2000 is a fine OS to stay with, as it has some nice improvements over NT4 (USB, power management, etc). I think ending 2000 support will prove tougher than NT4 has been.
You think? Please, I hope so.
The University I'm transferring to (Woodbury University, Burbank, CA US) requires its students to have three pieces of software on an x86 computer (they'd like you to have a laptop but a desktop is fine if that's all you've got) which are:
Windows 98/98SE/ME/2000/XP MS Office 2000 or XP (they don't seem to like the new versions and will tolerate 97) SPSS
OK, so I have a ThinkPad 600e 400MHz (PII). I have a 40GB hard drive with a 7GB Windows 2000 partition and the rest with Debian Sarge/Sid. The W2K partition has Office 2K already. SPSS will have to wait until I'm actually there.
To be blunt, I would rather have everything running on Linux and be done with it. OpenOffice.Org can do anything that Office 2K can in a collegiate environment unless you are running complex financial crap that requires pivot tables and macros and stuff like that which a college student will never see unless they are an accounting major.
The big tough nut to crack has been SPSS. Neither Wine nor Cedega nor Codeweavers has been able to get that puppy to run. So yeah, it looks like the "dark side" partition is here to stay for a while.
I refuse to run XP. It is bloated for no reason other than to trowel on the eye candy. Windows 2000 does everything that XP can, without the increase in overhead.
According to reports, there will be no Windows 2000 SP5. Apparently MS will be doing a monolithic "Post SP4 Security Rollup" but then that will be it for major security upgrades. The takehome message seems to be "XP: like it or lump it."
The only OS upgrade I'm gonna do after W2K is Linux on everything, fuck Microsoft. However, the small detail that puts a fly into the ointment is that SPSS isn't available there. If there will be no more security patches, then I'm going to have to completely run it in a bubble. No more connecting to the Internet with it. No more connecting to an untrusted network, period. And I will not consider Woodbury a trusted network. Too many random factors involved.
What I would really like to do is run the W2K shit in a virtual machine under Linux. However VMWare is just too damn rich for my blood.
If the talk of "no more security updates for Windows 2000" is just that, talk, and the real story is that there will be updates up until 2007, (when if I'm lucky I've graduated already and maybe I'm moving on to a more Linux-friendly school for the school counseling credentialling process) then I can exhale.
If not, I have to start looking at alternative ways of dealing with my SPSS problem. Yes, I know there's the R Project and other SPSS-like packages for Linux. But I have no idea whether R Project or any of the others will do what my profs are expecting me to do with SPSS. And I'm certainly not expert enough in stats (I'm barely swimming in Algebra right now) to know on my own.
It's still correct, technically. If you don't check your email on Windows, if you don't use Outlook or Outlook Express, if you take your mail as plain text, and if you DON'T CLICK ON UNEXPECTED ATTACHMENTS, you still can't get an email virus.
Thanks to Microsoft, yes, you can enjoy viruses and spyware and other crap via the miracle of email. So don't use it for email! I don't anymore.
1.) Edit the apt sources list to include "kosher" Debian repositories. http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ is a repository which is good and fast, to give but one example. So is USC's. I suggest putting links to testing and unstable (don't be afraid of unstable...Debian's idea of "unstable" is way different than, for example, Fedora's idea of "unstable.") and both main and contrib. Add non-free and non-us if desired.
2.) #apt-get update
3.) #apt-get dist-upgrade
4.) Reboot after the dist-upgrade finishes.
Revel in your brand spanking new Debian install, which has been thoroughly cleansed of Linspireness. Never reinstall again. Be happy.
Konqueror is bundled with KDE, but can run outside KDE. I've used it under IceWM and it works beautifully there.
Also, the KDE KHTML engine also powers Apple's Safari browser. This has been good not only for Apple, but for KHTML and Konqui because Apple has been contributing back to KHTML.
I wish Konqui was as good at rendering pages as Firefox is. However, Konqui wipes the floor with IE, anyday. The KDE people should strongly consider a port to Windows and get in on the fun of giving IE the beatdown it deserves.
VIA has this kind of stuff too...they call it "Padlock" and it can be used for Digital Restrictions Manglement too. It's in every EPIA chip from Nehemiah on down.
So? It tries DHCP first. You don't have to wait very long until DHCP times out. Then you can put in your static IP address if that's how you have your network configured. That's how I do it here at Catseye Labs.
A lot of people have little broadband routers that have DHCP servers inside them and use them to hand out IPs. Some people even run local DHCP servers. If that's what you're doing, defaulting to DHCP is so much nicer than forgoing configuration entirely, then running dhclient in an xterm after everything else is installed.
