Funny, we see Ubuntu as Canonical's variant of Windows(tm). For people who, for whatever reasons (stupid or legitimate), don't/want/ to get a clue about their machines.
If you think that Unity or Mir stop you from learning anything about Linux then you're doing it wrong.
The problem is that if people really wanted stuff rammed down their throats willy-nilly, they'd be running Windows 8. Linux is an operating system that people choose, so restricting choices goes against the nature of the demographic.
Distributions all the time make choices for the user. And just like with Ubuntu you can override most of these choices by using the package management of choice or, worst case, switching to a different distribution.
I was pissed when the Gnome developers decided that user didn't need certain things. Others where pissed to, as can be seen in Mate and Cinnamon.
Canonical doesn't really do anything that different from everybody else, but Canonical/Ubuntu seem to have become the favorite punching bag of pretty much everyone.
Oh well, tried Unity instead. The main interface element (dock) has NO configuration options. Nothing.
What version of Ubuntu was the last one you tried out? The current 13.04 brings some configuration options, and if you install an additional program (compiz-something-manager, if I remember correctly) you get even more options.
Just like Germany was known for exporting cheap knockoffs in the late 1800s/early 1900s. That's why England established the 'made in Germany' label, to warn customers.
Weren't you paying attention? Different carriers got licensure for different bands, so even the vaunted SIM-card regime means that to go from one carrier to another, your phone has to work on the other carrier's band.
Living in a country with 4 carriers using different GSM bands I can tell you: That isn't really a problem. Practically all GSM phones nowadays are tri-band as a minimum.
I believe that its also normal that HDD have a higher rate of failure since there are more poeple with hdds than ssds. The more you have, the higher the % will be.
So... if I compare the mortality rate of a group of 1000 people with of a group of 1000000 people the mortality rate of the bigger group is bigger? Or the ratio men vs. women?
Failure rates are independent of the number of units in the group, as long as the sample is big enough. That's why we use % instead of actual numbers.
Außer Bier, Autos und Heid Klum ist Deutschland für uns wertlos. (Better: Ausser Bier, Autos und Heidi Klum gibt es in Deutschland nichts, was für uns wertvoll ist. Even better: Find a variation without 'wertlos'. It just doesn't work very well in this context.)
Don't trust neither Google Translate nor your German teacher. No really, DON'T.
PS: Yes, I'm German and as anal retentive as they come:)
This could be the beginning of US companies being shunned for what their government is doing.
That's not "the beginning", it's a long, drawn-out process of European politicians and European corporations throwing whatever shit they can at the US in order to try to get Europeans to use European servers and services. They want that both because it means more revenue for them, and because it's easier for European governments to spy on their own citizens if they use European servers.
e
And it has of course nothing to do with the fact that American privacy standards and consumer protection standards are way below the European or that American companies behave as if they are only bound by American law (if at all).
Resources need deals signed with local leaders. Smart local experts will chatter about the quality of the deal, some been more into nationalism and patriotism than any bribe can alter.
So why is nobody suspecting surveillance when a US or European company is building communication infrastructure somewhere? They have exactly the same interest in knowing about this chatter as China.
You didn't really read my comment, did you? I was explicitly asking for proof of backdoors, not attacks over the internet with trojans.
I don't doubt that the Chinese government is behind some cyber attacks. Just like the US government and/or their partners were behind Stuxnet and Duqu.
But here we are talking about compromised hardware. And while Western companies and governments have been talking about that for years, I haven't heard of any proof.
If somebody would find proof that any one Chinese company had in fact backdoors designed into their hardware, not only would that company not be able to make any business outside of China anymore, but many other Chinese companies would struggle as well.
So I have my doubts that they are that stupid. Still, I might be wrong. So: Please share the proof about backdoors (!) in Chinese hardware.
You're trying to diffuse the point: he consumer got screwed. If practically all providers of a resource (all major book publishers) collude to fix the price the consumer has now choice.
Well, I often hear that William Shakespeare bloke lauded as one of the most important writers, or American authors I never heard of as some of the best writers in history -- every country/culture tends to put a lot of emphasis on their own cultural achievements.
