Linus and Apple are both defending trademarks not copyrights. Copyrights don't become generic if you let other people use it.. in many cases you have no choice (see fair use) but with Trademarks you have to defend your trademark like a zelot...
Basicly a copyright says "I own this text/work/design" patent "I own this machine" Trademark "This refers to me" not "I own it" but in a way "it owns me".... The idea is that it refers only to you... and not to someone or something else... An easy way for a costummer to identify you... "Apple Linux" better refer to the Linux operating system on an Apple computer or someone is going to be screwed... (Especally if it's the name of Microsofts latest operating system) Apple is basicly worryed about the delusion of the Apple logo by allowing it to be used on theams used by non-Macs.....
I would also like to add that such trademarks should NOT be applicable to themes.. that they should be (by nature of a user adding them and not bundled with an os) not reduce the meaning of the trademark... The apple logo is there becouse it's Apples logo... It belongs there... However that is not how the legal experts will see it... (insert very bad language here)
Yes it dose.. Your keeping up with the industry. Ok I'm not a knowladge worker but my time on-line still counts... I'm a night watch person. Anything that keeps me awake is part of my job:) and Slashdot dose that nicely:)
Anyway Slashdot talks about technology and tech issues things you people have to keep up on to stay at the top of the game. So yes time spent reading Slashdot dose count as work:) It's research....
In Microsofts case they name a compeditor such as Sun Microsystems.. well known for producing extreamly high quality.... In VAs case they are being generic refering to all the Windows PCs with hardware that may is not so great on Linux but works wonders for Windows...
VA is a pure Linux vender compeating against PC venders.. some who charg $100 to slap install RedHat...
Microsofts attack is "We elcheapo watchco make better watches that rolex"... VA is "We Timex make better watches than companys who make cheap watches"... It's not so bad... True they presume all the other Linux venders are not pure Linux venders... This isn't the case... But it's standard operating procedure... busness as usuall... no biggy deal...
Look at the discription at the bottom of his artical. He seems to think he has a sereous prospective. He is trying (very hard) to stand between Microsoft and Open source and be critical of both.
This is an imposable task... How can you be critical of Microsoft while repeating Microsofts FUD? You can't... So Metcalfe opts to come up with his own bizzar comments...
True it would be nice if the code morphing source code were available... But it's Transmetas call and not up to Linus... That may be what Metcalfe is getting at but in all his rantings he forgot to mention it... But then has anyone asked Transmeta for it?
Ooohhh looks like someone dosn't like the prospect of lose marketshare to a free product hmmm?
Ok to get back to the subject.... There isn't that much chance of two people comming up with the same DNA.. Thats the whole point of the DNA fingerprint.
On the other hand it is posable to polute DNA samples... If you have sample a and sample b in the same lab at the same time it is posable to mistakenly mix a and b together...
DNA evedence shouldn't be total proff simply backup evedence...
Well I guess ZD no longer fears the wraith of Microsoft. Only a few years ago ZD wouldn't have reported a story like this or would have put the best spin posable on it. Why? For fear that Microsoft might respond by cutting them off. Now such a threat dosn't seem to bother ZD. Yes even to my Linux Zelot eyes it dose look like ZD has put the worst spin on this. 65k posable bugs.. maybe? We don't know if they exist or if any of them will be in the final code?
That is still a lot of bugs to fix.. It should be resonable to presume some will be missed.. That is presumming there really is 65k bugs... Yes I'm having a hard time picturing ANY code having THAT MANY bugs... even a Microsoft product... 65k issues... thats beleavable... "I don't like this font"... But then 65k issues are asthetic and not real problems.
This has that FUD like feel to it... I'd have said it was prompted by Microsoft if it wasn't for the fact that Win2K isn't compeating against Microsoft...
Windows dosn't call them Daemons but Windows runs it just the same. The code could easlly be ported to Windows...
The publisher of the artical called it shotty slashdot simply reported the fact...
The original artical relyed on the myth that you could insert back doors into open source code and out into closed source... In reality back doors and trojens thrive in closed source when they can not be easly spotted or removed...
Slashdot did do a bit much suggesting the artical came from Microsoft.. This however isn't unreasonable (unlike the artical and your post) given Microsofts history of spreading FUD with a number of sources including news and technical media.
Slashdot is growing from what was pritty much an advocacy/news resorce to a major news resorce and they are going to have to learn to tone down the advocacy a bit... In the mean time expect some ranting as Slashdots staff get comfortable with the idea of being mainstream. I'm shure Computer Currence had to make exactly the same transition a long time ago and I rember "news" from them in the past that showed a clear bies twords some hardware....
Vaporware is a very old problem. I don't think Microsoft dose get pinned with this one... Instead software announcments for Linux or Windows get this... Microsoft is pritty good at delivering what they announce.. It's usually not everything they initally clame but they do produce something eventually.
Commodore is more known for Vaporware.. they'd announce something and then not produce it. Commodore is dead... vaporware isn't what killed them but everyone.. even Microsoft.. wants to stay away from the unpopulare busness tactics of a company that didn't survive... More often announced unreleased open source programs get pingged with the vaporware tag.. and with good reason... Many open source projects never see the light of day. Companys like Microsoft want to be shure they can release a product before they start putting money into it. This reduces the chances of vaporware.
There are many advantages of open source software develupment but vaporware is one of the strong disadvantages...
Theres a lot of cool advantages to using source code that get premoted.. Easyer to hunt down trojens and other back doors... easyer to improve.. easyer to fix..
Easyer to port..... Lets think about this for a moment... The Internet is a patchwork of operating systems.. Some SGI, some Linux, some Solarus.. NT here OS/2 there... ohh theres a 3B2 tucked in the corner... You could release half a million binarys and still miss a few.. Porting to some isn't nessisarly going to be an easy task.. Getting it to work under NT for example may be a bit of an effort... under Dos may be futile... But say SCO Unix or SunOS may need only a recompile....
The best bet to getting this running on as many systems as posable is to releace code.... So why make binary only? We may know better than to trust security by obscurity but the FBI still believes in it. It'll be like pulling teath to convence then to open source it. I think the best selling point is this... Sysadm will not put up with secrets being keep from them. The crackers will eventually figure out how it works and if it can be thwarted they will do it. Leaving us with a useless binary we can not change. So you'll release an upgrade? Not on my box... Once cracked twice shy.. You won't get a second chance.. if they can not fix the code on the fly then WHEN it gets bypassed your code will be tossed out the window never to be seen again... You have some time... release the code so we can adapt before the crackers...
I don't think anything will effect the nature of Slashdot as long as CmdrTaco runs the shop.
Slashdot is sort of his baby and he's stuck with his guns before and he will in the future. Nothing Andover or VA can do about it. Contract or not he'll scream fuzzy blue mud if someone trys to insert commertal intrests into Slashdot. He allready seems annoyed about being dragged to shows. There was a mention of "strapping microphones to you morons" I work at night and sleep during the day so I'm not shure however as far as I can tell that was scaled back to a webcam and a recording of the beany awards... Lets face it.. NONE of the people at Slashdot like being messed with. None of them will stand for it. They will ALL rase a stink if someone trys to pull something... piriod...
