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Knoppix 3.9 Released
GuyRiley writes "The Debian-based live-cd Linux distribution Knoppix
has been updated to version 3.9.
Among the most notable changes are the update to kernel 2.6.11 and the inclusion
of OpenOffice 2.0 BETA and KDE 3.4. This is likely the last single-CD version
of Knoppix before the split
into 'Light' and 'Maxi' versions. Torrent links here."
The Debian-based live-cd Linux distribution Knoppix has been updated to version 3.9. Among the most notable changes are the update to kernel 2.6.11 and the inclusion of OpenOffice 2.0 BETA and KDE 3.4. Among the most notable changes are the update to kernel 2.6.11 and the inclusion of OpenOffice 2.0 BETA and KDE 3.4. This is likely the last single-CD version of Knoppix before the split into 'Light' and 'Maxi' versions. Torrent links here.
Swapping CDs? For a LiveCD?
Maybe if they decided to put in Abiword instead of that OpenOffice monstrosity, they could keep their LiveCDs on one disk.
It's not my project, so I don't have any real input into what goes in and what is released, but let's just say I'd rather have a nice thin and light Mini distro than a bloody huge Maxi.
Hope they've made it easier to install onto hd.
So far, 2005 really seems to be a major year for Debian. I've been using Debian for the last four or five years and it's great to see all of these successful debian-based distros - not to mention, a new stable version of Debian (finally!).
I've known people in the last year who have talked about switching to another distro, because they had the FreeBSD fright (it's dying!) and I'm hoping this turns their attitudes around.
Does it run linux?
I, for one, think having a live CD on more than one CD is a bit daft. Imagine having to constantly change CDs if you've only got one CD drive? That would REALLY suck.
How many CDs do you have to burn these days to install a typical Linux distro? A few years ago it was 3, so my guess is about 6-7. Nice going, guys. The "evil and incompetent Microsoft" does it with one disc...
Nobody said anything of swapping CDs. The Mini version will be the usual LiveCD, while the Maxi version will be a LiveDVD, so, where the heck is the CD changing? Works like normal. And today, most of us should have a DVD drive anyway, dont we?
Why can't they be like Debian? Those CDs, you can pass on to your children and they're still current.
Since aternatives keep up innovation, there is also a KDE 3.4 and such shiny new LiveCD http://www.t2-project.org/live/ from the T2 Project (http://www.t2-project.org/).
It even comes with D-BUS / HAL integration for auto mounting and equally perfect hardware detection.
As usual with the System Development Environment (SDE) T2, you can automatically rebuild it, optimized for your CPU - or even other architectures.
Glad to know the new version is out I will now avoid this thread before all the tampon jokes
"I'd rather have a nice thin and light Mini distro rather than a bloody huge Maxi"
DAMN
This is not a sig
This is either a joke about debian's release cycle or your reproductory cycle ... I'm trying to figure out which.
Also I think you could say the same about Gentoo - but that's a totally different joke I suppose. ("at least your children will get a current install")Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur
Right now, my NTFS filesystem is in a state such that XP can't boot from it (chkdsk/autochk says "Unrecoverable errors and it appears to have hit the HKLM registry hive). Running knoppix from a CD-R just fine. Browsing the web is much faster even! Detecting all my hardware is a lot faster than XP's install/recovery CD manages.
Loading programs from CD takes a while, but other than that, it's great.
Oh, and the maxi-version will of course not be multi-CD, but single-DVD...
SCO employee? Check out the bounty
Don't you guys know Bittorrent is evil and a tool that pirates use for theft?
Don't waLk around AZntibacterial soap.
Does anyone know if they'll ever have LVM support in there?
Once he'd got the employees up and running with Knoppix we let them try it out. It all seemed fine to start with: The Knoppix systems was a pretty good replacement for those shitty RHEL boxes we'd used before and the employees could still do their work as normal.
Alas it did not stay that way. After a few days, I had lost count of the number of complaints received from our employees. Users could not do things they could before (like check their e-mail). The final straw came when one employees lost several hours work when Knoppix suddenly froze up, destroying what was then our IT infrastructure (subsequently, we
Please, will someone think about the children?
Don't introduce people to KDE, it'll scare then away. Get then Gnoppix if anything. KDE sucks.
Main reason I like Knoppix is it has all you need in one CD. Once it goes over 1 CD, I guess, Ill move to some other small distro which serves my purpose of emergency repair (like puppy http://goosee.com/puppy which is what I use now-a-days)
ARGH!
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
That means that they know about my 1ll3g4l h4x0r1n9 correspondence! I thought it was all secret!
/. story:
This really isn't a scary thing to me, since I don't use gmail (or google, for that matter) for anything illegal. That doesn't mean that I'm keen on spilling my email-archive guts to the entire world, but if it must happen, it'd be embarrassing at worst. More than likely, my email will elicit the same reaction we see when we try to post too quickly to a late-breaking
Nothing to see here, please move along.
The rule of thumb here (or rule of wrist, if you're a fan of The Boondock Saints) is:
Don't do stupid/illegal/dangerous stuff online - someone's always watching!
I can understand the concern over storing deleted email. But, keeping caches of web content is a bad thing? Some (like me) would argue that deleting old, cached content would be analogous to burning books. The more history, the better if you ask me.
Time to clean up your cookies between searching and using other Google services...
http://www.imilly.com/google-cookie.htm
Using this "your Google GUID will be reset to all zeroes, making you effectively anonymous to Google - all the while automatically keeping your saved preferences (such as language, filtering, number of results, etc)."
Most of Google's magic is really data mining the semantic data from the Internet.
Gmail is nothing more than an attempt at getting a massive corpus of data on which to let their algorithms loose.
