I'm finishing my first year in Comp Sci and I've been using Linux for over 3 years. I'm hoping there will still be Linux positions available when I get out.
This release even has a messenger under Linux that works, and the browser works for hte most part!
It's got some debug code in it so it's a little bit slower, but it's not that much slower than hte regular navigator, and it seems like it will be a much-needed improvement to Netscape.
This certainly brings my hopes up a lot for what Mozilla will turn out to be!
Soon enough we can just sit in our bed and be lazy on those Sunday afternoons without even getting out of bed, or taking the covers away, or doing anything.
We'll have the images going to our retina, anything we wanted to type or links we wanted to go to would automatically be picked up by brain sensors.
Shrug, I dunno, I'm kinda worried about a world like that. Just makes me uncomfortable. Anyone else get that feeling?
I just wanted to mention that I've recently set up a Dell Poweredge server with PERC RAID controllers, 512MB RAM, Dual processor Pentium II 450s, and Linux 2.2.5.
This machine serves over 100 clients, and it functions as a primary domain controller running Samba 2.0.3. It has worked phenomenally for the all NT network my client has, and it also serves Email, IMAP, POP3, and is a web server for all the users here. It also does a myriad of other tasks, and the load never even hits 1. And this thing is a less powerful machine than they tested, but it can serve over 100 clients with ease.
I don't know where they cooked up the figures they have, but this server gets plenty of use, and it's never buckled or given me any problems setting it up.
By the way, does anyone know where I could go to find out how to increase the maximum number of files, and/or to further tune this machine, because I've had a couple of small problems with running out of file handles for the whole system. Anyone have any suggestions for a site I could go to?
This test just goes to show that every operating system has good parts and bad parts. While Microsoft may be the current lead in speed and usability, Linux is still a little bit ahead in stability (notice I said "a little bit"). I think the main reasons for this are resources and one of the fundamental rules of capitalism.
Microsoft the current leader in speed and usability? Speed? Every other benchmark I've seen with Linux pitted against Microsoft has shown Linux coming up ahead.
I am a consultant in my spare time, and I've set up a company with a dual processor Dell Poweredge server with 512MB ram that has been serving over 100 clients via Samba with no problems, and the server has enough power left over to do E-mail serving, IMAP serving, POP3 serving, web serving, and a myriad of other smaller tasks, and the load doesn't even hit 1 during the busier times. If you take a look at this MRTG graph you'll see that the server sends out a hell of a lot of data, and it's been a great primary domain controller for this place.
Linux has been phenomenal, except for a couple of small problems with the system running out of file handles. How can I tune the system a bit to get rid of these pesky little problems?
Does anyone have any suggestions where I could go?
According to a posting on Linux Today by Jeremy Alison of the Samba Team, it seems that the Mindcraft study crippled the Samba server in the tests:
From Andrew Trigell (original Author of Samba):
They set "widelinks = no" now I wonder why they did that:)
In case you haven't guessed, that will lower the performance enormously. It adds 3 chdir() calls and 3 getwd() calls to every filename lookup. That will especially hurt on a SMP system.
Yeah, this study is sponsored by Microsoft, if you read the fine print:
Mindcraft Certification
Mindcraft, Inc. conducted the performance tests described in this report between March 10 and March 13, 1999. Microsoft Corporation sponsored the testing reported herein.
Looks like you can buy anything you want with enough money. It doesn't make it a true indication of a real-world situation.
I think that there's enough evidence to the contrary already out there, and this will only serve to discredit Mindcraft.
I'm sure these companies would rather compete against Open Source, which competes fairly, instead of Microsoft, which will eat them alive as soon as they have an idea that sells for the platform.
One reason why a single company cannot make an OS as well as applications for their OS.
Because if their operating system becomes ubiquitous, then they can use their knowledge of the operating system to shut out competitors that encroach upon them.
What it really comes down to is that no one company should own the operating system that most people use. It should be owned by the community. That is the only way to avoid a monopoly, because the lines between what an operating system is and what its applications are can get very blurred.
Okay, I tried to read it, but maybe it's my short attention span or whatnot, but I lost track.
All I got was that Koffice is bad, GNOME/KDE are going in the wrong direction with Corba. That we're not really modular. That there's name-space pollution. Could someone give me a quick summary of what he's saying?
A lot of people said he had some very good points, a quick summary would be helpful when I take the time to re-read it again.
What is going on in the hacker community regarding Open Source and Linux reminds me of the song by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Now, bear with me, because there is a definite connection.
On the radio this morning, they had an interview with one of the members of the band about their motive behind the song that went like: "Has it ever rained, while the sun was out?" and he described it as a song made during the turmoil of the band, when they had finally made it big, yet there was tremendous back-stabbing, gnashing of teeth, etc. within the band for various reasons. There was a storm brewing but the sun was out.
