You think so? The thin client mindset assumes the server and all networking runs smoothly, against the risk of a single major point of failure. Also people cant do things like copying CDs unless the server is really idle and networking runs on gigabit ethernet. This also gives everyone the inflexibility of having to run the same OS with the possibly same configuration.
Sure you could netboot any OS, but Ive changed my OS quite frequently, wouldnt want to bother the nice sysadmin while he is figuring out how to setup the system to use a new terminal with different hardware.
Ive tried citrix metaframe, and tried for months to properly boot win95 using etherboot on a host with no hdd, but for the clients who needed a simple quick solution for very public hosts (agents bringing kids who are always trying to install games, P2P and who knows what), I had to go with Windows2000 with VERY restricted user accounts. Its been over 1 year now and apart from some spyware, virus and temporary files cleaning (all limited only to their users directories), Ive had no trouble at all. Should my expensive citrix server crash... hmmm... I'll have to apply to Mcdonalds, and NOT mention this in the resume.
Using some AMD or intel microcontrollers, you could get a whole 8086 (rather 80186 I think) system on chip, at low cost and low power. Not quite the big socket boards and the joys of straightening bent chip pins (even soldering broken pins with bits of wires anyone?), but still, a worthy 8086 contender.
Or heck you could still look for old Pentium boxes people are throwing out these days, and use its 1.44 floppy drives to run DOS 4.2 or minix.
I was weaned on slackware, then tried FreeBSD and got hooked. Been learning the drivers code of the FreeBSDs lately, to try and add some tokenring cards to em, especially to OpenBSD, so I could use BSD again on my machine. Sadly, will have to stick to FreeBSD till nVidia opensources the Geforce drivers.
A lotta people using Linux and Solaris are torn between idealism (BSD) and pragmatism (M$), instead of being just Penguin zealots
Its excessive for now, but thinking about the future. With AMD coming out with a 64bit cpu, and maybe Intel might counter with a 128 bit (!) cpu for the servers, the address space grows. With that, and LVMed 200GB harddisks, and gigs and gigs of ram, we need scalability till FreeBSD 6.0.
And then, Ive written editorials spontaneously in comments in slashdot and newsforge all over. Just dont want to try and submit a new story for (1) Might not get posted (2) I might drop out of the mood.
I wish the slash code would bring out finely composed large comments that dont belong there and post them on the front.
So the FreeBSD 5.0 RELEASE I downloaded yesterday should do the UFS2 install by default?? or "from today" mean all versions of FreeBSD 5.0 from 21st April?
I had to cope with Rogers for a while before switching to Sympatico, which is a pain due to pppoe, but once setup, doesnt disconnect with arp table problems like Rogers..
Ive had the same IP with Sympatico now 6 weeks, using Solaris and a tokenring network at the other end. For the 6+ domains I used to host I got lucky. I had to setup a VPN server for an office, which has att canada business DSL.. 640k upload. So all that traffic went to that connection (I have 5 IPs there!! 4 are aliased just for playing). Really makes me want to start a hosting service from home, just to get a sweet T1, or a faster SDSL.
You would REALLY want to keep away from Rogers in Toronto. Their pings are low for games, but apart from the abysmal tech support, (and the constant arp tables problem) they frequently overcharge the bill. I tried to cope with them for about 6 months, then switched as they put a download cap. Sympaticos a pain, with setting up pppoe on FreeBSD, later Solaris, but none of the arp table problems.. I am running the same IP now for 6 weeks.
Ive heard of many other cable/DSL ISPs with no cap, some with static IPs, even multiple IPs at the same cost, but theyre no-brand names I cant dare to deal with, unless someone I know recommends. Hope someone can come out with a simple plan for people who want to run a server from home.
I assemble lowcost computers for customers using the ECS Duron Motherboard combos. Some days ago they started releasing ECS motherboards capable of taking DDR memory, so I asked the guy how much for upgrading the memory from SDRAM to DDR, he said same price..
