Jump in and start developing! This is a wonderful way to learn your way around these new packages and explore what they currently can and cannot do. Download the source, compile and try and add a feature your project needs. Give yourself a Saturday or Sunday if you have to work otherwise and see what you can make of it. You'll soon discover whether or not it's ready for your project.
I totally see the point. It's not currently used in a lot of enterprise situations but it sure could make a great mail server, NFS point for a workgroup or even a large SMB server. It can handle huge Apache loads and costs much less than Red Hat. It's all very open and very stable. It scales and it can handle significant loads for long periods of time without getting crushed. I'm not saying RHEL can't do that. I'm just saying, admittedly in a *wink-wink* manner, there's other robust platforms available that have not been fully exploited.
My point in posting was to inform others about another choice available. Red Hat's got a big name, and that's what most Enterprises will go for. Many smallers businesses, however, don't need "all that." Obviously, IT managers need to make their own decisions.
What's more valuable than choice when making important decisions? I'm not claiming to be an authority. I'm not saying - "Use FreeBSD instead of Red Hat." I'm just saying, "Here's a link. Check it out. Do what you will."
I think it's very nice to use and I can see many people currently on Red Hat systems falling in love with FreeBSD. It doesn't get in the way and is extremely capable. Maybe not RHEL capable, but in many cases, worth a look.
I'm sure RHEL is nice and everything. I'm sure RH has changed since using it back at version 7 or so, but FreeBSD is just so refreshing to use. The RPMs were a huge hassle and configuration was just kludgy. I just have a few FreeBSD machines myself, and run a small hosting biz. It's nothing but a joy to use.
The comment was somewhat trollish, but I guess that was intentional. Anybody clicking on "the Red Hat article" might come across my link and check it out.
Commercial supporters can't help but move FreeBSD forward. I'm happy if even a few see the comparison between FreeBSD and Red Hat and, at least for a moment, consider it's usage.
It's really a wonderful platform on which many, many businesses could build extremely stable servers. Don't want to pay Red Hat for a licence to run a SMB, NFS, or Apache server? Check out FreeBSD and thank me with a +mod:)
... Oracle, applicaiton servers, messenging or any of the other shite that goes into enterprise applications. What in fucking hell are you going to do with it, run flaming fagot shite like fucking sendmail?...
I'd say about 8 times out of 10, if it'll run on Linux, it'll run on FreeBSD. Nothing to do with "fucking hell." It's actually quite nice to use. Postfix rocks and can replace sendmail with probably less than 25 keystrokes.
Motherfucking Windows is 100x more suitible than fukig FreeBSD for these apps.
You got the first part of your sentance right; "100x" I'd say is a stretch. Thank you for your comments though.
Not sure if Discover/Wired did something on this, but PBS Frontline did an awesome show on our fear of anything "Nuclear" (IMHO, I think we're only scared of "Nukular" but whatever).
Exactly the reason Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) was changed to Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Never mind there's no actual radiation involved (nuclear refers to what's happening at an atomic level), people just got freaked out. I'd subject myself to an "NMR" before I'd let anybody near me with an X-Ray machine.
Why *shouldn't* people be scared of things they don't understand? It's human nature. What freightens you that wouldn't otherwise if you knew more about it?
HURD is a rekindling of a Unix kernel. It's microkernel design basically brings us back to MACH/BSD, which.. oh.. hmm.. nextstations were what, 1989, 1990?
"The world?" I assume by that phrase, you're referring to the geek development community. Your implication is that said community didn't know about viable alternatives before, which is balogna--UNIX has been around for a long damn time, and in the meantime there has been OS/2, BeOS, NeXTStep, BSD, etc.
Yes, "the world" as in anybody who would care to implement a computer to do some work for a multitude of users. Geek development community. Check. Businesses in search of a computing platform designed for stability and flexibility. Check. Operating system researchers. Check. Linux users. Obviously, check. Those in need of superior reliability. Check.
My mother? She's not part of the world to which I'm referring. But she does know there are viable alternatives to the desktop she's found herself sometimes tortured by on a daily basis.
The modern world has been introduced to Linux. They heard about it during the bubble. People now know there are other things out there besides what comes from Redmond, SCO, IBM, or HP. If they find that isn't suitable for them, or it has failed them in the past, they can search for alternatives. What's more valuable than choice when searching for alternatives? The argument can be made that choice quality is more valuable than choice volume. I'd counter with the fact that competition between choices typically raises quality across the board.
Unix has been around for a long time and in the meantime computing users have explored many of the alternatives. OS/2 and BeOS have not lived up to the task. BSD can certainly stand on it's own. NeXTStep's legacy can be seen in the wildly popular OSX from Apple. Who's to say something better than Linux can't come along?
Admittedly, referring to a bunch of geeks and business as "the world" is a stretch. Point taken. One must look however at growing market share in Asia, India and other places across the globe to understand why I chose the term. Growth in these places is booming. The world is waking up to life outside the intentional incompatibilities and blue screens currently sitting on their desks.
It took Linux a long time to be recognized as a viable alternative to other Unices.
Your point? The world now knows there are viable alternatives, and they can be had for historical lows on price.
I don't think this can be easily done again.
The world's got practice. It's no longer in the same state it was in '91. Back at that time, very few people had unix machines on their desk or at home. Unix ran in the computer room at work or school and you connected to the system but did little in the way of administration. Millions have been introduced to "the unix-like way of life" (TULWOF), superuser status, and have developed desires to exploit the powers of their machines in an infinite number of ways. The world is primed to be wowed again.
I see our future selves laughing at our current fascination with Linux like we now look at time we spent with DOS. We'll see someday how horribly inflexible it was compared to what's coming in this next generation of operating systems. Your post shows you know very little about the Hurd and what possibilities it will allow. One cannot currently imagine all the fun things people are going to do with it (them?) X years from now.
And I doubt that Hurd would have any noticeable advantages over Linux.
Exactly not the case. There are *profound* advantages [to "the Hurd"].
If and when a usable system comes to fruition is the question. Developers. Developers. Developers. Get them excited and you'll soon be doing things with your machine you'll never even have considered possible. Maybe not yourself, but people will be doing things they never dreamt possible. There are fundamental differences that are difficult to comprehend having experienced only monolithics. Granted, most of the advantages are not so much at the user level, but from a system administration perspective. Guys working "in the computer room" will probably have much more to be excited about than somebody with a user account. If you know what "having root" is like, the possibilities coming with the Hurd's architecture will be much more meaningful than they would to a typical user. However "typical user accounts" will be much more powerful on a box running the Hurd. Even low level stuff like filesystems floats up into "userland" allowing you the ability to customize your environment to great extents without affecting other users on the same machine.