However..... The illusion of editorial bies is enough to send some people into psycotic fits.
Slashdot has come under attack in the past and some people have allways been there in support of the attack. Things don't run perfictly and there will allways be someone who dosn't like whats going on.
Currently there is the problem of "first posts" and similer posts on every topic. The authors of the posts feel they are funny and that a hummorless Slashdot has chosen to censor them. A body of Slashdot readers believe Slashdot has not taken effective mesures to eliminate such posts.
No matter what Slashdot dose someone will accuse them of some sort of bies...
I don't think Slashdot will change any policys to favor VA but I'm shure a lot of people will think they have and that will effect Slashdot...
This never was a troll.. It was however off topic -1 before.. By being a little clever it becomes +3 funny...
A troll seeks to make people mad... The "Hot grits" posts seek to make people laff they make people mad becouse they are OFF TOPIC.. Not becouse the post says anything offensive..
Whats wrong with being a little off topic? Nothing much.. I am a little off topic now... But those "hot grits" posts were not "a little" off topic... they were TOTALLY off topic...
However a spoof is allway cool... (unless it's done in poor tast... but thats a bit to subjective for my poor brain) Anyway this never was a troll.. it was just off topic... now it's a spoof.... Being creative is a must when trying to be funny...
The soldier morals don't do much more than lower his/her chances of survival. Once in battle if they don't kill the target chances are good the target is going to kill them.
The problem is the people who declare war never have to see the blood. It's body counts and statistics. This is a problem that has been around every sence midevil kings opted not to lead the armys in battle.
IMHO anything that can bring leaders in contact with the blood (even camas on bombs) is a good thing. If you bomb a person you get to see the expression on his face before he is "deleated" an expression that will last forever.
The problem with iconning targets is a problem on many levels... In battle the soldiers morals are not suppresed. He will be compleatly aware those Icons aren't just pixles. It dosn't become "just a video game" to him just becouse he is killing icons. He knows there are real people behind those icons. The more he sees those icons and not the real people the more the icons start to look like friends and famaly. It's a matter of psycology. He will eventually vertuallise an enemy he can not kill simply becouse after every "frag" he says "I wonder" the frags become kills.. the enemy becomes someone he might have known.. A sensory disconect forces us to ask such questions of morality. It's easyer to see a person as evil when you can see the person and get force feed stereotypes.
There is annother problem... Is icons are the way to identify targets... that just turns our soldiers into atomitons. Machines can allready target and kill faster than humans and can survive a pounding. The intelect is what makes humans better killing machines than robots. The ability to correctly identify our targets. A machine iconifying targets for a human soldier would be a problem. Crack it or worse... utilise a defect. Then a whole army base can vanish from the vertual landsape. "Were did the icons go?"
Finnaly if the computer mistakenly idenifyed an innocent as a target.. say the people your asigned to protect... It would be a MAJOR political event. Even if it only happend on occasion.. It happends.. it's repeatable.. and can be demonstrated infront of the press.
Also when trainning when fragging icons the soldier will have no reason to become comfortable with killing real people who are simply represented by icons. The moment he is in a real battle he won't be seeing the icons as video game carricters but as real people.. and he will not be able to shoot.
There seems to be two thoughts on this... "Usenet is [Dead/dying]" and "Usenet is immortal" Both are wrong...
As long as there can be a Slashdot story on it's death the Usenet will be alive and well... Anybody remeber RC or ICB? write? No you say? It dosn't come to mind? Of course not... they are dead... write is still supported in Linux... I think you can still get ICB clients... and an update in the ircII client provides ICB support.... but who uses ICB? Better yet... where are the servers? But a few years ago ICB was alive and well... I played with it myself... compiled a client on a Sun Sparc.... It was cool:) But that was then.. Only the elite few knew what ICB was... then the elite few became fewer... and eventually the ultra elite... and then.. nothing.... No spam.. spammers never knew of icb... What about RC? It was replaced by IRC... I never knew what happend with RC.. never could find an RC client or an RC server..... And write... I still use that to spook people:) It's just a neat toy to chat with people on the same Unix box.. so both have to be logged in to the same box... but it's fun:) (BTW RC = Relay Chat NOT RC5... I'm refering to the chat system not the crypto challange)
There are probably many Internet protocalls that have long sence died that many of us don't rember.. Before it can die off we have to start forgetting it exists... then it's uses dwindle to a few loial and then they lose intrest.. the last server closes and it dies... But usenet is alive and well... we rember what it is and as long as we do it shall live... I rember it... I think... what was Usenet again??? (Just kidding)
What IS happening is Usenet is no longer trendy... It's not the center of the Internet anymore... Usenet once defined the Internet... not it's just a part of it... Today the world wide web defines the Internet... Some day that may nolonger be the case..... Some day... maybe.. we'll be using a Java enhanced data protocall where Java applets are served up by Java transport protocal to JVMs Or maybe not... It dosn't matter... Usenet isn't dead by a long shot... It's not trendy... thats far from dead... It can return to being Usenet.. what it's allways ment to be... instead of some cheap way to stuff press releaces down the data stream...
Microsoft added code from Microsoft basic to Commodore basic on the C128 and the Microsoft copyrite is from Microsofts basic... not from the first Pet basic... Microsofts copyrite dose not show up on any of the other Commodore 8 bits... To make maters more confusing... it's the date Microsoft last updated the copyrite so it's not the same year Microsoft first made Microsoft basic..
There are some clear diffrences in the Microsoft code and the Commodore code.. those diffrences introduced bugs into the C128..
People would like to blame the long standing history of bugs in Commodore basic on Microsoft however that history is also found in Commodore hardware and not in Microsoft basic during that time piriod...
Basicly Commodore develupers were allways in a rush to get the project they were working on into a state where it can be shown at a computer show... This is where they live or die..
Microsoft however was pritty content to take there time and get things right... Microsoft basic however did suffer from feature stuffing Microsoft would fix the bugs before shipping.. or remove the defective features...
Dos was where Microsoft first started releasing buggy code... Windows where they first started producing bloat...
With Commodore the R&D costs were reduced simply becouse the beta was a "release it and see if any anyone reports bugs" method...
It is an intresting subpoint here.. Communism really has nothing to do with censorship.. It can fit within any government and once within that government begins rotting it to the core. I'm very capitalist BTW but I can see capitalists valuing censorship as much as any communist.