Really, cxreg...it times out after ten freakin' seconds. It's no big deal.
That's funny, because I just copied your very words into my KDE Klipper from Firefox then pasted them right into an OpenOffice document. And I'm running Debian Sarge/Sid!
Try the FUD, it's excellent today. May I suggest a full-bodied whine with that?
OK, let's compare Lycoris to Debian Sarge/Sid. (I now have this on my "daily drive" computer.)
1.)Debian: immaculate code base, no ugly weirdnesses. Lycoris: a direct descendant of Caldera/SCO Linux. 'Nuff said.
2.)Debian: apt-get utilities of all stripes, from console to GTK+-based GUI. The latter is Synaptic, which is an awful lot like the Mandrake friendly GUI front end, except unlike urpmi apt-get works and never gets lost in RPM Hell. Lycoris: IRIS, a proprietary system that is Caldera-flavor RPM based. Prone to RPM Hell. I'd trust a grandma to keep her Debian system up to date with Synaptic (two clicks for "smart update!") more than I'd trust her to keep it up to date with IRIS.
Basically the only "hard part" of Debian is the install. Once you get the install tweaked just so, it's safe to turn over to grandma. Barring catastrophe, it will be solid for life. And even on those rare occasions when an update borks on you, all you need to do is keep the SSH port open so you can SSH in and fix things.
Mepis and Ubuntu and Xandros and even Linspire (yeah I know, ugh!) are click-and-drool easy to install as well, and give you a reasonably easy path to Debian GNU/Linux (their insistance, not mine) bliss. If you want to get rid of Linspire's cretinosity #apt-get dist-upgrade will do it for you happily. Ubuntu is alright if you like GNOME, because that's the only desktop environment you get with it.
I used to be a supporter of Lycoris as a distro for newbies. No more. The SCO mess has something to do with it but not everything. The Debian way of package management has got to be the easiest, most bulletproof (it's not entirely bulletproof but close) way of managing a machine.
Ubuntu is another Gnome-centric distribution with a live CD. It also comes with an installer disk, so if you like what you see with the live CD you can install from the installer CD.
Yes, I know Knoppix and Gnoppix have installer scripts, but this is a real installer. And it's quite easy to run...in the territory of Mandrake and Fedora.
Free pressed CDs can be had for the asking. This is a good thing, because some old machines have CD-ROMs that don't read CD-Rs so well.
OK, it costs something like $100 to buy a prepaid mobile phone. You can get one for less if you find a good sale. It can cost as little as $10 to keep a prepaid phone going per month. You aren't carded when you buy a prepaid mobile phone. All you need is the money.
Average allowance amounts kids get per week run between $10 and $20. I'm sure some kids get more. So a kid who's motivated to buy their very own mobile phone wouldn't have long to save for it.
Actually I don't think it's a bad idea for kids to have a mobile phone at this point. The world's a dangerous place, and the ability to summon help quickly from a safe hiding place is a very good thing. I don't have children, and at this point it's doubtful I will. But if I did, I'd make sure my kid had one. Their life might depend on it.
The fact that no Christians squealed when the FDA approved subcutaneous implantable ID chips in humans makes me think that in real life if we ever get a "Mark Of The Beast" most Christians will take it along with the rest of the sheeple.
Then again, did the Dems take advantage of the info? Nope. Such a shame, because if this had been approved by Clinton Karl Rove would have been all over this in 2000.
Very soon I will be putting a new server up on the Internet. It's one of those decapitated ThinkPad 570s I mentioned. HTTP, SFTP, a Debian mirror, UT Server, Quake III Arena Server...so much for so little! Throw a nice phat hard drive and an Intel 100/Pro Realport NIC in there and you're golden. For a lot less money than one of those Via EPIA Mini-ITX boxes cost. I like my decapitated 570 so much, I'm getting a second one for a firewall.
I also have had good luck with another decapitated lappie...this one lost its LCD in a tragic accident. However, the rest of it is completely functional, and my buddy Don is going to do something interesting with it one of these days.
I have some interesting ideas on how to mount these headless ThinkPad 570s that I intend to explore...there will be some modding in the future. I want to keep these in as little desktop "footprint" as possible, and I got a little inspiration from when I was washing dishes after a meal. Stay tuned.
This is one of the many reasons why I wanted to see H2G2 as an animated movie. In animation, a two-headed, three armed Zaphod Beeblebrox would have been no trouble at all. Having the people I have envisioned for literally two decades as the characters:
Zaphod: Bill Murray Arthur: John Cleese Ford: Eric Idle
would not be a problem due to their ages because their voices would be all that would be needed. Some of the more unfilmable aspects of the book series could be rendered 100% filmable.