So why not have the people working on Hurd work on something new instead, or work on improving Linux? Competition can also hurt, by splitting up the resources into many small parts...
Maybe more people should work on the current telephone system instead of wasting their time with VoIP. Maybe you should have worked harder at your old job instead of trying to find a new, better job? The Hurd is to Linux users like Linux is to DOS users. If Linux (as currently implemented) lives in N-space, the Hurd lives in N+1.
Resources get split up; sure. Consider however how the body of developers grows every day as more and more are introduced to TULWOF. None of us get to justify or dictate how others spend their free time. Get excited about the underdog. Linux has enough developers, don't you think? Will developments made on a new system with completely different rules positively effect Mr. Torvalds pet project? Most certainly I presume. I see the relationship as symbiotic. The Hurd takes on the huge body of software that has been developed due to "the Linux revolution" of the last decade and Linux takes from the Hurd (besides the jealousy that I can only predict will develop eventually) new techniques and perhaps, somehow, some type of hybrid approach to the kernel. There's no telling really; I can only imagine good things coming to both camps. Your attitude of discouraging work on such projects, done freely by others, I see as sel
I'd suggest *starting* with OpenBSD (or NetBSD though I've got no personal experience myself) and later trying a FreeBSD install. If you've been on Linux for 6 years and have run HP/UX I'd have to say you're qualified to run one of the less candy coated BSD's to get yourself integrated into the "whole BSD 'thang." DragonFly will be cool (someday) but I can't suggest it for someone new to BSD. Same with Darwin.
OpenBSD would be great to learn on as it will definately push you into the documentation and get you used to some of the conventions used (slices v. partitions, startup scripts, etc.). I'd suggest you use an older or spare computer if you've got extra or can pick one up cheap. You could also just set aside space on those 80 gigs you've got. READ UP ON PARTITIONING, USE OF LARGE DRIVES, ETC. BEFORE YOU START ANYTHING!
Once you get some OpenBSD under your belt, put a box in service at your network connection (right behind you cable/DSL connection?) and learn to setup pf (packet filter - built in). Experiment with AltQ and get yourself a good firewall/NAT in place (junk the Linksys). Not too much trouble and the docs at OpenBSD - pf are quite good. Here you could experiment with adding a web server or MTA (if you don't have tons of boxen to keep your "real" services in some kind of dedicated DMZ). My home OpenBSD box forwards BitTorrent, Freenet, VNC and SSH to a variety of machines in my house. I also prioitize packets in the following order: 1st to tcp_ack_out, Vonage telephone, ssh_interactive, everything else, freenet, and finally ssh_bulk. Keeps my phone line crisp and prevents freenet from destroying my ssh sessions' latency. You can do this with other products but I've had a good time (and have learned quite a bit) constructing my/etc/pf.conf file. (Yes. I've got a life otherwise:)
Then build youself a FreeBSD box. This should be cake. 5.x should install without a problem for you and you've got access to all the ports you could ever imagine. Your experience with OpenBSD will help you understand some of the differences you'll encounter. Makes a great desktop. OpenBSD will work fine as a desktop machine but I've never done it. Same for NetBSD I suppose. Give it a whirl. I'm sure you'll learn a ton and be quite happy with whatever you decide.
Don't short yourself on learning OpenBSD. It is awesome, security aware and has some wonderful features (need encrypted swap case the feds might knock down your door at any minute? check.). It may just serve all your needs and knowing it is surely going to be useful to either yourself or others in the future. Use it for utility and the ability to sleep at night with your data behind it. (still better go with RSA keys on sshd though). Check out http://undeadly.org/
Don't short yourself either on checking out FreeBSD. I moved from Linux to "the beast" some 5 years ago and haven't looked back since. The 4.10 machine I use everyday has been up 168 days as of today. I had at shutdown the machine previous to that due to a scheduled power outage. It sits fully exposed on an unprotected IP and runs user apps, a web server and mail. Not a single problem in years. FreeBSD has certainly served me (and some clients of mine) well.
If you're a system developer or like playing with things at the driver level or experimenting with new code, new systems or want to put your toaster on the network, don't deny yourself a NetBSD 2.x install. Wonderful features at the leading edge. Very capable and I hope to get some more experience with it myself one day.
All too often, some sales guy will toss in a requirement like "must run on Win98"; and thousands of man hours will be wasted trying to meet something that wasn't even important to the customer.
Probing your developers on the relative cost (in terms of time, frusturation, estimated debugging work) for each feature listed may allow the client to trim the requirements of the project.
Present a relatively long bar next to each feature that corresponds to the work and heartache the developers will go through to implement it. The client can then easily cross out those features out that aren't so important and would extend time to completion unnecessarially.
Getting a priority level out of the client at the feature specification phase can be helpful as well.
What is it that you absolutely need?
What would go along with these critical feature well?
What would be "icing on the cake?"
Don't let them run you over with needs! They're not all "needs" and you probably can't finish them under the deadline they want anyway. Priortize while allowing for feature expansion.
1) Mockup something and present it to them.
2) Ask "Is this what you're looking for?"
3) Architect your framework (real coders should be taking part here!)
Very good indeed. I'd suggest trying OpenPGP on people (I like _distributed_ over _centralized_) and if they don't bite you can try to get them to use S/MIME. The no-extra-work factor will help in many cases indeed.
Free certs can be had at CAcert.org as well. Not only will they give you a free email cert, they'll give you a SSL cert for your web site, sign your PGP/GPG keys with their signature and they even allow you to login to the site with a certificate (no password needed to update your info or login to renew cert, etc.)
If you value your privacy (and that of others you communicate with - which can be more important than your own!) be sure to exercise your rights.
Encourage the use of the OpenPGP standard by supplying others with your public key and encouraging them to use it.
Using encryption does not often complicate traffic analysis, but it can keep them from reading your private communications. Be sure to remind people that email subject lines are not encrypted and should be condidered carefully. I often use something like
Subject: This space intentionally left ______________
Here's some boilerplate: [there's breakage on the 5th link - be sure to correct]
:: E M A I L::
Do consider Thunderbird
http://www.mozilla.com/products/thunderbird/
http://www.mozilla.com/products/thunderbird/why/ for both yourself and your clients. It's really a wonderful product and has spam handling built right in. Unlike Outlook(TM) it is open about where it keeps your email (not hidden and difficult to export) and is not so susceptible to worms and email nastiness such as scripts that run without hindrance. Many a spyware app has been installed further contributing to the spam problem due to people running just that piece of software. Don't help the spammers. Reclaim your inbox.
