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MicroBSD Is No More
TrumpetPower! writes "Recently there's been quite a row in the OpenBSD community over copyright infringement by the OpenBSD spinoff, MicroBSD. Many parts of MicroBSD would seem to be a wholesale search-n-replace of the two names...including copyright notices. As a result, MicroBSD has shut down. It's worth noting that, as of this story submission, the MicroBSD Web site is still up and running with no special notices."
We'll see about that michael... we'll just see about that.
Definitely a just punishment in this case, though.
Invoicing, Time Tracking, Reporting
Maybe MicroBSD can get help from Microsoft in the patent fight.
You'll note the "Get MicroBSD" links are all 404.
Apache/2.0.43 Server at www.microbsd.com Port 80
That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
It won't be once we're done slashdotting it ;^)
Discussion continues on IRC: irc.microbsd.net #microbsd
The home page is still up and running. But that's about it. The rest of the links off the page all return 404.
www.microbsd.net has the anouncement.
If you think this is good, why not look at UniSql and UniUnix from Korea
http://www.unisql.com/ if it looks like MySql or PHP let me know
I just hate bit SPAM, (www.netnoise.com.kh)
The head of the MicroBSD project wrote to misc@openbsd.org last night that he had just finished removing everything from his site. Go ahead and check it out. Every link I clicked on microbsd.com gave me a 404. MicroBSD is dead. It is no more. They blatantly violated OpenBSD's copyrights. In fact most of MicroBSD was just:
$osname =~ s/Open/Micro/g;
.-.--
After reading the various links given, it looks to me like the MicroBSD guys had an idea, started working on it, one of their developers screwed up and changed come copyright info, people complained, the project wasn't going anywhere anyways, so it just stopped. Didn't look like there was willfull copyright infringment, and I'd like to believe that it really would have been fixed, like the micro guys said.
Don't attribute to malice what stupidity can explain (or whatever the exact quote is.)
...but I've actually never heard of one single case where MicroBSD was used in an enterprise-critical environment. The other BSD trees are actually quite well-known... I'd like to see some interesting examples. If there aren't any, well, then it's probably no big loss.
-- Power corrupts, but PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.
Could someone enlighten me?
www.MicroBSD.net has the following announcement:
The MicroBSD Project has Shut Down! All works have been removed.
To the OpenBSD developers, There was no intent to modify any copyright in the CVS tree. We have publically acknowledged the issue and have shut down this project. We apologize for the inconvience and commotion this has caused the BSD community. It was never our intent to be at odds with anyone in the community to start. All MicroBSD code has been removed from our servers. The web site will go away. The project will cease to exist. This decision is based on time, efforts involved, the lack of developers, and lack of interest. I personally do not have the time, nor am I inclined to continue with a project that has caused this much negativity in the community.
At the suggestions from various repected people in the industry who supported us, we are sorry. We feel it is not in the best interest of the project to continue its exitance. To those that opposed us from the start, We will just go away as you wish.
Specific developer(s) who committed files with those copyright violations were planning on rectifying the issues. Instead, I have decided to completely remove the source tree and all traces of code commited.
There is currently no CVS, cvsweb or downloads available due to a copyright issue being brought to our attention. We have ceased all development activity to address the issue and remove any violations from the cvs tree. This was an unfortunate oversight on our part, and was not intended to violate any copyright issues. We have taken pain staking measures to be sure to not modify/violate any copyrights. We assure you this copyright issue, was an oversight on our part and was not intentional.
In closing we simply ask the the community carry on as it were, and all person(s) with MicroBSD installed, Please remove the code, and install OpenBSD. We will be providing locations to the various apsect of code we had initially committed in features to get the project off the ground before we continued with our planned unique additons to the BSD community. As of now there will be no further contributions to the BSD community as a whole. In closing, Again we apologize for such oversights, and have removed all code.
.-.--
- where they state they are the developers of OpenSSH
- where their sendbug command e-mails gnats@openbsd.org
- man release..... "See http://www.openbsd.org/anoncvs.html for
instructions on fetching the sources for the first time...."
- I enabled Apache and much to my surprise the page had OpenBSD logo's with
"MicroBSD" alt tags!
You get the idea. If you have the OS (I am sure it will be available somewhere, check the mirrors still) read '$man 1 banner' for a good laugh, from Miod VallatZERO ZERO ONE ZERO ONE ZERO ONE ONE! Just brushing up for my next big invention: Ethernet over Voice (EoV)
BSD is dead!