Still, I'm willing to give this a chance. Martin Freeman was an inspired choice for Arthur. The kawaii Marvin actually works when you consider the context of Sirius Cybernetics Corporation and their "plastic pals who are fun to be with." I'll even give Mos Def a chance.
I know that Klaus Knopper doesn't see Knoppix as a Debian installer, but I think that he should take a second look at this, especially considering the idea of a "lite" and a "full" version of the Knoppix CD.
The "lite" version of the CD should allow for a simplified HD install, complete with Knoppix' superior hardware detection facility. Neither the official Debian Sarge installer nor the Ubuntu installer is as good as Knoppix for "figuring out" the hardware it's looking at. I don't know about Mepis because I've never used it.
Maybe if Herr Knopper won't do it, someone should fork Knoppix and do it for him.
Windows XP might behave this way, but I've gotten 2K running happily in 128MB. No, it doesn't hit swap half as much as you are characterizing.
I would be more concerned about KDE running happily under such a load. I'd put IceWM on there instead. And don't even think about running OpenOffice.Org...that would kill it DEAD.
No, this is the Ultimate Sony Peripheral. Shown with her human friend Miho, Ping-chan is the most advanced PS2 peripheral yet. Non-ecchi model, though, so stop thinking dirty thoughts about her possibilities!
Another offender is AIM Express. They actually say that an earlier version of Mozilla supports their site, but actively blocks newer versions of Moz and Firefox. It's the most retarded situation. I need to use AIM Express because my college blocks all ports except 80 and 443 (http and https) when you are on their network, so good luck using IRC or Gaim.
Slashdot Mirror
Or, as in the immortal cartoon "Dexter's Laboratory"...
Dee-Dee: OOOOOH! What does THIS button do?!?!?!?
Dexter: GET OUT AUF MY LAH-BOR-AH-TOR-EEE!!!!!
2000 is a fine OS to stay with, as it has some nice improvements over NT4 (USB, power management, etc). I think ending 2000 support will prove tougher than NT4 has been.
You think? Please, I hope so.
The University I'm transferring to (Woodbury University, Burbank, CA US) requires its students to have three pieces of software on an x86 computer (they'd like you to have a laptop but a desktop is fine if that's all you've got) which are:
Windows 98/98SE/ME/2000/XP
MS Office 2000 or XP (they don't seem to like the new versions and will tolerate 97)
SPSS
OK, so I have a ThinkPad 600e 400MHz (PII). I have a 40GB hard drive with a 7GB Windows 2000 partition and the rest with Debian Sarge/Sid. The W2K partition has Office 2K already. SPSS will have to wait until I'm actually there.
To be blunt, I would rather have everything running on Linux and be done with it. OpenOffice.Org can do anything that Office 2K can in a collegiate environment unless you are running complex financial crap that requires pivot tables and macros and stuff like that which a college student will never see unless they are an accounting major.
The big tough nut to crack has been SPSS. Neither Wine nor Cedega nor Codeweavers has been able to get that puppy to run. So yeah, it looks like the "dark side" partition is here to stay for a while.
I refuse to run XP. It is bloated for no reason other than to trowel on the eye candy. Windows 2000 does everything that XP can, without the increase in overhead.
According to reports, there will be no Windows 2000 SP5. Apparently MS will be doing a monolithic "Post SP4 Security Rollup" but then that will be it for major security upgrades. The takehome message seems to be "XP: like it or lump it."
The only OS upgrade I'm gonna do after W2K is Linux on everything, fuck Microsoft. However, the small detail that puts a fly into the ointment is that SPSS isn't available there. If there will be no more security patches, then I'm going to have to completely run it in a bubble. No more connecting to the Internet with it. No more connecting to an untrusted network, period. And I will not consider Woodbury a trusted network. Too many random factors involved.
What I would really like to do is run the W2K shit in a virtual machine under Linux. However VMWare is just too damn rich for my blood.
If the talk of "no more security updates for Windows 2000" is just that, talk, and the real story is that there will be updates up until 2007, (when if I'm lucky I've graduated already and maybe I'm moving on to a more Linux-friendly school for the school counseling credentialling process) then I can exhale.
If not, I have to start looking at alternative ways of dealing with my SPSS problem. Yes, I know there's the R Project and other SPSS-like packages for Linux. But I have no idea whether R Project or any of the others will do what my profs are expecting me to do with SPSS. And I'm certainly not expert enough in stats (I'm barely swimming in Algebra right now) to know on my own.