The place was Sonnam Computers Toronto, College and Spadina, one of the lowest cost places Ive known in Toronto... So I got the chips, plug in and it works fine.. I install Windows 98, utilities, antivirus etc, works perfect.. now as I am playing Unreal tournament to test the stability, it crashes.. the memory was two sticks of 128MB DDR..
I reboot, now the BIOS registers 128MB ram. Got into windows, shows 128.. I power up unreal again and crashes.. Reboot. Now shows 64!! . Booted into Knoppix and ran memtest.. shows 64. Some time later this became 32. I took it back to the place, they thought its the power supply, so we changed both the power and the ram chips. Same thing happens next day. Next I just exchanged the DDR for plain old SDRAM and it works perfect. The ECS board has Sis730 chipset, which from tomshardware anandtech etc seems robust enough. I suppose they just dont make DDR memory the way memory is supposed to be made.
Its not just what TYPE of people, its also WHERE...
Too many people in poorer countries die of simpler diseases like Malaria and Leprosy. Most medical funds, not just national as in the US, but global, funding from international companies and organizations are directed to the people where the funding comes from. Imagine the amount spent on Cancer and AIDS, then imagine the number of people dying from these, compared to the simpler diseases with no access to the medication so readily available elsewhere. The same amount of money spent in eradicating these ilnessess would save far more lives, but mostly in poorer countries.
Now even in the so called RICH countries, theres bias. In the USA, theres enormous bias against gay and fat people. They just deserve their ilnesses, while the smokers getting lung cancer and the relatively few falling to breast cancer should deserve research paid for by the whole countrys medical budget.
Contrast this with people in Afghanistan and India who lose their lives to Cholera and Malaria.
I wouldn't be surprised if samba + linux was more reliable than Windows + SMB.
Dont be, it IS more reliable and I can attest to it. I'm using FreeBSD + Samba in three different office networks for various reasons including stability, security and features not available in MS SMB. This has been a proven fact for a few years now... whats needed is improvements to speed and efficiency, and Microsoft obviously hasnt led the way there, from Win95 to Win2003. Andrew and the team are going forward there, hope they contribute bits and pieces to Windows too.
Many opensource projects started out trying to emulate some other protocol, then overtook it and grabbed the lead.. then the proprietary protocol had to follow.
Samba is in a similar position. I think there are improvements to be made, efficiency, authentication, virutualhosts?(multiple domains/workgroups/subnets with the same daemon), better filesystem support, changes in the protocol making it faster, more efficient and unbreakable etc.
If Andrew can release improvements to samba for say win9x, 2000 and xp, replacing some networking DLLS,or just replacing microsoft network client, samba can be in a real leader position. MS SMB code is deinitely buggy or just inefficient, even on one subnet with 8 hosts. Improve that, release the improvement as GPL, and people will flock to it. Best form of marketing of Linux I can think of. OSSphobics will have no way out.
When you said 20 minutes, the first thing that clicked in my mind is this guys having some problem. You definitely have something bad in your system and blaming it on Apple, if its really taken you 20 minutes.
Gather up more diverse experience in different macs and different wintels before making a judgement. Apple is known for its stability and speed over wintel in all quarters, not because a bunch of mac fans tried copying a file on a 486 running windows98 and 8 mb ram, with viruses etc, for 20 minutes, then gave up on it.
It would be quite nice to have a C-based converter, that could be used to replace databases within an hour... for apps that support both the BEFORE and AFTER database types.. without using ODBC.
What I have in mind is mysql, pgsql, oracle 9i, msaccess, db2, firebird, minisql.
I really appreciate the effort going into OpenBSD making it more secure and robust, but I hope the option of keeping it a simple BSD without the innovative security features, remains. Part of the reason Ive used BSD in the past is its simplicity and predictability across the versions. OpenBSD, opposed to NetBSD and FreeBSD is the 'simplest' BSD outside of the seccurity changes and I hope users have the option of not using the page protection, encrypted ram and filesystems, chrooted services and other stuff.