It supports Enigmail: ( email envelopes you don't have to lick! )
http://enigmail.mozdev.org/
http://www.moztips.com/index.php?id=87
http://dudu.dyn.2-h.org/nist/gpg-enigmail-howto.ph p
I've attached my public key [ 0xYOUR_FINGERPRINT ]. I prefer to receive secure mail. I've got nothing to hide, but I don't like using postcards for all my USPS/post correspondence either. Regular email is like using postcards on the internet. Any postal worker along the way can take a look ( have a look at email "headers" sometime; every hop you see is a place where your email is stored on a hard drive. ) Please use an envelope when communicating with me. It won't even cost you a stamp. I value your privacy as much as I hope you value mine.
There's no need to keep my public key a secret. Feel free to give it away or put it on a telephone pole; write it in the sky if you'd like. It's available on the web. The more people that have it the better. Use it to seal your envelopes when sending me mail. I've got the only other matching key (my private key, opposite the public key I've given to you) that allows me to unlock the envelope. You can even lock an envelope so that multiple people can unlock it on their own, but nobody else can read what you've sent them.
You can also find keys for me here:
http://www.biglumber.com
Please try it out. Be glad to help you get started.
See my other post with links on how to setup TLS for your mail server, more info on building the web-of-trust, and GPG downloads for your windows friends.
Also note that the ======== http://link ======== at the end of the parent post has been mangled by Slashdot Submissions Co. and should be fixed before forwarding it on to your friends, or posting anywhere. Broken links have never impressed anybody.
WTF - Here are some links from the link above again. Sorry about the bandwidth wastage but I think it's worth people seeing as practices contained within are sure to benefit us all (in Utopia - yay!)
I think a resource for mail administrators on how to add TLS capabilities to their SMTP handlers could be healthy for the net as well. On there would be step by steps on how to TLS-enable sendmail, postfix, qmail, proprietary-this, and proprietary-gateway-that. :: Sendmail :: Exim :: Qmail
My SMTP traffic is opportunisticly TransportLayerSecure.Is yours?
Get a free server certificate from cacert.org If you haven't already you should add their Root Certificate to the list your browser accepts. They will also remotely sign your PGP/GPG keys and issue free S/MIME certificates as well. Very cool, totally free, and a distributed trust model rather than a top-down, it'll-cost-you-$199.00-for-an-SSL-cert model.
For more keysigning fun DO NOT MISS http://biglumber.com/! Find people nearby and extend your web-o-trust.
for both yourself and your clients. It's really a wonderful product and has spam handling built right in. Unlike Outlook(TM) it is open about where it keeps your email (not hidden and difficult to export) and is not so susceptible to worms and email nastiness such as scripts that run without hindrance. Many a spyware app has been installed further contributing to the spam problem due to people running just that piece of software. Don't help the spammers. Reclaim your inbox.
It supports Enigmail: ( email envelopes you don't have to lick! )
http://enigmail.mozdev.org/
http://www.moztips.com/index.php?id=87
http://dudu.dyn.2-h.org/nist/gpg-enigmail-howto.ph p
I've attached my public key [ 0xYOUR_FINGERPRINT ]. I prefer to receive secure mail. I've got nothing to hide, but I don't like using postcards for all my USPS correspondence either. Regular email is like using postcards on the internet. Any postal worker along the way can take a look ( have a look at email "headers" sometime; every hop you see is a place where your email is stored on a hard drive. ) Please use an envelope when communicating with me. Won't even cost you a stamp. I value your privacy as much as I hope you value mine.
Privacy tool for Windows: (supports Eudora, Outlook, Clipboard)
http://winpt.sf.net
There's no need to keep my public key a secret. Feel free to give it away or put it on a telephone pole; write it in the sky if you'd like. It's available on the web. The more people that have it the better. Use it to seal your envelopes when sending me mail. I've got the only other matching key (my private key, opposite the public key I've given to you) that allows me to unlock the envelope. You can even lock an envelope so that multiple people can unlock it on their own, but nobody else can read what you've sent them.
You can also find keys for me here:
http://www.biglumber.com
Please try it out. Be glad to help you get started.
:: W E B:: If you haven't heard of the Firefox web browser yet
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
download it and check it out. Then look into the Extensions under tools. Fast, far more secure than IE and extremely standards compliant. Lots of tricks up it's sleeve in the way of Extensions, themes, etc. Introducing this to your clients might be worthwhile as well. The less spam and junk they've got clogging up their machines, the less you'll pay for bandwidth, etc. Worth a look.
Thunderbird will import from Outlook. They just had a major release. Even though this is version 1.0 it's not like a "typical" 1.0 release. In the opensource world projects often start out with very low version numbers. It's not uncommon to see something like v0.3.22 for very usable and extremely bug free pieces of software.
Anyway it's really nice - though it doesn't have the calendar and palm integration. That you'll need to weigh. Mom however doesn't need to be on outlook....
Does anybody know of a good clearinghouse with information on plugins for a variety of mailers I could send my dad, high school friends, or grandmother to?
Anybody know of a list out there that collects information on how to secure your email, what's it's all about, and general key maintainence issues (for "the everyday net user")?
I'd like to be able to say to a friend: "Here's my key. Go to keepitprivate.com and find a plugin for the email software you use. Then next time you send me some email, just be sure to put it in an "envelope" (it just takes one extra click or can be set to happen automatically). You don't even need to lick a stamp! I value your privacy as much as I hope you value mine!"
I think a resource for mail administrators on how to add TLS capabilities to their SMTP handlers could be healthy for the net as well. On there would be step by steps on how to TLS-enable sendmail, postfix, qmail, proprietary-this, and proprietary-gateway-that. My SMTP traffic is opportunisticly TransportLayerSecure. Is yours? Red Hat:: Sendmail :: Exim :: Qmail
Get a free server certificate from cacert.org If you haven't already you should add their Root Certificate to the list your browser accepts. They will also remotely sign your PGP/GPG keys and issue free S/MIME certificates as well. Very cool, totally free, and a distributed trust model rather than a top-down, it'll-cost-you-$199.00-for-an-SSL-cert model.
For more keysigning fun DO NOT MISS http://biglumber.com/! Find people nearby and extend your web-o-trust.
The premise is that you pay for a pseudo-permanent identity in cyberspace.
What else have you got? If you don't have your own domain somewhere, that can often times be taken down by your ISP "just because", what else do you have? Your email address. That's pseudo-permanant, right. Is it 50 years permanant? Maybe.