"whether existing data sharing agreements between the two continents"
I wasn't aware that the EU is a continent. So far I thought it's just an organization of some 20 states from one continent, leaving out a few other states from the same continent.
And the USA isn't a continent either: Canada would likely object, and Hawaii might, too.
Maybe an update to the UEFI firmware could revoke/add keys? We had BIOS updates add/remove functionality for years, so I would guess that the same is possible for UEFI updates.
Sooo.... Why do the different Linux distributions need to get MS to accept those shims again ? I mean, they do not go that troublesome way for nothing.
Because they don't want to go to each and every mainboard and OEM manufacturer and convince them to add their key to the list. They could, if they wanted.
Too bad the user can't manage his own hardware now. We're at the mercy of the mobo manufacturers, as they decide who's keys are trusted by default (ie microsoft ONLY). If I have to go to microsoft in order to be allowed to boot BSD on my own motherboard, then my property rights are being violated.
You can deactivate secure boot. You can add other signing keys to the list used by the UEFI firmware. You can remove the Microsoft key.
So what's your problem? Actually, Microsoft DEMANDS all these things from an OEM before they can put the niftly little 'designed for Windows 8' stickers on their machines.
My preference would be none, and let the user install it.
No keys pre-installed would mean that 95% of the systems would run without secure boot, as most people couldn't be bothered to go into the UEFI setup to add a... "whatchacallit? Key? A few letters and numbers? What good is that?"
Slashdot Mirror
They do so more in some regions than in others.
On Amazon.de I can choose between the US, British and German editions of many books. On Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com the choice is more limited.
Yeah. Because apt, aptitude and synaptic where removed from Ubuntu when the Software Center was introduced, right?
Sounds like 'I don't like the new wallpaper, so I switched to a different distribution.'
Funny, we see Ubuntu as Canonical's variant of Windows(tm). For people who, for whatever reasons (stupid or legitimate), don't /want/ to get a clue about their machines.
If you think that Unity or Mir stop you from learning anything about Linux then you're doing it wrong.
The problem is that if people really wanted stuff rammed down their throats willy-nilly, they'd be running Windows 8. Linux is an operating system that people choose, so restricting choices goes against the nature of the demographic.
Distributions all the time make choices for the user. And just like with Ubuntu you can override most of these choices by using the package management of choice or, worst case, switching to a different distribution.
I was pissed when the Gnome developers decided that user didn't need certain things. Others where pissed to, as can be seen in Mate and Cinnamon.
Canonical doesn't really do anything that different from everybody else, but Canonical/Ubuntu seem to have become the favorite punching bag of pretty much everyone.
Oh well, tried Unity instead. The main interface element (dock) has NO configuration options. Nothing.
What version of Ubuntu was the last one you tried out?
The current 13.04 brings some configuration options, and if you install an additional program (compiz-something-manager, if I remember correctly) you get even more options.
Just like Germany was known for exporting cheap knockoffs in the late 1800s/early 1900s. That's why England established the 'made in Germany' label, to warn customers.
Weren't you paying attention? Different carriers got licensure for different bands, so even the vaunted SIM-card regime means that to go from one carrier to another, your phone has to work on the other carrier's band.
Living in a country with 4 carriers using different GSM bands I can tell you: That isn't really a problem.
Practically all GSM phones nowadays are tri-band as a minimum.
I believe that its also normal that HDD have a higher rate of failure since there are more poeple with hdds than ssds. The more you have, the higher the % will be.
So... if I compare the mortality rate of a group of 1000 people with of a group of 1000000 people the mortality rate of the bigger group is bigger?
Or the ratio men vs. women?
Failure rates are independent of the number of units in the group, as long as the sample is big enough. That's why we use % instead of actual numbers.
Außer Bier, Autos und Heid Klum ist Deutschland für uns wertlos.
(Better: Ausser Bier, Autos und Heidi Klum gibt es in Deutschland nichts, was für uns wertvoll ist.
Even better: Find a variation without 'wertlos'. It just doesn't work very well in this context.)
Don't trust neither Google Translate nor your German teacher. No really, DON'T.
