The reason each distro differs is because of the target audience of the distro. With that in mind, several things change:
the way installation works
the way software is installed, uninstalled, and updated
the way the system configuration is managed
where configuration files are stored
where the line distinguishing the OS from the applications lies, which determines where the files for each are kept
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it gives a pretty good idea.
Really, every distro is a compromise between flexibility and user-friendliness. A distro that is very flexible and can be used on a wide range of systems probably is much more difficult to use, configure and is most likely a source distro with little or no package management. On the other hand, a distro that is very user-friendly will have a GUI interface for everything that the maintainers see as important, and it will have a package management system that requires as little input from the user as possible, meaning that it is a lot less flexible. Every distro is somewhere between complete flexibility and complete user-friendliness and each of us chooses which one we want to use based on that criteria.
Ever since 1.0, I believe, Mozilla now has had the @lock file in your personal mozilla directory that prevents multiple instances of Mozilla from being running. The way to work with this is to use something like this Mozilla Starter Script, which you use to replace your existing mozilla starter script (the one called "mozilla" that sets the MOZILLA__FIVE_HOME and executes mozilla-bin). This script allows you to specify whether a new window opens for each new instance or just have it open the URLs in a new tab. I've been using it for a while and I find it very handy.
How badly can attacking the root DNS servers affect the Internet experience since DNS is so decentralized? If the root server is down, that doesn't prevent the thousands of immediate DNS servers from being able to resolve domain names for the users, right? It seems like it'd only be able to prevent the propogation of new domain names. What gives?
will be the one that relies the least on its bottom line and the most on a passionate community of users and developers. This is why Slackware and Debian keep going, yet groups like UnitedLinux, Lindows, Lycoris and Xandros keep coming and going. The latter parasitic group almost always has the worst reputation with the host community and eventually the community rids itself of the parasite, which is left to regroup and figure out another way to attach itself again to get the profitability up somehow.
Eventually, there will be a completely community oriented desktop-specific distro that exists to scratch the itch of the developers and community surrounding it. Maybe it even exists somewhere (Mandrake or Redhat?), but until it does, expect these fly-by-night, dotbomb leftovers to be up and down all the time.
And per the/etc/hosts file: # By the way, Arnt Gulbrandsen says that 127.0.0.1 # should NEVER be named with the name of the machine. It causes problems # for some (stupid) programs, irc and reputedly talk.:^)
The way I prevent flash ads is by adding a line to my/etc/hosts file that looks like this:
192.168.0.3 ad.doubleclick.net
This makes my browser look for the flash file (or any other ad.doubleclick.net url) on my own box, thereby breaking the the ad and preventing the cookies.
I've even found one company that wants 10 years experience specifically with.NET -- go figure!
It's listings like this that should show you much you need to ignore the job requirements and just apply for everything you think you could do well and would enjoy doing. A lot of times the company will take you on if you can ramp up quickly and they'll save money by getting somebody less experienced.
I tend to believe that the more people whitelist, the better email will be. It always has the advantage over instant messaging in that it can be viewed at the end user's convenience and without being online. I've already implemented a whitelist procmail script with my email, and the only spam that gets through is the idiots bothering to respond to my auto-reply to be put on the whitelist. Currently, I see about one spam message every 2-3 months. If it gets to the point where everybody does whitelist, however, it'll be interesting to see just how complicated it gets so that spam bots can't be made smart enough to get on those lists.
If they won't be considering issues of inconvenience or hypothetical problems, then what other issues do we have to throw them? Doesn't "I can't play DVDs legally on my Linux box" go under that convenience category? Are there enough exemptions we could seek that would make the law completely useless?
where the next 73,000 Microsoft trolls are going to come from for Slashdot. Maybe Taco needs a microsoft.slashdot.org like exists for Apple so all the trolls and flamers can go play together.
I haven't used Windows in over a year now. I'd rather work around interoperability issues (like converting Word docs to HTML with wvHTML) than use Windows. I should admit that I don't play games at all, though.
