I started at $8, doing system administration for a small software company (NT and OpenBSD). Of course, I was 16 at the time, so you'd never hear me complain about it. Now I'm 18, and working there part-time for $12.50 while I go to college for my BS in CS.
Still, there's a plus to be "unprofessional". I go to work, and though everyone else wears a shirt/tie business-look, I wear sneakers and sweatshirts:) When they start giving me benefits, then I'll put on a tie.
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Oh please. It's not like you avoided this virus through some incredible foresight of your own thinking. You just don't use Outlook -- that's fine, but a lot of people do.
And it's a freakin' good client too. I don't care if it's a MS product, if there was a version of Outlook for Linux (that was as good as the Windows one) I would use it in a heartbeat. KMail just isn't cutting it for me, and I really hate using an xterm for my email.
So you happen to be immune to these attacks because you're using software that less than 10% of the consumer desktop market uses. Believe me, Netscape under Linux has it's fair share of bugs -- they abound. You may not be succeptible to these attacks, but you're not invulnerable...
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
No, it's not a "feature", it's a real live bug. One that MS has acknowleged, so stop acting all smug about Netscape -- like they never had a security bug...
The fact is, if Netscape supported Windows Scripting Host, it would probably be succeptible to the same flaw. I don't care for MS anymore than the rest of us, but I can't stand baseless garbage.
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
I know this is Windows tech, but it's ontopic so I just thought I'd say it:
What's a real shame is that, in the world of Windows, the Windows Scripting Host has never really taken off. I mean, it's been around since the introduction of Memphis... Before WSH, any automated scripting had to be done through batch files. Batch files were nice in DOS, but they didn't have a world of flexibility under Windows, and they couldn't interact with the rest of the GUI. WSH fixed all that, and I don't think many windows programmers took advantage of it.
Oh well - Now it's a security issue and will get a bum rap because of it. It's a real waste...
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Well a great deal of their auditing was done in the Kernel... Of course, that can't be shared. Even if there weren't licensing issues (BSD vs. GPL), the code wouldn't exactly mesh.
The BSD audit only covers the code that is installed *by default*. A default Linux installation generally includes much more, and an audit of that magnitude would take an enormous number of man-hours.
Unfortunately this is one case where a thousand people looking at the code isn't nearly as useful as 5 or 6 people INTENSELY looking over the code, and how it interacts with other parts.
Anyway, most generic software (like Pine) isn't really considered issue-prone for security. If it doesn't run SUID or allow remote access, it really can't cause a problem.
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Not that they need any help, but imagine the scenario:
Disney releases a little downloadable program (Windows, of course) that runs in the background, using spare CPU cycles to do it's job. And what is it's job? Rendering the high-quality frames for Disney's new movie.
Just like with SETI and RC4, people would download the program to help out, just to say that they did it. And there'd be competitions to see who could render the most frames too:)
Hell, I think it's a cool idea -- but someone would hack the client and the next Disney movie would contain subliminal messages telling the whole world to buy shares in LinuxOne... or maybe not:)
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
The mention of Whistle InterJet. I know it's only a footnote, but it's really good model for other commercial software producers to make.
Whistle could keep their code to themselves -- certainly a number of companies have done that when it comes to BSD-style licenses. Still, they gave it back to the community. The only stipulation was that the community had to wait a little while. I have no problem waiting 6 months (or even a year) to use a companies add-ons. If they're not useful after a year, then they probably weren't that important to begin with.
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
First of all - I love OpenBSD. It's made my life as a sysadmin MUCH easier.
Having said that, I wouldn't want Linux to pick up it's development model. Actually, Debian is almost there. The BSD groups are incredibly picky when it comes to what get's put into their OS. The kernel development is a much slower, and much more mature process. If Linux worked that way, we wouldn't see 2.4 until 2005.
A line-by-line audit of Linux's code wouldn't be bad idea, but the state of that code changes so frequently that I don't think it could be done properly without affecting the development process.
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Just about the only real source of information that Slashdot is good for (journalistically, mind you) is the reaction of events by it's readers.
What I mean is that everything posted on Slashdot is second-hand. We get our news as it comes down the pipe, and then we discuss it. Most of these stories are from somewhere else (read: Wired, NYT, the Globe).
While I'll be first in line to congratulate the Slashdot group for a job well done, it won't be in the name of a "legitimate news site". That label just doesn't fit. It's more like "legitimate discussion forum"
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Mind you, I'm not complaining, but a lot of it?? Try all of it.
Almost all of the "stories" on slashdot are just links to another story. Big deal. That's not the point. Slashdot is more than just another news site. It's a discussion forum. Except in the case of the occasional piece by Roblimo or Katz, you can be pretty sure the "News" you read on/. has been posted somewhere else first. But the comments... Now, those are originals (hopefully).
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Well yeah, in that sense, anything is possible. The problem is that it would break all of the current X-apps that need fonts. I guess there could be backwards-compatibility... I don't really know much about it.
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
I was actually suprised to see his name there, but now that I think about it, it's such a good idea.