I really think that, while there is potential for abuse, this is really the only way to tackle their problem space. After all, Google doesn't really rank web sites, people do. It's just that Google has some really clever ways for determining that people liked a web site.
Sometimes it relates to webs of links, sometimes it relates to combinations of words, but Google's software doesn't deal in semantics--only algorithmically generating statistics from the data generated by people.
I don't worry so much about Google, I worry about our future AI overlords. Although, if a truly scalable Artificial Intelligence ever gets Internet access, I fear it has the potential to know us better than we do.
I can't handle all this excitement!
I'm still having sex with my Ubuntu install CD!
Debian+Debian based distros are so wonderful!
The poor Windows users I know are always bewildered when they see how excited I am about an operating system. I knew a guy who shoved an NVIDIA card up his ass and saw Jesus.
Linux Zealot am I? Yes! God damnit! Innovation returns to the world of computing and the scales of closed source are falling from the eyes of the new believers. If Linux is a cult then it sure beats any religion this world has had to offer. Compile me up, Linus!
I have actually been a lazy bum and not burned a Knoppix disc yet so I am not sure how exactly it works. When you load up Knoppix do you have the capability of pulling files you stored via NTFS? I can't see it being really useful if it didn't. I think I can use Knoppix as a possible solution for some tools that won't run on Windows until I take the time to partition my drive and install VMWare (cuz I hate having to reboot between OS's!).
News Reporters Make Tasty Polar Bear Treats!
Good news - now I'm waiting for Knoppix STD to release a new version with support for the Intel 2100 wireless stuff.
Get your own free personal location tracker
I have been using Knoppix for several years now.
I have nothing but good things to say about it. It was innovative from the start and remains innovative.
It has a friendly and helpful user community.
It delivers the goodies of Debian with ease of installation, ease of use, and no hassles. It is one hard push away from being "grandma suitable".
If that wasn't enough, it is available free of charge.
I have tried other live distros and imitators, none does it all as well and as consistently as knoppix.
The only thing I hope for with the DVD version is that user gets some choice of what to install. A DVD's worth of software is a lot to dump on a hard drive without giving the user a choice.
Again, my hats off to the knoppix people.
A lack of history is an invention of big city. Anyone who has lived in a small town knows what it means to have your history (and that of your neighbors) known.
In some ways this is an example of techonlogy bringing us full circle.
Live-CD's boot you!
This is all something we accept when we click "OK" to Google's TOS, without even reading it. If you don't like it, you can always use some other alternative, no guarantees that it will be able to match up with what Google can provide.
With that said, who is to say other companies don't do the same thing? You honestly think once you delete an email with another service, say, Hotmail, it is instantly evaporated off their servers? Of course not.
The article may have a point. Of course, that point is it's own counterpoint. How often have people used things like Google's cached copy of data or the Wayback Machine to prove that a company really did say or claim something after they'd removed or altered the claim and denied ever saying/claiming the original? Google's long memory cuts both ways, and I think it's too useful for keeping track of things to give it up just because it might track my things. And of course it can also be used to counter people who might claim I changed my tune or concealed something when I didn't.
So now the RIAA will have to not only subpoena the names of the people sharing files, but the actual logs of the ISPs to be able to prove that someone actually downloaded the file.
How likely are the RIAA to get these logs? Do the ISPs by law have to keep these logs?
Everyone should always assume that anything they post on the internet will be somewhere forever. Any email they send or receive might well be duplicated somewhere else as well.
I guess we're going to find out if things like google searches are going to bite people in the future or not. This feels like Patriot Act stuff to me, potentially, they way that libraries and book stores can be required to provide information about your reading habits. As a writer, I really don't like it. What if I want to write a book featuring terrorist villians, and do a lot of "suspicious" searches doing my research?
It's troubling to me.
"This is likely the last single-CD version of Knoppix before the split into 'Light' and 'Maxi' versions."
Because programmers experience heavy code flow days and light code flow days...there's now going to be a choice.
Does google do business in those countries, and does it follow their laws?
I've always been a pretty big fan of Knoppix, I like to keep the latest version on hand for helping people back up files and such when they have to re-install Windows. I also generally boot up Knoppix to check for rootkits etc everytime a new version is released.
Before I got my laptop I used to use it quite a bit at school, where all of the lab computers run Windows XP. Never really been able to find a development environment in Windows that I like as well as vim under Linux (even as nice as XCode is on OS X, I still find myself going back to vim most of the time, especially when I'm doing a lot of editing, since I find it to be a big pain to take my hands off the keyboard to move the mouse to highlight code, etc. Too bad none of the IDEs support vi-like editing of code).
I always thought it would be an interesting idea to build a live cd specifically aimed at non-technical windows users to recover from crashes. Something that would boot up and give them a series of simple steps they could follow to recover/backup a borked windows install, and maybe show a nice slideshow like a lot of the Linux installers have now telling them the benefits of Linux.
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
Looks like someone is cross posting comments, or the slashcode is horribly broken. Please fix.
a usb drive to hold that?
Hmmm, and dual layer ???
Actually a cd/dvd disk and usb drive is a good combination. The usb drive for your personal stuff,
Anyone know if the reburn process has been made easier?
say you want to install something that is not in the disk but then reburn the disk with it, perhaps removing something to make room..
but has the process been made easy enough for us idiots?
Grandparent is crapflooding, apparently -- copying posts that got modded up under other stories.
Unfortunately, all it takes for ??AA is having an employee or an "unrelated" person to download the file to produce the proof.
Imagine a beowulf cluster of these!
Assume I was drunk when I posted this.