I'm not a gamer at all, so the product really means very little to me, however, I wonder if releasing MAME as a GPL product will help ensure the life of the product if one of the game manufacturers were to have the core group shut down because of some DMCA-type infringement.
I've said this before on a similar Ask Slashdot, but really you should figure out what you want to do regardless of the technology used. Don't try to keep up with the latest buzzwords. It will only lead to frustration (like you're dealing with now), and you'll get a lot more satisfaction from accomplishing the real goals you have in mind that are independent of the method used to accomplish them.
"1. If it can be turned off all the time, it can be accidentally left off, hacked or spoofed thus making the system even less effective in the face of determined teenagers."
Horny teens are nothing compared to a mass of virgin 20-30ish geeks.
1) Using a light linux distro on a really fast machine just makes it seem that much faster. There's no need to try to find some old and slow machine to take advantage of a fast and light distro.
2) The versatility of Linux is really inspiring. We have everything from floppy distros, and game machines to Gnome, KDE and Lycoris all using variations of the same kernel. I, for one, think that's pretty cool.
I think it's the fact that Linux apps will run almost out of the box on Solaris that makes the move wise. This means Sun now has the thousands of Linux software developers as a resource.
What are the odds that the Supreme Court would also let this go through if the other two branches managed to slide it through somehow? I don't know the answer, and I'm not naive enough to believe that it would be shot down with 100% guarantee, but I do believe that there are enough angles with which to attack this type of legislation that it would be very hard to have a package that matched up the Poindexter's liking.
Incidentally, any attempt to turn this into a some kind of anti-Republican rant will be easily refuted with the long list of politicians on BOTH sides of the aisle who favor a stronger government and weaker individual liberties.
The scientists in any branch are always considered the ones that think too much about whichever field they specialize. Physicists think too much about physics, biologists think too much about biology, and computer scientists think too much about computers. As a matter of fact, Albert Einstein had several of the same suit just so he could devote the time thinking about he wanted to wear to something more useful -- like physics. I'm sure most of us have has professors that we considered at least a little eccentric. I had one astronomy prof that never washed in coffee cup in 20 years just to help his body build up his immune system -- the result of thinking on a level that most people don't.
If any one of us were to devote 99% of our time to any one dream, project, or theory like these scientists most of the things we would write on the subject would make little sense to those who didn't think about the subject as much as we did, and consequently, we would be ridiculed as quacks and our writings would be considered gibberish. That is, until our life's work turned into something applicable to the general public (possibly even outside out lifetime), at which point we would be considered geniuses.
What books need to be done?
on
Just One Page a Day
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Is there a list of books that are out of copyright and perhaps the status of those books on the Gutenberg Project website or anywhere else?
The level of freedom a society can handle is directly proportional to the level of self-discipline they maintain. If there is no self-discipline, the society will impose third-party discipline, whether that be the state or the neighbors, thereby eliminating the freedom of the undisciplined, and, frequently at the expense of the rights of the disciplined.
The government and media recently have turned this debate into a balance between security and freedom, but the reality is that a society can very well have both as long as the members are willing to discipline themselves without the need of an intervening society that is attempting to protect itself from a genuine or supposed threat.
The other part of this equation, then, is that the society consists of self-disciplined individuals who want to ensure that the line between security and freedom is not being redrawn in the face of conjectured threats or threats that do not affect the disciplined. If an undisciplined segment of the society wants to attempt a powergrab, then it will be by manufacturing and exaggerating threats so that the disciplined are willing to redraw the line needlessly.
The undisciplined fraction in society is like a flea on a dog's tail, and the disciplined class is more often than not, chewing its own tail to the bone in an effort to rid itself of the menace.
Slashdot Mirror
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it gives a pretty good idea.
