To be honest, I've never used apt-get, but I *do* know that urpmi seems to work just fine. Because of it, I've never experienced the "dependency hell" that most people seem to go through. (And from looking at the dependency list every time I install something big, I'm damned happy about that).
Basically, *some* standard system of this type would be handy, and since rpms seem to be the most popular method of distribution, using them seems like a good choice. Now wrap that up in a nice graphical frontend (like Mandrake's, which for some reason seems to have broken after I installed KDE3!?), and you've got a system as easy to use as those evil Windows installers:)
I know, I used to use it fairly often. They were using a GUI (I think it was supposed to be Windows). Probably just a convenience of the writers, but they could concievably have been using some kind of third-party program, or been using a Linux GUI with some hack.
Speaking of the X-Files, one of Chris Carter's other shows, Millenium, used something similar in an episode. There were a coulple of young hacker guys (reminiscent of the Lone Gunmen) who decoded a message hidden in a picture file by detecting subtle changes in the colors of pixels. One of the show's better episodes, as I recall. And I want whatever hack they were using to make "Print Screen" send a screenshot directly to the printer ; )
Heck, as far as simple file-sharing goes, it sounds like Freenet I. (I realize the article is about an operating system, but this discussion seems to be mostly about sharing files) As far as security goes, currently existing file-sharing programs allow you to *choose* which files you want to share, and which you don't, and other users can only request one of the files your computer says it has- no one has actual access to your hard drive*). I would imagine that any decent processor-sharing program would allow similar customization- setting the maximum amount of processor time used, how long the computer would have to be idle before it kicks in, temporarily disabling it, etc. As for wearing out your computer (as someone else mentioned earlier), come on! You'll probably upgrade the old components long before they burn out due to a bit of extra use. Most people run screen-saver programs that keep the processor busy during idle times, anyway. Might as well get some use from it.
As for distributed Operating Systems, I agree with whoever said that bandwidth was a more important factor than the program itself. Until everone is connected at 10 Gigabits or so, distributed programs will probably only be used for large, slow things like number-crunching and file downloads - not OS's, which require an immediate response. Something to keep in mind for the future, though.
*Barring potential glitches. Really, though, I haven't heard about many security problems in the current programs.
Slashdot Mirror
To be honest, I've never used apt-get, but I *do* know that urpmi seems to work just fine. Because of it, I've never experienced the "dependency hell" that most people seem to go through. (And from looking at the dependency list every time I install something big, I'm damned happy about that).
:)
Basically, *some* standard system of this type would be handy, and since rpms seem to be the most popular method of distribution, using them seems like a good choice. Now wrap that up in a nice graphical frontend (like Mandrake's, which for some reason seems to have broken after I installed KDE3!?), and you've got a system as easy to use as those evil Windows installers
I know, I used to use it fairly often. They were using a GUI (I think it was supposed to be Windows). Probably just a convenience of the writers, but they could concievably have been using some kind of third-party program, or been using a Linux GUI with some hack.
Proprietary to Weta. Or was that a joke?
Speaking of the X-Files, one of Chris Carter's other shows, Millenium, used something similar in an episode. There were a coulple of young hacker guys (reminiscent of the Lone Gunmen) who decoded a message hidden in a picture file by detecting subtle changes in the colors of pixels. One of the show's better episodes, as I recall. And I want whatever hack they were using to make "Print Screen" send a screenshot directly to the printer ; )
Heck, as far as simple file-sharing goes, it sounds like Freenet I. (I realize the article is about an operating system, but this discussion seems to be mostly about sharing files) As far as security goes, currently existing file-sharing programs allow you to *choose* which files you want to share, and which you don't, and other users can only request one of the files your computer says it has- no one has actual access to your hard drive*). I would imagine that any decent processor-sharing program would allow similar customization- setting the maximum amount of processor time used, how long the computer would have to be idle before it kicks in, temporarily disabling it, etc. As for wearing out your computer (as someone else mentioned earlier), come on! You'll probably upgrade the old components long before they burn out due to a bit of extra use. Most people run screen-saver programs that keep the processor busy during idle times, anyway. Might as well get some use from it. As for distributed Operating Systems, I agree with whoever said that bandwidth was a more important factor than the program itself. Until everone is connected at 10 Gigabits or so, distributed programs will probably only be used for large, slow things like number-crunching and file downloads - not OS's, which require an immediate response. Something to keep in mind for the future, though. *Barring potential glitches. Really, though, I haven't heard about many security problems in the current programs.