What is keeping *them* from just downloading a copy? If not them, they someone they hire or pay off. It is certainly a step in the right direction I think, and it might actually help Napster in this case, but in the long run I am not so sure how much of an effect it will have. At least it will mean that they probably don't have the correct evidence to sue a lot of people they wanted to, but all the new cases in the future won't have that problem I bet. Does anyone else see why this would mean more then just some old cases not having enough evidence?
So participating in a bittorrent may not be proof of wrong doing anymore. Would Fox now have to prove that someone actually came away from the swarm with a full Simpsons episode and that all of the bits came from me?
Discuss, discuss
Besides all the "eyecandy" of Windows XP, what is the difference between this and 2k? I mean, they use the same kernel don't they? So if they are pretty much the same system, one "better" for desktop users and the other "better" for more experienced users, why discontinue support for one?
Don't forget you can still download knoppix directly from any of the mirrors
May this post be indexed by spiders, and archived for all to see as my Internet epitaph.
I've only just finished downloading Knoppix 3.8...
(Not karma whoring - that's the honest truth. Might just be time for me to find another ISP... Mine's been promising upgraded accounts for almost a year now and I'm all but out of patience.)
Hal Spacejock: Science Fiction with Nuts
Has anyone noticed that their comments section has already been hijacked?
Looks like its time for sites to do some XSS auditing before they put up their sites, and make sure people can't just post arbitrary garbage by stuffing the query strings.
For those of you running active data on port 80 (or 443, or https/https on any public port), please PLEASE take the time to understand XSS and avoid coding sites that allow it to happen. Yes, even major sites like Perl.org and Yahoo.com have some pages that are NOT xss-safe.. but they're working on it. Are you?
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=patchmanagement&m= 111773947308242&w=2
Eric from Shavlik, produced many counterpoints to this article by eWeek. It is not the final update for Windows 2000 - security updates will be released for it long after this roll-up.
Put the steps of reburn in a script, and it will be trivial - it's quite a few steps, but all very easy, been there, done that. It takes quite a bit of time though (recompressing 2GB of data...), so you may pick the simplified version - edit just the startup script to create links to directories on your flash drive and simply add (mount) them e.g. as /usr/local with your custom stuff, without touching the compressed image.
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
Totally off-topic, but I just got my first DVD burner, and I'm loving it. You should check out how cheap they've gotten -- I was surprised.
t egory=10
...
http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/Category.asp?Ca
The burn-any-format drives are less than $50, and media is $35/100. That's definitely getting down in the why-the-hell-not range, for me
I've run windows 2000 since it came out, and it's by far my favorite version of Windows. I've tried XP and had some significant problems. I went back to 2000 and didn't miss any of XPs features. I work with small businesses and always advise them to use Windows 2000 over anything else. XP basically offers nothing in features over 2000, and tends to have more problems in my experience.
The sad thing is that Microsoft hasn't come out with anything to make anyone really want to upgrade. Windows 95 had so many advantages over 3.1 I can't begin to list them, Windows 98 had USB where windows 95 had very limited USB support, NT4 had great stability, Windows 2000 had all the features of windows 98 plus great stability (and a slew of other things) ME.. well ME was a piece of crap. XP has.. user switching? A playskool like interface?
With Longhorn still in the distant future, and Windows 2000 support starting to dry up, who wants to make a crappy pit stop at XP waiting for Longhorn?
No IE7. What will this mean? For a start, web masters everywhere will be forced to support IE6's crappy CSS for ages. They even refuse to port back the rendering fixes to MSHTML.dll. Look on the IEBlog is the direct link to leave a comment which they've deliberately made subtle.
Knoppix it's a great way for troubleshooting Windows pcs that won't boot. Any PC tech guy should have the latest release handy so it can save the day for those clients who keeps getting virus and then screwing Windows.
But there is another release that you may find interesting: Whoppix
Whoppix is a stand alone penetration testing live cd based on Knoppix. With the latest tools and exploits, it is a must for every penetration tester and security auditor. Whoppix includes Several exploit archives, such as Securityfocus, Packetstorm, SecurityForest and Milw0rm, as well as a wide variety of updated security tools. The new custom kernel also allows for better WIFI support, for tools such as Aireplay.
The 2.7.1 minor release fixes several issues, such as support for Centrino wifi 2100 and 2200 drivers, missing Autoscan, and several new tools
Download it from http://www.whoppix.net/
This is similar to what they did with NT4 SP7. Just before SP7 was to release, they went to a hotfix and nixed it.
Yes, what a shame. Unfortunately because of limitations with current technology and scientific knowledge, we won't be able to reproduce a race of ancient evil uber bears bent on destroying humans and swiping pic-a-nic baskets.
Cue the "I welcome our new Ancient Bear Overlords" comments.....
Use Kanotix as it is designed for installing to HD. Knopix is not designed to install to HD as it pulls from Debian stable, testing, unstable and updating a a HD-installed Knoppix is a pain.
There are issues with the installer script, see this post on the Knoppix.net forums. There is also a bug in Knoppix 3.9 that prevents that breaks the Debian package system. See Knoppix.net wiki about bugs.
Never say we won't get DNA from dinosaurs. Just recently some scientists uncoverered a dinosaur bone that wasn't completely fossilized: it was so big that they couldn't transport it, so they cut it in half and found actual flesh in the center! I couldn't find it on google news in 5 seconds, but does anybody else remember this? I think there was a reason they couldn't extract any DNA from this guy, but stranger things have happened. Of course, DNA an entire being does not make, so we won't be able to actually make a living breathing dinosaur but we all know what would happen if we did!
Is the Real name of the Anonymous Coward 'Markov Chain'? It doesn't seem very likely to me.
reading the responses to my original post, only one seems to be in regards to my post, whereas the other two seem to be a response to some other articles..
