...to raise awareness about one of the cooler OS projects out there shouldn't be wasted.
I know that the conventional wisdom is:
FreeBSD is for servers
OpenBSD is for firewalls
NetBSD is for obscure hardware
But, in reality, NetBSD runs on so many platforms as a side effect of their stated policy to implement things the Right Way rather than ever relying on hacks.
NetBSD is one of the cleanest, most logical, and most innovative open source projects out there.
For example, NetBSD takes an insanely good idea (the FreeBSD ports collection) and makes it even better. Pkgsrc (NetBSD's answer to ports) is built in such a way that allows you to run it on Solaris, Linux, and a number of other operating systems. Plus it has a built-in package security auditing tool.
FreeBSD et al are moving toward NetBSD's innovative init system which in my mind combines the power of SysV and the ease of use of *BSD.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe NetBSD was the first OS anywhere to support ipv6.
NetBSD always seems to chug away in relative obscurity, with even BSD folk ignoring and misunderstanding it. Yeah, it's great for embedded work. Yeah, it'll run on almost anything. But it's also a really great workstation. And their uncompromising approach to quality and correct implementation make it a very stable and logical general purpose OS.
So, I for one welcome the new logo, and hope that it helps to bring NetBSD out of the shadows and allows my fellow open source users to enjoy another excellent operating system.
Frisbee is a university project that we use to do software regression testing. We have to reimage machines all the time.
Read the whitepaper for how it works. The long and the short of it, is that I can take a hard disk image that previously was deployed via Ghost and 5 CDs and distribute it to N machines on our LAN in about 4 to 5 minutes. Cool stuff.
Hmm... Not quite there yet. The collection of command line tools could probably be rolled into something that automates system management the way SystemImager does. But even then, radmind rather unintelligently seems to recopy entire files.
Also, how is partitioning taken care of.
No, I'm still looking for something like SystemImager that handles multiple Operating Systems. Perhaps extending SystemImager to support others will be the easiest way.
As a side note, Frisbee, which was mentioned in a previous thread, is the killer app for LAN-based system imaging. Wow!
I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned SystemImager. If you haven't looked at it for maintaining large numbers of Linux boxes, scamper off and take a look now. It is worth your time.
Now, that being said, I recently had the opportunity to evaluate using a number of OpenBSD boxes, but I couldn't find a utility for maintaining a bunch of the boxes in the same manner as SystemImager (i.e. Incrementally update servers from a golden master via rsync).
So, has anyone run found anything that does what systemimager does, but that is cross-platform? Do any SystemImager developers out there want to comment on the potential difficulty in supporting other-than-Linux operating systems in SystemImager?
SystemImager is one of the most useful tools I've ever seen, however, I believe that it would be an enterprise "killer app" if it could do MacOS X, *BSD, Windows etc.
Has anyone driven one of these? I've been told they are cool. They are only 60lbs, made of a carbon fiber, and look bad ass. I've often thought it looked like the perfect local commuter vehicle.
There is a distributor in Cali from what I hear.
-Peter
Re:Make your own KDE only version .
on
Knoppix 3.2 Available
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Yes, but why reinvent the wheel?:-)
-Peter
Anyone know when KnoppixKDE will be out?
on
Knoppix 3.2 Available
·
· Score: 4, Informative
For those who haven't tried the KnoppixKDE edition, it's great. Last I heard, the developer of this Knoppix remaster was working on a new version. Does anyone know if it is nearing completion?
KnoppixKDE doesn't have all the software that the full Knoppix distro has, but I generally find it to be a little more comfortable and much more unified.
The only thing that was missing (I think) in the last version was Scribus. Scribus is a QT app that comes with Knoppix that looks like it may eventually be a good alternative to Pagemaker and perhaps QuarkExpress or InDesign. It's got a ways to go, but it's already quite useable for simple layout.
Here's a sample.zshrc file for those users more sophisticated than tcsh or bash users:-)
Seriously though, MacOSX includes zsh and just about every Linux and BSD distro has a port. Give it a shot. It's worth it.
