuSE here, ask your question and we'll see whether your answer will be "RTFM".

>If it is commercial, then even if it runs Linux software, has a Linux look or even if it is somehow related to a true Linux, it ain't Linux.

Last time i checked, Redhat Mandrake SuSE is commercial, and a lot of others.

When evaluating the IT infrastructure, I almost fell into the Ye know, my customers use NT and we'll have to interchange documents trap.

For one reason or another a properly licensed OEM copy failed to install on my box (which only was Win98 taxed, so I had to buy NT in addition).

To make a long story short: I was rather pissed, went to a bookstore, obtained a copy of SuSE-Linux and installed away (I planned Linux as a second partition anyway).

Was it painless ? Hell, no! Wasting a day, trying to configure a modem which turns out to be defective is not much fun. The learning curve is partially steep (and that's not an install matter) and surprises clutter your path. But

It was the best business decision that I made. Not only do I have three industry strength databases running on essentially on a PC reliaby, but I very rarely have IT problems and if I do, they can usually be solved.

Yep, definitely a competitive advantage. And this is not a price issue.

Information and discussions for blind SuSE Linux users (english)

Software for Blind Linux Users: Brass - Braille and speech server

I think you should be pointing to this link this

This is the correct suse.com link listed above

I've never been able to find a good Linux equivalent.

Try SuSE. Because they are a European distro (ie no problems with US export controls), and also aimed at secure/server market (unlike mandrake), they have Very Good built in security measures. It is really very trivial to set up a crypto file system. You really should give it a go. See this for some breif details.
Only problem is SuSE dont make iso's downloadable, so you might need to buy (gasp!) a copy. Money well worth spent though.

Also, you can get all of the patches that SuSE use on their kernel, not only this one. Please note that this link is

1. A mirror of the official SuSE site, and
2. The SuSE development kernel. I.e. this kernel is not guaranteed for production use!
3. The production kernel source is here.

Also, you can get all of the patches that SuSE use on their kernel, not only this one. Please note that this link is

1. A mirror of the official SuSE site, and
2. The SuSE development kernel. I.e. this kernel is not guaranteed for production use!
3. The production kernel source is here.

...like this?

I'm not very familiar with RedHat, but SuSE 7.3 has a complete graphical install, that's very easy to use (next/back buttons, auto detection etc.), with KDE default, more packages than you'll need, etc. And It works well, with a pc with pre-installed Windows (shrinks partition, etc).
If this would work flawlessly if you don't accept every default option, it could be even easier to install than Windows (all drivers included, applications already installed. Bugs on the installation procedure it's not something you wanna have.
P.S. Please don't flame me on this, it's just my opinion.

A lot of people are providing excellent links to free scientific software resources, but one of the key points mentioned was the lack of a high speed Internet connection. FlashBoltzman also specifically said they were looking at Debian because of the applications bundled with it.

Based on this, I think what would help the most would be hard copies of the scientific software people have mentioned. I would also recommend looking at SuSE's boxed distribution, because it contains 7 CDs or 1 DVD worth of software. Spending a few hundred U.S. dollars to get a box into every organization is probably much cheaper than the amount they would have to spend on their slow Internet connections to download several GB of data to each organization.

However, those scientific and research packages mentioned aren't going to be part of any distribution. FlashBoltzman can post the resources listed here to a web page, but maybe he should routinely grab software and then each month or quarter burn a few CDs or DVDs to send to Africa.

Another serious setback for Linux is the lack of a journalling file system

If someone setup a high priced licensing & support system for Linux and gave it a different name, businesses might sign on. Sad but true.

This is going to be a though choice, Redhat throws 7.2 at the world, Mandrake 8.1 and SuSE released 7.3(however /. does not consider that news)
Personally I prefer SuSE and can't wait for 7.3 however I must say that Redhat 7.2 looks promesing too, however at a first glance, IMHO SuSE looks better for starting linux users.