But with a handy mem in place.. a stereotype as stronge as any racist idea.. he becomes conserned that having communicated his ideas may lable him as a communist and make him elegable for his own "thought crime"... Hence the very core of the problem... With a small slip it is easy to trip from censoring racism to censoring diversity... Racism is a very bad thing... but lets say I rant long and hard against ebonics.. (due to my spelling a rant from me on ebonics is the pot calling the kettle black) Am I being racist? I think not. It's an act of a hive mind and not an accual race thing as any race can use or not use ebonics. There is a REASON it's localised to a group that is race related.. But growing up in the area is itself is all it takes... Any race may aply. There is so much to challange... Maybe I don't like the tactics of a civil rights leader.. If I speak out agains one of his ideas on protecting the civil rights of a given race dose that make me racist or mearly a politician? If I don't like the UN and speak out on a tactic they use to combat racism dose that make be racist? Hay I might just be some random idiot who is just making excuses for attacking people or organisations... or I might have some valid points.. Or I might be a racist... Who is to be the judge? You see the problem... we have no Spock to look over and deside with no emotion.. with no easy mems.. with pure logic...
Censorship isn't automaticly a bad thing it's just usually a bad thing. Censorship of censorship for example is some times a nessisary evil. By censorship of censorship I mean dealing with psudo communications/noise that interfears with other peoples speach for example the "First post" stuff we get on slashdot.. this noise drowns out anyone who accually has something to say.
Thoughtcrime however is the idea of censoring speach to supprese an idea or a thought. That thought dose NOT get supressed and continues to fester underground with seathing hate that searches out socitys rejects. If we outlaw the color blue... some will dream up some sort of conspericy behind it and live out there days in blue walls... Of course outlawing a color is silly just as outlawing ideas....
Socity as a whole has rejected the notions of racism but it's still there. Supression is no way to combat it... but supression is the most populare tactic today.
Instead we should take our kids and point to them and say "Thies guys are bad" explain whats wrong with rejecting a people based on color and teach them to deal with the person as they are not as they look. Apperence is importent but only in so far as we have control over it. Cloaths, make up, etc are within a persons control ( Not 'latest fads' just not 'tacky' unless of course tacky IS latest fad and then it's ok..) but things we don't control (skin, gender, hair, eyes) do not speak of the person. Even disabilitys.. the disability dosn't speak of the person the mastory over it however speaks volumes... Teaching kids to value people as individuals not as groups. A person should be seen as a group only if that person puts themselfs in that group. A person not of a "hive mind" should not be so reguarded. Also teaching the child to be aware of stereotyping... even with reguard to "hive mind" groups.. A stereotype almost never conforms to reality and exists as a handy mem for people who do not wish to think. Even within a hive people are.. to some degree.. individuals... out of a hive of 10 you will find each dosn't totaly conform in one way or annother.
Isolation breads ignorence, fear and... yes... racism... Thoughtcrime is just the idea that you can criminalise a thought... the most you can do is censore it.. and that only makes things worse...
RMS started the open source movement wrote the GNU codebase and defends his ideals with such zeal he gets called a Zelot.. Linus Wrote the Linux kernel and brought to life the first compleate open source os... acted as the offical spokesmen for Linux and moved forward the first open source comertal product. ESR wrote a great deal of code base and acted as a strong open source advocate as well as just pressing the case to busnesses (who need the more down to earth type than the zelot) Bruce breathed life into Debian and has some code to his credit has jumpped into action when things went awry....
Each wrote some code and each pounded the flesh a little.... Right now I'd say Bruce... Becouse RMSes phase is over to some extent... the spokesmen fase Linus holds isn't as importent anymore.. ESR has made his case for the most part and Linux now has the name space and is a hot property... But far to new new joinners to open source don't know how to take this... So for the time being Bruce is the most importent element of the open source movement... I'll bet he'll be GLAD when his phase is over and good busness ethics for open source can take hold...
Don't get me wrong thies jobs are never really done.. We will need a RMS,Linus,ESR and Bruce as well as a CmdrTaco, a RedHat, a Caldera and an IBM for a long time ahead.... but as thies jobs become less focused they become more transportable... Linus isn't easly replaced yet but by the time he is ready to retired we'll have a smooth transition.. same goes for them all... Yes even CmdrTaco is vital...
Oh yes... myself... I'm totally replaceable... the trolls can replace me:) I don't do anything:)
Everyones responded to this post quite nicely.. challanged it in every way.. I did want to take this moment to step back a bit and remind everyone of how badly treated the strongest supporters of any given os are... usually by the worst of the supporters of compeating systems..
EVERYONE has Zelots.. Including Microsoft.. however far fewer than say.. Linux... Mac supporters do feel a bit beat up due to Macs "Computer for the rest of us" legacy.. Amiga users feel runover by all the clames at "inovation" when Amiga had done so much of it years before. Had Commodore not comitted suiside Microsoft might not have beaten the Amiga. Linux.. looked on as some sort of communist plot spat on with lame comments and generally insulted by anyone who'd rather disgard Linux than learn what it is... Linux advocates get pritty hot-headed.. At times losing there cool and making false clames.. "Everyone else dose"... Sun.. While still the server god Sun is losing namespace.. and fast.. Sun advocates are little more than defending the status que... Shocked and amazed that anyone would used anything else.. They also get kinda pissed when advocates of "lesser" platforms make false clames... can you blame them? Microsoft... More defenders of capitalism than defenders of Microsoft they folow the idea that the market dose no wrong. As a result they tend to repeate anything that sounds vagely proMicrosoft using the idea that "You don't get here by lying" as a cheatsheat for what is true and what is false... Thies are not "droids" and would not dare pick an os mindlessly instead they'd make an honnest evaluation of each operating system that fits within the area of need. Some Microsoft advocates use Mac or Linux instead of Windows. In an honnest debate you can allways get a Microsoft advocate to aggree that no one should be judged by the os they use.. a fair and resonable thing...
My first awareness of Zelots dates back to a time when Windows was still an industreal joke and Amiga was the only place for multimedia... That or a really supped up Apple//gz. At a computer show in the back I saw a Sinclare users group. Being a fan of the little (then dead) toy I went to say hello. Thies people couldn't stop saying how great it was.. One could only think "Are thies people in denial?" Not hardly... They found a computer thats perfiect for them.. and it's dead... Thats pritty much what a zelot is.. someone who is defending something importent to them... Usually it's just a peace of technology that works perfictly for them... but some times theres an ideal attached... Open source, "The rest of us", captialism (or "The right to make money from your work"), or just the princaple.. "We were here first"....
I might have some of the Zelots addatudes or ideas wrong.. but the overall senitiment remains...
Acually I agree with Bill Gates on this point and I agree with your point the ONLY thing I disagree with is his busness sence. Bill Gates has the ability to learn... he is a VERY smart man and can learn a great deal from his mistakes. He made those mistakes in the 1970s and 1980s.. and learned from them. His busness sence was not very sharp however... He misjudged the "hobby market" as he called it.. He didn't realise the "hobbyests" would be so intelectual and have no clue about intelectual property. It seemed almost imposable to his way of thinking. Even today to some extent the impact of IP theft is not understood. I'm reminded of two young programmers who walked into the computer users group I belonged too. They originally planned to demo a new product. Much to there suprise someone else was selling it. They got even by giving away the source code and I got a copy for myself. It's sad thow. Annother time someone did the same thing to a market test version of a great program.
