The majority of people don't like their PC crashing randomly, or having to defrag their hard drive, or having to completely reinstall everything. A product that allows them to use all their software and the vast majority of their hardware without the unnecessary inconvenience of the above would no doubt be very popular.
It would be good if the people who spend so much time attacking Microsoft's security issues considered that UNIX generally and Linux in particular are not exactly fault free.
That is undoubtedly true, given that totally reliable software costs orders of magnitude more than Linux or Windows, but it hardly excuses a billion-dollar corporation that spends billions every year on R&D.
Sendmail is a bad example, since, although a lot of people still use it despite it's flaws, there are other MTAs available and is not in itself a flaw in any version of Unix.
The standard condfiguration supports IPSEC, S/MIME, SSL, Kerberos, Smartcard login, Encrypted File system.
Yes, but you still have to learn to use them and actually use them, and installing stuff on Linux is as easy as firing up a good package manager and installing (with dependencies all satisfied, before you say anything), it doesn't really matter whether they are installed by default or whether you need to spend a couple of minutes putting them on, it's not really that important.
The problem I see for Linux is complacency.
That's true too, but it's just as true for Microsoft, and the people writing the various bits of Linux seem to care about fixing security issues as they appear, rather than going through an extended spin cycle, or worse, not bothering with it because it only affects a few people.
The OSS community is made up of a lot of people and those who actually know something are not taking security lightly. Microsoft however seems to treat security issues as a failure in PR rather than a failure in their methodology and are finally recognising this fact. Whether they choose to do something constructive about it, time will tell.
The end-user is someone like my dad who is sick to death of the Win9x series. Last week it 'intuitively' semi-reversed the upgrade to WinME back to Win98 and refused to boot beyond the DOS prompt.
Yet another reinstall, and 'likely another 13 reboots' (his words). He's got Windows 2000 as well, but it doesn't work with all his hardware or software, so that's not a terribly useful option.
Believe me, end users are sick of shoddy software, they just don't have anywhere else to go (but that's another thread entirely).
What happens if all businesses are corrupt? How do we boycott the companies that we buy our food, clothing, shelter and energy from? As for overthrowing a corrupt government, that is what the ballot is for.
But you don't need the whole of Windows 98 merely to play games. An easy to upgrade console would make a great internet appliance/games machine/DVD player. I'm surprised this hasn't occurred to anyone apart from Indrema.
The XBox, featuring Windows 2000, seems to have developed a lot of momentum, despite being a network operating system. Anyway, how do you play online games without network capability?
Don't bother. Despite the posturing on Slashdot, the average American is far more likely to believe the US press because they have been fooled into believing it's 'free'. A Chinese person will be less likely to believe their press because they know it's not.
How can you expect truth from the media that consistently fails to mention US-sponsored atrocities around the world, including the CIA-trained death squads in South America in the 70s?
Troll? How many scientific advances were held back by the Catholic church. Wasn't Copernicus afraid of persecution when he discovered that the Earth orbits the Sun rather than the other way around? How many lashes did the publisher of the first English-language bible get? How many old women were burned as witches?
I'm not blaming religion anyway, peabrain - I'm blaming fundamentalism, which is where people believe they can do anything they like and use religion as a justification.
Feudalism was also a part of this fundamentalism, given that the kings/queens believed they had been given absolute authority by God, rather than having ancestors more talented at intrigue than those around them.
Religion is a good thing, but people are very adept at ruining it, and if you think fundamentalism is a good idea, I suggest you move to Afghanistan for a first-hand look at how overuse of God's Word is a bad idea.
And your average Mac user - never having used a command line - is going to understand the complexities of mkisofs or cdrecord. Pretty crappy for a so-called multimedia OS.
I think the majority of large corporations would like this - imagine never having to worry about public opinion on anything. This is why the media is controlled by a very small group of companies - this ensures the Pravda-like spouting of the capitalist party line, ensuring that the average citizen is misinformed about 'socialism' and the 'success' of capitalism.
Fantastic. It sounds just like the company where I started in IT. Solid standards, time taken to actually design what the users actually wanted, sane deadlines, some of the most talented people I've ever worked with and quite an anal approach to bug squashing. Sadly they've been bought out now and it looks like the parent company is going to make them redundant.
Shame it only runs on machines out of the reach of the average consumer and can't even burn CDs yet. MacOS is much harder for me to get running as it won't install on my PC. There's a quite enlightened synopsis of the state of the OS wars here And if you think Linux is hard work now - well take it from me, it's come on leaps and bounds from when I started using it a couple of years ago. Linux is only around 10 years old (in fact I'm sure a birthday bash of some kind is bound to be due), and the first release of a vaguely user-friendly desktop happened a mere 4 years ago. Let's see where we are in 12 months shall we?
Slashdot Mirror
The majority of people don't like their PC crashing randomly, or having to defrag their hard drive, or having to completely reinstall everything. A product that allows them to use all their software and the vast majority of their hardware without the unnecessary inconvenience of the above would no doubt be very popular.
It would be good if the people who spend so much time attacking Microsoft's security issues considered that UNIX generally and Linux in particular are not exactly fault free.
That is undoubtedly true, given that totally reliable software costs orders of magnitude more than Linux or Windows, but it hardly excuses a billion-dollar corporation that spends billions every year on R&D.
