Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Linux 2.4 VM Documentation Completed

Posted by timothy on from the what-does-what dept.

cyb97 writes "kerneltrap.org is reporting that Mel Gorman has finished his project to document the ins and outs of the Linux 2.4 VM. Available in PDF/HTML/TXT at his webpage."

12 comments

  1. first posting completed by Horny+Smurf · · Score: -1, Troll
    Look: as a Linux user and open source developer, I like to bash Microsoft just as much as anyone. Their business practices are at best unethical, and at worst, flagrantly illegal. Over the past few years I have come to rely (in part) on Slashdot for its irreverant and challenging views on the Microsoft Monopoly. Say what you will about Slashdot's editors (poor spelling and grammar, blatant editorializing on a so-called news site, etc), but I really have come to believe that Slashdot represents an important and much-needed voice among today's corporate hype-driven media.

    Until now, that is. While helping my 16-year-old son (also an avid Slashdot reader) do research for a term paper on technology and journalism, I stumbled across some information that made me change my views about Slashdot completely. In a nutshell: Slashdot, and more accurately, its parent company VA Software, has deep and mutually influential ties to the Microsoft Corporation. In fact, Slashdot's own editors are paid (albeit indirectly) out of the coffers of Microsoft.

    Yes. It's hard to believe. At first I couldn't believe it. But a few simple Google searches and 45 minutes' research on Lexis-Nexis (as well as a couple of phone calls to a friend of mine at the SEC) revealed the following:

    • Three of the eight directors at VA Software also sit on the board of a privately-held company called Murberry-Slocomb, which as far as I can tell is some kind of stealth incubator/VC firm. Murberry Slocomb was founded in 1996 by none other than Paul Allen, and is a subsidiary of Allen's company Vulcan Ventures.
    • Most (>80%) of Murberry's funding, including compensation for its directors, comes directly from Microsoft Corporation.
    • In 1998, VA Software (parent company of OSDN, which is the parent company of Slashdot) receieved an investement of $3.8M from Murberry-Slocomb.
    • The 1998 annual report for VA Software actually mentions this, and goes on in detail about how this infusion of capital has helpled them maintain and operate OSDN.


    At first I was more amused than shocked; I mean, the technology industry is notoriously incestuous and its leaders, even those who are in competition, often sit on the same boards and are members of the same organizations. So what if a few board members of Slashdot's parent company are also directors of a company funded by Microsoft? Well, it gets more interesting.

    As it turns out, in May of 1999, VA Software submitted to the SEC Form 5506-D, Application for Direct Non-Ownership Subsidization. This is the form that a corporation will submit to the SEC when it wants to directly fund a subsidiary from its own parent corporation. (It's basically a tax shelter for companies with a lot of subsidiaries) The application was approved in July 1999. The applicant name? OSDN. In other words, Form 5506-D basically eliminated the middleman between OSDN and Murberry-Slocomb. Following the money, I now saw that OSDN was being funded directly from an infusion of captal that Murberry-Slocomb has received from Microsoft!

    Weird. I know. But what does this all mean? Honestly I have no idea. I'm not the custodian of any privileged information. A look at VA Software's web site and a Google search is all anyone needs to find the same information that I found. Are Slashdot's staff being paid through Microsoft? I sincerely hope not. But the facts are there and it sure looks like it. More importantly, what does this mean for the future of Slashdot? Can any grain of objectivity or journalistic ethics be preserved? What happens when the company you are bashing, nay, the very company that you preach the loudest against, Microsoft, is the same company that signs your paycheck? Could there be a deeper link still? Who knows. As far as I'm concerned, I'll never look at Slashdot the same way, ever again.


  2. thanks by zogger · · Score: 3, Insightful

    --my thanks to anyone who writes more documentation for linux. It's a *good thing* from this newbs perspective.

  3. hahaha by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Turd Post !
    That's right, turd post. It's a funny line.

  4. newbs? by SHEENmaster · · Score: 1, Interesting

    IMHO, most documentation is either woefully incompletely or woefully too detailed. Newbs would best get help through IRC if we didn't just tell them to read the fuckin manual.

    Maybe we should restructure the How-To, man, and info documentation into skill levels such as lameass, newbie, user, admin, and developer. Maybe beginners wouled be more likely to RTFM if they didn't have to read all of it?

    --
    You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
    1. Re:newbs? by zogger · · Score: 3, Informative

      well, speaking as a newb, my point was ANY documentation is better than no documentation, at least in most cases, and I wanted the writer to know that his efforts were appreciated. Not as sexy as a new video card or latest sco gossip, but at the time I posted, it was being mostly ignored..

      I'm still at the point that I can't code,and I can't even help write documentation for anything, you need to fully understand a subject first before you can write about it. At least when the creators write some documentation, it's a starting point.

      And I'd disagree on IRC, I think very well archived web forums, where the rule to keep headers inside of common sense keyword limitations, would be much better. IRC is useful, for very fast detailed questions, that require short fast answers. Just some things take more than a sentence or two, and it's better to not have to answer the same question over and over again, you can tell that gets annoying to the answerers, heh.. I've had MUCH better luck just doing newsgroups searches and straight web searches, just need those topics better indexed. re:re:re:re:re: sure gets a lot of hits on the ole intarweb........

      On the skill level answers, yes, I would agree whole heartedly. Crawl>walk>run is the usual progression. It's also a bother but something that needs to be said, linux is distro specific a lot of times in the picky details, which to me makes it trebly hard. "Close enough" will still not answer your question or allow you to accomplish your task in a lot of cases, or can seriously bork you.