I assumed the writer was referring to Yellow Dog, SuSE, Mandrake, and Debian. Adding LinuxPPC and MkLinux brings the tally up to six, and Linux-m68k makes seven. Linux on the Mac is flourishing.

How does YD compare to SuSE's PPC offerings? Looks like SuSE has put together a pretty nice PPC distro too:

http://www.suse.com/us/products/suse_linux/ppc/ind ex.html

I've seen that the new version of SuSE has some sound editing apps that look powerful to me. Although I never used them and don't know the least about it. ;)
Anyway, here is the page with the sound stuff.
They have these apps:

* gamix
* GDAM
* ALSA and Midi
* RTSynth
* kladspa
* Linux grooves with jazz and TK-707

I hope there are some apps here that can help your friend.

Actually, you can get a pretty expensive support contract qith a commercial company.

Yes, SuSE Gmbh is a commercial company that provides solutions for companies in forms of:

-24/7 support
-training
-selling of products
-software customization

and all those goodies and security nets that a big company is used to.

Also, get some zSeries mainframes from IBM Corp were SuSE is te distribution of choice. They will have reliable hardware for a (comparative) cheap price. Do you recall the article about cost savings while running a Mainframe instead a server farm? Here's one: in this link

And, of course, if they do not like SuSE, because the product is OpenSource, the German Government can hire and train their own team to support themselves the whole thing.

Big government organizations in Europe tend to have tight budgets. I know because I used to work in one of them. And that organization is right now, as we speak, evaluating the full migration towards Linux-based solutions. Yes, tehy cannot afford in any way the new Microsoft pricing policy, so they have decided to go the Penguin way. Too bad they did that after I left.

All the best,
OpKool

If only there were people who could somehow package applications for typical users. They could distribute precompiled binaries!

Ahh, a man can dream...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

KDE Ships Alpha of Third Generation of the Leading Linux Desktop for Developers

October 5, 2001 (The INTERNET). The KDE Project today announced the immediate release of KDE 3.0alpha1, the third generation of KDE's free, powerful and easy-to-use free Internet-enabled desktop for Linux and other UNIXes. KDE 3.0 is scheduled for its first beta release this December and for final release in late February 2001.

This inaugural release of the KDE 3, which follows two weeks after the stable release of KDE 2.2.1 series, is based on TrollTech's Qt 3.0.0beta6. It ships with the core KDE libraries, the core desktop environment, and over 100 applications from the other base KDE packages (administration, multimedia, network, PIM, utilities, etc.).

The primary goal of the 3.0alpha1 release is to provide a framework for developers to start porting their KDE 2 applications to KDE 3 and to solicit developer feature contributions and feature requests before the KDE 3 API is frozen for binary compatibility. In addition, experimental KDE users who would like to try this release can set up a KDE 3 system side-by-site with a KDE 2 system. Instructions for doing so are available here.

Additional information about KDE 3 is available at the KDE website, including a tentative release plan, a KDE 3 info page, and a list of planned features.

For both developers and users, KDE 3 offers substantial improvements and additions compared to KDE 2 (the great bulk of which are, at this juncture, due to the switch to Qt 3):

For the developer:

For everyone:

Most of these improvements result directly from the switch to Qt 3, which has been the focus of KDE 3 code development so far. Improvements to the KDE libraries and applications themselves are planned for the successive beta releases leading to the first stable KDE 3. A list of these planned features is available here.

Since KDE 3 is mostly source compatible with KDE 2, porting applications from KDE 2 to KDE 3 can usually be done surprisingly quickly. The process is substantially easier than it was for porting from KDE 1 to KDE 2, and even very complicated applications can be ported in a matter of a few hours.

Instructions for porting KDE 2 applications to KDE 3 are available separately for the KDE libraries and the Qt libraries. Most of the changes required for the port applications pertain to changes in the Qt API. Although neither the KDE 3 nor the Qt 3 APIs are frozen, few changes are anticipated for the final releases of KDE 3.0 and Qt 3.0.0, respectively.

KDE and all its components (including KDevelop and KOffice) are available for free under Open Source licenses from the KDE ftp server and its mirrors and can also be obtained on CD-ROM.