Really, every distro is a compromise between flexibility and user-friendliness. A distro that is very flexible and can be used on a wide range of systems probably is much more difficult to use, configure and is most likely a source distro with little or no package management. On the other hand, a distro that is very user-friendly will have a GUI interface for everything that the maintainers see as important, and it will have a package management system that requires as little input from the user as possible, meaning that it is a lot less flexible. Every distro is somewhere between complete flexibility and complete user-friendliness and each of us chooses which one we want to use based on that criteria.
Ever since 1.0, I believe, Mozilla now has had the @lock file in your personal mozilla directory that prevents multiple instances of Mozilla from being running. The way to work with this is to use something like this Mozilla Starter Script, which you use to replace your existing mozilla starter script (the one called "mozilla" that sets the MOZILLA__FIVE_HOME and executes mozilla-bin). This script allows you to specify whether a new window opens for each new instance or just have it open the URLs in a new tab. I've been using it for a while and I find it very handy.
How badly can attacking the root DNS servers affect the Internet experience since DNS is so decentralized? If the root server is down, that doesn't prevent the thousands of immediate DNS servers from being able to resolve domain names for the users, right? It seems like it'd only be able to prevent the propogation of new domain names. What gives?
or do those Windows just make you want to lick them?
I wonder how long 'til Microsoft gets sued for causing obesity in office workers.
Just think of all the crazy stuff that'd be happening now if they were called Donkey.
will be the one that relies the least on its bottom line and the most on a passionate community of users and developers. This is why Slackware and Debian keep going, yet groups like UnitedLinux, Lindows, Lycoris and Xandros keep coming and going. The latter parasitic group almost always has the worst reputation with the host community and eventually the community rids itself of the parasite, which is left to regroup and figure out another way to attach itself again to get the profitability up somehow.
Eventually, there will be a completely community oriented desktop-specific distro that exists to scratch the itch of the developers and community surrounding it. Maybe it even exists somewhere (Mandrake or Redhat?), but until it does, expect these fly-by-night, dotbomb leftovers to be up and down all the time.
That just happens to be the IP of my box. :)
/etc/hosts file: :^)
And per the
# By the way, Arnt Gulbrandsen says that 127.0.0.1
# should NEVER be named with the name of the machine. It causes problems
# for some (stupid) programs, irc and reputedly talk.
I just follow directions.
What if you could have automatic ad filtering work just like spam filtering using the Bayesian classification technique?
The way I prevent flash ads is by adding a line to my /etc/hosts file that looks like this:
192.168.0.3 ad.doubleclick.net
This makes my browser look for the flash file (or any other ad.doubleclick.net url) on my own box, thereby breaking the the ad and preventing the cookies.
I've even found one company that wants 10 years experience specifically with .NET -- go figure!
It's listings like this that should show you much you need to ignore the job requirements and just apply for everything you think you could do well and would enjoy doing. A lot of times the company will take you on if you can ramp up quickly and they'll save money by getting somebody less experienced.
I tend to believe that the more people whitelist, the better email will be. It always has the advantage over instant messaging in that it can be viewed at the end user's convenience and without being online. I've already implemented a whitelist procmail script with my email, and the only spam that gets through is the idiots bothering to respond to my auto-reply to be put on the whitelist. Currently, I see about one spam message every 2-3 months. If it gets to the point where everybody does whitelist, however, it'll be interesting to see just how complicated it gets so that spam bots can't be made smart enough to get on those lists.
If they won't be considering issues of inconvenience or hypothetical problems, then what other issues do we have to throw them? Doesn't "I can't play DVDs legally on my Linux box" go under that convenience category? Are there enough exemptions we could seek that would make the law completely useless?
where the next 73,000 Microsoft trolls are going to come from for Slashdot. Maybe Taco needs a microsoft.slashdot.org like exists for Apple so all the trolls and flamers can go play together.
I haven't used Windows in over a year now. I'd rather work around interoperability issues (like converting Word docs to HTML with wvHTML) than use Windows. I should admit that I don't play games at all, though.
the more user-friendly Linux appears to Joe Luser.