:-)
Appologies.
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge"
- Charles Darwin
That is the core of the BSD license, as long as you give credit where it is due ,you can do what you want with the code, including selling it.
So this doesn't really make since as a valid reason alone.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
When I click on their News1 link, I get:
/news.html was not found on this server.
Not Found
The requested URL
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
So I guess no news != good news?
The concern was not that they had modified the code or docs, but the copyright messages. You are not allowed to simply re-assign copyright to yourself (under US and international copyright law).
This has nothing to do with licensing at all. You could put the code under the GPL, MPL, or any of MS EULA for Office, and you would still have the same problem. The only time you can take a work and assign copyright to yourself is if that work is in the Public Domain, which of course means that it has no copyright at all.
It's worth noting that, as of this story submission, the MicroBSD Web site is still up and running with no special notices.
That's ok, the slashdot effect will eventually set in and then the site will no longer be up and running...
[Something witty and intelligent should have appeared here.]
{Traicovn}
Hat's off to you. Winners never quit, and quitters never lose, but if you never win and never quit, you're just stupid
You know, when you steal something that is free to begin with, you have a problem.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
MicroBSD was an interesting project, and if we Slashdotters don't kill the server completely, it's interesting to look around. However, looking at the infighting and piss-taking on the mailing lists, it's still apparent that there BSD crowd makes problems for itselves.
Unfortunately there's too much of a "holier than thou" feeling amongst many BSD coders, but then again, getting rid of Matt Dillon (see earlier /. BSD story) won't help either. I want the BSDs to do well, but the community can be v. problematic...
Here's an example. After using Linux for several years, I gave FreeBSD a try and was very impressed by the solid kernel and coherent userland. There were a few things I couldn't fathom out though, like getting USB joysticks working, and asking on the mailing lists or similar forums always got the same kind of responses: "Go back to Linux if you want that", "FreeBSD is brill and doesn't need to support it" etc.
It's this zealotry, patronising attitude and belief that FreeBSD is the "one true OS" that is really damaging its acceptance. All OSes have their loudmouth advocates, but I've never seen anything like the hideous attitude that seems so common among FreeBSDers. And as said, it's all the more a shame because I was genuinely interested in the system and respected its good points.
And note that I specifically say FreeBSD - I've found that OpenBSD and NetBSD users realise that their OS isn't going to be ideal for all situations, and don't feel threatened by alternatives. It's the stuck-up FreeBSD zealots who think their OS is better than *everything* that are the real problem.
I just heard some sad news on talk radio - Operating System MicroBSD was found dead in its Maine home this morning. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss it - even if you didn't enjoy its work, there's no denying its contributions to tech culture. Truly an American icon.
The World's Worst Webcomic!
That's all folks!
ùíù Topic (#MicroBSD): The MicroBSD Project has shutdown!
ùíù Topic (#MicroBSD): set by Dingo at Thu Feb 20 22:56:12 2003
Doing a list of channels craploads of warez channels pop up. Looks like a kid seeking fame.
Believe me, if I started murdering people, there would be none of you left.
% man 1 banner
gives out: banner(1)
(can't paste it here, I get that lameness junk filter because of all those # characters).
None of thier links from the main page work.
All child pages went 404.
FYI
The only time you can take a work and assign copyright to yourself is if that work is in the Public Domain, which of course means that it has no copyright at all.
Which is not even possible in some countries of the world (think Europore for example).
They have a statement on their website about closing the project now...
.sigs are for post^Hers.
However I don't think it was intentional, I have followed the project since its beginning, and I don't see the group as doing something misleading like that intentionally...
More then likely it was just somone being sloppy... and should be correctable to the other parties satisfaction.. ( and be more careful in the future )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
This pissing match has resulted in a net loss for open source. Open source is limited only by the egos involved.
Netcraft said so, so it must be true!
I don't know what people were complaining about USB or why (probably the usual trolls), but so many people against winmodems because of legitimate reasons--I think so anyway.
This caused a very anti-winmodem sentiment in much of the Linux community. I remember one guy announced he was trying to create a windmodem driver. He got flamed bigtime for it too. I didn't see why any anti-winmodem people should care if someone tried to write a driver, but they were'nt just "winmodems suck" posts, many of them were more like "proprietary winmodems are against free software." I wouldn't be surprised if RMS himself didn't make some anti-winmodem announcement somewhere...