So you tell everyone your email address for a pseudo-permanant identity - great!.... wait. You've got spam! What if you have to change it?
Will that email address cost you more than $25 over 50 years? 9 times out of 10 people will spend significantly more than that to maintain an email address with any kind of permanancy. And they'll get spammed all the while because the identifier is directly tied to the delivery method. You can't tell someone who you are without giving them a direct line.
XNS is a global public database that people can go to if they want to find you, just like DNS resolves mabu.com into the IP address your server is at. Not a global public database that contains all the juicy bits, just who's got the goods. Can you imagine being tied to the same IP address for the life of your domain name???? We all want to be able to move but nobody wants the trouble of keeping every single contact you've ever had informed of your new location.
This system makes it like this: If you want to find me ask my broker. He'll get in touch with me and make sure I still want to talk with you, then either I'll tell him "sure - let him know where I'm at." OR "Thanks for trying to get in touch with me. I'll call you."
You can give your broker a whitelist. All these people (your brother, parents, some old school friends) - tell them whatever they want to know. An offwhite list (you can keep a list of individuals, any from *@alumni.school.edu, how "connected" they are or based on reputation) - feel free to give these people my email but I don't want them knowing where I live. A blacklist tells your broker never to give out any information to (=these, =people, =and.weird, =relatives, =and.old, =girlfirends) And on and on.
The global part points anybody in the world to the place where the goods are at, just like how the root DNS servers point to the "authoritative" DNS box you run on your own net. You can change things there and when people come looking you feed them whatever you want - YOU STAY IN CONTROL.
The whole broker thing... You choose a broker you can trust. Right now there is only one, 2idi.com. Not to say you couldn't start up your own. Granted you'd have to get people to trust you if you didn't want your service to fall flat on it's face, but you could do it. Maybe run one for your family or business. Thawte could do it. CACert could do it. Your bank could be your broker. Whoever you trust to handle your personal information, THEY would be your broker.
Sending $25 and your credit card and your email address to 2idi.com is not a requirement to use XNS. At this point they're the only game in town so if you want a particular =i.name, it's pretty much a race. They stick for 50 years.
More (from 2idi.com)... Basic Terms of Use for your I-Name
* Once registered, you can use your community personal i-name as long as you adhere to this agreement and any applicable laws.
* You can keep your i-name for as long as your community maintains a relationship with an i-broker. You can also add other community or global i-names to your account that can act as synonyms for your community i-name.
* The community i-name registry is public. It does NOT contain any of y
I would tend to agree. People need to learn how to manage themselves. Too many rules and regulations makes for kids that want to "go wild" as soon as they get the chance (as soon as you let them out of your sight, as soon as they get to jr. high, as soon as they get to college - then it becomes a battle). Kids who have the chance to go wild when they're young realize that their actions have repercussions. My parents did lots of encouraging and little in the way of punishment.
I stayed out late, got in to some trouble, and worried them a bit. I don't think however I turned out any worse than those who had hard-asses for parents. In fact I think I'm a bit more responsible and motivated than a lot of them.
I learned how my actions and decisions played out. Too many rules at grow up time makes for kids that grow up not knowing how to deal with adult-life's "do what you want; just realize you'll have to pay for it somehow" reality.
All that said, letting your kids IM all night instead of doing homework probably isn't healthy either. Restricting them at the firewall is probably the easiest way to do it, but teaching them the value of time spent on school work is probably best.
Sign them up for soccer and take them there to run around and socialize and work as a team. Sign them up for hockey (in kindergarden) for a wonderful challenge, lifelong skill, and a good workout. The pads will keep them pretty safe and the intimidation will give them modesty. Take them to swimming class, art class, bowling, skydiving, horseback riding, to a stargazing, to the woods, to the lake, to the moon, to your work, to your wife's work, to a picnick, to karate, to the woodshop, to your mechanic, to a farm, to a archeology dig, to the beach, to the neighbors, to the movies, to a concert, to a circus. Knowledge learned online or in front of a computer can be useful, but being able to stand on your own not in front of one.... priceless.
You're the boss. Introduce them to a wealth of activities, concepts, challenges, and people. Let them find their own passion and teach you something about WHAT THEY LIKE. Ask them questions about it. Encourage them to research that idea, concept or interest more and report back to you. Ask! Show some interest! Whatever their weird facination at the moment may be.
You're the boss but you won't always be. Be their friend and guide in life, not the warden. Don't force your profession down their throats. Don't force your profession down their throats. Don't force your profession down their throats. I can't see anytime when that would be healthy. They'll be most productive and make you proudest when they develop their own view of the world and excel in the field of their own choice. They'll know plenty about what you do. If it interests them, feel free to teach them all you can. If they develop a passion for something else, support them in thier aspirations. Feel free to advise on life choices, impart knowledge and experience (please watch your biases and be honest), but to preach is forbidden. Please don't preach. They'll be OK even if they don't become a doctor just like daddy. Advise and direct toward resources but please don't push it. They are people just like you. Maybe smaller. But they are people. Freedom is soooooo sweet. Don't forget that. Help them pass it on to their offspring by offering it to them yourselves.
If your parents were a$$holes, please try to break the cycle. Growing up shouldn't be like an 18yr. hazing event for them just because _you_ had to go through it. Try something different. Just care and be active in their lives, supporting them as they grow. They'll thank you.
They grow up fast, but unless they make some decisions on their own, they'll lag behind their less-restricted peers. Give them practice from the beginning and let them realize the fruits of their labors. Encourage. Encourage. Encourage. Explaing why their actions cause this result or that result. Watch the bias. Le
Slashdot Mirror
Jump in and start developing! This is a wonderful way to learn your way around these new packages and explore what they currently can and cannot do. Download the source, compile and try and add a feature your project needs. Give yourself a Saturday or Sunday if you have to work otherwise and see what you can make of it. You'll soon discover whether or not it's ready for your project.
I totally see the point. It's not currently used in a lot of enterprise situations but it sure could make a great mail server, NFS point for a workgroup or even a large SMB server. It can handle huge Apache loads and costs much less than Red Hat. It's all very open and very stable. It scales and it can handle significant loads for long periods of time without getting crushed. I'm not saying RHEL can't do that. I'm just saying, admittedly in a *wink-wink* manner, there's other robust platforms available that have not been fully exploited.
My point in posting was to inform others about another choice available. Red Hat's got a big name, and that's what most Enterprises will go for. Many smallers businesses, however, don't need "all that." Obviously, IT managers need to make their own decisions.
What's more valuable than choice when making important decisions? I'm not claiming to be an authority. I'm not saying - "Use FreeBSD instead of Red Hat." I'm just saying, "Here's a link. Check it out. Do what you will."