Would also be nice to have the drivers of FreeBSD ported to OpenBSD. I had to choose Linux to be able to use my Olicom 3140 tokenring card.
Rants aside, thanks to Theo and the team, for giving us an OS we can be confident, is really secure with no compromises.
OK, even if it IS gaining ground,(which is not my belief), why should we still dignify a proprietary protocol there? If what you say is true (doubt it),.NET might be gaining ground through the help of unsure programmers looking around for APIs of the richest corporations that wont disappear in the next 5 years. Youre contributing to the viscious cycle, in favor of a monopolizing power, using one of the freeest operating systems.
No. Most of the hits on my webpages are from IE4-6 browsers. Its inferior, slow, buggy and not peoples choice, but its the most widely used browser out there.
Drinking your own piss cannot be dignified when youre glued to the ground. No glory there. Theres a psychological high-ness when youre blasted off into space, gives you more energy and ability to take anything that comes your way. When stuck in some lab for months, with geeks staring at you as you relieve yourself, after youve had your friends' by-products for lunch, and you dont get your face printed in newspapers (well maybe for laughs), its kinda tough to keep going. I wonder how many cosmonauts will resign in that chamber.
.NET is dying. Its OS has been renamed Windows 2003 for a reason. Everyones building Javabeans for J2EE, backed by heavyweights like IBM and Oracle and Sun. Why is the most distant-from-Microsoft OS dignifying.NET now?
Next they will release the gcsp compiler.. for C#. sourceforge.NET will have a new meaning. Heck I even keep away from C++, building even GUIs with ANSI C 99 with function pointer arrays. Stick to traditions!
... for Linux. Theyve lost the race with MS Office, lost Exchange, SQL server races long time ago, but the media thing is big. Once Linux gets a slew (already has?) of smooth Media Player like apps (MPlayer? XMMS?) that do DivX, MP3, WMA, RA, QT and the kitchen sink format, Windows will really lose its Desktop edge. Then the only two things will be left are DirectX and software compatibility. Wines already improved alot, but all companies that havent died yet in the dotcom bust, are thinking of porting to Linux, and break the M$ chains themselves. Billy seriously needs to hold on to his billions, even spend some, lose apps to Linux, sacrificing some sales, if only to impede development on Linux in certain areas.
At the end of the day, sales are really all that matter, buy more Lindows copies, Linux games, avoid DirectX games, avoid XBox, bother accounting and other specialized app developers to port to Linux etc. If developers are financially encouraged, they WILL bite the dust and invest in months of Linux development time.
I cant wait till Microsoft ports IE6 to Linux... for $100 a bang.
High-freqency vibrations travel quite well in water at high speed, I wonder how much data can be modulated into it. But someone flushes the toilet and you lose a frag in counterstrke!
I remember at the metal pipes in my house, one twang at the basement travelled all over the place, but thats waves in the metal. Waves in the water should travel faster. In winters when the water freezes, we'd get faster internet.
Most homes have powerlines, phone and TV cables going inside. These three mediums, add radio, are the obvious ones to deliver internet through.
So if the momentum has built for DSL and Cable, why push for the third option too? It all started with DSL, but the telcom companies squeezed things till the development on Cable started. Now, at least here in Toronto, the same Telcom companies are squeezing both these mediums, thus pushing for the possibilities on power lines.
Ideally, cities should have fibre lines going into homes controlled by a government department, that allows private companies to deliver the Internet and not compete with them.
FreeBSDs performance seemed to me to be quite close to say Linux 2.5 running on XFS. I couldnt tell which was better but I think both were quite close to the hardwares ability. I havent tried running many threaded apps, at least not under pressure..
I hope they dont take focus away from simplicity and robustness here. Multithreading is tricky, look at all the problems Linux had.. As a customer, I wouldnt want multithreading at all if theres any risk to the robust architecture.
Theyll pay just like they paid Afghanistan. Promised billions, then forgot all about it. Why do you think the Turkish wanted their billions on paper although the US was promising it?? They sent the boys to war under higher risk, but still didnt pay up Turkey a few billions. Theo would probably get the first $100 check, then Canadas opposition to war would be cited and then everything forgotten.
