"This program is designed to develop and promote a test suite, and to serve as an information repository that will allow you to verify that your hardware configuration is Linux or FreeBSD ready."
Dell, IBM, AND HP (the 3 blade server manufacturers in the article text) are all on that list...
To get back to the point of my other comment, what's the purpose of this entire article? The poster is seemingly asking for Blade Servers that support open source software, and the 3 manufacturers he lists already do.
Intel knows that they cant get the P4's power consumption low enough to hit the numbers, so they use a P3.
Blade servers are already marketed by everyone that makes them as "a tad slower, but much more energy effecient", and the main goal is better density, to allow more power in the given space. The Pentium III fits this bill perfectly.
Intel is smart enough to know that the P4 isnt everything. Engineering > Marketing, whenever that happens, its a good thing!
A blade server is a hardware product, it really has nothing todo with software, outside of the Operating System Clustering/Scaling functionality.
Google does not use blade servers, last I knew it was just a large amount of x86 boxes running Linux.
Open Source hardware? Does that even make sense? Either have drivers (or release the specs) that allow your hardware to be used on an Open Source operating system, or dont.
Want an "Open Source Blade Server"? Yeah, thats called an HP with Clustered Linux on each blade...
Around here this may seem like a troll statement, but I do not mean it as so.
I do remember one thing Bill Gates (who I'm not a fan of) said last year, the GPL is a virus. I'm not insinuating that its a bad virus, but nonetheless everything it touches gets changed, and its main purpose is to spread itself around. To me, that sounds like a virus.
The GPL is new. Open source is new. How can we possibly enlist such a license that is as restrictive as it is, that has very little legal experience, and makes all derivatives GPL. I think thats wrong.
The major gist of the GPL is that if you want to use this code, you must make your derivives GPL too. In a government atmoshphere, this is going to do nothing but create unusable code. The government needs a level of secrecy. If the GPL were to be used, you can rule out half of the potential applications off the bat.
The government is here to serve us, and do it as cheaply as possible. If they hire someone to make GPL code, and then later have to re-write the entire thing for use in another application because it cant be open-source (for security, secrecy, whatever reasons) thats costing us money.
The GPL has certain applications, government use is not one of them. If government created code starts getting licensed as GPL, then someone isnt doing their job.
I understand the benefits that X brings, but most users will never need them... Changing resolution on the fly (without tweaking a config file) is something thats extremely important to a lot of users. Being able to export that desktop and/or application to another machine isnt something thats commonly used.
Finally X is getting the same features that most other operating systems have had for a decade... It may sound small, but these are the things that make systems easier to use for the average joe, and goes a long way in usability.
Normal unix daemons (apache, bind, whatever) are started as root, and DOWNGRADE their permissions when they can.
This systems lets them start unpriviledged (not running as root) and the kernel will upgrade the permissions on a strict need-to-have basis.
Why give a mile when you only need an inch? That leaves a whole lot of room for error... This eliminates that problem.
Once again, OpenBSD takes the next step towards a more secure UNIX. Only they have the bravery to touch code thats 2 decades old, modernize it with well thought-out changes, and stand behind it. Not to mention that this is code that if screwed up, could reak havok. If anyone is qualified todo these things, the OpenBSD team is.
On some level I agree (the Tony Hawks and BMX games popularity is a little crazy -- and this takes is a step further), but on a complete different level... This game looks funny as hell.
If you havent seen the trailer, http://www.fileshack.com/file.x?fid=1222.
Seriously, the trailer makes it worth a rent at minimum... What red blooded male doesent like sports + nudity + pimps + hookers + weapons.. Especially in digital form!
Hey, the world is in moral decay.. and its only gonna get worse. This is the biggest step forward since GTA3. I say enjoy the ride.
I cannot speak to the cost of bandwidth, which is one of your concerns.. However -- there are a few simple things that customers really like:
1) Automatic cut-off. If a customer has 5GB/Month, and cannot afford more, make sure their site goes unavailable and they are not billed. You do NOT need to continue service, they understand! Just make sure point 2 is made...
2) Notification of cut-off. If above customer runs out, they want to know! Make sure they get an e-mail, but more preferrably a call. It's important, very important!
3) Options for automatically extending the plan. Make sure that customers have the option to have their bandwidth upgraded (of course at additional cost) automatically. This is something a lot of customers will ask about, the type of customers who never want their site to go down, regardless if it costs them. Many customers think "More traffic, more profits", and if their site goes down due to exceeded bandwidth usage, they will think its your fault.
4) Be upfront with all of these issues. Many providers arent verbose enough with customers, and it ends up with them being confused. By laying it all on the table, they will see the above strategy and they will like it. It gives them options that are very important.