Sendmail is a bad example, since, although a lot of people still use it despite it's flaws, there are other MTAs available and is not in itself a flaw in any version of Unix.
The standard condfiguration supports IPSEC, S/MIME, SSL, Kerberos, Smartcard login, Encrypted File system.
Yes, but you still have to learn to use them and actually use them, and installing stuff on Linux is as easy as firing up a good package manager and installing (with dependencies all satisfied, before you say anything), it doesn't really matter whether they are installed by default or whether you need to spend a couple of minutes putting them on, it's not really that important.
The problem I see for Linux is complacency.
That's true too, but it's just as true for Microsoft, and the people writing the various bits of Linux seem to care about fixing security issues as they appear, rather than going through an extended spin cycle, or worse, not bothering with it because it only affects a few people.
The OSS community is made up of a lot of people and those who actually know something are not taking security lightly. Microsoft however seems to treat security issues as a failure in PR rather than a failure in their methodology and are finally recognising this fact. Whether they choose to do something constructive about it, time will tell.
3) How to patch a highly modified distro kernel from a kernel.org patch
Because I already have 2 x86 PCs and not enough room for a Mac as well. Should hell freeze over and Apple port OS X to x86 then I'll give it a try.
The end-user is someone like my dad who is sick to death of the Win9x series. Last week it 'intuitively' semi-reversed the upgrade to WinME back to Win98 and refused to boot beyond the DOS prompt.
Yet another reinstall, and 'likely another 13 reboots' (his words). He's got Windows 2000 as well, but it doesn't work with all his hardware or software, so that's not a terribly useful option.
Believe me, end users are sick of shoddy software, they just don't have anywhere else to go (but that's another thread entirely).
What happens if all businesses are corrupt? How do we boycott the companies that we buy our food, clothing, shelter and energy from? As for overthrowing a corrupt government, that is what the ballot is for.
But you don't need the whole of Windows 98 merely to play games. An easy to upgrade console would make a great internet appliance/games machine/DVD player. I'm surprised this hasn't occurred to anyone apart from Indrema.
Funny how the IRA and ETA have been able to wage terrorist campaigns for decades, despite not being able to walk into Walmart and buy high explosives.
The XBox, featuring Windows 2000, seems to have developed a lot of momentum, despite being a network operating system. Anyway, how do you play online games without network capability?
They shipped their first product in 1986. That means they've been around more than 14 years. See here for details and lots of corporate posing.
Because I don't just believe what I read in the newspapers. Try here for a starting point.
I didn't claim to be a genius, just too cynical to believe what the newspapers say.
Don't bother. Despite the posturing on Slashdot, the average American is far more likely to believe the US press because they have been fooled into believing it's 'free'. A Chinese person will be less likely to believe their press because they know it's not.
If China is really preparing for war then why are the western nations so eagerly handing them money to fund it?
How can you expect truth from the media that consistently fails to mention US-sponsored atrocities around the world, including the CIA-trained death squads in South America in the 70s?
Running 'make install' on Mandrake installs the various files to /boot. Isn't that where they're supposed to go?
I won't correct you, because I haven't a clue what you just posted :-)
It was just out of curiosity, given that regular expressions are a bit arcane. Thanks for the info.
Why are regular expressions called that? Regular in what way?
Troll? How many scientific advances were held back by the Catholic church. Wasn't Copernicus afraid of persecution when he discovered that the Earth orbits the Sun rather than the other way around? How many lashes did the publisher of the first English-language bible get? How many old women were burned as witches?
I'm not blaming religion anyway, peabrain - I'm blaming fundamentalism, which is where people believe they can do anything they like and use religion as a justification.
Feudalism was also a part of this fundamentalism, given that the kings/queens believed they had been given absolute authority by God, rather than having ancestors more talented at intrigue than those around them.
Religion is a good thing, but people are very adept at ruining it, and if you think fundamentalism is a good idea, I suggest you move to Afghanistan for a first-hand look at how overuse of God's Word is a bad idea.
Not to mention the chief surgeon saying 'dammit Jim I'm a doctor. not a wooly-bearded Unix guru'.
And your average Mac user - never having used a command line - is going to understand the complexities of mkisofs or cdrecord. Pretty crappy for a so-called multimedia OS.
I think the majority of large corporations would like this - imagine never having to worry about public opinion on anything. This is why the media is controlled by a very small group of companies - this ensures the Pravda-like spouting of the capitalist party line, ensuring that the average citizen is misinformed about 'socialism' and the 'success' of capitalism.
Fantastic. It sounds just like the company where I started in IT. Solid standards, time taken to actually design what the users actually wanted, sane deadlines, some of the most talented people I've ever worked with and quite an anal approach to bug squashing. Sadly they've been bought out now and it looks like the parent company is going to make them redundant.
Shame it only runs on machines out of the reach of the average consumer and can't even burn CDs yet. MacOS is much harder for me to get running as it won't install on my PC. There's a quite enlightened synopsis of the state of the OS wars here
And if you think Linux is hard work now - well take it from me, it's come on leaps and bounds from when I started using it a couple of years ago. Linux is only around 10 years old (in fact I'm sure a birthday bash of some kind is bound to be due), and the first release of a vaguely user-friendly desktop happened a mere 4 years ago. Let's see where we are in 12 months shall we?