They occasionally tinker
with `programming systems', but those are so high level that they
hardly count (and rarely count accurately; precision is for
applications.)
*BSD's malloc manages to simultaneously provide high performance while also providing robust (and highly configurable) error checking. glibc's MALLOC_CHECK_ variable does far too much and isn't nearly as fine-grained as BSD's options. Read the "TUNING" section of FreeBSD's malloc(3) manpage. It puts Linux to shame as far as clarity, usefulness, and convenience goes. You only turn on the error checks you need, instead of a few general and poorly-implemented checks in glibc's malloc.
Why Linux can't follow in the supposedly-inferior BSD's footsteps is beyond me.
This bug causes zlib to free() a malloc'ed block of memory more than once. free() on most other OS's (including Windows, FreeBSD and OpenBSD) is smart enough to check for this and will print a warning instead of destroying the heap; glibc's malloc (and by extension, Linux's) does not and will gleefully make a mess out of the whole memory space. This can cause all sorts of buggery when the next malloc() occurs, including what amounts to a buffer overflow exploit.
So, you should download the patched zlib, but you should also email the glibc maintainers and demand that they implement a sane, error-checking malloc()/free() system. Linux's current allocation model is a disaster waiting to happen.
Excuse me?!
on
NetBSD 1.5ZB
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I'm not sure who you are or why you feel yourself qualified to talk about the history and focus of the NetBSD project, but I have a few things to tell you, mister. I have real life experience working with Linux, Solaris and all three *BSD flavours, and I can tell you that NetBSD is by far my favourite environment. It's not just portability or adaptability that make the platform special, it's the homogeneity of it.
When moving between Linux distributions or Free/OpenBSD architectures, there is always an adjustment period where you must learn the intricacies of the new environment. Not so with NetBSD.
NetBSD works exactly the same, whether you run it on an old Atari ST or a 2GHz Pentium 4.
Linux works slightly differently on every platform, because the core operating system tools aren't perfectly portable from architecture to architecture. There is also a different set of distros available for each platform, which adds to the confusion of moving from, say, an old PPro workhorse to an IBM RS4000 workstation.
FreeBSD is not portable at all, and the two platforms it does support (x86 and alpha) are so horribly different in so many ways that FreeBSD/x86 and FreeBSD/alpha may as well be different operating systems.
OpenBSD may be nearly as portable as NetBSD, but it's nowhere near as comfortable. The anal-retentive "security first" philosophy forces the user to jump through an incessant number of hoops to get anything done. The only reason OpenBSD is secure is because you can't do anything with it. I have no idea what the authors were thinking when they wrote it.
I bet you're just another whining Slashdot teenage kiddy, and that you've never had a real job in your life. You talk about OpenBSD and NetBSD as if you wrote them! I hope for your sake you're not this full of yourself in real life.
Is this really healthy?
on
To The Pain
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Most computer-inclined people already abuse their hands enough as it is, wrecking their wrists with 15-hour coding binges, hours spent playing Playstation 2 games on those horrible little controllers, and of course *ahem* viewing "multimedia content" on the Web. Something like this, if it becomes popular with geeks, will only exacerbate the carpal tunnel epidemic that's already putting geeks out of employment by the thousands. These frivolities like electric shock, force feedback and "rumble packs" are only exacerbating the problem that today's computer interfaces are an ergonomic nightmare.
Research being wasted on silly projects like this should instead be focused on voice recognition, speech synthesis, and other computer interface technologies that will finally allow us to eliminate the torturous tools that are the modern keyboard and mouse. My friend, who once commanded a six-figure salary coding C++ for a large development firm, has been crippled by these implements and now has to struggle with demeaning part-time jobs in order to put food on the table. I would hate to see this happen to somebody again. We must throw off the shackles of the typing paradigm.
Slashdot Mirror
Post a comment to this Sourceforge bug report telling Jamie what tags you want liberated.
They occasionally tinker with `programming systems', but those are so high level that they hardly count (and rarely count accurately; precision is for applications.)
Why Linux can't follow in the supposedly-inferior BSD's footsteps is beyond me.
So, you should download the patched zlib, but you should also email the glibc maintainers and demand that they implement a sane, error-checking malloc()/free() system. Linux's current allocation model is a disaster waiting to happen.
When moving between Linux distributions or Free/OpenBSD architectures, there is always an adjustment period where you must learn the intricacies of the new environment. Not so with NetBSD.
- NetBSD works exactly the same, whether you run it on an old Atari ST or a 2GHz Pentium 4.
- Linux works slightly differently on every platform, because the core operating system tools aren't perfectly portable from architecture to architecture. There is also a different set of distros available for each platform, which adds to the confusion of moving from, say, an old PPro workhorse to an IBM RS4000 workstation.
- FreeBSD is not portable at all, and the two platforms it does support (x86 and alpha) are so horribly different in so many ways that FreeBSD/x86 and FreeBSD/alpha may as well be different operating systems.
- OpenBSD may be nearly as portable as NetBSD, but it's nowhere near as comfortable. The anal-retentive "security first" philosophy forces the user to jump through an incessant number of hoops to get anything done. The only reason OpenBSD is secure is because you can't do anything with it. I have no idea what the authors were thinking when they wrote it.
I bet you're just another whining Slashdot teenage kiddy, and that you've never had a real job in your life. You talk about OpenBSD and NetBSD as if you wrote them! I hope for your sake you're not this full of yourself in real life.Research being wasted on silly projects like this should instead be focused on voice recognition, speech synthesis, and other computer interface technologies that will finally allow us to eliminate the torturous tools that are the modern keyboard and mouse. My friend, who once commanded a six-figure salary coding C++ for a large development firm, has been crippled by these implements and now has to struggle with demeaning part-time jobs in order to put food on the table. I would hate to see this happen to somebody again. We must throw off the shackles of the typing paradigm.
It's appreciative posts like this that keep me writing software. Thank you for the compliment, and for telling me that it works in IE! :-)
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