Its soooo quick (10 minutes) and soooo easy, and it only costs $120 (last I checked). Doesent even need a DUNS number!!! I love it! No more Verisign for me...
More over-zealous governments that think cryptography is the tool of the devil... thats exactly what the world needs right now. Isnt Crypto export tough enough already? (from the U.S. that is)
You've seen the commercials and all the marketing dollars they are putting into this campaign...
Apple wants people who are looking for a computer that just plain works. They are going after the "as long as it works I dont care about X, Y, or Z" crowd, which is (for the most part) completely opposite the Slashdot crowd.
As always, the real tweakers will find a way to do what they want with their computer. Its not a big deal...
The GPL places restrictions on what you can and cannot do with the software in its own way, and in a way, that makes it non-free. GPL software can be (and is) included with OpenBSD (not sure about others), but its far from the favorite license.
I'm not saying that the GPL is non-free, I'm just saying that from the POV that BSD projects are to be usable as bases for commercial, closed-source software, the GPL falls short.
If the BSD OS's could get rid of GPL s/w and replace with equal BSD (or comparable) licensed software, they would do it in a heartbeat./me hides from RMS
I'm not joking. Lack of drivers? I've never had that problem. I have plenty of different boxes, all hardware usable under OpenBSD. Crude system limits? Without going into perticulars, you do know about configuring limits correct? IPv6 implementation is Kame, how is that non-standard? I'm not even going to address the crashing problem, if it crashes -- report it and it will get fixed. The boxes I have dont mysteriously crash.
BSD may not be as fool-proof as Linux.. it requires a brain to operate. My OpenBSD firewalls can show you how mature it is, with their only downtime being 5minutes to throw on the latest release.
Slashdot Mirror
With as many accounts as they have, and with the real AOL subscriber DB, thats a logistics nightmare....
C&W Sucks at keeping their router loads down and their hops low-latency.. F them!
Of course, but what they know is at fault and what they blame are two completely different things ;)
Either they will look at the poll result numbers, or they'll look at the sales figures as they drop.
People will catch on, and when they cant x-fer songs to their mp3 player, car, computer, whatever.. they'll just download them.
By doing this, the RIAA is essentially pushing their customers towards piracy.
I'm aware. From the site:
"This program is designed to develop and promote a test suite, and to serve as an information repository that will allow you to verify that your hardware configuration is Linux or FreeBSD ready."
Dell, IBM, AND HP (the 3 blade server manufacturers in the article text) are all on that list...
To get back to the point of my other comment, what's the purpose of this entire article? The poster is seemingly asking for Blade Servers that support open source software, and the 3 manufacturers he lists already do.
Not really...
Intel knows that they cant get the P4's power consumption low enough to hit the numbers, so they use a P3.
Blade servers are already marketed by everyone that makes them as "a tad slower, but much more energy effecient", and the main goal is better density, to allow more power in the given space. The Pentium III fits this bill perfectly.
Intel is smart enough to know that the P4 isnt everything. Engineering > Marketing, whenever that happens, its a good thing!
A blade server is a hardware product, it really has nothing todo with software, outside of the Operating System Clustering/Scaling functionality.
Google does not use blade servers, last I knew it was just a large amount of x86 boxes running Linux.
Open Source hardware? Does that even make sense? Either have drivers (or release the specs) that allow your hardware to be used on an Open Source operating system, or dont.
Want an "Open Source Blade Server"? Yeah, thats called an HP with Clustered Linux on each blade...
Around here this may seem like a troll statement, but I do not mean it as so.
I do remember one thing Bill Gates (who I'm not a fan of) said last year, the GPL is a virus. I'm not insinuating that its a bad virus, but nonetheless everything it touches gets changed, and its main purpose is to spread itself around. To me, that sounds like a virus.
The GPL is new. Open source is new. How can we possibly enlist such a license that is as restrictive as it is, that has very little legal experience, and makes all derivatives GPL. I think thats wrong.
The major gist of the GPL is that if you want to use this code, you must make your derivives GPL too. In a government atmoshphere, this is going to do nothing but create unusable code. The government needs a level of secrecy. If the GPL were to be used, you can rule out half of the potential applications off the bat.
The government is here to serve us, and do it as cheaply as possible. If they hire someone to make GPL code, and then later have to re-write the entire thing for use in another application because it cant be open-source (for security, secrecy, whatever reasons) thats costing us money.
The GPL has certain applications, government use is not one of them. If government created code starts getting licensed as GPL, then someone isnt doing their job.
I understand the benefits that X brings, but most users will never need them... Changing resolution on the fly (without tweaking a config file) is something thats extremely important to a lot of users. Being able to export that desktop and/or application to another machine isnt something thats commonly used.
Finally X is getting the same features that most other operating systems have had for a decade... It may sound small, but these are the things that make systems easier to use for the average joe, and goes a long way in usability.