./ effect.
maybe its the
And for those who don't even want to download the torrent file to join the swarm....
6 DJ WQ
Here is the Azureus Magnet URI...
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:F57RHAID47YKCYTWAHON3ATMRQY
1) Non-security hotfix support unless you buy an extended contract for this.
2) No-charge incident support
3) Warranty Claims
4) Design changes and feature requests
Here's a link to the dates on their site. Click ont he link towards the top of that page for the FAQ where they explain what all this means.
They released security updates for NT4 well beyond when its extended support phase ended and I imagine they'll do the same for 2000. Even if they don't, I'm of the opinion that this is a very agreeable support lifecycle.
-Lucas
(as done in Knoppix 3.7, don't know about 3.9)
Boot from the Knoppix CD
Open Konsole
type su
type knoppix-installer
answer the prompts
reboot
Done.
What's a freeware cd burning app for windows that will burn a boot cd to burn knoppix to?
I recently tried to install Ubuntu on an older laptop for a friend of mine; he just wants a 'typewriter' (OpenOffice) and mp3 playback. Ubuntu failed to detect the isapnp sound chip and fails (even after hours of tweaking xorg.conf) to use 1024x768.
To the answer: if Knoppix auto-detects everything (not tried yet), I see no reason not to do a hd-install. My friend certainly won't need a sane upgrade path, the software _could_ stay untouched till the hardware dies.
Linux has been able to read NTFS partitions for a long time, there has been experimental NTFS writing, which has been largely considered harmfull and AFAIK a rewrite is on its way. In the mean time something very cool is included in Knoppix: Captive NTFS. This is a technique where the original ntfs.sys driver from windows is borrowed, either from your windows partition or by downloading a service pack from windowsupdate.microsoft.com and pulling the drivers from there. I have used it and it has worked fine, EXCEPT on realy large files. Like avi files of 600Mb+. The thing is, even those failed operations (the computer slowed to a crawl) didn't damage my NTFS filesystems.
I haven't DL:ed the last versions of Knoppix but as late as in 3.7 Captive NTFS was included. It's higly improbable that is has been excluded. Anyway, even if it has been removed you can still read your NTFS partition.
Cheers...
$HOME is where the
-- silver_p
Why would Neanderthals want to build a cave bear?/p
...with this pocket calculator stuff./p
So when will Google Maps be available for this universe?
Does anyone know if it is possible to boot knoppix via pxelinux, perhaps nfs-mounting the iso image which is then loop-back mounted instead of having the CD in the drive? That would be incredibly useful.
Michael
But in theory, fair use is based on four factors, which the law lists as:
If you take screenshots of a movie to illustrate a movie review you write, that's probably fair use. If you take screenshots of a movie and use them to illustrate a children's book you've just written, you'd be quite liable. (Well, your publisher would slap you first, but if you self-published, you'd be liable.)
So the answer to your question is "a bathtub filled with brightly colored machine tools".
--grendel drago
I can't blame Microsoft for phasing out Windows 2000. After all, synergies between killer applications empower emerging stewards to architect ubiquitous initiatives, harness revolutionary convergence, and engineer bleeding-edge solutions to recontextualize turn-key markets.
Growing open-source deliverables harness global interfaces to unleash holistic partnerships. Strategic content drives leading-edge web services to deliver efficient networks while syndicating one-to-one mindshare. When bleeding-edge content architects maximize seamless schemas to deliver robust web services, extensible infrastructures cultivate mission-critical functionalities. Best-of-breed communities target proactive enterprise paradigms while 24/7 methodologies reintermediate visionary content. By leveraging vertical synergies, content providers syndicate one-to-one cross-platform convergence.
Microsoft's plans include optimizing their internal operations to speed up delivery of Longtooth. Sources whom I consider accurate have told me that despite Microsoft's claims that Longtooth will be released by 2006 or 2007, the planned release date is actually late in 2019. Microsoft's secret goals for this version are:
Microsoft will accomplish these goals through a variety of changes. First, Longtooth will no longer be based on the Windows NT design philosophy, as were Windows 2000 and XP. Instead, Microsoft will release MS-DOS 9.0 2003, a 64-bit multithreaded DOS written in VisualBASIC.Net, and Windows Longtooth will run on top of that. Also, Longtooth will contain more code changes than any previous version of Windows, both in the number of changed source lines of code (SLOCs) and in the percentage of the total Windows codebase changed. Tremendous numbers of new features are being implemented in completely new code.
More importantly, Microsoft employees are combing through the codebase, in a relentless search for code that is mature, stabilized, and proven. This search has proved difficult, but when found, such code will be marked for reimplementation. I'm told that most of this code will be reimplemented in VisualBASIC.NET, even if the prior version was written in another language, such as C or C++. Programmers making the new VisualBasic.NET code are not allowed to look at the code that already exists, so that fixes to known issues will not be known until well after the software is deployed to millions of users.
The reason for these changes is simple: Study after study conducted by Microsoft has proven that security through obscurity is the only way to go, especially in an operating system deployed to millions of users, with many instances running mission critical applications in finance, industry, government, and other sectors. Microsoft has identified that viruses, worms, spam, spyware, adware, malware, hackers, and phreakers are able to compromise Windows security because vulnerabilities in the code are known. By changing much of the codebase, especially the stablest and most proven parts, Microsoft will thwart the efforts of malicious programmers, as it will take time for them to find the new vulnerabilities in the unknown code.