I think it's very nice to use and I can see many people currently on Red Hat systems falling in love with FreeBSD. It doesn't get in the way and is extremely capable. Maybe not RHEL capable, but in many cases, worth a look.
Oh well.. Thank you.
:)
I'm sure RHEL is nice and everything. I'm sure RH has changed since using it back at version 7 or so, but FreeBSD is just so refreshing to use. The RPMs were a huge hassle and configuration was just kludgy. I just have a few FreeBSD machines myself, and run a small hosting biz. It's nothing but a joy to use.
The comment was somewhat trollish, but I guess that was intentional. Anybody clicking on "the Red Hat article" might come across my link and check it out.
Commercial supporters can't help but move FreeBSD forward. I'm happy if even a few see the comparison between FreeBSD and Red Hat and, at least for a moment, consider it's usage.
It's really a wonderful platform on which many, many businesses could build extremely stable servers. Don't want to pay Red Hat for a licence to run a SMB, NFS, or Apache server? Check out FreeBSD and thank me with a +mod
Uhhh... Sorry officer/tax man/governor.... My antenna must have been obstructed from a clear signal the whole time.....
;)
Yep. I'll get that fixed up right away.
... Oracle, applicaiton servers, messenging or any of the other shite that goes into enterprise applications. What in fucking hell are you going to do with it, run flaming fagot shite like fucking sendmail? ...
I'd say about 8 times out of 10, if it'll run on Linux, it'll run on FreeBSD. Nothing to do with "fucking hell." It's actually quite nice to use. Postfix rocks and can replace sendmail with probably less than 25 keystrokes.
Motherfucking Windows is 100x more suitible than fukig FreeBSD for these apps.
You got the first part of your sentance right; "100x" I'd say is a stretch. Thank you for your comments though.
Coward.
... Maybe we would need an "apprentice" system in free software. ...
Advogato. Check it! Not exacly "apprentice" but appears somewhat related in nature.
[ mission statement ]
[ trust ]
Not sure if Discover/Wired did something on this, but PBS Frontline did an awesome show on our fear of anything "Nuclear" (IMHO, I think we're only scared of "Nukular" but whatever).
Exactly the reason Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) was changed to Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Never mind there's no actual radiation involved (nuclear refers to what's happening at an atomic level), people just got freaked out. I'd subject myself to an "NMR" before I'd let anybody near me with an X-Ray machine.
Why *shouldn't* people be scared of things they don't understand? It's human nature. What freightens you that wouldn't otherwise if you knew more about it?
Nothing???? Sure........
If you can answer "yes" to any of these questions, you're probably already running FreeBSD : )
I refer the reader here.
HURD is a rekindling of a Unix kernel. It's microkernel design basically brings us back to MACH/BSD, which
*yawn*
You see Apple yawning?
Yes, "the world" as in anybody who would care to implement a computer to do some work for a multitude of users. Geek development community. Check. Businesses in search of a computing platform designed for stability and flexibility. Check. Operating system researchers. Check. Linux users. Obviously, check. Those in need of superior reliability. Check.
My mother? She's not part of the world to which I'm referring. But she does know there are viable alternatives to the desktop she's found herself sometimes tortured by on a daily basis.
The modern world has been introduced to Linux. They heard about it during the bubble. People now know there are other things out there besides what comes from Redmond, SCO, IBM, or HP. If they find that isn't suitable for them, or it has failed them in the past, they can search for alternatives. What's more valuable than choice when searching for alternatives? The argument can be made that choice quality is more valuable than choice volume. I'd counter with the fact that competition between choices typically raises quality across the board.
Unix has been around for a long time and in the meantime computing users have explored many of the alternatives. OS/2 and BeOS have not lived up to the task. BSD can certainly stand on it's own. NeXTStep's legacy can be seen in the wildly popular OSX from Apple. Who's to say something better than Linux can't come along?
Admittedly, referring to a bunch of geeks and business as "the world" is a stretch. Point taken. One must look however at growing market share in Asia, India and other places across the globe to understand why I chose the term. Growth in these places is booming. The world is waking up to life outside the intentional incompatibilities and blue screens currently sitting on their desks.
Your point? The world now knows there are viable alternatives, and they can be had for historical lows on price.
The world's got practice. It's no longer in the same state it was in '91. Back at that time, very few people had unix machines on their desk or at home. Unix ran in the computer room at work or school and you connected to the system but did little in the way of administration. Millions have been introduced to "the unix-like way of life" (TULWOF), superuser status, and have developed desires to exploit the powers of their machines in an infinite number of ways. The world is primed to be wowed again.
I see our future selves laughing at our current fascination with Linux like we now look at time we spent with DOS. We'll see someday how horribly inflexible it was compared to what's coming in this next generation of operating systems. Your post shows you know very little about the Hurd and what possibilities it will allow. One cannot currently imagine all the fun things people are going to do with it (them?) X years from now.
Exactly not the case. There are *profound* advantages [to "the Hurd"].
If and when a usable system comes to fruition is the question. Developers. Developers. Developers. Get them excited and you'll soon be doing things with your machine you'll never even have considered possible. Maybe not yourself, but people will be doing things they never dreamt possible. There are fundamental differences that are difficult to comprehend having experienced only monolithics. Granted, most of the advantages are not so much at the user level, but from a system administration perspective. Guys working "in the computer room" will probably have much more to be excited about than somebody with a user account. If you know what "having root" is like, the possibilities coming with the Hurd's architecture will be much more meaningful than they would to a typical user. However "typical user accounts" will be much more powerful on a box running the Hurd. Even low level stuff like filesystems floats up into "userland" allowing you the ability to customize your environment to great extents without affecting other users on the same machine.
Maybe more people should work on the current telephone system instead of wasting their time with VoIP. Maybe you should have worked harder at your old job instead of trying to find a new, better job? The Hurd is to Linux users like Linux is to DOS users. If Linux (as currently implemented) lives in N-space, the Hurd lives in N+1.
Resources get split up; sure. Consider however how the body of developers grows every day as more and more are introduced to TULWOF. None of us get to justify or dictate how others spend their free time. Get excited about the underdog. Linux has enough developers, don't you think? Will developments made on a new system with completely different rules positively effect Mr. Torvalds pet project? Most certainly I presume. I see the relationship as symbiotic. The Hurd takes on the huge body of software that has been developed due to "the Linux revolution" of the last decade and Linux takes from the Hurd (besides the jealousy that I can only predict will develop eventually) new techniques and perhaps, somehow, some type of hybrid approach to the kernel. There's no telling really; I can only imagine good things coming to both camps. Your attitude of discouraging work on such projects, done freely by others, I see as sel
I'd suggest *starting* with OpenBSD (or NetBSD though I've got no personal experience myself) and later trying a FreeBSD install. If you've been on Linux for 6 years and have run HP/UX I'd have to say you're qualified to run one of the less candy coated BSD's to get yourself integrated into the "whole BSD 'thang." DragonFly will be cool (someday) but I can't suggest it for someone new to BSD. Same with Darwin.
