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Even though this story posits a 0-day in OpenSSH as the culprit, I'm of the mind that free software with a strong patch and update system is as good as it gets. If you don't update your systems say because you don't want to break stuff, sorry but even non-0-days will bring you down. So on the sysadmin side, we're moving toward more specialization.

On malware and free software: http://trygnulinux.com/action/?q=node/68

Your data, and consequently you or your business, can be locked into an application even on your own server. I fully support the people running their own distributed server architecture but I think one important step toward that is getting data portability, part of what I call a new fifth Freedom to Migrate.

I would also like to see them offer some sort of standard way to export a user's photos, conversations, friend graph, and everything else needed to leave without being able to carry on some sort of continuous existence on another system. I would also like them to AGPL their software but I'm realistic and expect export is the best they will do so long as they're not challenged by a new system with the freedom to migrate.

To me, software freedom is being able to choose and customize the software I use without limit. With applications like Facebook, I cannot of course do any more customizing than the Facebook allows me to. The FSF tried to address this problem with the AGPL and many web applications have rightfully chosen it as a way to give users freedom online. Unfortunately there's a rather big part of the equation that the AGPL and the four traditional freedoms miss. It's that our data is often stuck inside even AGPLd applications. If we want to have true freedom online we need The Freedom to Migrate and it seems Diaspora is trying to provide.

You might be interested in my podcast in the latest ep of which we talk about a fifth freedom...freedom of data access and user mobility(i.e. not to be locked in to a network/Cloud service). I've been meaning to write something more on this.

WAT? WATTF!

Like serial numbers, product keys, and activation before, automatic auditing like WGA is proving not to be as effective as Microsoft would like... this is surveillance plain and simple. Looks like I'm going to need to update my article on problems with non-free software... (Free Software or: How I Learned...).

And here's a spreadsheet showing the rate of climb/descent vs. altitude. Fairly simple with a little grep | cut | ...

http://trygnulinux.com/bear4-speed-vs-alt.ods

If anyone's interested in going to a local Best Buy on 9/19/09 with CDs and flyers and encouraging people to try gnu/linux on their laptops before they buy, visit http://trygnulinux.com/sfd09

If Microsoft thinks it's a worthy battleground, perhaps we should as well.

What a pile of shit. Why not try putting some points on the flyer stating why people should try Linux instead of seeing how many times people can say "freedom" in a single paragraph. You sound like a cult.

If anyone's interested in going to a local Best Buy on 9/19/09 with CDs and flyers and encouraging people to try gnu/linux on their laptops before they buy, visit http://trygnulinux.com/sfd09 [trygnulinux.com]

If Microsoft thinks it's a worthy battleground, perhaps we should as well.

While this sounds like a good idea at first glance, it sounds like it's also a good way to get the cops called on you... Are you coordinating this event so Best Buy knows you're coming and is ok with it?

If anyone's interested in going to a local Best Buy on 9/19/09 with CDs and flyers and encouraging people to try gnu/linux on their laptops before they buy, visit http://trygnulinux.com/sfd09

If Microsoft thinks it's a worthy battleground, perhaps we should as well.