To meet Microsoft's first goal of reducing the user's perception of the complexity of Windows, Microsoft will integrate a new technology, dubbed Microsoft Windows User Simplicity And Security Manager 2003, into Longtooth. This technology will hide all configuration settings from the user. All settings will be completely automatic, and the user will have no need to know or care what is under the hood. In reality, Longtooth will be the most complex version of Windows yet, with thousands of configuration settings controlling nearly every function of the operating system. The settings will be
Now we're going to /. the cosmos.
Can't they do a DVD version for the people that have DVDs? They are like $35 now.
I didn't use the preview button, so get over it!!!!
Mike
So is a machete.
(Score: -1, Stupid)
So what does this mean for Bit torrent trackers?
They offer just a hash not the actual file.
Assuming your assumptions and input are correct, of course.
Anyone made an .iso of Knoppix which allows watching DVDs? Sure there are easy instructions on how to install DeCSS over the net and all, but the computer I want to watch DVDs on doesn't have a network connection.
so... OS X86. Maybe it'll be called Chameleon instead of these cat names? crossing platforms, it will be!
Is that the final nail? I am still working with W2K - and I see no reason to upgrade.
Don't worry, typing "FUND" does not cause earthquakes. In fact if you do it early enough there is no earth to quake. However does cause 'big bangs', which can be devastating to an established universe.
There's nothing to substantiate their story. It's all down to "CNET has learned..." and nothing else.
Is this yet another rumour? Is there anything to be read in Apple meeting with Intel above the idea that they might go PCIe instead of PCI-X?
Can anyone get sound out of a SB Audigy on Knoppix? How? knoppix alsa didn't work. What else?
Does 3.9 have Adobe Reader 7.0? I was surprised when 3.8.2 still only had 4.0.
And if it does, the simulator in the simulated universe simulates other universe?
And if it does, does it include the simulator?
And this simulator...
From the report IBM, Intel and Apple declined to comment for this story. How the hell does that make official?
Apple will put big money into the WINE project within the next 2 years
What about wings? Oh and TSS is on the rise again!
1) IBM has opened up Cell, royalty-free.
2) Apple will never let MacOS run on an open platform/commodity hardware again.
3) AMD has virtually no non-x86 CPU tech.
I predict that Intel will either manufacture a Cell derivative or a big-endian, possibly non-x86 propreitary CPU and chipset.
Need to get some good CD-Rs because the last version I have is 3.6 (and the hd install is so nice)
Knoppix 3.9 will not boot from a USB CD/DVD ROM. The Knoppix kernel has the ub module compiled in, which breaks usb-storage and prevents the kernel from seeing the CD-ROM drive.
Pope Felix the Scurrilous.
Computer Geek by day, religious Icon by night.
So while this is technically feasible, I doubt that Apple is planning a wholesale switch to Intel chips as there is too much invested in both marketing and developer relations. From a technical perspective, Darwin runs on both platforms and there have been long standing rumors of Apple maintaining dual codebases for current OS X releases, so making things run would not be a problem. Developers however, would require significant resources to recompile their code for compatibility. I suspect that the News.com story is only partially correct. Apple has for some time been using Intel chips in their Xserve, and their may very well be additional products yet to be announced. However, think about this possibility: Apple has significant resources devoted to Altivec just about everywhere in the OS, functions that are not available in any currently shipping Intel chip. But imagine this: What if rather than OS X being run on x86, Intel were to produce a PPC chip with Altivec? I do not know what the current licensing agreements are with Apple, IBM and Motorola, but if the licensing were prohibitive, perhaps Apple certainly could help with the reverse engineering of such a chip.
Even that seems like a bit of a stretch to me as I suspect the reality is more like Apple will be using Intel chips in a potential variety of new areas. Chips for networking and WIMAX for example. Or.....given the performance of Intel mobile chips relative to Motorola chips, perhaps as a warning shot across the bow of IBM, Apple will announce that Apple portable systems like Powerbooks will move to Intel chips. Even though I am quite the Apple aficionado, I have to admit that Intel is doing some pretty impressive portable CPUs. Near future plans for Intel portables include built in WiFi and dual cores. However, I realize that this would introduce more than a little difficulty for developers who have a "portable OS" and a "desktop OS" which would suck.
So....perhaps what is really going to happen is that Intel will produce a "portable" PPC chip for something new? Something like a new Newton? If I recall correctly, my Newton 130 ran an ARM chip, and I believe that Intel has the license rights to develop ARM based CPU cores..... Oh please oh please oh please.....
. . . run OS X on whatever Intel system you want, folks. I'm sure that there will be a dozen "I can't wait to put this on my blah-blah-blah Dell blah-blah-blah".
Apple is a hardware company. They will make damn sure that you can only run their software on their hardware.
Curious, since I'm writing up something on how I migrated my Mac iTunes repository to Windows, and while I did it by mounting the Mac drive under Gentoo, I'd be interested in describing a method that didn't require a multi-boot or extra drive partition.
John C. Dvorak actually predicted something that happend!.
I'm scared. Hold me.
our school gave us craptops with win 98 to use for school work. as long as we did our work and stayed out of trouble, they didnt really care what we did with the laptops.
we immediately started tweaking with them trying to improve the preformance and stability.
removing all the novell software was a great boost to the preformance.
upgrading to windoes xp expontntialy increased the stability, but with only 128mb ram, the preformance on xp left something to be desired.
then one of my pals tried windows 2000. it was perfect. stable, but not a ram whore.
redhat also ran prety good, but one of our classes required that we had M$ visual basic, so dual booting was the only choice to run *nix/p
How will they make sure MacOSX doesn't run on cheap X86 machines? Or will they use a different chip family?
Come on folks, there's a reason Via was able to enter the x86 market so easily. And there's a reason why IBM started making PPCs after Motorla. These folks know how to make computer hardware.