/etc/pf.conf file. (Yes. I've got a life otherwise :)
OpenBSD would be great to learn on as it will definately push you into the documentation and get you used to some of the conventions used (slices v. partitions, startup scripts, etc.). I'd suggest you use an older or spare computer if you've got extra or can pick one up cheap. You could also just set aside space on those 80 gigs you've got. READ UP ON PARTITIONING, USE OF LARGE DRIVES, ETC. BEFORE YOU START ANYTHING!
Once you get some OpenBSD under your belt, put a box in service at your network connection (right behind you cable/DSL connection?) and learn to setup pf (packet filter - built in). Experiment with AltQ and get yourself a good firewall/NAT in place (junk the Linksys). Not too much trouble and the docs at OpenBSD - pf are quite good. Here you could experiment with adding a web server or MTA (if you don't have tons of boxen to keep your "real" services in some kind of dedicated DMZ). My home OpenBSD box forwards BitTorrent, Freenet, VNC and SSH to a variety of machines in my house. I also prioitize packets in the following order: 1st to tcp_ack_out, Vonage telephone, ssh_interactive, everything else, freenet, and finally ssh_bulk. Keeps my phone line crisp and prevents freenet from destroying my ssh sessions' latency. You can do this with other products but I've had a good time (and have learned quite a bit) constructing my
Then build youself a FreeBSD box. This should be cake. 5.x should install without a problem for you and you've got access to all the ports you could ever imagine. Your experience with OpenBSD will help you understand some of the differences you'll encounter. Makes a great desktop. OpenBSD will work fine as a desktop machine but I've never done it. Same for NetBSD I suppose. Give it a whirl. I'm sure you'll learn a ton and be quite happy with whatever you decide.
Don't short yourself on learning OpenBSD. It is awesome, security aware and has some wonderful features (need encrypted swap case the feds might knock down your door at any minute? check.). It may just serve all your needs and knowing it is surely going to be useful to either yourself or others in the future. Use it for utility and the ability to sleep at night with your data behind it. (still better go with RSA keys on sshd though). Check out http://undeadly.org/
Don't short yourself either on checking out FreeBSD. I moved from Linux to "the beast" some 5 years ago and haven't looked back since. The 4.10 machine I use everyday has been up 168 days as of today. I had at shutdown the machine previous to that due to a scheduled power outage. It sits fully exposed on an unprotected IP and runs user apps, a web server and mail. Not a single problem in years. FreeBSD has certainly served me (and some clients of mine) well.
If you're a system developer or like playing with things at the driver level or experimenting with new code, new systems or want to put your toaster on the network, don't deny yourself a NetBSD 2.x install. Wonderful features at the leading edge. Very capable and I hope to get some more experience with it myself one day.
Learn OpenBSD. You won't regret it.
Probing your developers on the relative cost (in terms of time, frusturation, estimated debugging work) for each feature listed may allow the client to trim the requirements of the project.
Present a relatively long bar next to each feature that corresponds to the work and heartache the developers will go through to implement it. The client can then easily cross out those features out that aren't so important and would extend time to completion unnecessarially.
Getting a priority level out of the client at the feature specification phase can be helpful as well.
Don't let them run you over with needs! They're not all "needs" and you probably can't finish them under the deadline they want anyway. Priortize while allowing for feature expansion.
Then try BigVisibleCharts and SCRUM, SCRUM, or SCRUM (pdf)
Rename Administrator "toor" and create an account "Administrator" with more then they have, but not all, permissions.
Very good indeed. I'd suggest trying OpenPGP on people (I like _distributed_ over _centralized_) and if they don't bite you can try to get them to use S/MIME. The no-extra-work factor will help in many cases indeed.
Free certs can be had at CAcert.org as well. Not only will they give you a free email cert, they'll give you a SSL cert for your web site, sign your PGP/GPG keys with their signature and they even allow you to login to the site with a certificate (no password needed to update your info or login to renew cert, etc.)
More resources?? - Reply with links please!
If you're not a terrorist, find help on getting setup with Freenet here: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=127703&cid=106 69904
6 81546
Info on FreeMail as well. Totally anonymous and encrypted mail system: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=127703&cid=10
If you value your privacy (and that of others you communicate with - which can be more important than your own!) be sure to exercise your rights.
:: E M A I L ::
h p
Encourage the use of the OpenPGP standard by supplying others with your public key and encouraging them to use it.
Using encryption does not often complicate traffic analysis, but it can keep them from reading your private communications. Be sure to remind people that email subject lines are not encrypted and should be condidered carefully. I often use something like
Subject: This space intentionally left ______________
Here's some boilerplate: [there's breakage on the 5th link - be sure to correct]
Do consider Thunderbird
http://www.mozilla.com/products/thunderbird/
http://www.mozilla.com/products/thunderbird/why/
for both yourself and your clients. It's really a wonderful product
and has spam handling built right in. Unlike Outlook(TM) it is open
about where it keeps your email (not hidden and difficult to export)
and is not so susceptible to worms and email nastiness such as scripts
that run without hindrance. Many a spyware app has been installed
further contributing to the spam problem due to people running just
that piece of software. Don't help the spammers. Reclaim your inbox.
It supports Enigmail: ( email envelopes you don't have to lick! )
http://enigmail.mozdev.org/
http://www.moztips.com/index.php?id=87
http://dudu.dyn.2-h.org/nist/gpg-enigmail-howto.p
I've attached my public key [ 0xYOUR_FINGERPRINT ]. I prefer to receive
secure mail. I've got nothing to hide, but I don't like using
postcards for all my USPS/post correspondence either. Regular email is
like using postcards on the internet. Any postal worker along the way
can take a look ( have a look at email "headers" sometime; every hop
you see is a place where your email is stored on a hard drive. )
Please use an envelope when communicating with me. It won't even cost
you a stamp. I value your privacy as much as I hope you value mine.
How to Get Encryption Going on Windows
There's no need to keep my public key a secret. Feel free to give
it away or put it on a telephone pole; write it in the sky if you'd
like. It's available on the web. The more people that have it the
better. Use it to seal your envelopes when sending me mail. I've got
the only other matching key (my private key, opposite the public key
I've given to you) that allows me to unlock the envelope. You can
even lock an envelope so that multiple people can unlock it on their
own, but nobody else can read what you've sent them.