On the other hand.. there was the time someone sold a comertal version of Roage.. Also one company offered to sell liccenses to users of "unatherised" copys of there software... Posably a forshadowing of selling technical support... DYM BBS was sold with having your BBS listed on the DYM master list... a bit of premotion of your BBS was done.. and you got the source code to boot...
Re:How many of you have actually used Solaris?
on
Free Solaris 8
·
· Score: 1
Again I ask, Have you ever used Solaris. The Netra T1 costs around $4k. Thats not expensive. $4k not expensive? Ohh shure yeah... $4k is more than I paid for my whole fscking computer... No I havn't.. have you used Herd? Or Lynx/Os? Nither have I...
Your getting annoyed becouse people don't want to try out Solarus.. It's up to Sun to premote it and get people to want to try it.. Not up to me to go around trying everything anyone puts out...
Now... if someone trys to say Linux is an enterprise class os.. they deserve a clue by 4 acrost the umm manhood... If I was intrested in an enterprise class os then Solarus is the FIRST place I'd look.. not even BSD... Sun has a killer record and Solarus produces some nice stats... Linux isn't enterprise class... YET... However my computer sits on my desk... I don't need a server that dosn't crash I need... a toy... You can stabilise Linux so it won't crash (you can stabilise ANYTHING so it won't crash) and I'm aware Solarus dosn't need to be stabilised it comes out of the box stable... Same is true of OpenBSD... Stable out of box...
But lets face it.. My platform of choice... Pentium 200 MMX, Linux Slackware... there is NO way you could think I had stability in mind... I'd say your nuts if you did...
Re:How many of you have actually used Solaris?
on
Free Solaris 8
·
· Score: 2
I have used SysV[Not SrV] SunOs, and Xenix I have not had much intrest in Solarus... out of my price range...
Very few if any suggest Linux IS for everyone. It is that few suggest Solarus for anyone anymore. Suns problems come from Sun pricing themselfs out of the market... Suns busness modle is based on the idea of selling powerful servers at top notch prices. As systems become more and more powerful people find less expensive midrange computers will do the job just as well as the expensive servers. The law of diminishing returns... Suns needs to change there busness modle before there target market ceases to exist...
The zelot like support of Linux has more to do with open source (the develupment modle used) than anything else.
Most of Linux comes from the GNU project.. the soul of the open source movement... OpenBSD has a legacy of it's own and it's harder to premote open source while pushing an Os that started off life as a commertal product. However the complaint you have of Linux (the develipment modle) should be equally true of OpenBSD as they currently use the open source develupment modle.. implemented diffrently...
It is my experence however that managment of a project not a develupment modle will encurage or discurage slopy code. It is also my experence that sloppy code will not be as likely spotted in a closed source product as it would in an open source product.. simply becouse you can't see the sloppy code unless you accually have the code in your hands... There simply will be more complaints about bad coding habbits when you have a chance to accually spot it. My experences with the code of closed source products are not good.
I have heard nothing but good things from Solarus itself... It has a Rolex reputation.. a reputation for quality and at a very hefty price...
Back in the 1980s Sun trunned away from selling workstations to home users... At that time Windows was a joke and people were looking to Unix as the "next big thing"... It never happend.... Each Unix had a problem... Suns problem is Sun would discontinue workstations before the could drop into a price range home users could affort.. Thats fine.. Sun like many companys prefered to focuse on the high end market... The low end market couldn't wait for a reasonably prices Unix and ended up going with Windows... ISPs looking to save money examined alternitives to Sun and found Windows NT to be a way to cut costs. Sun being a bit blind to the market realitys offered Solarus with a rather expensive pricetag. As Linux would move into the light Linux would replace Windows NT... Sun has been phased out over 10 years... just now noticing they arn't in controll of the market... It says some bad things about Sun when they can be taken by supprise by something thats been slowly comming to pass over a decade...
It seems Sun has simply expected the old Unix market to remain forever... If thats true there really is something wrong as Sun themselfs is responsable for moving Unix from the mainframe to the desktop.... Putting an end to the old Unix mainframe market forever
Well the closest I could think of would be "Slashdot"... Hay maybe we should e-mail CmdrTaco and tell him he is OFF TOPIC:) Ohhhh he's gona hate me...:) But this isn't news.... not to me... Accually I think this kind of artical is neat but it SHOULD be in a topic fitting to it... It should be "SlashCrew" for personal stuff reguarding the slashdot crew... Some of us LIKE the personal touch.. some of us don't... Slashdots design alows us to filter a tad so maybe that should be something we should be allowed to filter... hmm?
The original pleage was trogens but they died quickly from being easy to track down... Linux viruses would be akin to Dos trojens.. easy to track down.. there is a REASON why *nix has a sereous trojen problem and vertually no virus problem while Windows has exactly the reverse..
While trojens can be tracked down easly *nix viri need root access.. Many users prefer to download source code.. true SOME go for binarys...
Also viri in order to move from system to system a binary has to find it's way from a victom machine to a new victom.. Sence users can download binarys from the original author or from a "trusted source" or a mirror of same the exposure is limited.
Back in the good old BBS days you downloaded from BBSes.. the binary on the BBS is unlikely to have come directly from the author but may have changed hands. The chances of passed through an infected computer is reasonable. The infected user will disinfect his system but the virus will remain on the BBS laying wait for a new victiom.
Sence users now download from a reasonable secure source the chances of the virus spreeding is reduced considerably. This is true for Windows and *nix. Not vanished but it dose make tracking down and permenently terminating a virus a likely event.
Archives now a days tend to contain source so if a user wants a binary they may have to go to the original author.
Finnaly if you do try to run software from root many applications issue scary warnings about doing so. If more programmers did this that would be enough to keep any newbe from trying to run stuff from root.
This dosn't compleatly eliminate viruses.. Viruses can (and as Linux grows in popularity WILL) attempt to use defects in Linux security to gain root. As this happends the defects will be repaired. Some viruses will attempt brute force attacks and Linux will be modifyed to detect such attempts and KILL the offending code.. and leave a user e-mail saying "Virus in...."
Basicly viruses in Linux will exist but have a short lifespan and a difficulty spreeding in the first place. Windows will also face thies problems.
Instead of worse viruses for Linux I see more efforts to explote Windows defects as Microsoft seems less intrested in fixing them. More e-mail viruses...
I also see attack programs phasing out viruses.. The reasonning is once trojens could sereously criple whole groups of users.. not anymore.. they are easly cought and distoryed... viruses replaced them as viruses can not be easlly cought but now viruses can be thwarted and tracked down, attack programs run on the offending users machine issolated fron any anti-whatever software... It also gives the attacker that personal feel.. he can keep a bodycount. A virus in the wild is untracable even by the author. He only knows of his suceess from newsgroups... if his virus dies he may never know what went wrong.
Just my opinion... and of course.. I could be wrong... but thats allways true:)
Slashdot Mirror
No kidding [Horrific speller here] :)
Might you have made more of a comment than that one line?
Input is a good thing
Linus and Apple are both defending trademarks not copyrights.
