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User: MarcoAtWork

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  1. Goodbye debian, welcome to Slackware 7.0 on Debian Freeze Rescheduled · · Score: 0

    The title says it all, I'm really fed up with how stuff is going with debian, I've installed slink quite a while ago because everybody was talking about how good debian was etc. etc. etc.

    Now, every single distribution switched to glibc 2.1, while I am stuck with 2.0, I have many many many outdated packages, that I can not upgrade with dpkg because the new versions all depend on glibc 2.1 which is available in potato.

    There are -many- horror stories of people who partially updated to potato for the same reason, and I don't want to risk to hose my system.

    Honestly, it's just not worth it, debian screwed up badly, and big time, and won't surely get any recommendation from me in the future.

    Before you ask, no, I'm not a newbie, I've been administering various flavours of unix systems for about 6 years now, and for quite a significant part of that time I had a sort of home-grown distribution.

    I thought that the possibility of using packages and the reputation of debian would have been worth my while, they were not, I was much happier when I could simply download any source (or foreign package converted with alien) and installing without caring about dependencies and stuff rather than the situation I am now, when I have to try and dig up Redhat 5.2 packages in order to run XFree 3.3.5 (yes, it's been compiled for 2.1, not 2.0)

    This is degenerating into a rant, but anyways the point that I want to make is that people that run Linux tend to want to be able to easily upgrade to new software when it comes along.

    If the debian people weren't living in their small little world of T1+ internet access, apt-get, and bleeding edge, they would have put out a long time ago an official guide to move to glibc 2.1, which packages are needed, how to do it, etc. etc. so normal users would be able to use new software without feeling like they are lepers.

    I honestly thought about going to RedHat as well, but I already have so many bad experiences with it at work, that I honestly don't want to be bothered ( hint, I hate linuxconf, and generally speaking any gui program that does things behind my back)

    This leaves pretty much only slackware, maybe I'll give it a last try to update this debian box to glibc 2.1 if somebody posts here a guide on how to do it WITHOUT using apt-get (I'm on a modem here, and I'd like to download the packages first) otherwise in a few weeks when I'll have some time, I'll probably wipe everything out and install slackware from scratch.

  2. Happily married too ;) on Online Romance - For Good or Evil? · · Score: 1

    Actually I found my wife thanks to cyberfriends, I was still living in Italy at the time, after 5-6 months of huge phone bills and long, long emails, we decided to get together for a vacation of 3 weeks.

    Of course, after she arrived, we kept moving the return date, and did so until her ticket was going to run out, which made it 4 months ;)

    I was supposed to remain in Italy until after my M.Sc. graduation, but I couldn't take it and followed her to Canada two weeks after, with my computer (tower case, LOL) in the suitcase, needless to say it took quite a while to get cleared through customs ;)

    I finished the thesis, and went back to Italy to graduate, and came back again to Canada two weeks after (we kept in touch via email as usual) and got married on Valentine's day 1998, a little bit more than a year after we met online.

    It's funny to remember that for several weeks I actually thought that she was a guy pretending to be a girl just to have some fun ;)

    It's also funny to see that despite being labeled as geek for so many years, I was the first one among my friends to get married :)

  3. Pat Metheny & John Coltrane on Ask Slashdot: What Music do you Code By? · · Score: 1

    The subject says it all, I usually code to Pat Metheny's 'The road to you' and John Coltrane's Blue Train

    I used to code with Bach's organ works and/or Mozart piano concertos, but I found that jazz makes me slightly more productive, actually, these particular two CDs make me more productive ;)

  4. Linux NOT mentioned in the official release on Linux Supercomputer Wins Weather Bid · · Score: 1

    Anybody else noticed that Linux is not mentioned anywhere in the NOAA press release while it's promimently displayed in the integrator's ?

    Is the NOAA afraid to say that they are basing a 15 million dollars investment on free software rather than on something from Microsoft/Sun/IBM/whatever ?

  5. Re:Regarding softcover/hardcover & the NAG book on Interview: Tim O'Reilly Answers · · Score: 1

    I should have written 'because it was a better -system administration- book for me'.

    Firstly I generally learn things more quickly through examples, and secondly I didn't buy the book to learn systems administration, but just to polish some rough edges and fill in some blanks that I had.

    Had I been a newbie or a different person, my choice of book could have surely been different

  6. Regarding softcover/hardcover & the NAG book on Interview: Tim O'Reilly Answers · · Score: 2

    I personally love the O'Reilly 'lay-flat' binding, I never ever had any problem with it, and all of the several tens of books that I own are still very mint looking, despite heavy usage.

    The only books that I would like to see in hardcover, and maybe updated, are the X/Motif programming series ones, and this mainly due to their size and quasi-Bible status.

    Regarding 'low' sales of the NAG book: I do think that most people that use Linux professionally, don't buy administration books based on having Linux on the cover, but rather looking at the contents.

    At one point I was on the market for a good sysadmining book, and I bought the Red Book (Nemeth etc.) rather than the NAG because it was a better -systems administration- book.

    While it didn't cover Linux specifically, a very significant of the information presented was applicable to Linux systems, and having sections on other OSs was a definite plus, since all-Linux environments are still hard to come by (I currently work in one BTW, but it's not that common)

    One more thing, I -really- appreciate that O'Reilly prints on recycled paper, and I'm sure that the trees appreciate this too. Now if only more publishers followed your example...

  7. Disappointing graphics card (as usual) on Apple announces the G4 · · Score: 1

    Come on, a Rage 3d in 1999-2000 ? If not a new generation card, like the newly announced NVidia offering, why didn't apple include at least something with a decent speed, like a Matrox G400 ?

    No flames, but the G400 has better 2d quality (note -2d-, meaning 1600x1200@75Hz that looks really crisp) and this would go hand in hand with Apple's users main priorities (i.e. Photoshop et al) as well as provide some more juice for Mac gamers.

    Oh well

  8. Re:Origin of "The Letter" on Red Hat IPO All Over the News · · Score: 1

    One of the sources must have been the HOWTO list since other things (besides patches & enhancements) I released under GPL are not in RedHat.

    I wish that the IPO had not been restricted to US residents, this majorly sucks and has been predictably ignored by the majority of the mostly US-centric online publications.

    Linux has been created through the work of people that reside in many different countries, and thus some method should have been set up to help them partecipate in the IPO if they so willed.

    Hear me well: I did not do any of the work I did for Linux and the FSF in order to earn money, I did it in order to be able to give something back to the community, God knows that it would have taken me a lot longer to get my Masters if I wouldn't have been able to install Linux (1.1.something back then) at home rather than have to take the train to the University lab every day.

    Let me clarify, I am not upset because of the economic side of things ( even if I could sure use some extra cash ) but because of this offer's US-only nature.

    Now let me step off my soapbox and get back to work.

  9. Pity it's for US residents only on Red Hat IPO Surprise · · Score: 1

    The subject says it all, it's been very cool on Red Hat's part to have such an offer but unfortunately, living in Canada, I am not able to participate.

    While I do understand that this is due to various SEC issues and is not Red Hat's fault, it's very unfortunate that only US-resident Linux developers will be able to partecipate in this and not everybody who contributed to Linux's success regardless of where one happens to reside.