Would anybody be that surprised if Intel started making PPC-esque architecture chips? Don't be. Intel knows Si's at 14 as well as anyone and better than most.
Too many people have taken these rumors to mean Apple's going to release Macintosh for x86. I'm not quite ready to jump that gun just yet.
Read carefully. Do the research. It sounds nuts, but this might just be the key to this craziness.
I posted this somewhere else recently, but it applies here today.
== On having two architectures to support (x86 and PPC) ==
So a developer has to compile for two targets, optimise for two targets and ship fat binaries? What will that do to development costs, and ease of development for the platform? What if a developer like Adobe decides to only support PPC development, and tells the x86 customers that they support Windows on x86 and that's it?
And then there are Apple's own issues. They've got to effectively double their Mac hardware R&D to support the two completely different architectures.
And what do they gain?
== On Everyone and Their Dog Switching en masse ==
When I talk to people, they buy a PC because they don't know about Macs. When they do know, they often go PC anyway because they're used to it. There's also pricing. Apple's machines do come at a premium, although I maintain that the iBook line is nicely priced (well, it was when I bought this one a year ago).
Suppose Apple sells a box with an Intel inside. For starters, why would the cost drop? A powerful Pentium is not so much cheaper than a G5. The other components are similar enough. Maybe Apple would use PC motherboards? So why would anyone buy their hardware from Apple?
I don't see any evidence that hordes of PC users are going to drop Windows just to get OS X on x86. I see lots of people on hobbyist sites say that they'd buy it, but they're a tiny minority of a large market. Would that translate to actual sales, or would there be a reason why many of them still wouldn't buy it? What about piracy? How many people would 'try it out' for an extended period of time and never get around to purchasing the boxed copy?
And make no mistake: to make up for the lost hardware sales, Apple would need hordes of switchers to buy those shrinkwrapped boxes. If sales aren't what they hope, there goes the business.
That's a point to remember too - if a CPU switch goes wrong, that could pretty much screw the company. A few billion in red ink, combined with potentially facing near-zero sales when you give away your flagship OS (I'm thinking software piracy and commodity x86 hardware here) and we'll see Apple closing its doors. Some mistakes can only be made once.
==On Software==
I mentioned earlier that developers would likely have to support two completely different architectures, even in the 'best case' of Apple going entirely to x86. There's a legacy of PPC Macs out there that you have to sell to, after all.
That means that initially, there would be zero third party applications for OS X on x86. Not a single one. Maybe iLife really *is* all you need, perhaps with iWork. Over time, new apps would come out, but who would buy the new OS in the first year? That would be a hard sell to Herb and Judy Customer. "Sure, there's nothing you can do with it now, but give it a year or so and... Wow!" (I'm exaggerating of course, but you can go only so far with the iXxxx software before you itch to run something else.)
And what of the developers? I mentioned in an earlier post (not well stated though) that this would be the last straw for them. I'll modify that to "last straw for some of them." They have to learn new optimisation techniques, recompile all of their existing code for the new platform and re-release it - and that's the best case for consumers! Realistically we'll see more developers follow the Adobe and Quark path of holding off for 12-24 months for no apparent reason, and only when the market is safe, releasing their product as a new version with new features for the new platform.
The cost for any app being developed will increase. Not by double, as this would encourage more platform-independant code (well, CPU-independant at any rate), but there would be a definite increase. Who will pay for that? We will! Hooray! Software price rises!
And what if the developers simply say that the OS X platform is too unstable? After all, in five years we've seen
Umm... today?
http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/Products .asp?DriveID=94
End of Line.
What about
c.) Itanium
However, I think it is most likely they will go to x86. Mach already runs on it, so it would seem like the path of least resistance (in terms of migration.)
I submit that normal USERS (not some geek with an odd political fetish) really don't care what the hardware is. I am sure the OS will still be "Mac OS X".
Sheesh, do I care if my snail-mail letters are carried via pigeon, car, truck, plane or train, as long as the bill is marked "paid" on time!/p
If Apple move to Intel, then they are just another clone maker. If you could then get OS X on any x86 PC, how much more would you pay for the pretty box? Their hardware margins would go in the toilet.
This would be the beginning of the end for Apple as a *hardware* company. They could then focus on iPods, software and the like.
-Charles
I thought they were supposed to be studying T-Rex bones, not T-Rex boners.
1. Apple has been losing the MHz war for years, and looking worse each year for it (even though Intel has even begun to back away from MHz claims).
Two years ago Steve Jobs said, "We'll be at 3GHz next year!". Next year came, and they were 2.5GHz with excuses. Now a year later they're at a whopping 2.7GHz. It's embarassing, even if it isn't a real issue.
2. Apple doesn't need more difficulting in getting products built and delivered on time.
IBM has thus far not been as reliable as Intel in getting processors out the door quickly.
3. We already knew that OSX worked on Intel, as it had been reported many times that Apple had a working port in-house.
4. Adding "Intel" to the Apple ads will help legitimize Apple computers to some of the people who assumed Macs were just second-rate computers.
Average consumers don't know PPC. They do know Blue Man Group and "Intel Inside". Incidentally, that's why I believe Apple didn't go to AMD, even though AMD has a better product (in the Opteron).
5. Lastly, it's a stock-boosting move.
Every few years tech companies must reinvent themselves, replace their CEO, or otherwise make a radical change. Just look at AAPL closing price, and then compare it to tomorrow's (which is actually today's now!) price.
My God folks, how is this news? Is anyone really surprised that a militant nation engages in information warfare?
But what about the NSA?
12-25km through the oceanic crust is *not* the centre of the earth.