Copyrights don't become generic if you let other people use it.. in many cases you have no choice (see fair use) but with Trademarks you have to defend your trademark like a zelot...
Basicly a copyright says "I own this text/work/design" patent "I own this machine" Trademark "This refers to me" not "I own it" but in a way "it owns me"....
The idea is that it refers only to you... and not to someone or something else... An easy way for a costummer to identify you...
"Apple Linux" better refer to the Linux operating system on an Apple computer or someone is going to be screwed... (Especally if it's the name of Microsofts latest operating system)
Apple is basicly worryed about the delusion of the Apple logo by allowing it to be used on theams used by non-Macs.....
I would also like to add that such trademarks should NOT be applicable to themes.. that they should be (by nature of a user adding them and not bundled with an os) not reduce the meaning of the trademark... The apple logo is there becouse it's Apples logo... It belongs there...
However that is not how the legal experts will see it...
(insert very bad language here)
Yes it dose.. Your keeping up with the industry. :) and Slashdot dose that nicely :)
:) It's research....
Ok I'm not a knowladge worker but my time on-line still counts... I'm a night watch person. Anything that keeps me awake is part of my job
Anyway Slashdot talks about technology and tech issues things you people have to keep up on to stay at the top of the game. So yes time spent reading Slashdot dose count as work
In Microsofts case they name a compeditor such as Sun Microsystems.. well known for producing extreamly high quality....
In VAs case they are being generic refering to all the Windows PCs with hardware that may is not so great on Linux but works wonders for Windows...
VA is a pure Linux vender compeating against PC venders.. some who charg $100 to slap install RedHat...
Microsofts attack is "We elcheapo watchco make better watches that rolex"...
VA is "We Timex make better watches than companys who make cheap watches"...
It's not so bad... True they presume all the other Linux venders are not pure Linux venders... This isn't the case... But it's standard operating procedure... busness as usuall... no biggy deal...
Look at the discription at the bottom of his artical.
He seems to think he has a sereous prospective.
He is trying (very hard) to stand between Microsoft and Open source and be critical of both.
This is an imposable task...
How can you be critical of Microsoft while repeating Microsofts FUD? You can't...
So Metcalfe opts to come up with his own bizzar comments...
True it would be nice if the code morphing source code were available... But it's Transmetas call and not up to Linus...
That may be what Metcalfe is getting at but in all his rantings he forgot to mention it...
But then has anyone asked Transmeta for it?
Ooohhh looks like someone dosn't like the prospect of lose marketshare to a free product hmmm?
Ok to get back to the subject....
There isn't that much chance of two people comming up with the same DNA.. Thats the whole point of the DNA fingerprint.
On the other hand it is posable to polute DNA samples... If you have sample a and sample b in the same lab at the same time it is posable to mistakenly mix a and b together...
DNA evedence shouldn't be total proff simply backup evedence...
Well I guess ZD no longer fears the wraith of Microsoft.
Only a few years ago ZD wouldn't have reported a story like this or would have put the best spin posable on it. Why? For fear that Microsoft might respond by cutting them off. Now such a threat dosn't seem to bother ZD.
Yes even to my Linux Zelot eyes it dose look like ZD has put the worst spin on this. 65k posable bugs.. maybe? We don't know if they exist or if any of them will be in the final code?
That is still a lot of bugs to fix.. It should be resonable to presume some will be missed.. That is presumming there really is 65k bugs... Yes I'm having a hard time picturing ANY code having THAT MANY bugs... even a Microsoft product...
65k issues... thats beleavable... "I don't like this font"... But then 65k issues are asthetic and not real problems.
This has that FUD like feel to it... I'd have said it was prompted by Microsoft if it wasn't for the fact that Win2K isn't compeating against Microsoft...
Windows dosn't call them Daemons but Windows runs it just the same.
:)
The code could easlly be ported to Windows...
The publisher of the artical called it shotty slashdot simply reported the fact...
The original artical relyed on the myth that you could insert back doors into open source code and out into closed source... In reality back doors and trojens thrive in closed source when they can not be easly spotted or removed...
Slashdot did do a bit much suggesting the artical came from Microsoft.. This however isn't unreasonable (unlike the artical and your post) given Microsofts history of spreading FUD with a number of sources including news and technical media.
Slashdot is growing from what was pritty much an advocacy/news resorce to a major news resorce and they are going to have to learn to tone down the advocacy a bit...
In the mean time expect some ranting as Slashdots staff get comfortable with the idea of being mainstream. I'm shure Computer Currence had to make exactly the same transition a long time ago and I rember "news" from them in the past that showed a clear bies twords some hardware....
Give em some slack
Vaporware is a very old problem. I don't think Microsoft dose get pinned with this one...
Instead software announcments for Linux or Windows get this...
Microsoft is pritty good at delivering what they announce.. It's usually not everything they initally clame but they do produce something eventually.
Commodore is more known for Vaporware.. they'd announce something and then not produce it. Commodore is dead... vaporware isn't what killed them but everyone.. even Microsoft.. wants to stay away from the unpopulare busness tactics of a company that didn't survive...
More often announced unreleased open source programs get pingged with the vaporware tag.. and with good reason... Many open source projects never see the light of day.
Companys like Microsoft want to be shure they can release a product before they start putting money into it. This reduces the chances of vaporware.
There are many advantages of open source software develupment but vaporware is one of the strong disadvantages...
Theres a lot of cool advantages to using source code that get premoted.. Easyer to hunt down trojens and other back doors... easyer to improve.. easyer to fix..
Easyer to port.....
Lets think about this for a moment... The Internet is a patchwork of operating systems.. Some SGI, some Linux, some Solarus.. NT here OS/2 there... ohh theres a 3B2 tucked in the corner...
You could release half a million binarys and still miss a few..
Porting to some isn't nessisarly going to be an easy task.. Getting it to work under NT for example may be a bit of an effort... under Dos may be futile... But say SCO Unix or SunOS may need only a recompile....
The best bet to getting this running on as many systems as posable is to releace code....
So why make binary only?
We may know better than to trust security by obscurity but the FBI still believes in it.
It'll be like pulling teath to convence then to open source it.
I think the best selling point is this... Sysadm will not put up with secrets being keep from them.
The crackers will eventually figure out how it works and if it can be thwarted they will do it. Leaving us with a useless binary we can not change.
So you'll release an upgrade? Not on my box...
Once cracked twice shy.. You won't get a second chance.. if they can not fix the code on the fly then WHEN it gets bypassed your code will be tossed out the window never to be seen again...
You have some time... release the code so we can adapt before the crackers...
I don't think anything will effect the nature of Slashdot as long as CmdrTaco runs the shop.
Slashdot is sort of his baby and he's stuck with his guns before and he will in the future. Nothing Andover or VA can do about it. Contract or not he'll scream fuzzy blue mud if someone trys to insert commertal intrests into Slashdot.
He allready seems annoyed about being dragged to shows. There was a mention of "strapping microphones to you morons" I work at night and sleep during the day so I'm not shure however as far as I can tell that was scaled back to a webcam and a recording of the beany awards...