Whew -- for a minute I thought this was an article referring to a bizarre fallout with PicoBSD. PicoBSD is a neat little FreeBSD-on-a-single-floppy distro. Kind of an equivalent to Linux's admirable Leaf Project.
Yes, these guys really screwed the pooch, not doubt about that, same source with the MicroBSD stamp on it, can't question that.
What is stupid is the way this was handled. Rather then acting like adults Theo and others make personal attacks, against projects, against persons etc. WTF? From everything I have seen all the BSD projects seem to simply be full of arrogant babies. Grow up guys, grow the fuck up.
Lindows has a problem, b/c the giant doesn't like the sound of it. Was it the reason here? Many people might be confused: MicroBSD = MICROsoft BSD.
Less is more !
I hope GPL will be modified to require the source to be as easily available and featured as binaries and to be usable on it's own without any commercial software added on. Like Darwin distributions from Apple, not obscure changes that do not compile and do not explain what was done.
The site is down now, with a notice explaining the shutdown of the project.
Yeh OK so maybe there was a bunch of search & replace but christ everyone needs to start SOMEWHERE.
Sure maybe someone did search and replace so they accidently replaced the copyright, maybe someone modified the copyright - what you need to realise is that there were many people with CVS commit and access and the founders probably didnt even look at the notices to check.
Its also notable that alot of openbsd stuff is in there so they havent just done a mass search and replace rebadge and re-release.
Obviously a rather fierce reaction was launched against the project to force them to act so abruptly, I don't see the problem with a polite "Excuse me you violated our copyright please fix it or we will XYZ" you should also reliase this is the open source community and events like this just shunt the initiative and creativity of people which shows a complete lack of maturity and disregard for the principles of open source and free software. It seems to be as if they were given no chance or time to fix the violations that existed and correct everything and felt forced to go away. Shame on anyone involved with that. You just crushed someone's dream.
To everyone in the MicroBSD IRC channel and all the developers regardless i wish you the best you were a great bunch of guys to hang with while it lasted and we'll chat again some time, i bet on it.
...then why didn't they just fork it? I thought the BSD licence allowed that.
You give stuff away, and they still try to steal it.
It's Christmas everyday with BitTorrent.
It was not yet to a 'stable' or 'secure' state, they were only up to .6, and it was considerd BETA.
The is part of the development process, getting rid of mistakes..
Now a 1.0 'stable' release with typos would be unacceptable.. but they weren't there yet.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
From what I understand about it here's the difference. If it's under the BSD license then you can use the code (with copyrights intact) in your software and sell it without owing anyone anything. The only way anyone would know it's there is to have access to the source code but it's not required that you give anyone access to it. I belive that Microsoft has done this in the past, but if the code is covered by the GPL then you can't just absorb the code into your project without re-releasing the code (entire project?) back to the community.
... mirror of the MicroBSD files/iso images, but after some of the antics performed by the MicroBSD "team", I removed it.
I liked some of the goals that MicroBSD had, but there were too many things I was uncomfortable with. There were "Anonymous" comments in various forums, giving praise and support to MicroBSD -- when in fact those comments were written by Outback Dingo. Failure to credit OpenBSD in any way when basically mirroring their source and customizing it (perhaps they've since added credit, but it was not originally so). The fact that the MicroBSD site was originally hosted on a "virtualhost" type server, provided by a volunteer, instead of being independently hosted.. not a big deal, but it still struck me as unprofessional.
In the end, although I liked the premise of MicroBSD, I just didn't feel comfortable with the way it turned out, and ended up removing the mirror.
I was told that I could listen to the radio at a reasonable volume from nine to eleven...
A global search-and-replace of the project name as the first part of splitting an open source project makes a certain degree of sense. After all, you don't want users of the new distribution getting confused. Of course, the MicroBSD project didn't do this right. On the other hand, the complaints about this sound like just more of the kind of language that is already going back and forth between the developers of the various existing BSD distributions.
I don't have any specific information, so the following is conjecture, but I'd call it educated because of other situations that have arisen around OpenBSD and development for it. Theo DeRaadt is a really brilliant guy but he should probably have someone around to make him count to 10 when stuff like this happens. As with the ipfilter, pf fiasco earlier, this is probably a case of somebody's ego getting bruised. Sure, the MicroBSD guys were totally ripping off OpenBSD, but why should the Open people care? They're not making any money off of it. Is it a lame thing to do? Yes. And it seems that Micro never really went anywhere, but say that they had developed just one or two nice features that they had released under a BSD license (as they probably would have). That's a net gain for the BSD community, which should be priority #1 for anyone who considers themselves a member of that community. If you want glory and money, go write code for a commercial concern.
