So what? I don't care if they did it because the ghost of their dead grandmother told them to, it's still a good deal.
In fact if they start selling a Linux distro for the PS2 they nice profitible, long-term revenue stream. Unless they did a poor job with the port (I doubt it) most people would be happy to purchase Sony Linux, and I doubt that anyone else would make much headway in the PS2/Linux market. They also might make a few bucks on the additional Sony-branded hardware (hard drive, keyboard, networking, etc.).
There is also some possibility that it could be used like a TiVo or for interactive content (like Starship Troopers, "Do you want to know more?" with URLs embedded in the video stream) or just for normal web browsing. This would require your equipment to support DV (FireWire) video, since there doesn't appear to be a video-in on the device itself (maybe something that could be added via the expansion bay on the back?).
The possibilities are endless, with a general purpose OS like Linux (or NetBSD) you can get the box to do anything you like, reliably and quickly. Niftilicious.
I agree, Linuxconf is pretty worthless, it's too crufty and finicky to be really useful. My vote goes with Webmin. I've found that it is generally respectful of existing config files and existing comments and that the modules that come with it implement the full range of config options available. Access to the various config modules can be subdelegated and all access can be logged, very useful in corporate environments. It is implemented entirely in Perl and can be easily updated over the Internet. It does not require much for package management as it only installs stuff into/etc/webmin.d and wherever you uncompress the tarball (/usr/libexec/webmin). It can also be secured via SSL (it's web based) so that your passwords are not sent in the clear (if you allow access by machines other than localhost).
Binary-only modules really aren't supported, you're not going to hear much crying on linux-kernel if they don't work. If you really-really-really cannot distribute modules precompiled for the major stock kernels (stock RH, Mandrake, Debian, SuSE, Caldera) or source then you can always do what 4-Front does, use a small shim that can be distributed as source. Recompile the shim on the target machine and voila! Linux will always be source compatable throughout a stable release, and that is what matters most.
I don't know which article you read, but I didn't see any statement that ECN was enabled by default. The author did not state where they got their 2.4.x kernel from but I assumed that they compiled it themselves. Especially since the first recommendation for disabling ECN was removing if from the kernel config file and recompiling. There is no need for a retraction, correction or apology. Please calm down 8^)
Oh, I don't know, I've burned about a half dozen CDs over NFS onto our shared CD-R drive and have yet to have a bad burn. Of course I usually only burn at 4 speed and just leave the terminal window open on an unused desktop. YMMV
You are apparently not familiar with portsentry, and have just parroted the most common misconception. Portsentry is configured by default to only block hosts when it is running in standard mode. In standard mode portsentry binds to each port it monitors and requires a host to complete a full TCP connection to the port before it will go off. On most modern operating systems it is nearly impossible to spoof a full TCP connection, variables like the ISN are generated from the machine's random number generator.
The portsentry documentation explicitly states that is isn't smart to do dynamic blocking on anything other than TCP connections. There also exists a whitelist file of IP addresses that will never be blocked, it is encouraged to put the addresses of your critical internal machines and routers in it. According to the portsentry website they have not one confirmed report of someone baiting portsentry and having it DoS their own machine. Not that it can't happen but you would have to make several specific misconfigurations that go directly against what is written in the manual.
Yeah, what the heck is up with PeopleSoft? The schools here in Wisconsin are migrating to it as well. I talked to people on the migration team and they don't have a single good word to say about it. They would much rather leave their finantials and class management software on their IBM mainframe where it belongs. They seem to spend all their time tracking down obscure but fatal bugs in the server software and the client. All I see them do is applying fixes and recompiling COBOL. And last I checked they were months behind on the fixes. They have tried to talk to PeopleSoft tech support but everyone at the PeopleSoft help desk appear to be idiots.
This was last year so they have probably completed their integration by now but they would probably be happier and more efficient with the same old app running on the IBM.
I had this problem when I had AA fonts enabled but had a corrupted font file. When it tried to read in the corrupted file it would crash. I could browse local files and run several KDE apps but when I tried to load a web page it would die badly.
Try using strace to figure out what it is doing at the time it dies, and look at the KDE Crash debug output. Both can be very helpful.
