Maybe not a spell checker, since every one of those words is spelled correctly out of context. Maybe some good, old fashioned rewriting. What is it about the internet that makes first drafts OK for everything? Maybe for email and forums, but for articles, come on...
OK, I wrote the maintainers of GNU chmod, and they've added a See Also section to its man page. They were really nice, and prompt. Kind of makes arguing about stuff on/. a little silly if you can just change things yourself. I appreciate the new commands, though
[man -k|apropos] flags
doesn't work with Slackware GNU/Linux, the place where it would have maybe been the most useful. The thing to ask about documentation is, why not make it the most useful to anyone who doesn't know how to do something, rather than just a reference to those who already do. Consider this: what command is an average beginning Unix tutorial going to teach first ? 1) chmod 2) chflags 3) chattr . I'll bet that a lot more people know about 1 than do about the other two, because only chmod is a standard between all unixes I know about (which may not be many, but is >1). And all three commands perform a subset of one function - change some of the various flags on a file.
The best way for all of the Unixes out there to improve is to accept that not everything is obvious to all people, even moderately inteligent ones. It doesn't hurt to keep asking, 'does this still make sense to many people?' rather than saying 'this just the way it is. read the man page and deal with it'.
>> Extra flags like these are also present in ext2
>> supposedly, though I don't see how to set them
>> with chmod in either FreeBSD or Linux
>That's because you can't read a man page. Don't >blame it on GNU/Linux or FreeBSD...
>In GNU/Linux it is 'chattr' for the ext2 file >system.
>In (Net|Open|Free) BSD you use 'chflags' for >UFS/FFS
Thanks for the pointer, but like I said above, I didn't see how to set them with chmod, and no mention of extra flags is in that command's man page, in either OS.
Granted, FreeBSD has a "See Also" section of its chmod man page that refers to 'chflags', but GNU/Linux's man page (in Slackware 7.1) has no such reference. Maybe that's why the author overlooked the extra flags in ext2...incomplete documentation.
I'm sure I'm not the only person who has not found relevant information in an, IMO, relevant place (chmod's man page) and become lost or doubtful. I'm going to see who is in charge of updating GNU chmod's documentation.
The author mentions extra security features of FreeBSD's UFS, such as the immutable flag. Extra flags like these are also present in ext2 supposedly, though I don't see how to set them with chmod in either FreeBSD or Linux.
There's been talk of older machines being just as expensive as newer ones because parts and upgrades are hard to come by. Assuming that an already old computer really needs to be upgraded is ignoring the question. I think the question asker was really wondering what sort of OS or software would be appropriate for an older computer if upgrades were not available, and NewDeal is a good solution. You'd be hard pressed to find another software package that supports TCP/IP, has a web browser, office suite, motif based gui and ran on an 8086 with 640k and a hard disk (it does!) The question is, what kinds of OS's and software can do a similar job with old, limited harware. The ELKS project is porting Linux to old machines (I've got it running on an 8086 from a 720k floppy), but it's not a good idea for bringing to a 3rd world country because it's far from usable. Really, besides DOS and maybe CP/M-86 or GEM, nothing really runs well on older machines, and NewDeal (or Geoworks Ensemble if you can get older copies) provides more functionality and is easier-to-use than anything else. There's a project out there to produce a light version of the GEOS OS that runs from floppies on a PC too (like C-64s and their kin have had for a while now)
He remarks that the last time ram and cpu ran at the same speed was with the 286-8. I had a 486-50 that ran on a 50 mhz bus. It was one of those nifty 'Blue-Lightning' chips from IBM.
You don't need a VT100 - you should just pick up an old, smallish laptop and run a terminal emulator on it. I got a Tandy 1400 that has a nice backlit blue lcd screen, a good keyboard for $20 and it makes a super terminal emulator through its serial ports. Plus, it's a 'portable' and all one piece, so it doesn't take up much space on the kitchen cabinet and folds up when not in use. Not quite an I-Opener, but good enough for emacs.
check out this page for a small, stable terminal emulator that even runs well on my Tandy 1000 HX.