Is when Windows Media Player 6 (before all the gooey interface stuff) gave me an:
Error #112233:
Catastrophic Failure
And then it continued to play the Divx movie fine....
Normal unix daemons (apache, bind, whatever) are started as root, and DOWNGRADE their permissions when they can.
This systems lets them start unpriviledged (not running as root) and the kernel will upgrade the permissions on a strict need-to-have basis.
Why give a mile when you only need an inch? That leaves a whole lot of room for error... This eliminates that problem.
Once again, OpenBSD takes the next step towards a more secure UNIX. Only they have the bravery to touch code thats 2 decades old, modernize it with well thought-out changes, and stand behind it. Not to mention that this is code that if screwed up, could reak havok. If anyone is qualified todo these things, the OpenBSD team is.
WOohoo!
Yep, and I upgraded it to have a 14mbit wireless uplink to my Xbox.
On some level I agree (the Tony Hawks and BMX games popularity is a little crazy -- and this takes is a step further), but on a complete different level... This game looks funny as hell.
If you havent seen the trailer, http://www.fileshack.com/file.x?fid=1222.
Seriously, the trailer makes it worth a rent at minimum... What red blooded male doesent like sports + nudity + pimps + hookers + weapons.. Especially in digital form!
Hey, the world is in moral decay.. and its only gonna get worse. This is the biggest step forward since GTA3. I say enjoy the ride.
I cannot speak to the cost of bandwidth, which is one of your concerns.. However -- there are a few simple things that customers really like:
1) Automatic cut-off. If a customer has 5GB/Month, and cannot afford more, make sure their site goes unavailable and they are not billed. You do NOT need to continue service, they understand! Just make sure point 2 is made...
2) Notification of cut-off. If above customer runs out, they want to know! Make sure they get an e-mail, but more preferrably a call. It's important, very important!
3) Options for automatically extending the plan. Make sure that customers have the option to have their bandwidth upgraded (of course at additional cost) automatically. This is something a lot of customers will ask about, the type of customers who never want their site to go down, regardless if it costs them. Many customers think "More traffic, more profits", and if their site goes down due to exceeded bandwidth usage, they will think its your fault.
4) Be upfront with all of these issues. Many providers arent verbose enough with customers, and it ends up with them being confused. By laying it all on the table, they will see the above strategy and they will like it. It gives them options that are very important.
Interesting news yet I cannot compel myself to think of a sarcastic musing!! What's the world coming to...
Installed user base.. Apache is everywhere, and a single remote root exploit can cause havok across 3/4 the Internet...
Its soooo quick (10 minutes) and soooo easy, and it only costs $120 (last I checked). Doesent even need a DUNS number!!! I love it! No more Verisign for me...
(no i dont work for them -- haha)
More over-zealous governments that think cryptography is the tool of the devil... thats exactly what the world needs right now. Isnt Crypto export tough enough already? (from the U.S. that is)
You've seen the commercials and all the marketing dollars they are putting into this campaign...
Apple wants people who are looking for a computer that just plain works. They are going after the "as long as it works I dont care about X, Y, or Z" crowd, which is (for the most part) completely opposite the Slashdot crowd.
As always, the real tweakers will find a way to do what they want with their computer. Its not a big deal...
IT WAS A JOKE - Dont think your smart for pointing out the obviousness of a JOKE!
At least one government is pushing forward technology in their country instead of limiting the shit out of it (ala DMCA, DRM, etc).
Oops, I've said too much. Pretty soon they are gonna start rounding up supposed communists again.
In NetBSD/OpenBSD, USB-TO-Serial devices work wonderfully (I've tested 3 different devices, NetBSD and OpenBSD share a lot of the same device code).
Try a uplcom one.
The GPL places restrictions on what you can and cannot do with the software in its own way, and in a way, that makes it non-free. GPL software can be (and is) included with OpenBSD (not sure about others), but its far from the favorite license.
/me hides from RMS
I'm not saying that the GPL is non-free, I'm just saying that from the POV that BSD projects are to be usable as bases for commercial, closed-source software, the GPL falls short.
If the BSD OS's could get rid of GPL s/w and replace with equal BSD (or comparable) licensed software, they would do it in a heartbeat.
I'm not joking. Lack of drivers? I've never had that problem. I have plenty of different boxes, all hardware usable under OpenBSD. Crude system limits? Without going into perticulars, you do know about configuring limits correct? IPv6 implementation is Kame, how is that non-standard? I'm not even going to address the crashing problem, if it crashes -- report it and it will get fixed. The boxes I have dont mysteriously crash.
BSD may not be as fool-proof as Linux.. it requires a brain to operate. My OpenBSD firewalls can show you how mature it is, with their only downtime being 5minutes to throw on the latest release.