Two words: USB Hub.
Finally Apple makes the iStuff iCanAfford. Kudos, Steve.
PS: The ones sweating the introduction of the Mac Mini the most are VIA. Finally a good quality version of the bitty box. Goodbye Mini-ITX/EPIA!
It's still correct, technically. If you don't check your email on Windows, if you don't use Outlook or Outlook Express, if you take your mail as plain text, and if you DON'T CLICK ON UNEXPECTED ATTACHMENTS, you still can't get an email virus.
Thanks to Microsoft, yes, you can enjoy viruses and spyware and other crap via the miracle of email. So don't use it for email! I don't anymore.
1.) Edit the apt sources list to include "kosher" Debian repositories. http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ is a repository which is good and fast, to give but one example. So is USC's. I suggest putting links to testing and unstable (don't be afraid of unstable...Debian's idea of "unstable" is way different than, for example, Fedora's idea of "unstable.") and both main and contrib. Add non-free and non-us if desired.
2.) #apt-get update
3.) #apt-get dist-upgrade
4.) Reboot after the dist-upgrade finishes.
Revel in your brand spanking new Debian install, which has been thoroughly cleansed of Linspireness. Never reinstall again. Be happy.
Konqueror is bundled with KDE, but can run outside KDE. I've used it under IceWM and it works beautifully there.
Also, the KDE KHTML engine also powers Apple's Safari browser. This has been good not only for Apple, but for KHTML and Konqui because Apple has been contributing back to KHTML.
I wish Konqui was as good at rendering pages as Firefox is. However, Konqui wipes the floor with IE, anyday. The KDE people should strongly consider a port to Windows and get in on the fun of giving IE the beatdown it deserves.
VIA has this kind of stuff too...they call it "Padlock" and it can be used for Digital Restrictions Manglement too. It's in every EPIA chip from Nehemiah on down.
DRHIAA (Digital Rights Hardware Industry Association of America)
Love the acronym.
So? It tries DHCP first. You don't have to wait very long until DHCP times out. Then you can put in your static IP address if that's how you have your network configured. That's how I do it here at Catseye Labs.
A lot of people have little broadband routers that have DHCP servers inside them and use them to hand out IPs. Some people even run local DHCP servers. If that's what you're doing, defaulting to DHCP is so much nicer than forgoing configuration entirely, then running dhclient in an xterm after everything else is installed.
Really, cxreg...it times out after ten freakin' seconds. It's no big deal.
That's funny, because I just copied your very words into my KDE Klipper from Firefox then pasted them right into an OpenOffice document. And I'm running Debian Sarge/Sid!
Try the FUD, it's excellent today. May I suggest a full-bodied whine with that?
OK, let's compare Lycoris to Debian Sarge/Sid. (I now have this on my "daily drive" computer.)
1.)Debian: immaculate code base, no ugly weirdnesses.
Lycoris: a direct descendant of Caldera/SCO Linux. 'Nuff said.
2.)Debian: apt-get utilities of all stripes, from console to GTK+-based GUI. The latter is Synaptic, which is an awful lot like the Mandrake friendly GUI front end, except unlike urpmi apt-get works and never gets lost in RPM Hell.
Lycoris: IRIS, a proprietary system that is Caldera-flavor RPM based. Prone to RPM Hell.
I'd trust a grandma to keep her Debian system up to date with Synaptic (two clicks for "smart update!") more than I'd trust her to keep it up to date with IRIS.
Basically the only "hard part" of Debian is the install. Once you get the install tweaked just so, it's safe to turn over to grandma. Barring catastrophe, it will be solid for life. And even on those rare occasions when an update borks on you, all you need to do is keep the SSH port open so you can SSH in and fix things.
Mepis and Ubuntu and Xandros and even Linspire (yeah I know, ugh!) are click-and-drool easy to install as well, and give you a reasonably easy path to Debian GNU/Linux (their insistance, not mine) bliss. If you want to get rid of Linspire's cretinosity #apt-get dist-upgrade will do it for you happily. Ubuntu is alright if you like GNOME, because that's the only desktop environment you get with it.
I used to be a supporter of Lycoris as a distro for newbies. No more. The SCO mess has something to do with it but not everything. The Debian way of package management has got to be the easiest, most bulletproof (it's not entirely bulletproof but close) way of managing a machine.
Ubuntu is another Gnome-centric distribution with a live CD. It also comes with an installer disk, so if you like what you see with the live CD you can install from the installer CD.
Yes, I know Knoppix and Gnoppix have installer scripts, but this is a real installer. And it's quite easy to run...in the territory of Mandrake and Fedora.