Lets face it.. NONE of the people at Slashdot like being messed with. None of them will stand for it. They will ALL rase a stink if someone trys to pull something... piriod...
However.....
The illusion of editorial bies is enough to send some people into psycotic fits.
Slashdot has come under attack in the past and some people have allways been there in support of the attack.
Things don't run perfictly and there will allways be someone who dosn't like whats going on.
Currently there is the problem of "first posts" and similer posts on every topic.
The authors of the posts feel they are funny and that a hummorless Slashdot has chosen to censor them.
A body of Slashdot readers believe Slashdot has not taken effective mesures to eliminate such posts.
No matter what Slashdot dose someone will accuse them of some sort of bies...
I don't think Slashdot will change any policys to favor VA but I'm shure a lot of people will think they have and that will effect Slashdot...
This never was a troll.. It was however off topic -1 before.. By being a little clever it becomes +3 funny...
:)
A troll seeks to make people mad...
The "Hot grits" posts seek to make people laff
they make people mad becouse they are OFF TOPIC.. Not becouse the post says anything offensive..
Whats wrong with being a little off topic?
Nothing much.. I am a little off topic now...
But those "hot grits" posts were not "a little" off topic... they were TOTALLY off topic...
However a spoof is allway cool... (unless it's done in poor tast... but thats a bit to subjective for my poor brain)
Anyway this never was a troll.. it was just off topic... now it's a spoof....
Being creative is a must when trying to be funny...
Thank you.. and this concludes this rant
The soldier morals don't do much more than lower his/her chances of survival. Once in battle if they don't kill the target chances are good the target is going to kill them.
The problem is the people who declare war never have to see the blood. It's body counts and statistics. This is a problem that has been around every sence midevil kings opted not to lead the armys in battle.
IMHO anything that can bring leaders in contact with the blood (even camas on bombs) is a good thing. If you bomb a person you get to see the expression on his face before he is "deleated" an expression that will last forever.
The problem with iconning targets is a problem on many levels...
In battle the soldiers morals are not suppresed. He will be compleatly aware those Icons aren't just pixles. It dosn't become "just a video game" to him just becouse he is killing icons. He knows there are real people behind those icons. The more he sees those icons and not the real people the more the icons start to look like friends and famaly. It's a matter of psycology. He will eventually vertuallise an enemy he can not kill simply becouse after every "frag" he says "I wonder" the frags become kills.. the enemy becomes someone he might have known.. A sensory disconect forces us to ask such questions of morality.
It's easyer to see a person as evil when you can see the person and get force feed stereotypes.
There is annother problem... Is icons are the way to identify targets... that just turns our soldiers into atomitons. Machines can allready target and kill faster than humans and can survive a pounding. The intelect is what makes humans better killing machines than robots. The ability to correctly identify our targets. A machine iconifying targets for a human soldier would be a problem. Crack it or worse... utilise a defect. Then a whole army base can vanish from the vertual landsape. "Were did the icons go?"
Finnaly if the computer mistakenly idenifyed an innocent as a target.. say the people your asigned to protect... It would be a MAJOR political event. Even if it only happend on occasion.. It happends.. it's repeatable.. and can be demonstrated infront of the press.
Also when trainning when fragging icons the soldier will have no reason to become comfortable with killing real people who are simply represented by icons. The moment he is in a real battle he won't be seeing the icons as video game carricters but as real people.. and he will not be able to shoot.
There seems to be two thoughts on this...
:) :) It's just a neat toy to chat with people on the same Unix box.. so both have to be logged in to the same box... but it's fun :)
"Usenet is [Dead/dying]" and "Usenet is immortal"
Both are wrong...
As long as there can be a Slashdot story on it's death the Usenet will be alive and well...
Anybody remeber RC or ICB? write? No you say? It dosn't come to mind?
Of course not... they are dead... write is still supported in Linux... I think you can still get ICB clients... and an update in the ircII client provides ICB support.... but who uses ICB? Better yet... where are the servers?
But a few years ago ICB was alive and well... I played with it myself... compiled a client on a Sun Sparc.... It was cool
But that was then.. Only the elite few knew what ICB was... then the elite few became fewer... and eventually the ultra elite... and then.. nothing.... No spam.. spammers never knew of icb...
What about RC? It was replaced by IRC... I never knew what happend with RC.. never could find an RC client or an RC server.....
And write... I still use that to spook people
(BTW RC = Relay Chat NOT RC5... I'm refering to the chat system not the crypto challange)
There are probably many Internet protocalls that have long sence died that many of us don't rember..
Before it can die off we have to start forgetting it exists... then it's uses dwindle to a few loial and then they lose intrest.. the last server closes and it dies...
But usenet is alive and well... we rember what it is and as long as we do it shall live... I rember it... I think... what was Usenet again??? (Just kidding)
What IS happening is Usenet is no longer trendy... It's not the center of the Internet anymore...
Usenet once defined the Internet... not it's just a part of it...
Today the world wide web defines the Internet...
Some day that may nolonger be the case.....
Some day... maybe.. we'll be using a Java enhanced data protocall where Java applets are served up by Java transport protocal to JVMs Or maybe not...
It dosn't matter... Usenet isn't dead by a long shot... It's not trendy... thats far from dead...
It can return to being Usenet.. what it's allways ment to be... instead of some cheap way to stuff press releaces down the data stream...
Microsoft added code from Microsoft basic to Commodore basic on the C128 and the Microsoft copyrite is from Microsofts basic... not from the first Pet basic...
Microsofts copyrite dose not show up on any of the other Commodore 8 bits...
To make maters more confusing... it's the date Microsoft last updated the copyrite so it's not the same year Microsoft first made Microsoft basic..
There are some clear diffrences in the Microsoft code and the Commodore code.. those diffrences introduced bugs into the C128..
People would like to blame the long standing history of bugs in Commodore basic on Microsoft however that history is also found in Commodore hardware and not in Microsoft basic during that time piriod...
Basicly Commodore develupers were allways in a rush to get the project they were working on into a state where it can be shown at a computer show... This is where they live or die..
Microsoft however was pritty content to take there time and get things right... Microsoft basic however did suffer from feature stuffing Microsoft would fix the bugs before shipping.. or remove the defective features...
Dos was where Microsoft first started releasing buggy code... Windows where they first started producing bloat...
With Commodore the R&D costs were reduced simply becouse the beta was a "release it and see if any anyone reports bugs" method...
It is an intresting subpoint here..
Communism really has nothing to do with censorship.. It can fit within any government and once within that government begins rotting it to the core.
I'm very capitalist BTW but I can see capitalists valuing censorship as much as any communist.
But with a handy mem in place.. a stereotype as stronge as any racist idea.. he becomes conserned that having communicated his ideas may lable him as a communist and make him elegable for his own "thought crime"...
Hence the very core of the problem... With a small slip it is easy to trip from censoring racism to censoring diversity...