The same thing is happening with Linux and Free Software. We're on the verge of making it big, and we're doing the same thing they were. I suppose this happens often when something succeeds.
I think this is what could possibly slow or even stifle the growth of Linux and Free Software. We need to remember our roots, and remember that the destination isn't as important as the journey.
We need to uphold the ideals of free software, because if we've succeeded in the end, and have redefined software forever, but have given up what really gave us the strength in the beginning, we've just instituted something new that has the same drawbacks as the old system.
So, we cannot forget what RMS tells us. Because he is right.
But, I think that Free Software and proprietary software can succeed and work together. Let those companies make those licenses that are close to free, but not quite free, I say. The developers will decide. Don't let the infighting break us apart and divide us. All software that is free enough for a coder to contribute is good enough. If some people get burned by companies, they will learn their lesson, and work on software that is Free Software in the future.
The thing we _cannot afford_ to do is further fragment our community, because that will mean its death. We should embrace what they give us, and give code to the projects that fit our ideals.
P.S. I don't mean free as in free beer when I say Free Software. But if you think that, you've missed the whole point of my diatribe.
Yes, but people are used to being manipulated by the media. And they expect it, and have become rather cynical.
Especially if you don't know a lot about Linux ando/or don't WANT to know more about it, you tend to automatically discount what the media is hyping simple because you think that it is really serving for someone else and not your own. You don't want to find out that you've been manipulated all along;
They just don't know about the community or the history of Linux, otherwise they wouldn't believe what they do.
I'm only 21 now, but I remember Compute! magazine, with my trusty TI 99/4A, and then my trusty Commodore 64 computer, where I would type in programs from the magazine and learn programming by doing that.
Maybe I was naive those days, but I didn't know anything about marketing or corporate control, or how patents ruin things, or how the world was screwed up, so I always look upon those days fondly.
Then Compute! stopped printing programs, and stopped publishing, but I always seem to have come back to the programming community.
For some reason, I've always identified with them and their ideals. Maybe it's just that programming makes me intrinsically happy, but programming is always a discovery, a way of taming the world and understanding it in new ways. And when you're respected for your ideas and your contributions, by a large community, that has got to be a great intrinsic motivator (although I've never experienced it).
What I'm trying to say is that programmers are greedy for knowledge and for understanding. We're arrogant when we feel we have understanding and are trying to share it. But it's the same character traits, in many cases, that also make for good programmers.
What if this is part of the attack on Linux by M$? Certainly, this is one area that has enough truth to it for people to come out with examples of how mean and nasty we are. Then again, maybe I'm paranoid about everything, since I would hate to see Linux coopted so late in the game.
OTOH, Free Software also has some of the best support out there, and that is another reason it has done so well. So, while we may have our little brawls, we still support our users, as a community.
So what if there is infighting. The same thing happens in any community. The people that make this community possible are the doers, not the talkers.
I've installed drawbridge as a firewall for a company, and this is exactly what they were looking for. You simply put two network cards in a computer, one connected to the net, the other to the internal network, and the machine will block off access from the inside or from the outside, depending on tables you load.
No matter how big the tables are, the bridging is lightning fast. It's been running here for a while with no problems.
It runs on FreeBSD (needs kernel modifications), and it's freely available.
I think the Free Software movement has more of a marketing department than MS does. They only got an interview printed in PC Week, an obviously pro-M$ publication.
We got a great rebuttal printed in CNN, a much more mainstream publication, thanks to Nick Petreley.
I say, let M$ bring on the FUD. We can fend them off much better than they can fend us off, because we also have the truth behind us.
They already accounted for that. When more and more Linux machines joined in the poll they stopped tabulating the results and took only the first 2000 results.
This ballot was not stuffed.
If you don't believe me, click on the link to the survey on hte article, and read the paragraphs in the beginning where they explain that everything was going smoothly, then the slashdot effect kicked in, so they only took the first 2000 results.
You can see that when they noticed that the statistics were getting skewed towards Linux, they stopped using those statistics. Only the first 2000 responses were used. These responses were made before word of the survey got out to the Linux crowd.
Slashdot Mirror
I use Linux as my desktop. I've got a web browser, productivity software that's constantly improving, and my computer never crashes.
When I go into windows, I feel handicapped.
I think with teh coming of Caldera 2.2 and other "newbie" distros, we're going to see a much broader desktop market infiltration.
I'm finishing my first year in Comp Sci and I've been using Linux for over 3 years. I'm hoping there will still be Linux positions available when I get out.
Any chance of that happening?
Ben
Well, the one difference is that we're spreading our culture over to them, and hopefully they won't destroy this one.
Shrug.
Once it's compiled, none of those drivers are in the kernel. And if you use a completely modular kernel, you can have that once it's compiled.