I'm not a gamer at all, so the product really means very little to me, however, I wonder if releasing MAME as a GPL product will help ensure the life of the product if one of the game manufacturers were to have the core group shut down because of some DMCA-type infringement.
I've said this before on a similar Ask Slashdot, but really you should figure out what you want to do regardless of the technology used. Don't try to keep up with the latest buzzwords. It will only lead to frustration (like you're dealing with now), and you'll get a lot more satisfaction from accomplishing the real goals you have in mind that are independent of the method used to accomplish them.
"1. If it can be turned off all the time, it can be accidentally left off, hacked or spoofed thus making the system even less effective in the face of determined teenagers."
Horny teens are nothing compared to a mass of virgin 20-30ish geeks.
1) Using a light linux distro on a really fast machine just makes it seem that much faster. There's no need to try to find some old and slow machine to take advantage of a fast and light distro.
2) The versatility of Linux is really inspiring. We have everything from floppy distros, and game machines to Gnome, KDE and Lycoris all using variations of the same kernel. I, for one, think that's pretty cool.
Did anybody ever really think applications like Peek-A-Booty would have to be used in "Free" nations? Perhaps we're not paranoid enough.
Can somebody with a clue about Australian law an politics explain what recource the Australian citizens have against this measure?
I think it's the fact that Linux apps will run almost out of the box on Solaris that makes the move wise. This means Sun now has the thousands of Linux software developers as a resource.
What are the odds that the Supreme Court would also let this go through if the other two branches managed to slide it through somehow? I don't know the answer, and I'm not naive enough to believe that it would be shot down with 100% guarantee, but I do believe that there are enough angles with which to attack this type of legislation that it would be very hard to have a package that matched up the Poindexter's liking.
Incidentally, any attempt to turn this into a some kind of anti-Republican rant will be easily refuted with the long list of politicians on BOTH sides of the aisle who favor a stronger government and weaker individual liberties.
The scientists in any branch are always considered the ones that think too much about whichever field they specialize. Physicists think too much about physics, biologists think too much about biology, and computer scientists think too much about computers. As a matter of fact, Albert Einstein had several of the same suit just so he could devote the time thinking about he wanted to wear to something more useful -- like physics. I'm sure most of us have has professors that we considered at least a little eccentric. I had one astronomy prof that never washed in coffee cup in 20 years just to help his body build up his immune system -- the result of thinking on a level that most people don't.
If any one of us were to devote 99% of our time to any one dream, project, or theory like these scientists most of the things we would write on the subject would make little sense to those who didn't think about the subject as much as we did, and consequently, we would be ridiculed as quacks and our writings would be considered gibberish. That is, until our life's work turned into something applicable to the general public (possibly even outside out lifetime), at which point we would be considered geniuses.
Is there a list of books that are out of copyright and perhaps the status of those books on the Gutenberg Project website or anywhere else?
The level of freedom a society can handle is directly proportional to the level of self-discipline they maintain. If there is no self-discipline, the society will impose third-party discipline, whether that be the state or the neighbors, thereby eliminating the freedom of the undisciplined, and, frequently at the expense of the rights of the disciplined.
The government and media recently have turned this debate into a balance between security and freedom, but the reality is that a society can very well have both as long as the members are willing to discipline themselves without the need of an intervening society that is attempting to protect itself from a genuine or supposed threat.
The other part of this equation, then, is that the society consists of self-disciplined individuals who want to ensure that the line between security and freedom is not being redrawn in the face of conjectured threats or threats that do not affect the disciplined. If an undisciplined segment of the society wants to attempt a powergrab, then it will be by manufacturing and exaggerating threats so that the disciplined are willing to redraw the line needlessly.
The undisciplined fraction in society is like a flea on a dog's tail, and the disciplined class is more often than not, chewing its own tail to the bone in an effort to rid itself of the menace.