I find the whole story only mildly funny (the blunder part) and not shocking at all. The sad part here is, that everyone already knows he's lied to and still buys the stuff. The people even expect to be lied to. The truth would be really shocking here, something along the lines of: "Well, all we want is your money anyways. Since you already bought our product we only want you to be quiet about it's shortcomings and the cheapest way to buy some time here is obviously a pressstatement. And please understand we treat businesses different, because they might pay some lawyer and really raise a fuss". Now that would've been some story.
Even though this is exactally what is going on, I doubt you will ever see it written that way, even in internal documents. In my limited experience most times decisions like this get made the person is not actively trying to be evil, they are just looking out for Number One. I would bet that if you took your (IMHO correct) interpretation of this document to the author they wouldn't believe it. People who do stupid evil things many times use doublethink and rationalizations to justify their actions with logic that defies all explination.
Not really, the fact of the matter is that you can inspect the SRPM but you really can't inspect the binary RPM. You don't need to inspect every line of the source tarball, you only need to verify that it matches the original. Of course if you don't trust the original writer of the software, like some random app you saw on freshmeat.net once, then of course the app could be a trojan but that is beyond the scope of this discussion.
Anyway, if you can verify the main source tarball then the only things you have to manually check are any patches to the source, and the spec file. That is much more doable then auditing the entire source. Compile the package as a non-root user and your entire visibility is in the pre/post install scripts and any source patches that trojanize the app. That's all the article is saying
That reminds me of when I was in Bosnia. Some of the Army pukes were carrying M16A2/M203 combo rifles, they were assigned about 20-30 grenades for the M203. I guess there isn't much you can do with 20 grenades but these guys either had them all strapped to a vest or on bandoliers. There's nothing funnier than a couple of guys who look like either Mexican banditos or walking bombs. I vowed that if the shooting started (thank God it didn't, whew!) I would stay as far away from these jokers as I could, I didn't want to be near them when they turned into fireworks show.
Well I don't actually know if grenades will go off if they are shot but I didn't want to find out the hard way.
It didn't get much mention, but if you get your packages from a trusted source and check the GPG signature you should be OK. Most of the article detailed all the problems you have getting packages from untrusted sources.
And these self-same newbies are going to be able to download source, *inspect the code for trojans*, and compile?
OK, here's a challenge, think of a better way. I'm not trying to be a PITA but there isn't any easier way to verify that you aren't installing a trojan. You have three options:
Install binaries from trusted sources, check GPG signatures.
Compile source packages, inspecting.spec file and patches, checking the MD5 sum or signature of the origional source tarball
Install binary packages from untrusted sources and eventually get trojaned.
If you can think of a fourth option, I would love to hear it
Unless you're some sort of Code Hero, you just gotta trust that people aren't out to screw ya. I'll take the convienence of binaries over the P.I.T.A. of source, any day...
Hey, I'm sorry man but look around you, this isn't the Internet of 10 years ago. I build firewalls for a living, a job that wouldn't exist if some people out there weren't out to screw other people, most time just for kicks. The phrase "Script Kiddie" would never have entered our lexicon.
This is the one reason that I recommend Linux distributions with large trusted package repositories (Debian) to new users, esp. if they aren't going to be doing much of their own system administration. There's nothing better than being able to just apt-get install any arbitrary piece of software that they hear about and have it just work.
Others, who care not for baring themselves to hundreds of hungry men, are slammed in the moderation system, their self esteem ruined.
Oh, give me a break! As if women aren't human beings and are incapable of protecting themselves. Oh yes, let's all get around in a circle and protect the pure delicate women from the sexually crazed, "hungry", men. Gack!
I think trying to tie together rape and sexual attraction is a mistake. It has been shown time and again that rape is a crime of violence, an assault, with sex only being the means, not the goal. Even smart women, ugly women and elderly women get raped. But I suppose I shouldn't confuse you with the facts.
B&W looks like one of the most original games to come out of any development house in many years. The FPS, RTS, Roleplaying (sometimes just repackaged adventure games) have all been beat to death. Great houses like Looking Glass have fallen off the map. It's good to see something like this be created, I look forward to it being the best seller of 2001 and significant for many years after.
I also wanted to point out the article, it is one of the best written (and longest!) that I have seen on any website or magazine in a long time. We should thank the author Geoff Keighley for taking the time to really interview the people at Lionhead and understand what it took to bring this game to fruition. The article was so interesting there was no way that I could go without reading it until the end.
Many people here post flames when writers and journalists get computers and technology wrong, we should be thankful when they get tech right.