How about a list of J2EE servers each in its own chroot jail and the apps executing in Java. How much security is too much???
I personally think the BSDs are secure enough, and if Sendmail is replaced with qmail and apache constantly patched, there are no worries. No need to go to such extremes for production environments. After all. Performance is an issue as well.
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having a drive spindle for every seat is a waste
You think so? The thin client mindset assumes the server and all networking runs smoothly, against the risk of a single major point of failure. Also people cant do things like copying CDs unless the server is really idle and networking runs on gigabit ethernet. This also gives everyone the inflexibility of having to run the same OS with the possibly same configuration.
Sure you could netboot any OS, but Ive changed my OS quite frequently, wouldnt want to bother the nice sysadmin while he is figuring out how to setup the system to use a new terminal with different hardware.
Ive tried citrix metaframe, and tried for months to properly boot win95 using etherboot on a host with no hdd, but for the clients who needed a simple quick solution for very public hosts (agents bringing kids who are always trying to install games, P2P and who knows what), I had to go with Windows2000 with VERY restricted user accounts. Its been over 1 year now and apart from some spyware, virus and temporary files cleaning (all limited only to their users directories), Ive had no trouble at all. Should my expensive citrix server crash... hmmm... I'll have to apply to Mcdonalds, and NOT mention this in the resume.
Using some AMD or intel microcontrollers, you could get a whole 8086 (rather 80186 I think) system on chip, at low cost and low power. Not quite the big socket boards and the joys of straightening bent chip pins (even soldering broken pins with bits of wires anyone?), but still, a worthy 8086 contender.
Or heck you could still look for old Pentium boxes people are throwing out these days, and use its 1.44 floppy drives to run DOS 4.2 or minix.
I was weaned on slackware, then tried FreeBSD and got hooked. Been learning the drivers code of the FreeBSDs lately, to try and add some tokenring cards to em, especially to OpenBSD, so I could use BSD again on my machine. Sadly, will have to stick to FreeBSD till nVidia opensources the Geforce drivers.
A lotta people using Linux and Solaris are torn between idealism (BSD) and pragmatism (M$), instead of being just Penguin zealots
Its excessive for now, but thinking about the future. With AMD coming out with a 64bit cpu, and maybe Intel might counter with a 128 bit (!) cpu for the servers, the address space grows. With that, and LVMed 200GB harddisks, and gigs and gigs of ram, we need scalability till FreeBSD 6.0.
And then, Ive written editorials spontaneously in comments in slashdot and newsforge all over. Just dont want to try and submit a new story for (1) Might not get posted (2) I might drop out of the mood.
I wish the slash code would bring out finely composed large comments that dont belong there and post them on the front.
So the FreeBSD 5.0 RELEASE I downloaded yesterday should do the UFS2 install by default?? or "from today" mean all versions of FreeBSD 5.0 from 21st April?
I had to cope with Rogers for a while before switching to Sympatico, which is a pain due to pppoe, but once setup, doesnt disconnect with arp table problems like Rogers..
Ive had the same IP with Sympatico now 6 weeks, using Solaris and a tokenring network at the other end. For the 6+ domains I used to host I got lucky. I had to setup a VPN server for an office, which has att canada business DSL.. 640k upload. So all that traffic went to that connection (I have 5 IPs there!! 4 are aliased just for playing). Really makes me want to start a hosting service from home, just to get a sweet T1, or a faster SDSL.
You would REALLY want to keep away from Rogers in Toronto. Their pings are low for games, but apart from the abysmal tech support, (and the constant arp tables problem) they frequently overcharge the bill. I tried to cope with them for about 6 months, then switched as they put a download cap. Sympaticos a pain, with setting up pppoe on FreeBSD, later Solaris, but none of the arp table problems.. I am running the same IP now for 6 weeks.