Although most of us here at/. are using Linux, xBSD, or some other form of Unix, the Microsoft world is still the fundamental majority. Delorie's port of GCC to MSDOS, and all the derivatives thereof, played a monunmental role in the development of free software ports in the DOS world. Without his contributions, none of this would have been possible.
On that note: Wasn't the original Quake for DOS written using DJ's gcc?
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Okay, so when Joe Schmoe calls and says "Why can't I get Domino to run on my Linux PC?" what are they supposed to say?
There could be a thousand things wrong with the distribution that this customer is using. Maybe it's Libc5, maybe it doesn't use the same directory tree structure, maybe it doesn't support mice -- who knows!
The point is, by supporting Caldera and Redhat, IBM is making sure that certain features are there. I'll bet that Domino will work with just about every other modern distro, but there's probably a bunch that it doesn't, for good reasons too. You can't expect IBM to cater to everyone; it doesn't make sense.
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Europe's been ahead of us (the US) in television broadcast standards for quite some time now, and the US just doesn't seem to get it. What's more, the general public doesn't seem to care about getting higher-res TV standards implemented here. I suppose it shouldn't suprise anyone though; the general public isn't too picky:)
Let's see some digital TV soon!
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
It's not a competition. There is no competition. It's about the user's choice. If the user wants to use MS because it supports more websites, then they will. If they want to use Linux because it doesn't crash and it's free, they'll do that too.
It's about choice for companies too. If they want to develop plug-ins for Linux, they will. If they see a big enough demand for it, they definitely will. Right now that demand just isn't there. Why? Because not enough people have chosen Linux.
Don't get your pants in a bunch because you think this is a battle. It's not. MS doesn't have to lose for Linux to win. Linux is just an operating system. It's people who win -- and they do so by finding a system that works for them. It would be wonderful if Linux was that system, but for most it isn't. Because of browser incompatibilities and other topics that have been discussed into the ground.
And if those problems are never overcome? Then Linux doesn't take the average user's desktop. Oh well. I don't care if it does. I like having Linux on my desktop. I don't have to see it on every desktop, just because I don't like MS. I absolutley refuse to make it personal.
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Well that's not the point. The point is that in the business world, someone always has to be accountable. That's why businesses want a commercially supported Operating system, and why people like RedHat can charge for support. It's the reassurance that there's someone to blame when all hell breaks loose.
And that's what they're doing now -- blaming the hackers who broke the code.
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Well the TNT2 drivers are GPL'ed and IIRC they're implementation of OpenGL (for the TNT2) uses Mesa, so there's no reason to think they'd release these drivers under anything that wasn't GPL. I think they've gotten the picture when it comes to Linux drivers.
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Computer Science has nothing to do with proprietary software. CS is the science of computers, nothing more. The fact that a lot of Comp Scientists end up working at proprietary firms is simply a fact of how our market works. People like to make money.
And as for the rest of scientists - well they're just as bad. How many different technologies, discovered by scientists, are patented or trade-secrets? The number is huge - it's hardly a CS issue.
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Well that was my original impression. If that's the case though, then why does Stallman (arguably the foremost expert on the meaning of the GPL) say that he cannot prevent someone from releasing software that uses his code? If that person has to release the code, then it would seem that he absolutely does have a right to prevent them from releasing it (or just suing them after they did).
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Slashdot Mirror
I started at $8, doing system administration for a small software company (NT and OpenBSD). Of course, I was 16 at the time, so you'd never hear me complain about it. Now I'm 18, and working there part-time for $12.50 while I go to college for my BS in CS.
Still, there's a plus to be "unprofessional". I go to work, and though everyone else wears a shirt/tie business-look, I wear sneakers and sweatshirts :) When they start giving me benefits, then I'll put on a tie.
-----------
"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
And it's a freakin' good client too. I don't care if it's a MS product, if there was a version of Outlook for Linux (that was as good as the Windows one) I would use it in a heartbeat. KMail just isn't cutting it for me, and I really hate using an xterm for my email.
So you happen to be immune to these attacks because you're using software that less than 10% of the consumer desktop market uses. Believe me, Netscape under Linux has it's fair share of bugs -- they abound. You may not be succeptible to these attacks, but you're not invulnerable...
-----------
"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
The fact is, if Netscape supported Windows Scripting Host, it would probably be succeptible to the same flaw. I don't care for MS anymore than the rest of us, but I can't stand baseless garbage.
-----------
"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
What's a real shame is that, in the world of Windows, the Windows Scripting Host has never really taken off. I mean, it's been around since the introduction of Memphis... Before WSH, any automated scripting had to be done through batch files. Batch files were nice in DOS, but they didn't have a world of flexibility under Windows, and they couldn't interact with the rest of the GUI. WSH fixed all that, and I don't think many windows programmers took advantage of it.
Oh well - Now it's a security issue and will get a bum rap because of it. It's a real waste...