I don't want to live in the cruel, twiseted world you describe. That's why I work to make things better. Maybe you really believe that the world can't be made a better place but I am not going to sit around while everything goes to hell in a handcart around me.
a lot of the best webpages are written by hand anyway, use vi or emacs.
Vi and emacs have horrible workgroup support.
While I agree vi and emacs may not be appropriate for Joe in Sales who needs to update the product information page, have you looked at some of the other editors available. If there is one thing Linux/UNIX has is text editors. Try Quanta or BlueFish. I don't use it myself but you could use an editor with integrated CVS support, using CVS to update websites can work out very well. There may also be an editor with WebDAV support which may be even better. vi and emacs aren't the only text editors ever created. 8^)
2. Poor application linking
my linker and links seem okay.
I chuckled when I read this. I'm talking about application communication services that go a lot futher than "|" or ">" do.
Again, you may have a point there. This is debatable, though, and definately won't stay behind forever. We currently have DCOP and Bonobo with a damn near guaranteed upgrade path for both. The developmenet process is open so you can at least follow where everything is going, if not participating yourself.
3. Poor printing services
HP just released JetDirect for Linux.
I'm talking about color management, spools, trays, easy to use multiple printers. Take a look at what MacOS can do and come back with educated comment.
The comment about JetDirect is pretty silly, but there are more advance print systems than lpr (gack!) available. CUPS is a good example it can do everything you want (I don't know about color-correction, only Macs and SGI's seem to do this acceptably).
4. Its harder to update anything on Linux than Windows and MacOS
# apt-get dist-upgrade
apt-get? You're joking right? It's version tracking blows, take a look at how a Mac handles it
I have worked a little with Mac systems but I have no idea what you are talking about. The Debian APT system, filled with packages conforming to the Debian Packaging Guide book, is the best packaging and software distribution I have had the pleasure to use. Ever. Could you enlighten me as to what system Apple has that compares to APT, please?
5. Poor graphics support
OpenGL, OpenInventor, Nvidia, ATI, Matrox...
All need to custom configured, and if you think Mesa is a replacement for OpenGL you need to open your eyes. OpenInventer is no where near production quality. Getting Mesa to work with any given graphics card is not easy.
I'm not sure what your beef with Mesa is, my experience shows that it is one of the best OpenGL API implementations that exists. I haven't had nearly the trouble you seem to have had getting it working (I assume you mean with hardware accelerated graphics, GLX outputting to a regular X window is a no-brainer). It usually goes along the lines of: Compile DRI module, modprobe DRI module, start X. Look Ma, 3D. Maybe I've just been living my life right or something. I've had more trouble with video drivers on Win9x/NT systems installing in different, strange ways or corrupting the system settings so that it doesn't boot. Strange graphical glitches that occur on a per-app basis are common as well. Macs may be easier, I haven't used them enough to know.
6. No unified GUI (KDE, Gnome, who cares, just make ONE of them work)
My ximian gnome box works fine.
Yeah and it works and is coded for in a totally independant way from KDE
So? If you want to use GNOME you have no need to worry about KDE, and vice-versa. Each environment seems to be quite self-sufficient. Of course if there is some app you just can't live without in the other camp, the only thing you sacrifice by running both is disk space and memory. Just because there is choice doesn't mean you need to go crazy obsessing about it.
7. Each Linux variant ships with security holes to some extent,
all s/w products have security holes. or
Tell that the the OpenBSD team. Tell that to Apple.
perhaps you mean the recent bind problems? fixed months ago, and the "apt-get" lines above (provided the security.debian.org entry is in your sources.list) took care of that pretty fast...provided you use bind...long before the Lion was out. Or perhaps you mean a boot disk against a non-passwd protected bios? all mainstream OSen are subject to that. Go install a stock NT 4.0 box and stick that on the web. I dare ya.
I'm talking about the fact that all Linux systems ever shipped always have had some misconfiguration that allows remote attacks. All of them. Not good for desktop use. IHMO NT is a piece of shit
Hell, you're both right. All Operating Systems have shipped with security problems of varying severity (even OpenBSD). RedHat has been getting better but are definately not there yet, Debian or Immunix is a much better bet. There are also some tools like Bastille, OpenWall, LIDS, SE Linux, Pitbull, etc. that can make a Linux system very secure. Also many security vulnerabilities are in third party software that may or may not be distributed along with a copy of Linux. Holes in wu-ftpd and BIND effect many more operating systems than just Linux!