Library Requirements. KDE 3.0alpha1 requires qt-3.0.0beta6, which is available in source code from Trolltech as qt-x11-3.0.0-beta6.tar.gz, as well as libxml2 >= 2.3.13, available here.

Compiler Requirements. Please note that some components of KDE 3.0alpha1 will not compile with older versions of gcc/egcs, such as egcs-1.1.2 or gcc-2.7.2. At a minimum gcc-2.95-* is required. In addition, some components of KDE 3.0alpha1 (such as the multimedia backbone of KDE, aRts) will not compile with gcc 3.0 or 3.0.1, though the forthcoming gcc 3.0.2 release will most likely work.

Source Code. The complete source code for KDE 3.0alpha1 is available for free download at http://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/unstable/kde-3.0-alpha1 /src/ http://master.kde.org/pub/kde/unstable/kde-3.0-alp ha1/src/ or in the equivalent directory at one of the many KDE ftp server mirrors.

Further Information. For further instructions on compiling and installing KDE 3.0alpha1, please consult the installation instructions and, if you should encounter problems, the compilation FAQ.

KDE is an independent, collaborative project by hundreds of developers worldwide working over the Internet to create a sophisticated, customizable and stable desktop environment employing a component-based, network-transparent architecture. KDE provides a stable, mature desktop, an office suite (KOffice), a large set of networking and administration tools, and an efficient and intuitive development environment, including an excellent IDE (KDevelop). KDE is working proof of the power of the Open Source "Bazaar-style" software development model to create first-rate technologies on par with and superior to even the most complex commercial software.

Please visit the KDE family of web sites for the KDE FAQ, screenshots, KOffice information and developer information. Much more information about KDE is available from KDE's family of web sites.

Besides the valuable and excellent efforts by the KDE developers themselves, significant support for KDE development has been provided by MandrakeSoft and SuSE. Thanks!

same press release, only on the us site. most've probably found it, but here 'tis. http://www.suse.com/us/products/susesoft/suse73/in dex.html

Have you looked ever actually looked at ftp.suse.com? Distros back to version 6.3 on seven architectures are all there. Here's 7.2 for x86.

Replace the .de with .com and the /de/ with /en/ and bingo! You have the English version of this link. No Babelfish needed. http://www.suse.com/en/produkte/susesoft/linux/ind ex.html

Suse has a japanese version of it's linux distro. I still think it's the best.

http://www.suse.com/us/suse/news/PressReleases/Jap anese.html

Stunky

Like most of us I've been forced to use a ton of different O/S's at jobs (all investment banks) over the years. The one thing I could never tolerate was unreliability since I HAD to be sure that my trading model / spreadsheet was running when I needed it. As a result the best OS combination for me was Solaris on one box and OS/2 on another (until it was taken away by those bastards in IT) and replaced with the worst OS I have ever used Windows NT 3.51. OS/2 was great because it was super stable and allowed me to hack around as I wished. I didn't need a command line but I did need a good spreadsheet and and groupware (Notes) that I could configure to do what I wanted (I wasn't a programmer, just a tech aware trader). Solaris was great for massive derivative apps and market data but CDE stank as a desktop and I still don't understand how Sun could have not offered something better. The problem with Solaris was that the BOFH admins had locked everything down and we users could touch nothing.

Around that time I installed my first home copy of SuSE 6.2 and spent hours of utter torment trying to get X configured etc.. etc.. Horrible though it might have seemed I loved it suddenly I was in control (however chaotic and dangerous that control was). However I knew that the Sysadmins would never allow me to use it at work. "Freedom of choice for users = more work for Sysadmins" and they, like most people are lazy and want a quiet life. More importantly you need to be weird to want to work high-up in IT support for BIGCO. Success is measured by the size of your budget / empire / office / car not by installing low cost / no cost OSes. These guys want to spend trillions with Sun / MS otherwise how do they justify their big budgets and offices?