Of course it has! The browser, Links is an amazing text-based piece of work. It supports frames, tables, the mouse through gdm, looks and performs well. It even has pull-down menus that hide when not in use. Helper applications are supported for viewing graphics or even Realaudio. What more could you need?
When I was 14, my dad brought home some Compaq portable XTs (suitcase models) that he found in a dumpster. I got a couple working and sold them, but I kept the rest to fiddle with. I built what may have been the first wooden XT tower. It was nice, but even with three cooling fans, it got HOT!!
What I did was remove the plastic casing from a machine and use wire cutters to split the chassis in half. With the Compaq, the 9" monitor & PS were on the left and the drives and MB and cards on the right, each in their own separate cages. The I attached a board to the top of the MB cage and attached the drives and power supply (the PS was a bare board!) to the top of that. I attached a cooling fan behind the PS, cut a hole in the board and had another fan ventilate the MB, and had a third fan ventilate the 20MB Miniscribe HD. The outer casing was all plywood except for the base, which was 3/4" pine. The front bezel and back cover were screwed directly into the cages, but the top and side covers wrapped around with hinges and attached to the base with latches.
As far as shielding, it was very necessary to have the entire cage. If I left the side panel off, the EMI was enough to make the TV fuzzy and to cause the cordless phone to lose sync with the base and not work until it was replaced on the base. For anyone making a case, don't forget what a great INSULATOR wood is and to shield well. In my case, the large amounts of heat were also a result of having old equipment (such as the completely stepper driven HD and the 8087 chip), but I'll bet things haven't improved much since then. The cages in the machine were not solid, but sheet metal with nickel-size holes cut at regular intervals. If you have an old machine, why not make the conversion?
It's a commercial distribution..
on
Slackware.com
·
· Score: 1
Redhat remains commercial, but is equally easy to download for free
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe not a spell checker, since every one of those words is spelled correctly out of context. Maybe some good, old fashioned rewriting. What is it about the internet that makes first drafts OK for everything? Maybe for email and forums, but for articles, come on...
OK, I wrote the maintainers of GNU chmod, and they've added a See Also section to its man page. They were really nice, and prompt. Kind of makes arguing about stuff on /. a little silly if you can just change things yourself. I appreciate the new commands, though
[man -k|apropos] flags
doesn't work with Slackware GNU/Linux, the place where it would have maybe been the most useful. The thing to ask about documentation is, why not make it the most useful to anyone who doesn't know how to do something, rather than just a reference to those who already do. Consider this: what command is an average beginning Unix tutorial going to teach first ? 1) chmod 2) chflags 3) chattr . I'll bet that a lot more people know about 1 than do about the other two, because only chmod is a standard between all unixes I know about (which may not be many, but is >1). And all three commands perform a subset of one function - change some of the various flags on a file.
The best way for all of the Unixes out there to improve is to accept that not everything is obvious to all people, even moderately inteligent ones. It doesn't hurt to keep asking, 'does this still make sense to many people?' rather than saying 'this just the way it is. read the man page and deal with it'.
>> Extra flags like these are also present in ext2
>> supposedly, though I don't see how to set them
>> with chmod in either FreeBSD or Linux
>That's because you can't read a man page. Don't >blame it on GNU/Linux or FreeBSD...
>In GNU/Linux it is 'chattr' for the ext2 file >system.
>In (Net|Open|Free) BSD you use 'chflags' for >UFS/FFS
Thanks for the pointer, but like I said above, I didn't see how to set them with chmod, and no mention of extra flags is in that command's man page, in either OS.
Granted, FreeBSD has a "See Also" section of its chmod man page that refers to 'chflags', but GNU/Linux's man page (in Slackware 7.1) has no such reference. Maybe that's why the author overlooked the extra flags in ext2...incomplete documentation.