Free pressed CDs can be had for the asking. This is a good thing, because some old machines have CD-ROMs that don't read CD-Rs so well.
It's GIGANTOR!!!! Someone get the remote!!!!
OK, it costs something like $100 to buy a prepaid mobile phone. You can get one for less if you find a good sale. It can cost as little as $10 to keep a prepaid phone going per month. You aren't carded when you buy a prepaid mobile phone. All you need is the money.
Average allowance amounts kids get per week run between $10 and $20. I'm sure some kids get more. So a kid who's motivated to buy their very own mobile phone wouldn't have long to save for it.
Actually I don't think it's a bad idea for kids to have a mobile phone at this point. The world's a dangerous place, and the ability to summon help quickly from a safe hiding place is a very good thing. I don't have children, and at this point it's doubtful I will. But if I did, I'd make sure my kid had one. Their life might depend on it.
The fact that no Christians squealed when the FDA approved subcutaneous implantable ID chips in humans makes me think that in real life if we ever get a "Mark Of The Beast" most Christians will take it along with the rest of the sheeple.
Then again, did the Dems take advantage of the info? Nope. Such a shame, because if this had been approved by Clinton Karl Rove would have been all over this in 2000.
'New' Pontiac GTO
Decapitated laptops are very useful things. There are some people relieving ThinkPad 570s of their LCDs and selling them on eBay because they can get more money for the parts than the intact laptop. Well the more fool them.
Very soon I will be putting a new server up on the Internet. It's one of those decapitated ThinkPad 570s I mentioned. HTTP, SFTP, a Debian mirror, UT Server, Quake III Arena Server...so much for so little! Throw a nice phat hard drive and an Intel 100/Pro Realport NIC in there and you're golden. For a lot less money than one of those Via EPIA Mini-ITX boxes cost. I like my decapitated 570 so much, I'm getting a second one for a firewall.
I also have had good luck with another decapitated lappie...this one lost its LCD in a tragic accident. However, the rest of it is completely functional, and my buddy Don is going to do something interesting with it one of these days.
I have some interesting ideas on how to mount these headless ThinkPad 570s that I intend to explore...there will be some modding in the future. I want to keep these in as little desktop "footprint" as possible, and I got a little inspiration from when I was washing dishes after a meal. Stay tuned.
A classic. Thanks for the link!
This is one of the many reasons why I wanted to see H2G2 as an animated movie. In animation, a two-headed, three armed Zaphod Beeblebrox would have been no trouble at all. Having the people I have envisioned for literally two decades as the characters:
Zaphod: Bill Murray
Arthur: John Cleese
Ford: Eric Idle
would not be a problem due to their ages because their voices would be all that would be needed. Some of the more unfilmable aspects of the book series could be rendered 100% filmable.
Still, I'm willing to give this a chance. Martin Freeman was an inspired choice for Arthur. The kawaii Marvin actually works when you consider the context of Sirius Cybernetics Corporation and their "plastic pals who are fun to be with." I'll even give Mos Def a chance.
I think IceWM is an option that can be set at boot.
I know that Klaus Knopper doesn't see Knoppix as a Debian installer, but I think that he should take a second look at this, especially considering the idea of a "lite" and a "full" version of the Knoppix CD.
The "lite" version of the CD should allow for a simplified HD install, complete with Knoppix' superior hardware detection facility. Neither the official Debian Sarge installer nor the Ubuntu installer is as good as Knoppix for "figuring out" the hardware it's looking at. I don't know about Mepis because I've never used it.
Maybe if Herr Knopper won't do it, someone should fork Knoppix and do it for him.
Windows XP might behave this way, but I've gotten 2K running happily in 128MB. No, it doesn't hit swap half as much as you are characterizing.
I would be more concerned about KDE running happily under such a load. I'd put IceWM on there instead. And don't even think about running OpenOffice.Org...that would kill it DEAD.
Yes, the temperature of Hell has been at zero degrees celsius for the past 5 years or so. That's how long I've been posting here anyway.
No, this is the Ultimate Sony Peripheral. Shown with her human friend Miho, Ping-chan is the most advanced PS2 peripheral yet. Non-ecchi model, though, so stop thinking dirty thoughts about her possibilities!
Another offender is AIM Express. They actually say that an earlier version of Mozilla supports their site, but actively blocks newer versions of Moz and Firefox. It's the most retarded situation. I need to use AIM Express because my college blocks all ports except 80 and 443 (http and https) when you are on their network, so good luck using IRC or Gaim.
AOHell sucks.