      I am surprised there are not better commercial sites out there that have paid staffers for this purpose,answering questions and having DECENT searchable archives and well written documentation, and charge reasonable subcriptions and are well moderated. There's a business that might be going begging..perhaps, it might exist, I don't know.

    2. Re:newbs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Try "incomplete," "newb's" (even though I doubt that's a word), "fucking," (or "fuckin'" if you insist on talking like Jed Clampett) and "would."

      Maybe illiterates would be more likely to read a fucking book if they knew how?

    3. Re:newbs? by irc.goatse.cx+troll · · Score: 1

      "I'm still at the point that I can't code,and I can't even help write documentation for anything, you need to fully understand a subject first before you can write about it."

      Not true. I've seen a few guides written from a 'newbs perspective' -- step by step exlaining what you learned and how you made it run. They're by no means exhaustive, But can really help someone new out. Us that fully understand it tend to go over everyones heads, thus making docs that are useless to everyone else. If you write what you learn, Then run it by the developers so they can fact check for you, you can write some really useful stuff.

      --
      Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
  5. more power to the author by SHEENmaster · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I was expressing views on docs in general; more documentation is always better when we have tools such as google to look through them.

    --
    You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
  6. HOWTO install Belchdata by zogger · · Score: 3, Funny
    Good point! I'll give it a shot! How I first installed open source! Here I go!

    Cool,my geek friend in town handed me these disks, he said he downloaded them off his dads cable! Got me the new belchdata free OS vs1.34alpha

    slap cd in, turn it on!...aww shoot, forget to set "biosphere", need to tell it which thingee to look at fust, OK, try again...now, you must mash [enter]

    Wow, a PERFECT screen! I can read everything, crystal clear! Better than the old screen and it's not installed yet! This ought to be GOOD!!...now, you must mash [enter]

    hmm, pick out a nation... hmm ashcanistan, no... hmm, polynesia, that sounds nice, hot babes, beaches... now, you must mash [enter]

    select keyboard? Where's the dang YES button,yes I want a *ing keyboard, yas cretins...now, you must mash[enter]

    select mouse type? hmm, it got buttons and wires wif it...now, you must mash[enter]

    select time, "are you underwater in greenwhichs merididan at midnight" ??huh..... what is that, metric??? I'm a MURICAN! I want REAL TIME, and after 5 o clock, I DEMAND real time and a half!...now, you must mash [enter]

    OK, now it sez I get to install! first, select my "bootloader". hhmm, I lookdown "danners" next...now, you must mash [enter]

    partition? naw,I could care less about the middle east, what's up asking all these stupid geography questions???? I just want to install it, next......now, you must mash [enter]

    password? WTF is this??? I don't got no passport, I never go to any of them furrin places, so I don't need no steenking passport word! next....now, you must mash [enter]

    OK, select one, desktop, workstation,media center,server,laptop, scientifical platform, games....hmmm, which am I ? CUSTOM! COOL BEANS,that means HOTROD! I CAN PICK WHUT I WANT!...now, you must mash [enter]

    WHUT the HECK are all these things???? Huh, there's 5,000 *ING things I never heard of! Where the HECK does it say "intarweb" and "email" and "tunes" what the ***k is up with all this stuff?!? WHUT, I need to "go online" to find out? I JUST TRASHED MY COMPUTER YOU DIP WADS, I CAN'T GET ONLINE NOW! grumble.....OK-I seem to have selected a nice selection, using the "every other one" method, let's see what happens now, clickety.....

    AAAAK! I JUST SAW 100 MEGS OF URDU COMPILER GO BY! I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE URDU IS ON THE GLOBE! 100 MEGS! BACK TO THE FREEKING GEOGRAPHY LESSONS AGAIN! AND COMPILER, WHAT IS THAT? It's already hit 4 gigs of piles of stuff! It don't need to pile up no more!

    ----- go off wagon, bring back case of suds and two bottles of rotgut----

    now, you must mash [enter] & [enter]

    ...one hour later....

    WHOOP! It looks like I'm done! Now it wants me to make a floppy "boot" disk! WTF again! All this CRAP and it can't turn itself on? What is this "boot" fetish, are these guys pre-verts or whut?

    ..grumble, find some old floppy that works....

    ..20 floppies later, I find one that appears to accept the data..

    now, you must mash [enter]

    Finished! Now it sez it will automagically reboot! I'm IN LIKE FLINT! YAHOO!

    ...box starts making noises, weirdo crap floats by on screen..wow, lookit all that stuff! ..wish I knew what it was, uh oh, looks like it's finishing!

    and here it is!

    uhhh

    WTF HAPPENED TO MY SCREEN! HOWCOME THE SCREEN IS ALL FORKED UP NOW? IT WAS WORKING ALL THROUGH THE INSTALL, WHY THEY CHANGE IT?

    ... 3 hours later....

    now, you must mash [enter]

    ..hmm, it sez to plz to set horizontal frequency and vertical syncronization as approved by the amalgamated druids of outer finland...???

    huh..uhhh OK, sure......

    OK, I guess some numbers in the middle,this is a medium priced computer, that should work......

    now, you must mash [enter]

    AARRGGHH! ME EYES! WHAR ME COMPUTER GO TO?

    ...3 days later, many trips t

  7. GNU/Linux VM Documentation by hayriye · · Score: 1

    Isn't it supposed to be called "GNU/Linux VM Documentation"?

    1. Re:GNU/Linux VM Documentation by RiverTonic · · Score: 1

      No, I don't think so. I still have to read the documentation but afaik it's the kernel that does the memory management and not the GNU-tools.

      --
      This is RiverTonic's sig.
    2. Re:GNU/Linux VM Documentation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Which part of RMS' stance (GNU/Linux is the whole OS and Linux is just the kernel) didn't you understand?