Most people don't need to recompile their kernel anyway, since it comes with the distribution already compiled with support for modules.
This release even has a messenger under Linux that works, and the browser works for hte most part!
It's got some debug code in it so it's a little bit slower, but it's not that much slower than hte regular navigator, and it seems like it will be a much-needed improvement to Netscape.
This certainly brings my hopes up a lot for what Mozilla will turn out to be!
Soon enough we can just sit in our bed and be lazy on those Sunday afternoons without even getting out of bed, or taking the covers away, or doing anything.
We'll have the images going to our retina, anything we wanted to type or links we wanted to go to would automatically be picked up by brain sensors.
Shrug, I dunno, I'm kinda worried about a world like that. Just makes me uncomfortable. Anyone else get that feeling?
Probably won't happen in my lifetime anyway.
I just wanted to mention that I've recently set up a Dell Poweredge server with PERC RAID controllers, 512MB RAM, Dual processor Pentium II 450s, and Linux 2.2.5.
This machine serves over 100 clients, and it functions as a primary domain controller running Samba 2.0.3. It has worked phenomenally for the all NT network my client has, and it also serves Email, IMAP, POP3, and is a web server for all the users here. It also does a myriad of other tasks, and the load never even hits 1. And this thing is a less powerful machine than they tested, but it can serve over 100 clients with ease.
I don't know where they cooked up the figures they have, but this server gets plenty of use, and it's never buckled or given me any problems setting it up.
By the way, does anyone know where I could go to find out how to increase the maximum number of files, and/or to further tune this machine, because I've had a couple of small problems with running out of file handles for the whole system. Anyone have any suggestions for a site I could go to?
This test just goes to show that every operating system has good parts and bad parts. While Microsoft may be the current lead in speed and usability, Linux is still a little bit ahead in stability (notice I said "a little bit"). I think the main reasons for this are resources and one of the fundamental rules of capitalism.
Microsoft the current leader in speed and usability? Speed? Every other benchmark I've seen with Linux pitted against Microsoft has shown Linux coming up ahead.
I am a consultant in my spare time, and I've set up a company with a dual processor Dell Poweredge server with 512MB ram that has been serving over 100 clients via Samba with no problems, and the server has enough power left over to do E-mail serving, IMAP serving, POP3 serving, web serving, and a myriad of other smaller tasks, and the load doesn't even hit 1 during the busier times. If you take a look at this MRTG graph you'll see that the server sends out a hell of a lot of data, and it's been a great primary domain controller for this place.
Linux has been phenomenal, except for a couple of small problems with the system running out of file handles. How can I tune the system a bit to get rid of these pesky little problems?
Does anyone have any suggestions where I could go?
Ben
According to a posting on Linux Today by Jeremy Alison of the Samba Team, it seems that the Mindcraft study crippled the Samba server in the tests:
:)
From Andrew Trigell (original Author of Samba):
They set "widelinks = no" now I wonder why they did that
In case you haven't guessed, that will lower the performance enormously. It adds 3 chdir() calls and 3 getwd() calls to every filename lookup. That will especially hurt on a SMP system.
Yeah, this study is sponsored by Microsoft, if you read the fine print:
Mindcraft Certification
Mindcraft, Inc. conducted the performance tests described in this report between March 10 and March 13, 1999. Microsoft Corporation sponsored the testing reported herein.
Looks like you can buy anything you want with enough money. It doesn't make it a true indication of a real-world situation.
I think that there's enough evidence to the contrary already out there, and this will only serve to discredit Mindcraft.
I live on Long Island, and I have a cable modem. :-)
Ben
I'm sure these companies would rather compete against Open Source, which competes fairly, instead of Microsoft, which will eat them alive as soon as they have an idea that sells for the platform.
Ben
I'm really hoping the Internet will change more than just the software community.
Because there's a chance it might, and that's good news.
Ben
One reason why a single company cannot make an OS as well as applications for their OS.
Because if their operating system becomes ubiquitous, then they can use their knowledge of the operating system to shut out competitors that encroach upon them.
What it really comes down to is that no one company should own the operating system that most people use. It should be owned by the community. That is the only way to avoid a monopoly, because the lines between what an operating system is and what its applications are can get very blurred.
Okay, I tried to read it, but maybe it's my short attention span or whatnot, but I lost track.
All I got was that Koffice is bad, GNOME/KDE are going in the wrong direction with Corba. That we're not really modular. That there's name-space pollution. Could someone give me a quick summary of what he's saying?
A lot of people said he had some very good points, a quick summary would be helpful when I take the time to re-read it again.
What is going on in the hacker community regarding Open Source and Linux reminds me of the song by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Now, bear with me, because there is a definite connection.
On the radio this morning, they had an interview with one of the members of the band about their motive behind the song that went like: "Has it ever rained, while the sun was out?" and he described it as a song made during the turmoil of the band, when they had finally made it big, yet there was tremendous back-stabbing, gnashing of teeth, etc. within the band for various reasons. There was a storm brewing but the sun was out.