Racism is a very bad thing... but lets say I rant long and hard against ebonics.. (due to my spelling a rant from me on ebonics is the pot calling the kettle black) Am I being racist? I think not. It's an act of a hive mind and not an accual race thing as any race can use or not use ebonics. There is a REASON it's localised to a group that is race related.. But growing up in the area is itself is all it takes... Any race may aply.
There is so much to challange... Maybe I don't like the tactics of a civil rights leader.. If I speak out agains one of his ideas on protecting the civil rights of a given race dose that make me racist or mearly a politician?
If I don't like the UN and speak out on a tactic they use to combat racism dose that make be racist?
Hay I might just be some random idiot who is just making excuses for attacking people or organisations... or I might have some valid points.. Or I might be a racist... Who is to be the judge?
You see the problem... we have no Spock to look over and deside with no emotion.. with no easy mems.. with pure logic...
Censorship isn't automaticly a bad thing it's just usually a bad thing. Censorship of censorship for example is some times a nessisary evil.
By censorship of censorship I mean dealing with psudo communications/noise that interfears with other peoples speach for example the "First post" stuff we get on slashdot.. this noise drowns out anyone who accually has something to say.
Thoughtcrime however is the idea of censoring speach to supprese an idea or a thought. That thought dose NOT get supressed and continues to fester underground with seathing hate that searches out socitys rejects.
If we outlaw the color blue... some will dream up some sort of conspericy behind it and live out there days in blue walls...
Of course outlawing a color is silly just as outlawing ideas....
Socity as a whole has rejected the notions of racism but it's still there. Supression is no way to combat it... but supression is the most populare tactic today.
Instead we should take our kids and point to them and say "Thies guys are bad" explain whats wrong with rejecting a people based on color and teach them to deal with the person as they are not as they look.
Apperence is importent but only in so far as we have control over it. Cloaths, make up, etc are within a persons control ( Not 'latest fads' just not 'tacky' unless of course tacky IS latest fad and then it's ok..) but things we don't control (skin, gender, hair, eyes) do not speak of the person. Even disabilitys.. the disability dosn't speak of the person the mastory over it however speaks volumes...
Teaching kids to value people as individuals not as groups. A person should be seen as a group only if that person puts themselfs in that group. A person not of a "hive mind" should not be so reguarded.
Also teaching the child to be aware of stereotyping... even with reguard to "hive mind" groups.. A stereotype almost never conforms to reality and exists as a handy mem for people who do not wish to think.
Even within a hive people are.. to some degree.. individuals... out of a hive of 10 you will find each dosn't totaly conform in one way or annother.
Isolation breads ignorence, fear and... yes... racism...
Thoughtcrime is just the idea that you can criminalise a thought... the most you can do is censore it.. and that only makes things worse...
RMS started the open source movement wrote the GNU codebase and defends his ideals with such zeal he gets called a Zelot..
:) I don't do anything :)
Linus Wrote the Linux kernel and brought to life the first compleate open source os... acted as the offical spokesmen for Linux and moved forward the first open source comertal product.
ESR wrote a great deal of code base and acted as a strong open source advocate as well as just pressing the case to busnesses (who need the more down to earth type than the zelot)
Bruce breathed life into Debian and has some code to his credit has jumpped into action when things went awry....
Each wrote some code and each pounded the flesh a little....
Right now I'd say Bruce... Becouse RMSes phase is over to some extent... the spokesmen fase Linus holds isn't as importent anymore.. ESR has made his case for the most part and Linux now has the name space and is a hot property...
But far to new new joinners to open source don't know how to take this... So for the time being Bruce is the most importent element of the open source movement...
I'll bet he'll be GLAD when his phase is over and good busness ethics for open source can take hold...
Don't get me wrong thies jobs are never really done.. We will need a RMS,Linus,ESR and Bruce as well as a CmdrTaco, a RedHat, a Caldera and an IBM for a long time ahead.... but as thies jobs become less focused they become more transportable... Linus isn't easly replaced yet but by the time he is ready to retired we'll have a smooth transition.. same goes for them all...
Yes even CmdrTaco is vital...
Oh yes... myself... I'm totally replaceable... the trolls can replace me
Everyones responded to this post quite nicely.. challanged it in every way..
I did want to take this moment to step back a bit and remind everyone of how badly treated the strongest supporters of any given os are... usually by the worst of the supporters of compeating systems..
EVERYONE has Zelots.. Including Microsoft.. however far fewer than say.. Linux...
Mac supporters do feel a bit beat up due to Macs "Computer for the rest of us" legacy..
Amiga users feel runover by all the clames at "inovation" when Amiga had done so much of it years before. Had Commodore not comitted suiside Microsoft might not have beaten the Amiga.
Linux.. looked on as some sort of communist plot spat on with lame comments and generally insulted by anyone who'd rather disgard Linux than learn what it is... Linux advocates get pritty hot-headed.. At times losing there cool and making false clames.. "Everyone else dose"...
Sun.. While still the server god Sun is losing namespace.. and fast.. Sun advocates are little more than defending the status que... Shocked and amazed that anyone would used anything else.. They also get kinda pissed when advocates of "lesser" platforms make false clames... can you blame them?
Microsoft... More defenders of capitalism than defenders of Microsoft they folow the idea that the market dose no wrong.
As a result they tend to repeate anything that sounds vagely proMicrosoft using the idea that "You don't get here by lying" as a cheatsheat for what is true and what is false...
Thies are not "droids" and would not dare pick an os mindlessly instead they'd make an honnest evaluation of each operating system that fits within the area of need. Some Microsoft advocates use Mac or Linux instead of Windows. In an honnest debate you can allways get a Microsoft advocate to aggree that no one should be judged by the os they use.. a fair and resonable thing...
My first awareness of Zelots dates back to a time when Windows was still an industreal joke and Amiga was the only place for multimedia... That or a really supped up Apple//gz.
At a computer show in the back I saw a Sinclare users group. Being a fan of the little (then dead) toy I went to say hello. Thies people couldn't stop saying how great it was.. One could only think "Are thies people in denial?" Not hardly... They found a computer thats perfiect for them.. and it's dead...
Thats pritty much what a zelot is.. someone who is defending something importent to them... Usually it's just a peace of technology that works perfictly for them... but some times theres an ideal attached...
Open source, "The rest of us", captialism (or "The right to make money from your work"), or just the princaple.. "We were here first"....
I might have some of the Zelots addatudes or ideas wrong.. but the overall senitiment remains...
Acually I agree with Bill Gates on this point and I agree with your point the ONLY thing I disagree with is his busness sence.
Bill Gates has the ability to learn... he is a VERY smart man and can learn a great deal from his mistakes.
He made those mistakes in the 1970s and 1980s.. and learned from them. His busness sence was not very sharp however...
He misjudged the "hobby market" as he called it.. He didn't realise the "hobbyests" would be so intelectual and have no clue about intelectual property. It seemed almost imposable to his way of thinking. Even today to some extent the impact of IP theft is not understood.