Internet security has only become the important field that it is in the last couple of years. Linux, *BSD and UNIX have been at the forefront of operational security technology throughout this period (discounting academic research projects). Heck most other vendors haven't figured out that you shouldn't send cleartext passwords over an open network. As an example look at the OpenSSH project, from OpenBSD. They recently issued a security update to fix bugs allowing passive traffic analysis to discover the length of a password as it was typed in. I have not seen any other, commercial, systems that have reached a level where they would even consider fixing this kind of thing, most seem to be still trying to figure out that blank admin passwords and world writable files are a bad thing.
In conclusion let me summerize: All software sucks! Some software packages (Linux, *BSD) suck less than others (UNIX, Win*). When we have the perfect operating system with the perfect utilities, I'll let you know. 8^)
It is also very hard to process a 12 Mbps datastream on a microcontroller that runs at any speed less than ~200 MHz (do the math).
This doesn't sound right, there existed 10Mbps Ethernet and 16Mbps Token Ring before there existed any ~200 MHz processors. Maybe you are referring to {en,de}crypting a 12Mbps stream with a low power ASIC but even that doesn't seem like it would be as taxing as you postulate.
One, or probably both, of us do not understand this fully. Anyway, at least to me, 802.11 does sound like a good standard. I hope that it can be implemented in the kind of small, lightweight, equipment that Bluetooth was intended for. Maybe we will end up with a high-power and low-power 802.11 standard or something.
I kind of wish Linux was wiser about hardware permissions. Anyone who is logged into the console should have complete access to the sound and any removable drives (floppy, CD, etc), and any other peripherals attached to the computer. Anyone else doesn't really need that access. I don't know how one might do that in Linux...?
Poke around in the PAM configuration. I believe the pam_console module can do this, but I can't check it right now. Otherwise you could use the pam_group module to add users who login to the console to the "console" group which has rw access to the various devices (audio, video, cdrom, etc.). I do wish this was taken care of in a more elegant manner by the distro makers though, it is a pain to implement this after the fact. I usually create seperate groups and add myself to them, one group for each device that I need access to.
Open Source developers aren't immune either. Occassionaly, some rogue hacker inserts malicious code into the linux kernel or utility source. If undetected, we may all be compiling in those changes and thereby compromising our systems as well.
OK, back that up with some actual facts . . . Still waiting . . . OK the fact is this has never happened or even been attempted (yet). Quit with all your over-dramatized, emotional statements, please.
OK, I was thinking something along the lines of a cig pack or MP3 player, which would probably be unsuitable. Something that is just a few wafers should be fine.
Just a random thought, if you put the transmitter inside the helmet, isn't there a danger of crushing it between the wearer's head and the helmet? I have worn kevlar helmets before and I just don't think there is that much room in there.
Developing an application that needs a GUI is a pain when you have to support more than 1 GUI-toolkit so it will work on all windowmanagers.
This doesn't seem true at all. If you develop an app using the GNUStep libraries it will work on any system with those libraries installed, whether you use WindowMaker or not. Maybe GNUStep is different but any application that uses X for graphics display should be able to run under any combination of Desktop Environment, Window Manager and Operating System. I don't see any reason that I couldn't run a GNUStep foo.app under KDE under Sun Solaris. Just pick a toolkit you like.
It's a common misconception that you must run a specific desktop environment to use any of its software, you only need to surrender the disk space to have all the various libraries installed. At home I generally use BlackBox on my Debian desktop with KDE2 apps as well as apps written in all the various X toolkits, at work I generally use KDE2 but sometimes run Ximian GNOME apps like Gnumeric, plus we've been using Glade and PyGTK for little in-house apps. We have users who use ICEwm, KDE1, KDE2 and AfterStep and it just isn't that big a deal.
Slashdot Mirror
So what? I don't care if they did it because the ghost of their dead grandmother told them to, it's still a good deal.
In fact if they start selling a Linux distro for the PS2 they nice profitible, long-term revenue stream. Unless they did a poor job with the port (I doubt it) most people would be happy to purchase Sony Linux, and I doubt that anyone else would make much headway in the PS2/Linux market. They also might make a few bucks on the additional Sony-branded hardware (hard drive, keyboard, networking, etc.).
There is also some possibility that it could be used like a TiVo or for interactive content (like Starship Troopers, "Do you want to know more?" with URLs embedded in the video stream) or just for normal web browsing. This would require your equipment to support DV (FireWire) video, since there doesn't appear to be a video-in on the device itself (maybe something that could be added via the expansion bay on the back?).