The same thing is happening with Linux and Free Software. We're on the verge of making it big, and we're doing the same thing they were. I suppose this happens often when something succeeds.
I think this is what could possibly slow or even stifle the growth of Linux and Free Software. We need to remember our roots, and remember that the destination isn't as important as the journey.
We need to uphold the ideals of free software, because if we've succeeded in the end, and have redefined software forever, but have given up what really gave us the strength in the beginning, we've just instituted something new that has the same drawbacks as the old system.
So, we cannot forget what RMS tells us. Because he is right.
But, I think that Free Software and proprietary software can succeed and work together. Let those companies make those licenses that are close to free, but not quite free, I say. The developers will decide. Don't let the infighting break us apart and divide us. All software that is free enough for a coder to contribute is good enough. If some people get burned by companies, they will learn their lesson, and work on software that is Free Software in the future.
The thing we _cannot afford_ to do is further fragment our community, because that will mean its death. We should embrace what they give us, and give code to the projects that fit our ideals.
P.S. I don't mean free as in free beer when I say Free Software. But if you think that, you've missed the whole point of my diatribe.
What about Graph theory? There are some modern 20th century advances in graph theory..
Open Source has a lot of testing. When you release software early and often, you get plenty of testing by users.
Why is Linux so reliable?
Why does KDE work as well as it does? (as an example)
Software that is widely used gets plenty of testing. This software is only included in distributions after it is widely tested.
Open Source gets more testing than most commercial software.
What you're saying is completely FUD.
Yes, but people are used to being manipulated by the media. And they expect it, and have become rather cynical.
Especially if you don't know a lot about Linux ando/or don't WANT to know more about it, you tend to automatically discount what the media is hyping simple because you think that it is really serving for someone else and not your own. You don't want to find out that you've been manipulated all along;
They just don't know about the community or the history of Linux, otherwise they wouldn't believe what they do.
Regarding that last paragraph:
I'm only 21 now, but I remember Compute! magazine, with my trusty TI 99/4A, and then my trusty Commodore 64 computer, where I would type in programs from the magazine and learn programming by doing that.
Maybe I was naive those days, but I didn't know anything about marketing or corporate control, or how patents ruin things, or how the world was screwed up, so I always look upon those days fondly.
Then Compute! stopped printing programs, and stopped publishing, but I always seem to have come back to the programming community.
For some reason, I've always identified with them and their ideals. Maybe it's just that programming makes me intrinsically happy, but programming is always a discovery, a way of taming the world and understanding it in new ways. And when you're respected for your ideas and your contributions, by a large community, that has got to be a great intrinsic motivator (although I've never experienced it).
What I'm trying to say is that programmers are greedy for knowledge and for understanding. We're arrogant when we feel we have understanding and are trying to share it. But it's the same character traits, in many cases, that also make for good programmers.
What if this is part of the attack on Linux by M$? Certainly, this is one area that has enough truth to it for people to come out with examples of how mean and nasty we are. Then again, maybe I'm paranoid about everything, since I would hate to see Linux coopted so late in the game.
OTOH, Free Software also has some of the best support out there, and that is another reason it has done so well. So, while we may have our little brawls, we still support our users, as a community.
So what if there is infighting. The same thing happens in any community. The people that make this community possible are the doers, not the talkers.
I've installed drawbridge as a firewall for a company, and this is exactly what they were looking for. You simply put two network cards in a computer, one connected to the net, the other to the internal network, and the machine will block off access from the inside or from the outside, depending on tables you load.
No matter how big the tables are, the bridging is lightning fast. It's been running here for a while with no problems.
It runs on FreeBSD (needs kernel modifications), and it's freely available.
I believe the URL is http://drawbridge.tamu.edu
Ben
I think the Free Software movement has more of a marketing department than MS does. They only got an interview printed in PC Week, an obviously pro-M$ publication.
We got a great rebuttal printed in CNN, a much more mainstream publication, thanks to Nick Petreley.
I say, let M$ bring on the FUD. We can fend them off much better than they can fend us off, because we also have the truth behind us.
They already accounted for that. When more and more Linux machines joined in the poll they stopped tabulating the results and took only the first 2000 results.
This ballot was not stuffed.
If you don't believe me, click on the link to the survey on hte article, and read the paragraphs in the beginning where they explain that everything was going smoothly, then the slashdot effect kicked in, so they only took the first 2000 results.
Actually, if you go here:
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/0399_ 2000.htm
You can see that when they noticed that the statistics were getting skewed towards Linux, they stopped using those statistics. Only the first 2000 responses were used. These responses were made before word of the survey got out to the Linux crowd.
There's no ballot stuffing here.