I'm reminded of two young programmers who walked into the computer users group I belonged too. They originally planned to demo a new product. Much to there suprise someone else was selling it. They got even by giving away the source code and I got a copy for myself.
It's sad thow.
Annother time someone did the same thing to a market test version of a great program.
On the other hand.. there was the time someone sold a comertal version of Roage..
Also one company offered to sell liccenses to users of "unatherised" copys of there software...
Posably a forshadowing of selling technical support... DYM BBS was sold with having your BBS listed on the DYM master list... a bit of premotion of your BBS was done.. and you got the source code to boot...
Again I ask, Have you ever used Solaris. The Netra T1 costs around $4k. Thats not expensive.
$4k not expensive?
Ohh shure yeah... $4k is more than I paid for my whole fscking computer...
No I havn't.. have you used Herd? Or Lynx/Os?
Nither have I...
Your getting annoyed becouse people don't want to try out Solarus.. It's up to Sun to premote it and get people to want to try it.. Not up to me to go around trying everything anyone puts out...
Now... if someone trys to say Linux is an enterprise class os.. they deserve a clue by 4 acrost the umm manhood...
If I was intrested in an enterprise class os then Solarus is the FIRST place I'd look.. not even BSD... Sun has a killer record and Solarus produces some nice stats...
Linux isn't enterprise class... YET...
However my computer sits on my desk... I don't need a server that dosn't crash I need... a toy...
You can stabilise Linux so it won't crash (you can stabilise ANYTHING so it won't crash) and I'm aware Solarus dosn't need to be stabilised it comes out of the box stable...
Same is true of OpenBSD... Stable out of box...
But lets face it.. My platform of choice... Pentium 200 MMX, Linux Slackware... there is NO way you could think I had stability in mind... I'd say your nuts if you did...
I have used SysV[Not SrV] SunOs, and Xenix I have not had much intrest in Solarus... out of my price range...
Very few if any suggest Linux IS for everyone.
It is that few suggest Solarus for anyone anymore.
Suns problems come from Sun pricing themselfs out of the market...
Suns busness modle is based on the idea of selling powerful servers at top notch prices.
As systems become more and more powerful people find less expensive midrange computers will do the job just as well as the expensive servers. The law of diminishing returns...
Suns needs to change there busness modle before there target market ceases to exist...
The zelot like support of Linux has more to do with open source (the develupment modle used) than anything else.
Most of Linux comes from the GNU project.. the soul of the open source movement... OpenBSD has a legacy of it's own and it's harder to premote open source while pushing an Os that started off life as a commertal product.
However the complaint you have of Linux (the develipment modle) should be equally true of OpenBSD as they currently use the open source develupment modle.. implemented diffrently...
It is my experence however that managment of a project not a develupment modle will encurage or discurage slopy code.
It is also my experence that sloppy code will not be as likely spotted in a closed source product as it would in an open source product.. simply becouse you can't see the sloppy code unless you accually have the code in your hands...
There simply will be more complaints about bad coding habbits when you have a chance to accually spot it.
My experences with the code of closed source products are not good.
I have heard nothing but good things from Solarus itself... It has a Rolex reputation.. a reputation for quality and at a very hefty price...
Back in the 1980s Sun trunned away from selling workstations to home users...
At that time Windows was a joke and people were looking to Unix as the "next big thing"...
It never happend....
Each Unix had a problem...
Suns problem is Sun would discontinue workstations before the could drop into a price range home users could affort..
Thats fine.. Sun like many companys prefered to focuse on the high end market...
The low end market couldn't wait for a reasonably prices Unix and ended up going with Windows...
ISPs looking to save money examined alternitives to Sun and found Windows NT to be a way to cut costs. Sun being a bit blind to the market realitys offered Solarus with a rather expensive pricetag.
As Linux would move into the light Linux would replace Windows NT...
Sun has been phased out over 10 years... just now noticing they arn't in controll of the market...
It says some bad things about Sun when they can be taken by supprise by something thats been slowly comming to pass over a decade...
It seems Sun has simply expected the old Unix market to remain forever... If thats true there really is something wrong as Sun themselfs is responsable for moving Unix from the mainframe to the desktop.... Putting an end to the old Unix mainframe market forever
Well the closest I could think of would be "Slashdot"... :) :)
Hay maybe we should e-mail CmdrTaco and tell him he is OFF TOPIC
Ohhhh he's gona hate me...
But this isn't news.... not to me...
Accually I think this kind of artical is neat but it SHOULD be in a topic fitting to it...
It should be "SlashCrew" for personal stuff reguarding the slashdot crew...
Some of us LIKE the personal touch.. some of us don't... Slashdots design alows us to filter a tad so maybe that should be something we should be allowed to filter... hmm?
Just a thought
The original pleage was trogens but they died quickly from being easy to track down...
...."
:)
Linux viruses would be akin to Dos trojens.. easy to track down.. there is a REASON why *nix has a sereous trojen problem and vertually no virus problem while Windows has exactly the reverse..
While trojens can be tracked down easly *nix viri need root access.. Many users prefer to download source code.. true SOME go for binarys...
Also viri in order to move from system to system a binary has to find it's way from a victom machine to a new victom.. Sence users can download binarys from the original author or from a "trusted source" or a mirror of same the exposure is limited.
Back in the good old BBS days you downloaded from BBSes.. the binary on the BBS is unlikely to have come directly from the author but may have changed hands. The chances of passed through an infected computer is reasonable. The infected user will disinfect his system but the virus will remain on the BBS laying wait for a new victiom.
Sence users now download from a reasonable secure source the chances of the virus spreeding is reduced considerably. This is true for Windows and *nix. Not vanished but it dose make tracking down and permenently terminating a virus a likely event.
Archives now a days tend to contain source so if a user wants a binary they may have to go to the original author.
Finnaly if you do try to run software from root many applications issue scary warnings about doing so. If more programmers did this that would be enough to keep any newbe from trying to run stuff from root.
This dosn't compleatly eliminate viruses.. Viruses can (and as Linux grows in popularity WILL) attempt to use defects in Linux security to gain root. As this happends the defects will be repaired. Some viruses will attempt brute force attacks and Linux will be modifyed to detect such attempts and KILL the offending code.. and leave a user e-mail saying "Virus in
Basicly viruses in Linux will exist but have a short lifespan and a difficulty spreeding in the first place. Windows will also face thies problems.
Instead of worse viruses for Linux I see more efforts to explote Windows defects as Microsoft seems less intrested in fixing them. More e-mail viruses...
I also see attack programs phasing out viruses.. The reasonning is once trojens could sereously criple whole groups of users.. not anymore.. they are easly cought and distoryed... viruses replaced them as viruses can not be easlly cought but now viruses can be thwarted and tracked down, attack programs run on the offending users machine issolated fron any anti-whatever software...
It also gives the attacker that personal feel.. he can keep a bodycount. A virus in the wild is untracable even by the author. He only knows of his suceess from newsgroups... if his virus dies he may never know what went wrong.
Just my opinion... and of course.. I could be wrong... but thats allways true