You can also find keys for me here:
http://www.biglumber.com
Please try it out. Be glad to help you get started.
See my other post with links on how to setup TLS for your mail server, more info on building the web-of-trust, and GPG downloads for your windows friends.
d =11046941
:: Windows Privacy Tray [sf.net] is a good place to direct your friends still using windows.
:: Sendmail
:: Exim
:: Qmail
n eral/979
.
.
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=132181&ci
Also note that the ======== http://link ======== at the end of the parent post has been mangled by Slashdot Submissions Co. and should be fixed before forwarding it on to your friends, or posting anywhere. Broken links have never impressed anybody.
WTF - Here are some links from the link above again. Sorry about the bandwidth wastage but I think it's worth people seeing as practices contained within are sure to benefit us all (in Utopia - yay!)
[--snip-- (abridged) ]
WinPT
I think a resource for mail administrators on how to add TLS capabilities to their SMTP handlers could be healthy for the net as well. On there would be step by steps on how to TLS-enable sendmail, postfix, qmail, proprietary-this, and proprietary-gateway-that.
If you're running Postfix you've got little excuse to not be running TLS.
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.encryption.ge
My SMTP traffic is opportunisticly TransportLayerSecure. Is yours?
Get a free server certificate from cacert.org If you haven't already you should add their Root Certificate to the list your browser accepts. They will also remotely sign your PGP/GPG keys and issue free S/MIME certificates as well. Very cool, totally free, and a distributed trust model rather than a top-down, it'll-cost-you-$199.00-for-an-SSL-cert model.
For more keysigning fun DO NOT MISS http://biglumber.com/! Find people nearby and extend your web-o-trust.
Host a keysigning party at] your next LUG [debian.org] meeting
You can get a email-address-verified signature at http://www.imperialviolet.org/keyverify.html
Learn about using subkeys
- - - - - - GPG keys -- The new web. - - - - - - -
[--snip-- (abridged) ]
DROP TEXT :: Email People
/.ers or otherwise... Forward At Will )
:: E M A I L ::
:: W E B ::
(Sent this a few days ago to my ISP and family members - thought it might be useful to some
=Cy
Do consider Thunderbird
http://www.mozilla.com/products/thunderbird/
http://www.mozilla.com/products/thunderbird/why/
for both yourself and your clients. It's really a wonderful product
and has spam handling built right in. Unlike Outlook(TM) it is open
about where it keeps your email (not hidden and difficult to export)
and is not so susceptible to worms and email nastiness such as scripts
that run without hindrance. Many a spyware app has been installed
further contributing to the spam problem due to people running just
that piece of software. Don't help the spammers. Reclaim your inbox.
It supports Enigmail: ( email envelopes you don't have to lick! )
http://enigmail.mozdev.org/
http://www.moztips.com/index.php?id=87
http://dudu.dyn.2-h.org/nist/gpg-enigmail-howto.ph p
I've attached my public key [ 0xYOUR_FINGERPRINT ]. I prefer to receive
secure mail. I've got nothing to hide, but I don't like using
postcards for all my USPS correspondence either. Regular email is
like using postcards on the internet. Any postal worker along the way
can take a look ( have a look at email "headers" sometime; every hop
you see is a place where your email is stored on a hard drive. )
Please use an envelope when communicating with me. Won't even cost
you a stamp. I value your privacy as much as I hope you value mine.
Privacy tool for Windows: (supports Eudora, Outlook, Clipboard)
http://winpt.sf.net
There's no need to keep my public key a secret. Feel free to give
it away or put it on a telephone pole; write it in the sky if you'd
like. It's available on the web. The more people that have it the
better. Use it to seal your envelopes when sending me mail. I've got
the only other matching key (my private key, opposite the public key
I've given to you) that allows me to unlock the envelope. You can
even lock an envelope so that multiple people can unlock it on their
own, but nobody else can read what you've sent them.
You can also find keys for me here:
http://www.biglumber.com
Please try it out. Be glad to help you get started.
If you haven't heard of the Firefox web browser yet
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
download it and check it out. Then look into the Extensions under
tools. Fast, far more secure than IE and extremely standards
compliant. Lots of tricks up it's sleeve in the way of Extensions,
themes, etc. Introducing this to your clients might be worthwhile as
well. The less spam and junk they've got clogging up their machines,
the less you'll pay for bandwidth, etc. Worth a look.
Thunderbird will import from Outlook. They just had a major release.
Even though this is version 1.0 it's not like a "typical" 1.0 release.
In the opensource world projects often start out with very low version
numbers. It's not uncommon to see something like v0.3.22 for very
usable and extremely bug free pieces of software.
Anyway it's really nice - though it doesn't have the calendar and palm
integration. That you'll need to weigh. Mom however doesn't need to
be on outlook....
=====[ http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/releas es/ ] =======
Comprehensive Mail Migration from other Mail Clients
Switching to Thunderbird has never been easier since Thunderbird can
now migrate all of your email data including settings, mail folders
Does anybody know of a good clearinghouse with information on plugins for a variety of mailers I could send my dad, high school friends, or grandmother to?
:: Windows Privacy Tray is a good place to direct your friends still using windows.
:: Sendmail
:: Exim
:: Qmail
n eral/979
Anybody know of a list out there that collects information on how to secure your email, what's it's all about, and general key maintainence issues (for "the everyday net user")?
WinPT
I'd like to be able to say to a friend: "Here's my key. Go to keepitprivate.com and find a plugin for the email software you use. Then next time you send me some email, just be sure to put it in an "envelope" (it just takes one extra click or can be set to happen automatically). You don't even need to lick a stamp! I value your privacy as much as I hope you value mine!"
I think a resource for mail administrators on how to add TLS capabilities to their SMTP handlers could be healthy for the net as well. On there would be step by steps on how to TLS-enable sendmail, postfix, qmail, proprietary-this, and proprietary-gateway-that. My SMTP traffic is opportunisticly TransportLayerSecure. Is yours?
Red Hat
If you're running Postfix you've got little excuse to not be running TLS.
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.encryption.ge
Get a free server certificate from cacert.org If you haven't already you should add their Root Certificate to the list your browser accepts. They will also remotely sign your PGP/GPG keys and issue free S/MIME certificates as well. Very cool, totally free, and a distributed trust model rather than a top-down, it'll-cost-you-$199.00-for-an-SSL-cert model.