The possibilities are endless, with a general purpose OS like Linux (or NetBSD) you can get the box to do anything you like, reliably and quickly. Niftilicious.
I agree, Linuxconf is pretty worthless, it's too crufty and finicky to be really useful. My vote goes with Webmin. I've found that it is generally respectful of existing config files and existing comments and that the modules that come with it implement the full range of config options available. Access to the various config modules can be subdelegated and all access can be logged, very useful in corporate environments. It is implemented entirely in Perl and can be easily updated over the Internet. It does not require much for package management as it only installs stuff into /etc/webmin.d and wherever you uncompress the tarball (/usr/libexec/webmin). It can also be secured via SSL (it's web based) so that your passwords are not sent in the clear (if you allow access by machines other than localhost).
Just my $0.02
And if you would finish the story you would know that the vger admin turned off the DUL when he learned that it was causing problems. Case closed.
Binary-only modules really aren't supported, you're not going to hear much crying on linux-kernel if they don't work. If you really-really-really cannot distribute modules precompiled for the major stock kernels (stock RH, Mandrake, Debian, SuSE, Caldera) or source then you can always do what 4-Front does, use a small shim that can be distributed as source. Recompile the shim on the target machine and voila! Linux will always be source compatable throughout a stable release, and that is what matters most.
I don't know which article you read, but I didn't see any statement that ECN was enabled by default. The author did not state where they got their 2.4.x kernel from but I assumed that they compiled it themselves. Especially since the first recommendation for disabling ECN was removing if from the kernel config file and recompiling. There is no need for a retraction, correction or apology. Please calm down 8^)
Oh, I don't know, I've burned about a half dozen CDs over NFS onto our shared CD-R drive and have yet to have a bad burn. Of course I usually only burn at 4 speed and just leave the terminal window open on an unused desktop. YMMV
You are apparently not familiar with portsentry, and have just parroted the most common misconception. Portsentry is configured by default to only block hosts when it is running in standard mode. In standard mode portsentry binds to each port it monitors and requires a host to complete a full TCP connection to the port before it will go off. On most modern operating systems it is nearly impossible to spoof a full TCP connection, variables like the ISN are generated from the machine's random number generator.
The portsentry documentation explicitly states that is isn't smart to do dynamic blocking on anything other than TCP connections. There also exists a whitelist file of IP addresses that will never be blocked, it is encouraged to put the addresses of your critical internal machines and routers in it. According to the portsentry website they have not one confirmed report of someone baiting portsentry and having it DoS their own machine. Not that it can't happen but you would have to make several specific misconfigurations that go directly against what is written in the manual.
Yeah, what the heck is up with PeopleSoft? The schools here in Wisconsin are migrating to it as well. I talked to people on the migration team and they don't have a single good word to say about it. They would much rather leave their finantials and class management software on their IBM mainframe where it belongs. They seem to spend all their time tracking down obscure but fatal bugs in the server software and the client. All I see them do is applying fixes and recompiling COBOL. And last I checked they were months behind on the fixes. They have tried to talk to PeopleSoft tech support but everyone at the PeopleSoft help desk appear to be idiots.
This was last year so they have probably completed their integration by now but they would probably be happier and more efficient with the same old app running on the IBM.
I had this problem when I had AA fonts enabled but had a corrupted font file. When it tried to read in the corrupted file it would crash. I could browse local files and run several KDE apps but when I tried to load a web page it would die badly.
Try using strace to figure out what it is doing at the time it dies, and look at the KDE Crash debug output. Both can be very helpful.
Even though this is exactally what is going on, I doubt you will ever see it written that way, even in internal documents. In my limited experience most times decisions like this get made the person is not actively trying to be evil, they are just looking out for Number One. I would bet that if you took your (IMHO correct) interpretation of this document to the author they wouldn't believe it. People who do stupid evil things many times use doublethink and rationalizations to justify their actions with logic that defies all explination.
Just my $0.02
Not really, the fact of the matter is that you can inspect the SRPM but you really can't inspect the binary RPM. You don't need to inspect every line of the source tarball, you only need to verify that it matches the original. Of course if you don't trust the original writer of the software, like some random app you saw on freshmeat.net once, then of course the app could be a trojan but that is beyond the scope of this discussion.