I'm sure I'm not the only person who has not found relevant information in an, IMO, relevant place (chmod's man page) and become lost or doubtful. I'm going to see who is in charge of updating GNU chmod's documentation.
The author mentions extra security features of FreeBSD's UFS, such as the immutable flag. Extra flags like these are also present in ext2 supposedly, though I don't see how to set them with chmod in either FreeBSD or Linux.
There's been talk of older machines being just as expensive as newer ones because parts and upgrades are hard to come by. Assuming that an already old computer really needs to be upgraded is ignoring the question. I think the question asker was really wondering what sort of OS or software would be appropriate for an older computer if upgrades were not available, and NewDeal is a good solution. You'd be hard pressed to find another software package that supports TCP/IP, has a web browser, office suite, motif based gui and ran on an 8086 with 640k and a hard disk (it does!) The question is, what kinds of OS's and software can do a similar job with old, limited harware. The ELKS project is porting Linux to old machines (I've got it running on an 8086 from a 720k floppy), but it's not a good idea for bringing to a 3rd world country because it's far from usable. Really, besides DOS and maybe CP/M-86 or GEM, nothing really runs well on older machines, and NewDeal (or Geoworks Ensemble if you can get older copies) provides more functionality and is easier-to-use than anything else. There's a project out there to produce a light version of the GEOS OS that runs from floppies on a PC too (like C-64s and their kin have had for a while now)
He remarks that the last time ram and cpu ran at the same speed was with the 286-8. I had a 486-50 that ran on a 50 mhz bus. It was one of those nifty 'Blue-Lightning' chips from IBM.
You don't need a VT100 - you should just pick up an old, smallish laptop and run a terminal emulator on it. I got a Tandy 1400 that has a nice backlit blue lcd screen, a good keyboard for $20 and it makes a super terminal emulator through its serial ports. Plus, it's a 'portable' and all one piece, so it doesn't take up much space on the kitchen cabinet and folds up when not in use. Not quite an I-Opener, but good enough for emacs. check out this page for a small, stable terminal emulator that even runs well on my Tandy 1000 HX.
Of course it has! The browser, Links is an amazing text-based piece of work. It supports frames, tables, the mouse through gdm, looks and performs well. It even has pull-down menus that hide when not in use. Helper applications are supported for viewing graphics or even Realaudio. What more could you need?
When I was 14, my dad brought home some Compaq portable XTs (suitcase models) that he found in a dumpster. I got a couple working and sold them, but I kept the rest to fiddle with. I built what may have been the first wooden XT tower. It was nice, but even with three cooling fans, it got HOT!!
What I did was remove the plastic casing from a machine and use wire cutters to split the chassis in half. With the Compaq, the 9" monitor & PS were on the left and the drives and MB and cards on the right, each in their own separate cages. The I attached a board to the top of the MB cage and attached the drives and power supply (the PS was a bare board!) to the top of that. I attached a cooling fan behind the PS, cut a hole in the board and had another fan ventilate the MB, and had a third fan ventilate the 20MB Miniscribe HD. The outer casing was all plywood except for the base, which was 3/4" pine. The front bezel and back cover were screwed directly into the cages, but the top and side covers wrapped around with hinges and attached to the base with latches.
As far as shielding, it was very necessary to have the entire cage. If I left the side panel off, the EMI was enough to make the TV fuzzy and to cause the cordless phone to lose sync with the base and not work until it was replaced on the base. For anyone making a case, don't forget what a great INSULATOR wood is and to shield well. In my case, the large amounts of heat were also a result of having old equipment (such as the completely stepper driven HD and the 8087 chip), but I'll bet things haven't improved much since then. The cages in the machine were not solid, but sheet metal with nickel-size holes cut at regular intervals. If you have an old machine, why not make the conversion?
Redhat remains commercial, but is equally easy to download for free