-----------
"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
The BSD audit only covers the code that is installed *by default*. A default Linux installation generally includes much more, and an audit of that magnitude would take an enormous number of man-hours.
Unfortunately this is one case where a thousand people looking at the code isn't nearly as useful as 5 or 6 people INTENSELY looking over the code, and how it interacts with other parts.
Anyway, most generic software (like Pine) isn't really considered issue-prone for security. If it doesn't run SUID or allow remote access, it really can't cause a problem.
-----------
"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Disney releases a little downloadable program (Windows, of course) that runs in the background, using spare CPU cycles to do it's job. And what is it's job? Rendering the high-quality frames for Disney's new movie.
Just like with SETI and RC4, people would download the program to help out, just to say that they did it. And there'd be competitions to see who could render the most frames too :)
Hell, I think it's a cool idea -- but someone would hack the client and the next Disney movie would contain subliminal messages telling the whole world to buy shares in LinuxOne... or maybe not :)
-----------
"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
WHERE'S MY RELISH!!!?!?!
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Whistle could keep their code to themselves -- certainly a number of companies have done that when it comes to BSD-style licenses. Still, they gave it back to the community. The only stipulation was that the community had to wait a little while. I have no problem waiting 6 months (or even a year) to use a companies add-ons. If they're not useful after a year, then they probably weren't that important to begin with.
-----------
"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Having said that, I wouldn't want Linux to pick up it's development model. Actually, Debian is almost there. The BSD groups are incredibly picky when it comes to what get's put into their OS. The kernel development is a much slower, and much more mature process. If Linux worked that way, we wouldn't see 2.4 until 2005.
A line-by-line audit of Linux's code wouldn't be bad idea, but the state of that code changes so frequently that I don't think it could be done properly without affecting the development process.
-----------
"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
-----------
"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
What I mean is that everything posted on Slashdot is second-hand. We get our news as it comes down the pipe, and then we discuss it. Most of these stories are from somewhere else (read: Wired, NYT, the Globe).
While I'll be first in line to congratulate the Slashdot group for a job well done, it won't be in the name of a "legitimate news site". That label just doesn't fit. It's more like "legitimate discussion forum"
-----------
"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Almost all of the "stories" on slashdot are just links to another story. Big deal. That's not the point. Slashdot is more than just another news site. It's a discussion forum. Except in the case of the occasional piece by Roblimo or Katz, you can be pretty sure the "News" you read on /. has been posted somewhere else first. But the comments... Now, those are originals (hopefully).
-----------
"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Although most of us here at /. are using Linux, xBSD, or some other form of Unix, the Microsoft world is still the fundamental majority. Delorie's port of GCC to MSDOS, and all the derivatives thereof, played a monunmental role in the development of free software ports in the DOS world. Without his contributions, none of this would have been possible.
On that note: Wasn't the original Quake for DOS written using DJ's gcc?
-----------
"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Even still -- in this light, I'd like to get anti-aliasing integrated into my X server. We've still got some time, anyway.
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
That doesn't make a world of sense. I can see a client being released for free, but not the server. How would they make money off of that? Support?
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
There could be a thousand things wrong with the distribution that this customer is using. Maybe it's Libc5, maybe it doesn't use the same directory tree structure, maybe it doesn't support mice -- who knows!
The point is, by supporting Caldera and Redhat, IBM is making sure that certain features are there. I'll bet that Domino will work with just about every other modern distro, but there's probably a bunch that it doesn't, for good reasons too. You can't expect IBM to cater to everyone; it doesn't make sense.
-----------
"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Europe's been ahead of us (the US) in television broadcast standards for quite some time now, and the US just doesn't seem to get it. What's more, the general public doesn't seem to care about getting higher-res TV standards implemented here. I suppose it shouldn't suprise anyone though; the general public isn't too picky :)
Let's see some digital TV soon!
-----------
"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
-----------
"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
It's not a competition. There is no competition. It's about the user's choice. If the user wants to use MS because it supports more websites, then they will. If they want to use Linux because it doesn't crash and it's free, they'll do that too.
It's about choice for companies too. If they want to develop plug-ins for Linux, they will. If they see a big enough demand for it, they definitely will. Right now that demand just isn't there. Why? Because not enough people have chosen Linux.
Don't get your pants in a bunch because you think this is a battle. It's not. MS doesn't have to lose for Linux to win. Linux is just an operating system. It's people who win -- and they do so by finding a system that works for them. It would be wonderful if Linux was that system, but for most it isn't. Because of browser incompatibilities and other topics that have been discussed into the ground.
And if those problems are never overcome? Then Linux doesn't take the average user's desktop. Oh well. I don't care if it does. I like having Linux on my desktop. I don't have to see it on every desktop, just because I don't like MS. I absolutley refuse to make it personal.
-----------
"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
And that's what they're doing now -- blaming the hackers who broke the code.
-----------
"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
And as for the rest of scientists - well they're just as bad. How many different technologies, discovered by scientists, are patented or trade-secrets? The number is huge - it's hardly a CS issue.
-----------
"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
-----------
"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."