But there's NO EXCUSE not to use a Mac. And, no, they're not as expensive as everyone thinks. You can get a really fast iBook or eMac for $999. The apps, are there, stability, UNIX, ease of use and power.
Mac
Macs have a proprietary hardware (Score: -1), have only just become moderately stable in the lastest release 10.2 (Score: -1), which now doesn't have a customizable GUI (Score: -1) and have an incredibly restrictive amount of both available OSs (Score: -1) or software (Score: -1). OS X is vulnerable to the same problems affecting BSD whereas the totally lame non-threaded, single-tasking Mac OS 7.5.5 / Open Transport was completely (i.e. thoroughly tested) secure (Score: -1). It's just not enough to buy another Mac.
X86
My x86 boxes cycle between OSes (Score: +1). I have a substantial choice - Sun x86, BeOS, RedHat, Mandrake, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Darwin, Windows, DOS, even Lindows, etc. (Score: +10). My x86 hardware is not affected by proprietary OS upgrades like 68k -> PPC --> OS X (Score: +1). I can stay behind the curve with the latest patches or run pre-alpha compilations (Score: +1). My main production software (or a killer Open Source equivalent) doesn't yet work on Linux - including Eudora, Powerpoint, Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Pro Tools & GigaStudio (Score: +1).
Linux
It works (Score: +1). It doesn't run everything I need (Score: -1).
The Wish List
You want to get me really exited. Give me choice (Score: +10). Give me complete (API, Kernel & GUI) compatibility all across my choices (Score: +10). Port all my Mac and Windows apps (Score: +10). Give me a decent GUI that is fully customizable (Score: +10). Give me unrestricted video and audio to create original works (Score: +10). Give it to me on any hardware platform - anyone remember CHRP? (Score: +10) And don't waste my time, CPU, or bandwidth with emulation running crash-prone inferior code (Score: +10).
There are very few killer client apps out there, and they are all currently Mac/Windows. Fortunately, all the killer server apps are already on Linux. Hopefully the Open Source Applications Foundation will make some headway in fixing this. Right now there isn't anything that really makes X worth installing. vi still rules.
Here we have 1 Mac (exclusively dedicated to Pro Tools), 5 Windows boxes (various) and 7 Linux boxes (none of which run X). We also have a ThinkNIC which runs X but it doesn't actually do anything except ssh and Netscape. It is mostly used by our clients needing to reach Hotmail. Go figure.
Firstly, if you use one of the 13 legacy root servers, you may have noticed a problem. Chances are you didn't. Plus, if you use another root system (ORSC, OpenNIC, etc.), or you cache the glue for all the TLDs in your DNS servers, then you would not have noticed a thing.
Secondly, Rob Thomas has made an excellent template for securing BIND against all sorts of "stupid user tricks" which can be found here:
Thirdly, quoting Louis Touton saying "We're not aware of any users that were in any way affected." was a serious mistake. ICANN haven't taken any notice of internet users up until now, so why should they start now?
The article went on to say "VeriSign expects that these sort of attacks will happen and VeriSign was prepared," company spokesman Brian O'Shaughnessy said. If you want a likely suspect, try this one - brought to you, of course, by Verisign:
FYI, the ORSC web site was written in 1997 to meet the US Gov's submission process criteria for the "new corp" (which is now known as ICANN). You are correct, the ORSC site does need to be updated. Instead of a pretty web site there is over six years of consensus and running code in the ORSC root zone. This is preferable to vaporware and marketing drivel driving banner ad counters.
Don't worry about the marketing pitch. The SuperRoot Consortium used this wording to avoid the "alternative root" label. The goal is to get the new TLDs into the ICANN root. If that fails, then there still is another, better root zone out there with all the TLDs already in - which you can use today - RIGHT NOW.:-)
One of the new ICANN board members uses this root, and even has his own TLD in it (look for.EWE).
Slashdot Mirror
Mac
Macs have a proprietary hardware (Score: -1), have only just become moderately stable in the lastest release 10.2 (Score: -1), which now doesn't have a customizable GUI (Score: -1) and have an incredibly restrictive amount of both available OSs (Score: -1) or software (Score: -1). OS X is vulnerable to the same problems affecting BSD whereas the totally lame non-threaded, single-tasking Mac OS 7.5.5 / Open Transport was completely (i.e. thoroughly tested) secure (Score: -1). It's just not enough to buy another Mac.