Anyway, if you can verify the main source tarball then the only things you have to manually check are any patches to the source, and the spec file. That is much more doable then auditing the entire source. Compile the package as a non-root user and your entire visibility is in the pre/post install scripts and any source patches that trojanize the app. That's all the article is saying
That reminds me of when I was in Bosnia. Some of the Army pukes were carrying M16A2/M203 combo rifles, they were assigned about 20-30 grenades for the M203. I guess there isn't much you can do with 20 grenades but these guys either had them all strapped to a vest or on bandoliers. There's nothing funnier than a couple of guys who look like either Mexican banditos or walking bombs. I vowed that if the shooting started (thank God it didn't, whew!) I would stay as far away from these jokers as I could, I didn't want to be near them when they turned into fireworks show.
Well I don't actually know if grenades will go off if they are shot but I didn't want to find out the hard way.
It didn't get much mention, but if you get your packages from a trusted source and check the GPG signature you should be OK. Most of the article detailed all the problems you have getting packages from untrusted sources.
OK, here's a challenge, think of a better way. I'm not trying to be a PITA but there isn't any easier way to verify that you aren't installing a trojan. You have three options:
- Install binaries from trusted sources, check GPG signatures.
- Compile source packages, inspecting
.spec file and patches, checking the MD5 sum or signature of the origional source tarball
- Install binary packages from untrusted sources and eventually get trojaned.
If you can think of a fourth option, I would love to hear itHey, I'm sorry man but look around you, this isn't the Internet of 10 years ago. I build firewalls for a living, a job that wouldn't exist if some people out there weren't out to screw other people, most time just for kicks. The phrase "Script Kiddie" would never have entered our lexicon.
This is the one reason that I recommend Linux distributions with large trusted package repositories (Debian) to new users, esp. if they aren't going to be doing much of their own system administration. There's nothing better than being able to just apt-get install any arbitrary piece of software that they hear about and have it just work.
Oh, give me a break! As if women aren't human beings and are incapable of protecting themselves. Oh yes, let's all get around in a circle and protect the pure delicate women from the sexually crazed, "hungry", men. Gack!
I think trying to tie together rape and sexual attraction is a mistake. It has been shown time and again that rape is a crime of violence, an assault, with sex only being the means, not the goal. Even smart women, ugly women and elderly women get raped. But I suppose I shouldn't confuse you with the facts.
B&W looks like one of the most original games to come out of any development house in many years. The FPS, RTS, Roleplaying (sometimes just repackaged adventure games) have all been beat to death. Great houses like Looking Glass have fallen off the map. It's good to see something like this be created, I look forward to it being the best seller of 2001 and significant for many years after.
I also wanted to point out the article, it is one of the best written (and longest!) that I have seen on any website or magazine in a long time. We should thank the author Geoff Keighley for taking the time to really interview the people at Lionhead and understand what it took to bring this game to fruition. The article was so interesting there was no way that I could go without reading it until the end.
Many people here post flames when writers and journalists get computers and technology wrong, we should be thankful when they get tech right.
I don't want to live in the cruel, twiseted world you describe. That's why I work to make things better. Maybe you really believe that the world can't be made a better place but I am not going to sit around while everything goes to hell in a handcart around me.
Grr
While I agree vi and emacs may not be appropriate for Joe in Sales who needs to update the product information page, have you looked at some of the other editors available. If there is one thing Linux/UNIX has is text editors. Try Quanta or BlueFish. I don't use it myself but you could use an editor with integrated CVS support, using CVS to update websites can work out very well. There may also be an editor with WebDAV support which may be even better. vi and emacs aren't the only text editors ever created. 8^)
Again, you may have a point there. This is debatable, though, and definately won't stay behind forever. We currently have DCOP and Bonobo with a damn near guaranteed upgrade path for both. The developmenet process is open so you can at least follow where everything is going, if not participating yourself.
The comment about JetDirect is pretty silly, but there are more advance print systems than lpr (gack!) available. CUPS is a good example it can do everything you want (I don't know about color-correction, only Macs and SGI's seem to do this acceptably).
I have worked a little with Mac systems but I have no idea what you are talking about. The Debian APT system, filled with packages conforming to the Debian Packaging Guide book, is the best packaging and software distribution I have had the pleasure to use. Ever. Could you enlighten me as to what system Apple has that compares to APT, please?