Ive heard of many other cable/DSL ISPs with no cap, some with static IPs, even multiple IPs at the same cost, but theyre no-brand names I cant dare to deal with, unless someone I know recommends. Hope someone can come out with a simple plan for people who want to run a server from home.
I assemble lowcost computers for customers using the ECS Duron Motherboard combos. Some days ago they started releasing ECS motherboards capable of taking DDR memory, so I asked the guy how much for upgrading the memory from SDRAM to DDR, he said same price..
The place was Sonnam Computers Toronto, College and Spadina, one of the lowest cost places Ive known in Toronto... So I got the chips, plug in and it works fine.. I install Windows 98, utilities, antivirus etc, works perfect.. now as I am playing Unreal tournament to test the stability, it crashes.. the memory was two sticks of 128MB DDR..
I reboot, now the BIOS registers 128MB ram. Got into windows, shows 128.. I power up unreal again and crashes.. Reboot. Now shows 64!! . Booted into Knoppix and ran memtest.. shows 64. Some time later this became 32. I took it back to the place, they thought its the power supply, so we changed both the power and the ram chips. Same thing happens next day. Next I just exchanged the DDR for plain old SDRAM and it works perfect. The ECS board has Sis730 chipset, which from tomshardware anandtech etc seems robust enough. I suppose they just dont make DDR memory the way memory is supposed to be made.
Its not just what TYPE of people, its also WHERE...
Too many people in poorer countries die of simpler diseases like Malaria and Leprosy. Most medical funds, not just national as in the US, but global, funding from international companies and organizations are directed to the people where the funding comes from. Imagine the amount spent on Cancer and AIDS, then imagine the number of people dying from these, compared to the simpler diseases with no access to the medication so readily available elsewhere. The same amount of money spent in eradicating these ilnessess would save far more lives, but mostly in poorer countries.
Now even in the so called RICH countries, theres bias. In the USA, theres enormous bias against gay and fat people. They just deserve their ilnesses, while the smokers getting lung cancer and the relatively few falling to breast cancer should deserve research paid for by the whole countrys medical budget.
Contrast this with people in Afghanistan and India who lose their lives to Cholera and Malaria.
I wouldn't be surprised if samba + linux was more reliable than Windows + SMB.
Dont be, it IS more reliable and I can attest to it. I'm using FreeBSD + Samba in three different office networks for various reasons including stability, security and features not available in MS SMB. This has been a proven fact for a few years now... whats needed is improvements to speed and efficiency, and Microsoft obviously hasnt led the way there, from Win95 to Win2003. Andrew and the team are going forward there, hope they contribute bits and pieces to Windows too.
Many opensource projects started out trying to emulate some other protocol, then overtook it and grabbed the lead.. then the proprietary protocol had to follow.
Samba is in a similar position. I think there are improvements to be made, efficiency, authentication, virutualhosts?(multiple domains/workgroups/subnets with the same daemon), better filesystem support, changes in the protocol making it faster, more efficient and unbreakable etc.
If Andrew can release improvements to samba for say win9x, 2000 and xp, replacing some networking DLLS,or just replacing microsoft network client, samba can be in a real leader position. MS SMB code is deinitely buggy or just inefficient, even on one subnet with 8 hosts. Improve that, release the improvement as GPL, and people will flock to it. Best form of marketing of Linux I can think of. OSSphobics will have no way out.
When you said 20 minutes, the first thing that clicked in my mind is this guys having some problem. You definitely have something bad in your system and blaming it on Apple, if its really taken you 20 minutes.
Gather up more diverse experience in different macs and different wintels before making a judgement. Apple is known for its stability and speed over wintel in all quarters, not because a bunch of mac fans tried copying a file on a 486 running windows98 and 8 mb ram, with viruses etc, for 20 minutes, then gave up on it.
It would be quite nice to have a C-based converter, that could be used to replace databases within an hour... for apps that support both the BEFORE and AFTER database types.. without using ODBC.
What I have in mind is mysql, pgsql, oracle 9i, msaccess, db2, firebird, minisql.
Wonder if its possible.