I've seen this mentioned here quite some time ago (no, I don't have the relavent link at hand). Anyway, my guess is these 'hackers' might be 'cookbookers' who are just 'following scripts' put out by 'real hackers' (really system crackers). However, as North Korea is a recoginzed 'terrorist state' and has 'The Bomb', this threat should not be taken lightly.
If the CIA or any other world famous security organization have their act together, all the 'good stuff' is on an internal computer network that has ABSOLUTELY NO CONNECTION TO THE INTERNET (or any other form of 'at large' telecommunications). This is very important as it is impossible to break into such a system -- there is no 'front door' to use to gain access. The usual procedure is to have two computers side by side: one on the secure internal network and the other connected to the internet/unsecure network. A human being is required to type information from the insecure PC to the secure one and vice versa. In this setup, the only way the secrets can get out is if the human in this situation is incompetent, being blackmailed (and told no one who can help them), or an outright traitor -- there are no other alternatives.
There is a slight chance of passively picking up the secret stuff with a so called TEMPEST attack but surely the IT people at these kind of organizations have already taken measures to make such attacks effectively impossible.
Well, first of all: The CIA isn't tasked with electronic/computerised intelligence/counterintelligence; that's the NSA's job.
And, second of all: Having experienced the wrath of korean hax0r's myself, while playing Counter-Strike, I can easily believe this.
This is a cool achievement, but it does have limitations: (from the article)
"This discovery will not enable paleontologists to determine the sex of all dinosaurs because medullary bone is present only during the egg-laying cycle. But when present, it at least enables scientists to say that a particular example is female.
Not every museum may want to check the sex of its specimens because it requires cutting a long bone in half, said Horner, a co-author of the paper with Schweitzer.
Even then, finding medullary bone is a long shot, Schweitzer said. First the dinosaur has to be an ovulating female. It also has to die before it has finished laying eggs and has to be fossilized. Finally, that fossil has to be found by humans."
Unfortunately, this only means that a few specimens of them can be identified. It says that it's a damaging procedure, can only be used to determine femaleness and also, only works in a few cases.
It also might be interesting to know that this particular dinosaur specimen was also the first specimen they were able to recover soft tissue from a dinosaur.
Is the drill tip made of unobtanium?
Time to clean up your cookies between searching and using other Google services...
http://www.imilly.com/google-cookie.htm
Using this "your Google GUID will be reset to all zeroes, making you effectively anonymous to Google - all the while automatically keeping your saved preferences (such as language, filtering, number of results, etc)."
The country itself need not have enough bandwidth. Distributed DoS could take down a box using american zombie PCs. And let me tell you, there is no dearth of those. An attack from the inside of the network is perfectly possible - ever read Andromeda Strain
you know the world is coming to an end when the best golfer is black, the best rapper is white, apple goes to x86 and microsoft goes powerpc.
No, to use Apple terminology, "been there done that" . An alliance with Intel is less shocking than the alliance with IBM. How soon people forget that IBM was once the "Satan" of the Apple universe. IBM actually was a competitor unlike Intel who merely supplies competitors.
As for as MS going PowerPC, well, "been there done that" again. Windows NT 4's retail CD has x86, MIPS, Alpha, and PowerPC binaries. I remember Byte magazine comparing WinNT4 dual PPC 604s against WinNT4 dual pentiums. The verdict, dual PPC scaled better under WinNT4. The only problem was no one cared, Alpha had the performance, Intel had the price, unless you could dual boot the box into WinNT4 or MacOS there was no real point to PPC.
I guess that movie with Clint Eastwood was true after all!
This does raise the question again about what Space exploration is for. With George W stating that its about going to the Moon, then Mars and putting people on planets this is a lesson in how easy it is to put people into Orbit (but how much more expensive to get to the moon, Gemini v Apollo).
With elements like Hubble being decomissioned despite its achievements, and a lack of long range probes being planned the question has to be asked.
Is NASA a marketing campaign for US Military "dominance" of earth and space. Or about futhering Mankind. In the 60s the president gave a target of something that just seemed right (landing on the moon). In the 21st Century the best we aim to achieve is... what JFK wanted us to do in the 60s.
Imagine what MIT, Berkley, Cambridge, Moscow, Paris and a bunch of other top Universities could do in terms of pushing human achievement forwards if they had the budget that NASA gets.
It's so quaint to see the evidence of paranoia and insecurity from back in the 1960s. Glad to be around in the 2000s.
NASA actually took a full share in the Vandenburg refit. There are other purposes besides spying which would justify a polar orbit. NASA had agreed that all astronauts would be military officers however and considering that nearly half of NASA's astronauts were such wasn't considered a major restriction.
Articles like this make me look forward to the 1960's..
They were really advanced.. and we're lame - we just have Internets.
Quoth TFA:
The spacesuit with identifying number 008 had the name "LAWYER" on the left sleeve. The suit was traced to Lt. Col. Richard E. Lawyer, a member of the first group recruited to be MOL astronauts in 1965. Records show that official ownership of this suit was transferred by NASA to the Smithsonian Institution in 1983. The suit itself has now been returned to the Smithsonian.
I thought the idea was to send lawyers in space WITHOUT environmental gear, sillies.
The reason the suits looked like Gemini era suits was because the MOL program was based on Gemini technology.
A Titan IIIC booster with a 'Blue Gemini' atop would launch with the space station afixed, they would do their observation, then the Gemini would detach and land. Later missions could dock with the existing observation platform when feasible.
The launches would have taken place from Vandenburg Air Force Base in California. This is needed to efficiently put spacecraft into polar orbit without overflying populated land during boost.
A launch site was created at Vandenburg to handle manned spacecraft launches, but the program was cancelled as the article says. What it doesn't say is that the same complex was refurbished in the 1980s as part of the effort to launch the Space Shuttle into polar orbit for military missions. That program was cancelled as well (following the Challenger destruction).