I'm not sure what your beef with Mesa is, my experience shows that it is one of the best OpenGL API implementations that exists. I haven't had nearly the trouble you seem to have had getting it working (I assume you mean with hardware accelerated graphics, GLX outputting to a regular X window is a no-brainer). It usually goes along the lines of: Compile DRI module, modprobe DRI module, start X. Look Ma, 3D. Maybe I've just been living my life right or something. I've had more trouble with video drivers on Win9x/NT systems installing in different, strange ways or corrupting the system settings so that it doesn't boot. Strange graphical glitches that occur on a per-app basis are common as well. Macs may be easier, I haven't used them enough to know.
So? If you want to use GNOME you have no need to worry about KDE, and vice-versa. Each environment seems to be quite self-sufficient. Of course if there is some app you just can't live without in the other camp, the only thing you sacrifice by running both is disk space and memory. Just because there is choice doesn't mean you need to go crazy obsessing about it.
Hell, you're both right. All Operating Systems have shipped with security problems of varying severity (even OpenBSD). RedHat has been getting better but are definately not there yet, Debian or Immunix is a much better bet. There are also some tools like Bastille, OpenWall, LIDS, SE Linux, Pitbull, etc. that can make a Linux system very secure. Also many security vulnerabilities are in third party software that may or may not be distributed along with a copy of Linux. Holes in wu-ftpd and BIND effect many more operating systems than just Linux!
Internet security has only become the important field that it is in the last couple of years. Linux, *BSD and UNIX have been at the forefront of operational security technology throughout this period (discounting academic research projects). Heck most other vendors haven't figured out that you shouldn't send cleartext passwords over an open network. As an example look at the OpenSSH project, from OpenBSD. They recently issued a security update to fix bugs allowing passive traffic analysis to discover the length of a password as it was typed in. I have not seen any other, commercial, systems that have reached a level where they would even consider fixing this kind of thing, most seem to be still trying to figure out that blank admin passwords and world writable files are a bad thing.
In conclusion let me summerize: All software sucks! Some software packages (Linux, *BSD) suck less than others (UNIX, Win*). When we have the perfect operating system with the perfect utilities, I'll let you know. 8^)
This doesn't sound right, there existed 10Mbps Ethernet and 16Mbps Token Ring before there existed any ~200 MHz processors. Maybe you are referring to {en,de}crypting a 12Mbps stream with a low power ASIC but even that doesn't seem like it would be as taxing as you postulate.
One, or probably both, of us do not understand this fully. Anyway, at least to me, 802.11 does sound like a good standard. I hope that it can be implemented in the kind of small, lightweight, equipment that Bluetooth was intended for. Maybe we will end up with a high-power and low-power 802.11 standard or something.
Poke around in the PAM configuration. I believe the pam_console module can do this, but I can't check it right now. Otherwise you could use the pam_group module to add users who login to the console to the "console" group which has rw access to the various devices (audio, video, cdrom, etc.). I do wish this was taken care of in a more elegant manner by the distro makers though, it is a pain to implement this after the fact. I usually create seperate groups and add myself to them, one group for each device that I need access to.
OK, back that up with some actual facts . . . Still waiting . . . OK the fact is this has never happened or even been attempted (yet). Quit with all your over-dramatized, emotional statements, please.
OK, I was thinking something along the lines of a cig pack or MP3 player, which would probably be unsuitable. Something that is just a few wafers should be fine.
I doubt it. 8^)
Just a random thought, if you put the transmitter inside the helmet, isn't there a danger of crushing it between the wearer's head and the helmet? I have worn kevlar helmets before and I just don't think there is that much room in there.
This doesn't seem true at all. If you develop an app using the GNUStep libraries it will work on any system with those libraries installed, whether you use WindowMaker or not. Maybe GNUStep is different but any application that uses X for graphics display should be able to run under any combination of Desktop Environment, Window Manager and Operating System. I don't see any reason that I couldn't run a GNUStep foo.app under KDE under Sun Solaris. Just pick a toolkit you like.
It's a common misconception that you must run a specific desktop environment to use any of its software, you only need to surrender the disk space to have all the various libraries installed. At home I generally use BlackBox on my Debian desktop with KDE2 apps as well as apps written in all the various X toolkits, at work I generally use KDE2 but sometimes run Ximian GNOME apps like Gnumeric, plus we've been using Glade and PyGTK for little in-house apps. We have users who use ICEwm, KDE1, KDE2 and AfterStep and it just isn't that big a deal.