As with the afore-mentioned pf/ipfilter thing. Sure, pf is great and the community came together to create it, but what if people had just kept their heads about them, checked their egos at the door and backed off? Then, instead of having a bunch of coders working to replace functionality that ALREADY EXISTED in the product, they could have been forging ahead in new territory, making OpenBSD capable of doing yet another thing.
That's the problem with the whole world. Everybody wants credit and accolades. How about just keeping your mouth shut and solving the damn problem.
After I posted the parent, I remembered this discussion recently here about Castle using the Linux kernel in their ROMS.
Similar but different, since Castle doesn't seem to want to release their source, even though they are using Linux code and linked to proprietary code.
I guess free just ain't cheap enough sometimes.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
Slashdot finally gets one right.
Maybe they are if you tell them you're running FreeBSD; there are zealots everywhere. Stupid, uninformed zealots that ignore and exterminate rational thought and parrot back their zealotrous crap.
My personal favorite moronic Linux-bashing comment from the *BSD zealot crowd is that "Linux isn't Unix"; this has to be one of the stupidest fallacies ever, unless these self-same morons are willing to admit that "FreeBSD isn't Unix" either (which they aren't).
First, the only "UNIX" out there is from SCO, because they own the trademark. So we aren't talking about "UNIX", but rather "Unix". If you read books like "The Design of the Unix Operating System", then you might get the impression that Unix is more like an API that can be copied and implemented; this is what Linux did.
However, the *BSD zealots actually interpret "Unix" as meaning "Derived from original AT&T UNIX source code". However, they conveniently forget that by law, any free *BSD variant must contain no proprietary AT&T UNIX source code, and therefore it must contain just as much of this code as Linux does, which is to say... none.
Incidentally, while Linux was gaining popularity, FreeBSD was taking the time to reimplement the missing AT&T code; if Linus Torvalds had had a free copy of FreeBSD to hack on, he might never have had to write Linux in the first place.
It's amusing that the fact that *BSD "isn't a Unix" as per the *BSD Zealot definition is possibly one of the main reasons that Linux became such a success. Too bad it isn't a Unix, eh?
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
I think you mean "Micro BSD is dead".
Networking professionals and ISPs are often *BSD users. The security, stability, and performance of *BSD makes it an ideal choice in such roles. While Linux has made great strides, it is still not on a par with *BSD in many respects. Conversely, *BSD is certainly not as suitable for use on the average desktop.
Ok its obvious the microbsd project branched from openbsd and they did a search/replace for all mentions of the string openbsd to microbsd. Every project has to start somewhere. For certain individuals to put pressure on them to shut down is very un-opensource-like. The problem could have been corrected through more civilized channels. By pressuring them to close shop is taking the route of everyone's favorite conglomerate, MicroSoft. It stifled a project that in the future could have been very useful to the opensource world and other operating systems like OpenBSD could have eventually learned from. Instead the project is now over something trivial. I can't imagine the OpenBSD community honestly thought that MicroBSD was trying to steal credit for writing code such as openssh. Let's all remember that OpenBSD essentially started as a branch of NetBSD. Now MicroBSD branches from OpenBSD and they are persecuted for making a mistake...
-CompuDroid
http://www.zoo-crew.org
posted to the openbsd misc list. let the blatant karma whoring begin:
From: OutBack Dingo
Organization: MicroBSD
To: misc@openbsd.org
Subject: MicroBSD has Shut Down
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 06:17:23 -0500
The MicroBSD Project has Shut Down! All works have been removed.
To the OpenBSD developers, There was no intent to modify any copyright in the
CVS tree. We have publically acknowledged the issue and have shut down this
project. We apologize for the inconvience and commotion this has caused the
BSD community. It was never our intent to be at odds with anyone in the
community to start. All MicroBSD code has been removed from our servers. The
web site will go away. The project will cease to exist. This decision is
based on time, efforts involved, the lack of developers, and lack of
interest. I personally do not have the time, nor am I inclined to continue
with a project that has caused this much negativity in the community.
At the suggestions from various repected people in the industry who supported
us, we are sorry. We feel it is not in the best interest of the project to
continue its exitance. To those that opposed us from the start, We will just
go away as you wish.