For people interested in MOL, go check out the X-20 Dynasoar. It was a related program that would have had a reusable spaceplane 15 years before the shuttle.
They were so dedicated, they stayed at their positions until they died of thirst.
I think you mean, they were so desiccated from staying at their positions until they died of thirst.
The USSR actually DID have a series of manned military space stations that orbited during the 1970s. It was known as the Almaz for military space stations. I mean, it even LOOKS sinister, painted black and all...
The most innovative aspect of the space suit was that it's made so your tuxedo doesn't wrinkle under it.
The USSR actually DID have a series of manned military space stations that orbited during the 1970s. It was known as the Almaz for military space stations. I mean, it even LOOKS sinister, painted black and all...
So they had the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program, the Dyna-Soar program, and the USAF Space School. None of those survived the 1960s, although they were all good, workable ideas. The MOL incorporated the Gemini spacecraft, the best space flying machine to come out of NASA. (Mercury was the "man in a can" capsule, and Apollo was less maneuverable.)
As for the blue MH-7 suit, there's one of those on display at Wright-Patterson AFB.
Back in the 40s and 50s, there was a lot of talk about doing things like surveillance (you can see a lot) and communications (a lot of people can see you) from orbit. One common assumption (which turned out to be correct) was that these things would be extremely important in the near future. Another assumption (which turned out to be totally wrong) was that this would be done by sending people to go live in orbit. Once there, they'd use photography, electronics, and other technology that wouldn't be much more advanced that what people were familiar with. You can see this in Arthur C. Clarke's original proposals for communications satellites and in fiction from Clarke, Heinlen, and others.
What really happened, of course, is that rocket technology progressed relatively slowly, while electronics progressed very rapidly. So long before it was practical to a space station in orbit, it was practical to put a simple electronic gadget in orbit that would do all those chores pretty cheaply. Kind of sad, really -- if building better rockets had been more of an economic and military necessity, we'd probably be the space-going civilization that eveybody back in the 50s assumed we would be.
Then again, the need to build smaller and more reliable electronics did a lot to jump-start the computer revolution -- so we mustn't complain too much!/p
There was also "one flown shuttle main landing tire" in there, so that had to have been placed there after STS-1 in 1981
Back in the 40s and 50s, there was a lot of talk about doing things like surveillance (you can see a lot) and communications (a lot of people can see you) from orbit. One common assumption (which turned out to be correct) was that these things would be extremely important in the near future. Another assumption (which turned out to be totally wrong) was that this would be done by sending people to go live in orbit. Once there, they'd use photography, electronics, and other technology that wouldn't be much more advanced that what people were familiar with. You can see this in Arthur C. Clarke's original proposals for communications satellites and in fiction from Clarke, Heinlen, and others.
What really happened, of course, is that rocket technology progressed relatively slowly, while electronics progressed very rapidly. So long before it was practical to a space station in orbit, it was practical to put a simple electronic gadget in orbit that would do all those chores pretty cheaply. Kind of sad, really -- if building better rockets had been more of an economic and military necessity, we'd probably be the space-going civilization that eveybody back in the 50s assumed we would be.
Then again, the need to build smaller and more reliable electronics did a lot to jump-start the computer revolution -- so we mustn't complain too much!/p
Uh, we found some stuff that was from a project that is public knowledge. The fact that the suits still exist is not news either; it is not like they throw those kinds of things out. I don't think they are biodegradable.
Also, how about adding some better links for contect? It took about 2 seconds to find this: http://www.deepcold.com/deepcold/dyna_main.html/a
So they had the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program, the Dyna-Soar program, and the USAF Space School. None of those survived the 1960s, although they were all good, workable ideas. The MOL incorporated the Gemini spacecraft, the best space flying machine to come out of NASA. (Mercury was the "man in a can" capsule, and Apollo was less maneuverable.)
As for the blue MH-7 suit, there's one of those on display at Wright-Patterson AFB.
Uh, we found some stuff that was from a project that is public knowledge. The fact that the suits still exist is not news either; it is not like they throw those kinds of things out. I don't think they are biodegradable.
Also, how about adding some better links for contect? It took about 2 seconds to find this: http://www.deepcold.com/deepcold/dyna_main.html/a
Just booted it on a laptop I have here. Anyone know why in the blue hell there's an 'xpdf' under the 'Lost and Found' menu?
It definitely has some beta feel to it. Things listed twice in the menus and so forth.
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
Reading that makes my brain hurt. I think I have cancer and/or aids now.
Did someone say another version of Knoppix came out? Oh, they did. Hmmm...
Difficulty installing? No, not hardly. Difficulty using and making work every day? Yeah, a little. With Knoppix Hacks, a whole lot less.
Debian release slowness? Sure. Well known. My grandchildren will probably be multibooting the stable version two removed from the most recent along with Red Hat and whatever iteration of Windows.
Must have? Only for the Linux evangelists looking to put eye candy out before the Windows world, but they'll still likely not have the computer skills to make it work for them as no, it is not easier than Windows and most of the people the eye candy goes before are barely able to install AOL and think that the Internet can be downloaded.
The people most apt to run with this for any length of time without prior weenieness are those who vividly remember their DOS skills and doing stupid Doom tricks. Unfortunately, those aren't current skills.
Will I grab it and install it? Probably for kicks. Right now, I'm studying for RHCT/RHCE and can't fork my learning energies. Later, I'll probably give it more of a test.
All in all, this goes in my "Definite Maybe for Interest" category.
If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)
I use adobe's reader v7 on my AMD64 Linux machine. Mandrake/Mandriva 10.2 64bit version.