I really appreciate the effort going into OpenBSD making it more secure and robust, but I hope the option of keeping it a simple BSD without the innovative security features, remains. Part of the reason Ive used BSD in the past is its simplicity and predictability across the versions. OpenBSD, opposed to NetBSD and FreeBSD is the 'simplest' BSD outside of the seccurity changes and I hope users have the option of not using the page protection, encrypted ram and filesystems, chrooted services and other stuff.
Would also be nice to have the drivers of FreeBSD ported to OpenBSD. I had to choose Linux to be able to use my Olicom 3140 tokenring card.
Rants aside, thanks to Theo and the team, for giving us an OS we can be confident, is really secure with no compromises.
OK, even if it IS gaining ground,(which is not my belief), why should we still dignify a proprietary protocol there? If what you say is true (doubt it), .NET might be gaining ground through the help of unsure programmers looking around for APIs of the richest corporations that wont disappear in the next 5 years. Youre contributing to the viscious cycle, in favor of a monopolizing power, using one of the freeest operating systems.
No. Most of the hits on my webpages are from IE4-6 browsers. Its inferior, slow, buggy and not peoples choice, but its the most widely used browser out there.
Drinking your own piss cannot be dignified when youre glued to the ground. No glory there. Theres a psychological high-ness when youre blasted off into space, gives you more energy and ability to take anything that comes your way. When stuck in some lab for months, with geeks staring at you as you relieve yourself, after youve had your friends' by-products for lunch, and you dont get your face printed in newspapers (well maybe for laughs), its kinda tough to keep going. I wonder how many cosmonauts will resign in that chamber.
Next they will release the gcsp compiler.. for C#. sourceforge.NET will have a new meaning. Heck I even keep away from C++, building even GUIs with ANSI C 99 with function pointer arrays. Stick to traditions!
At the end of the day, sales are really all that matter, buy more Lindows copies, Linux games, avoid DirectX games, avoid XBox, bother accounting and other specialized app developers to port to Linux etc. If developers are financially encouraged, they WILL bite the dust and invest in months of Linux development time.
I cant wait till Microsoft ports IE6 to Linux... for $100 a bang.
High-freqency vibrations travel quite well in water at high speed, I wonder how much data can be modulated into it. But someone flushes the toilet and you lose a frag in counterstrke!
I remember at the metal pipes in my house, one twang at the basement travelled all over the place, but thats waves in the metal. Waves in the water should travel faster. In winters when the water freezes, we'd get faster internet.
Makes me wonder how to connect the PDA...
Most homes have powerlines, phone and TV cables going inside. These three mediums, add radio, are the obvious ones to deliver internet through.
So if the momentum has built for DSL and Cable, why push for the third option too? It all started with DSL, but the telcom companies squeezed things till the development on Cable started. Now, at least here in Toronto, the same Telcom companies are squeezing both these mediums, thus pushing for the possibilities on power lines.
Ideally, cities should have fibre lines going into homes controlled by a government department, that allows private companies to deliver the Internet and not compete with them.
FreeBSDs performance seemed to me to be quite close to say Linux 2.5 running on XFS. I couldnt tell which was better but I think both were quite close to the hardwares ability. I havent tried running many threaded apps, at least not under pressure..
I hope they dont take focus away from simplicity and robustness here. Multithreading is tricky, look at all the problems Linux had.. As a customer, I wouldnt want multithreading at all if theres any risk to the robust architecture.
Theyll pay just like they paid Afghanistan. Promised billions, then forgot all about it. Why do you think the Turkish wanted their billions on paper although the US was promising it?? They sent the boys to war under higher risk, but still didnt pay up Turkey a few billions. Theo would probably get the first $100 check, then Canadas opposition to war would be cited and then everything forgotten.
How about a list of J2EE servers each in its own chroot jail and the apps executing in Java. How much security is too much???
I personally think the BSDs are secure enough, and if Sendmail is replaced with qmail and apache constantly patched, there are no worries. No need to go to such extremes for production environments. After all. Performance is an issue as well.