X86
My x86 boxes cycle between OSes (Score: +1). I have a substantial choice - Sun x86, BeOS, RedHat, Mandrake, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Darwin, Windows, DOS, even Lindows, etc. (Score: +10). My x86 hardware is not affected by proprietary OS upgrades like 68k -> PPC --> OS X (Score: +1). I can stay behind the curve with the latest patches or run pre-alpha compilations (Score: +1). My main production software (or a killer Open Source equivalent) doesn't yet work on Linux - including Eudora, Powerpoint, Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Pro Tools & GigaStudio (Score: +1).
Linux
It works (Score: +1). It doesn't run everything I need (Score: -1).
The Wish List
You want to get me really exited. Give me choice (Score: +10). Give me complete (API, Kernel & GUI) compatibility all across my choices (Score: +10). Port all my Mac and Windows apps (Score: +10). Give me a decent GUI that is fully customizable (Score: +10). Give me unrestricted video and audio to create original works (Score: +10). Give it to me on any hardware platform - anyone remember CHRP? (Score: +10) And don't waste my time, CPU, or bandwidth with emulation running crash-prone inferior code (Score: +10).
There are very few killer client apps out there, and they are all currently Mac/Windows. Fortunately, all the killer server apps are already on Linux. Hopefully the Open Source Applications Foundation will make some headway in fixing this. Right now there isn't anything that really makes X worth installing. vi still rules.
Here we have 1 Mac (exclusively dedicated to Pro Tools), 5 Windows boxes (various) and 7 Linux boxes (none of which run X). We also have a ThinkNIC which runs X but it doesn't actually do anything except ssh and Netscape. It is mostly used by our clients needing to reach Hotmail. Go figure.
Secondly, Rob Thomas has made an excellent template for securing BIND against all sorts of "stupid user tricks" which can be found here:
http://www.cymru.com/Documents/secure-bind-templat e.html
Thirdly, quoting Louis Touton saying "We're not aware of any users that were in any way affected." was a serious mistake. ICANN haven't taken any notice of internet users up until now, so why should they start now?
The article went on to say "VeriSign expects that these sort of attacks will happen and VeriSign was prepared," company spokesman Brian O'Shaughnessy said. If you want a likely suspect, try this one - brought to you, of course, by Verisign:
http://www.arabtrust.com/training/courses/hacking/ index.html
The DNS Root web site (http://www.dns-root.org/) allows ordinary users to find and evaluate the many different root service providers out there.
Why don't you use http://slash.news/? It works here.
The ORSC "How To" page shows how to resolve the .BIZ domain (you do know how to use dig, right?):
http://support.open-rsc.org/How_To/
Or you can use SetDNS:
http://www.open-rsc.org/setdns/
The root zone file containing .BIZ (and also containing an ICANN board member's TLD) can be found here:
http://dns.vrx.net/tech/rootzone/db.root or
http://www.superroot.org/root.db
The following "spoofed" addresses also work:1 667/root.db 7 761667/root.db
http://www.icann.org&search=gtld&type=all@1201776
http://www.internic.net&search=gtld&type=all@1201
FYI, the ORSC web site was written in 1997 to meet the US Gov's submission process criteria for the "new corp" (which is now known as ICANN). You are correct, the ORSC site does need to be updated. Instead of a pretty web site there is over six years of consensus and running code in the ORSC root zone. This is preferable to vaporware and marketing drivel driving banner ad counters.
--
Clowns Rule!
One of the new ICANN board members uses this root, and even has his own TLD in it (look for .EWE).
Download the zone files
FYI: There are no conflicts between the ORSC root zone and the SuperRoot Consortium root zone- they've been sync'd for the last year or so.
--DNS Root
My suggestion is to vote with your DNS:
zone "." {
type slave;
file "db.root";
masters { 199.166.24.1; };
};
Stick that in BIND and come join the party!
http://www.dot-god.com/techni cal /test/surfing.html
Use the ORSC root for access.
http://www.open-rsc.org/
http://www.youcann.org/
Examples of the "other" domains:
http://www.commandments.god/
http://www.405.mov/
http://www.bbc.news/
http://www.cnn.news/
The .BIZ registry is here: http://www.biztld.net/
http://www.biztld.net/
ICANN Cannot
http://www.open-rsc.org/icannot.pdf ;There is plenty of room for everyone.