Specific developer(s) who committed files with those copyright violations were
planning on rectifying the issues. Instead, I have decided to completely
removed the source tree and all traces of code commited.
There is currently no CVS, cvsweb or downloads available due to a copyright
issue being brought to our attention. We have ceased all development activity
to address the issue and remove any violations from the cvs tree. This was an
unfortunate oversight on our part, and was not intended to violate any
copyright issues. We have taken pain staking measures to be sure to not
modify/violate any copyrights. We assure you this copyright issue, was an
oversight on our part and was not intentional.
In closing we simply ask the the community carry on as it were, and all
person(s) with MicroBSD installed, Please remove the code, and install
OpenBSD. We will be providing locations to the various apsect of code we had
initially committed in features to get the project off the ground before we
continued with our planned unique additons to the BSD community. As of now
there will be no further contributions to the BSD community as a whole. In
closing, Again we apologize for such opversights, and have removed all code.
One of the distinctive things to note about Linux is that its code base is rather distributed. The kernel comes from here, cc comes from there, and the $other_thing comes from somewhere else. The boundary between the base Linux OS and additionally-installed software is sometimes not very defined. The BSDs' code bases are organized differently, each BSD having its own (mostly) centralized, integrated code repository and build system. BSDs do include some "contrib" software (e.g. Less or OpenSSH) that comes from other sources, but contrib releases are still merged and adapted into the main repository. BSDs have a very definite boundary between what is the base OS and what is a third-party package, or "port".
Either way is a great way to structure an OS code base. However, the organizational differences do have some effect upon what is the best way to make a small or embedded version of the OS. With Linux, it's good to fork off a separate distribution, so that packages and a build system can be most effectively engineered. Granted, I never looked at MicroBSD closely (so I could be totally wrong), but that seems to be the approach they took. With BSD, however, it just doesn't make sense to do it that way. If I just wanted to recompile the entire FreeBSD OS, I would do this:
Yadda yadda yadda, similarly in the other BSDs. To expand from this, I could build a fully functional embedded system with a measly few hundred lines of sh(1) script. Note how this did not require me to create another, entirely separate open-source OS project. I just piggybacked on BSD's existing, highly-integrated code base and build system.To conclude: making it easy to make a small BSD is at most a minor job, easily (and best) doable within the fold of one of the existing BSDs. Forking BSD doesn't make sense for this.
And before someone flames me, let me say this: I prefer BSD, but both Linux and BSD make great small or embedded OSes. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. I don't wish to knock Linux; my only argument concerns the lack of necessity to fork BSD.
BTW, no puns intended by "forking BSD". :-)
Washington, DC: It's like Hollywood for ugly people.
- despite the bonehead story intro, there were only 18 (c) changes in the MicroBSD cvs files, more of an indication of sloppy editing rather than intent to deceive...
.iso, and in fact, a rather nice compact .iso image (about 60MB)...
- one person on an OpenBSD-related forum labeled the person in charge of MicroBSD as a wanted felon who fled N. Carolina...
- why didn't the OpenBSD folks work with MicroBSD?
- MicroBSD offered something OpenBSD doesn't - a freely downloadable
- glad i snarfed one before MicroBSD shut down! it installs a 220MB filesystem with gcc (no X)...
- does this mean that MicroBSD is dead?
When I read that heading - "MicroBSD Is No More" - I was reminded of the StarWars line by Obi-Wan Kenobi - "I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced". :)
I am fathomly shocked from this story. MicroBSD used to be an important part of my life. I did anything with it, from opening doors, through driving my car, to having sex with girls. I drew all my courage from MicroBSD, and their antics were good, yes they were.
After a while I switched to another OS whose name won't be mentioned due to chastity (hint: it begins with W), but from time to time I moved to my old 486 box just to see how my old childhood friend, MicroBSD, was doing. And tonight I've found out that it's dead!!!
This is simply awful. Words can not describe the depression I feel.
MicroBSD, you may be dead, but there will be always a place for you in my ass.
http://ftp.comu.edu.tr/pub/BSD/microbsd/
Get it before it's taken down forever. Other mirrors have already taken theirs down.
You must be wondering about the leader of MicroBSD, Outback Dingo, and his life story. So let me pour some light on the subject.
I had the questionable honor of working with Outback Dingo, and I did it for five years, when we both worked in the now-defunct Calamada Industries. It was horrible at first, but I managed to develop survival techniques that helped me to avoid him and his "work noises".