PS: Yes, I'm German and as anal retentive as they come :)
That's not "the beginning", it's a long, drawn-out process of European politicians and European corporations throwing whatever shit they can at the US in order to try to get Europeans to use European servers and services. They want that both because it means more revenue for them, and because it's easier for European governments to spy on their own citizens if they use European servers.
e
And it has of course nothing to do with the fact that American privacy standards and consumer protection standards are way below the European or that American companies behave as if they are only bound by American law (if at all).
You're over simplifying things.
Softmaker Office user on Windows, Linux, Windows Mobile (back in the day), Android.
Resources need deals signed with local leaders. Smart local experts will chatter about the quality of the deal, some been more into nationalism and patriotism than any bribe can alter.
So why is nobody suspecting surveillance when a US or European company is building communication infrastructure somewhere?
They have exactly the same interest in knowing about this chatter as China.
You didn't really read my comment, did you?
I was explicitly asking for proof of backdoors, not attacks over the internet with trojans.
I don't doubt that the Chinese government is behind some cyber attacks. Just like the US government and/or their partners were behind Stuxnet and Duqu.
But here we are talking about compromised hardware. And while Western companies and governments have been talking about that for years, I haven't heard of any proof.
If somebody would find proof that any one Chinese company had in fact backdoors designed into their hardware, not only would that company not be able to make any business outside of China anymore, but many other Chinese companies would struggle as well.
So I have my doubts that they are that stupid.
Still, I might be wrong. So: Please share the proof about backdoors (!) in Chinese hardware.
Proven track record?
Please enlighten me and give me links to that proof of backdoors. (That's what this is about, not virii or trojans.)
All I heard on this matter are accusations without any proof.
On the other hand, we KNOW that the US is spying on everybody...
You're trying to diffuse the point: he consumer got screwed. If practically all providers of a resource (all major book publishers) collude to fix the price the consumer has now choice.
When the Kickstarter brought in more money then asked for the scope of the project was expanded. Unfortunately, it was expanded a little to much.
Well, I often hear that William Shakespeare bloke lauded as one of the most important writers, or American authors I never heard of as some of the best writers in history -- every country/culture tends to put a lot of emphasis on their own cultural achievements.
"whether existing data sharing agreements between the two continents"
I wasn't aware that the EU is a continent. So far I thought it's just an organization of some 20 states from one continent, leaving out a few other states from the same continent.
And the USA isn't a continent either: Canada would likely object, and Hawaii might, too.
Don't blame the messenger.
The root of the problem are the far reaching spying activities of the NSA, not the fact that somebody blew the whistle.
In addition, Zimmerman is half Latino and half Caucasian. Being multi-racial, he'd be the last person who would be racist.
Thats BS.
Everybody can be a racist. Being racist is neither limited to one race nor are people with mixed heritage excluded.
Maybe an update to the UEFI firmware could revoke/add keys?
We had BIOS updates add/remove functionality for years, so I would guess that the same is possible for UEFI updates.
b) install their own keys
Sooo.... Why do the different Linux distributions need to get MS to accept those shims again ? I mean, they do not go that troublesome way for nothing.
Because they don't want to go to each and every mainboard and OEM manufacturer and convince them to add their key to the list.
They could, if they wanted.
Too bad the user can't manage his own hardware now. We're at the mercy of the mobo manufacturers, as they decide who's keys are trusted by default (ie microsoft ONLY). If I have to go to microsoft in order to be allowed to boot BSD on my own motherboard, then my property rights are being violated.
You can deactivate secure boot.
You can add other signing keys to the list used by the UEFI firmware.
You can remove the Microsoft key.
So what's your problem?
Actually, Microsoft DEMANDS all these things from an OEM before they can put the niftly little 'designed for Windows 8' stickers on their machines.
My preference would be none, and let the user install it.
No keys pre-installed would mean that 95% of the systems would run without secure boot, as most people couldn't be bothered to go into the UEFI setup to add a ... "whatchacallit? Key? A few letters and numbers? What good is that?"
No. If the END USER disables the Microsoft signing key, it's not the fault of the OEM.
Also, neither of these two would know that I or you disabled the Microsoft key.