For more keysigning fun DO NOT MISS http://biglumber.com/! Find people nearby and extend your web-o-trust.
Host a keysigning party at your next LUG meeting.
You can get a email-address-verified signature at http://www.imperialviolet.org/keyverify.html
Learn about using subkeys.
- - - - - - GPG keys -- The new web. - - - - - - -
More links, blogs, articles, insight, and opinion can be found here:
http://idcommons.net/press/index.html
First Read:
.... wait. You've got spam! What if you have to change it?
http://xns.org/i-names-explained.html
http://xns.org/xri-and-xdi-explained.html
http://www.xdi.org/
The premise is that you pay for a pseudo-permanent identity in cyberspace.
What else have you got? If you don't have your own domain somewhere, that can often times be taken down by your ISP "just because", what else do you have? Your email address. That's pseudo-permanant, right. Is it 50 years permanant? Maybe.
So you tell everyone your email address for a pseudo-permanant identity - great!
Will that email address cost you more than $25 over 50 years? 9 times out of 10 people will spend significantly more than that to maintain an email address with any kind of permanancy. And they'll get spammed all the while because the identifier is directly tied to the delivery method. You can't tell someone who you are without giving them a direct line.
XNS is a global public database that people can go to if they want to find you, just like DNS resolves mabu.com into the IP address your server is at. Not a global public database that contains all the juicy bits, just who's got the goods. Can you imagine being tied to the same IP address for the life of your domain name???? We all want to be able to move but nobody wants the trouble of keeping every single contact you've ever had informed of your new location.
This system makes it like this: If you want to find me ask my broker. He'll get in touch with me and make sure I still want to talk with you, then either I'll tell him "sure - let him know where I'm at." OR "Thanks for trying to get in touch with me. I'll call you."
You can give your broker a whitelist. All these people (your brother, parents, some old school friends) - tell them whatever they want to know. An offwhite list (you can keep a list of individuals, any from *@alumni.school.edu, how "connected" they are or based on reputation) - feel free to give these people my email but I don't want them knowing where I live. A blacklist tells your broker never to give out any information to (=these, =people, =and.weird, =relatives, =and.old, =girlfirends) And on and on.
The global part points anybody in the world to the place where the goods are at, just like how the root DNS servers point to the "authoritative" DNS box you run on your own net. You can change things there and when people come looking you feed them whatever you want - YOU STAY IN CONTROL.
The whole broker thing... You choose a broker you can trust. Right now there is only one, 2idi.com. Not to say you couldn't start up your own. Granted you'd have to get people to trust you if you didn't want your service to fall flat on it's face, but you could do it. Maybe run one for your family or business. Thawte could do it. CACert could do it. Your bank could be your broker. Whoever you trust to handle your personal information, THEY would be your broker.
Sending $25 and your credit card and your email address to 2idi.com is not a requirement to use XNS. At this point they're the only game in town so if you want a particular =i.name, it's pretty much a race. They stick for 50 years.
More (from 2idi.com)...
Basic Terms of Use for your I-Name
* Once registered, you can use your community personal i-name as long as you adhere to this agreement and any applicable laws.
* You can keep your i-name for as long as your community maintains a relationship with an i-broker. You can also add other community or global i-names to your account that can act as synonyms for your community i-name.
* The community i-name registry is public. It does NOT contain any of y
Now if there were only a site to keep track of my multiple Identity Commons names.
They suggest you use only one for all your i-names (e.g. "=beatdown" and "=Brown.Dwarf")
(not a putdown but an attempt to educate readers)
I would tend to agree. People need to learn how to manage themselves. Too many rules and regulations makes for kids that want to "go wild" as soon as they get the chance (as soon as you let them out of your sight, as soon as they get to jr. high, as soon as they get to college - then it becomes a battle). Kids who have the chance to go wild when they're young realize that their actions have repercussions. My parents did lots of encouraging and little in the way of punishment.
I stayed out late, got in to some trouble, and worried them a bit. I don't think however I turned out any worse than those who had hard-asses for parents. In fact I think I'm a bit more responsible and motivated than a lot of them.
I learned how my actions and decisions played out. Too many rules at grow up time makes for kids that grow up not knowing how to deal with adult-life's "do what you want; just realize you'll have to pay for it somehow" reality.
All that said, letting your kids IM all night instead of doing homework probably isn't healthy either. Restricting them at the firewall is probably the easiest way to do it, but teaching them the value of time spent on school work is probably best.
Sign them up for soccer and take them there to run around and socialize and work as a team. Sign them up for hockey (in kindergarden) for a wonderful challenge, lifelong skill, and a good workout. The pads will keep them pretty safe and the intimidation will give them modesty. Take them to swimming class, art class, bowling, skydiving, horseback riding, to a stargazing, to the woods, to the lake, to the moon, to your work, to your wife's work, to a picnick, to karate, to the woodshop, to your mechanic, to a farm, to a archeology dig, to the beach, to the neighbors, to the movies, to a concert, to a circus. Knowledge learned online or in front of a computer can be useful, but being able to stand on your own not in front of one.... priceless.
You're the boss. Introduce them to a wealth of activities, concepts, challenges, and people. Let them find their own passion and teach you something about WHAT THEY LIKE. Ask them questions about it. Encourage them to research that idea, concept or interest more and report back to you. Ask! Show some interest! Whatever their weird facination at the moment may be.
You're the boss but you won't always be. Be their friend and guide in life, not the warden. Don't force your profession down their throats. Don't force your profession down their throats. Don't force your profession down their throats. I can't see anytime when that would be healthy. They'll be most productive and make you proudest when they develop their own view of the world and excel in the field of their own choice. They'll know plenty about what you do. If it interests them, feel free to teach them all you can. If they develop a passion for something else, support them in thier aspirations. Feel free to advise on life choices, impart knowledge and experience (please watch your biases and be honest), but to preach is forbidden. Please don't preach. They'll be OK even if they don't become a doctor just like daddy. Advise and direct toward resources but please don't push it. They are people just like you. Maybe smaller. But they are people. Freedom is soooooo sweet. Don't forget that. Help them pass it on to their offspring by offering it to them yourselves.
If your parents were a$$holes, please try to break the cycle. Growing up shouldn't be like an 18yr. hazing event for them just because _you_ had to go through it. Try something different. Just care and be active in their lives, supporting them as they grow. They'll thank you.
They grow up fast, but unless they make some decisions on their own, they'll lag behind their less-restricted peers. Give them practice from the beginning and let them realize the fruits of their labors. Encourage. Encourage. Encourage. Explaing why their actions cause this result or that result. Watch the bias. Le