Yes, every day he was coming to the office and claiming he got work to do, and then he entered his room, put some George Michael music and started making noises. I don't even want to contemplate on what he was doing there.
After around 6 hours he would come out, all sweaty and dripping, and say: "Well, I believe I can call it a day". A real outback dog or what?
We've got the War on Drugs and the War on Terror, can we please have a War on Crappy-Hard-Rock-Bands? At least then something good will come from this tragedy. Suggested first target: Creed.
...wearing a skin-tight topless leather jumpsuit, with cutaway buttocks and transparent crotch panel.
Domain Name:MICROBSD.ORG
Created On:20-Jul-2002 12:28:15 UTC
Last Updated On:20-Jul-2002 12:28:20 UTC
Expiration Date:20-Jul-2003 12:28:15 UTC
At least they didn't buy the name for 10 years from NetSol..
Trolling is a art,
Give me a break, I saw this whole shitstorm start the other day on the Misc mailing list, I saw Theo's orginal post about 2 minutes after he made it and I knew it was going to start trouble.
In my opinion it should have been taken to the developer or team lead on MicroBSD and discussed in a civil manner. Making a huge public scene about it solve nothing and only starts fights. Adults handle things civilly and without a damn knock down drag out. There is no need to be a jackass to others in public, it solves NOTHING. Here is my assesment of how it was handled, MicroBSD is GONE, completely, a bunch of people are burned and probably will think twice before they contribute. Hmmm sounds like it sure as hell wasn't solved for the best. And this isn't the first time people have fought like crazy over OpenBSD. WHAT IS THE POINT?
As for the whole "Theo is smart he can be rude or mean if he wants" line I hear all the time. I personally don't care how smart someone is, if they can't work civilling in a group then they aren't that smart. You can be a genius and not be a social retard.
And you seem to miss the whole point, there is no need to be an "arrogant baby", period, it is wasted effort, pointless energy spent, I don't care if you are damn Einstien or Hawkins or freaking Linus or Theo, be civil, it isn't hard, it will get you a damn lot farther then being an ass.
I don't care how smart he is, or how great a programmer he is; he can be civil to other. I agree, he is a great asset, but you know what he really could be an even greater asset if he could just work with others.
Personally, I wouldn't want anyone who can't work in a group working any where near me, no matter how good they are at whatever they do. Humans are social creatures and if you can't work in that, even a little then you are considerably more worthless then someone who can. Haven't you heard the whole saying "No man is an island", well it holds true here.
If anyone is interested here's a link to a cached MicroBSD homepage on Google
D DF 0C:www.microbsd.net/+&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=cache:K_65U0w
Not all conservatives are stupid,
but it is true that most stupid people are conservative.
- Hume
... However, the issue wasn't restitution, so the offence can never be absolved, despite the destruction of the project and the alienation of hopeful developers for an innocent mistake made by one of them.
I am certain that you have never made a careless mistake when executing a UNIX command line. Even if you ever could have, it would have never caused you any harm because of your real-time streaming backup system, so if you accidentally made a less then comprehensively correct Regular Expression, you could easily prevent the problem from ever being caught by immediately powering off your system.
Strangulation with red tape would be too good for unhuman scum like you. A "core dump" on your face would be generous. Burn those witches, Idiot.
pb root # which [t /bin:/usr/i686-pc-linux-gnu/gcc-bin/3.2:/opt/intel /compiler60/ia32/bin:/opt/rar/bin:/opt/RealPlayer8 :/usr/X11R6/bin:/opt/blackdown-jdk-1.3.1/bin:/opt/ blackdown-jdk-1.3.1/jre/bin:/usr/qt/3/bin:/usr/qt/ 2/bin) /usr/bin/test
:)
which: no [ in (/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/op
pb root # type [
[ is a shell builtin
pb root # which test
pb root # type test
test is a shell builtin
I never noticed that before! I suppose if I ever ran into a problem with that I would symlink (or more likely hardlink) [ to test.
But seeing as how Linux was originally modeled after SunOS, I'd say your point is better served as a generic SysV vs. BSD argument instead of a Linux vs. BSD argument. There are far stranger Unix variants out there than Linux... like SCO, HP/UX, ULTRIX, AIX, etc., etc.
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Yo' momma!
"It's overkill, of course. But you can never have too much overkill." - Anonymous Slashdot Coward