A couple of years ago I took a lifestyle choice and quit the megabucks slavery of Wall Street and set up my own software co. I learnt 80% of what I know about technology from wrestling with Linux and I use it now because I feel more free doing it. In the end it was a choice linked to what I wanted in life for myself and others. I now take my son to school before logging in to WindowMaker and clicking on the Konqueror appicon to read /. I got myself I life and I got Linux (and I'm a lot happier for it.......!)

Yes. Source. That's what I'm talking about.

I know this will get modded as a SuSE troll, but what the heck. Here goes...

You can download from SuSE's ftp site, I'm sure. Find the 7.2 distro, and then the "zq1" series.

For instance...

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/7.2/suse/zq1/broa dcast2000.spm

Or a mirror...

ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/suse/ftp.suse.com/suse/i386/ 7.2/suse/zq1/broadcast2000.spm

Or you could try Mandrake's distro, which I'm not familiar with. (Hey, don't hit me!) But KDE has a mirror...

ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/mandrake/

But I don't know if they include source in their distro as SuSE does. Also note that Slashdot may screw up the above URL's in an attempt to add lameness to them.

"No one has treaded here," said Evan Quinn, of the Hurwitz Group. "You are talking about changing the paradigm of how business and software works. They will provide an example for the rest of the industry regarding how to implement Web services."

Mr. Quinn, your attention is invited to:
here,
here,
or here
to see where the ground has been tread, the flag has been planted, and the ground has been tilled regarding paradigm changes and setting the example.
MSDOS...stolen idea.
Windows...stolen idea(Amiga)
MS Word...Wordperfect
Access...yep they invented databases too.
Excel...they added a gui.
the list goes on. The only innovation from Redmond has been from the Marketing department. But I preach to the choir.
Point is, if you really believe what you are saying to be true, I am sorry for you.

Have a nice day.

Ummm, you obviously didn't look very hard. Check out this directory.

Actually, how in hell did you miss it?

Oh wait, I forgot. This is Slashdot, you didn't even bother checking, did you? You simply believed someone else, who has a stupid grudge, without proof.

i suspected that SuSE was in trouble, glad that the are saved.
i'm using SuSE for a very long time and i like the distribution.

the future of SuSE seems to be good:
look here
and here

SuSE has put much effort into supporting development of open source projects like, kde, alsa, reiserfs, ...
hopefully the future will be better for SuSE, if they go, it will be a lost for the open source community.

i suspected that SuSE was in trouble, glad that the are saved.
i'm using SuSE for a very long time and i like the distribution.

the future of SuSE seems to be good:
look here
and here

SuSE has put much effort into supporting development of open source projects like, kde, alsa, reiserfs, ...
hopefully the future will be better for SuSE, if they go, it will be a lost for the open source community.

i suspected that SuSE was in trouble, glad that the are saved.
i'm using SuSE for a very long time and i like the distribution.

the future of SuSE seems to be good:
look here
and here

SuSE has put much effort into supporting development of open source projects like, kde, alsa, reiserfs, ...
hopefully the future will be better for SuSE, if they go, it will be a lost for the open source community.

Dirk used to work at Deutsche Bank where he was head of Unix Strategy. You can see a short biography of him at the main SuSe site.

He was heavily involved in the XFree86 project, which SuSE have supported for a number of years, in addition to their support for KDE, OpenLDAP etc.. There is an interview with him at Changelog.

I think he will be missed at SuSE but they employ over 220 people worldwide and support many more development effors, while making a profit, so don't write them off on the basis of this announcement.

I am currently running SuSE 7.2 on both my PC and Laptop. It is the best distribution I have used to date and the Support for XFree86 and KDE2.x is useful and appreciated.
One interesting observation concerns a recent install I did on my IBM X21 Laptop, when SuSE was installed from DVD it installed completely in under an hour and correctly recognised network card and video Driver. Installing Windows 2000 on the other partition failed to recognise network or video card, it took 5 hours of downloads to fix this. Power management also works a treat on the laptop by defaut, credit and thanks to SuSE for this, and good luck for the future.