# Peter's.zshrc. See http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/librar y/l-z.html?open&l=335,t=gr,p=Z-Shell for more info # Comfort options setopt CORRECT AUTO_LIST AUTO_MENU alias ls='ls -F' alias ll='ls -laF' # Tab completion for "cd" only returns directories compctl -g '*(-/).*(-/)' cd
Man, encoding my CDs with unicode track names is turning out to be a bitch. iTunes does it well with mp3s, but oggdrop seems to unicode, and the command line tools seems to also.
I can rename the files and then name them back after encoding, but man, what a pain.
So, consider unicode #1 on my feature wish-list. Or maybe I'll quit bitching and fix it. Nah.
I know that FreeBSD's jail allows for some level of virtualization. My question is, how technically does this differ from the jail mechanism or does it?
As a side note this sounds like a really cool idea, especially if you could virtualize multiple instances.
Now if Quark would get off their duffs and release a native MacOS X version of QExpress, I would celebrate. As it is, Adobe's Indesign keeps looking better and better.
Adobe lets you download a 30 day trial which looks good and has me really wanting to switch.
Cement and How the Steel Was Forged are my votes for utopian novels. They are much more boring and devoid of artistry than their names would suggest. This is utopia: boring.
Ironic that the Soviet socialist regime would produce canonical utopian writing while simultaneously providing creative material for truly disturbing stories like Nabokov's Bend Sinister.
Is it too late to weigh in with Bend Siniter as my vote for a distopian novel? It is the sort of book you read exactly once.
Wow, am I ever pleasantly surprised! I'm running a recent beta snapshot of NetBSD 1.6. What has really impressed me is the ownership the pkgsrc (similar to the ports, but with some extra goodies) people have taken of their ports.
The pkgsrc version of KDE 3.0.1 is _very_ high quality. Everything works as expected (except ksirc in the kmenu which must have the path specified).
Seriously folks, if you haven't looked at NetBSD because you wondered what its niche is, try it for your workstation. A lot of people recommend FreeBSD for workstations and servers, OpenBSD for firewalls, and NetBSD for your toaster that should be running *BSD. Don't believe it. NetBSD is a very comfortable workstation.
Some other things that have impressed me with NetBSD:
The new init system. Starting services is logical and a snap
How much better disk performance is than I remember it.
/usr/X11R6/bin/xf86cfg. NetBSD is one of the few distributions that has really configured this to work. This program autodetects all of my hardware. All I need to do is set what screen resolutions I want. (right click on the monitor in the "screen" section.
The very high quality of the pkgsrc collection. Everything that I have built has gone off without a hitch.
...there's a lot more folks.
NetBSD has really impressed me with this version (1.6), and it isn't even fully released. I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in a robust, easily maintained workstation.
Are there Free versions of Arial/Helvetica, Courier New, Times New Roman, etc.?
It seems like this is really necessary. I assume we can't just include the MS TrueType fonts with a distro. I just installed NetBSD and added the MS TrueType fonts via kde from my Win2k partition. KDE looks great! It would be great if we could bag the old 75 & 100dpi fonts. But obviously NetBSD can't just install with default MS fonts.
If you know of any Free versions of these fonts, perhaps you could provide a link?
Maybe there should be a project somewhere for the development of quality, free TrueType fonts for use with every system.
W3Schools is really a good site to learn about many aspects of web design. If only they had as good a tutorial for PHP or Zope as they do for ASP.
Seriously, check it out for everything from HTML, XML, SQL, CSS etc. They cover a lot.
Don't write off GNUStep just because they haven't reached the popularity of KDE or GNOME. I think that with Apple's dominance in the UNIX market place, that we may see GNUStep become increasingly important.
...Does Jordan drink beer. Because I would really like to find a way to send him some Moose Drool.
I find that after a really hard semester during which I've done nothing but pound my head at school and work. A good beer is the best way to unwind and relax. Jordan most definitely deserves it.
Best of luck to you Jordan, and thank you for all the really great work you've done for the world's best OS.
I came into it a few months ago knowing nothing about programming. With very little time, I was able to put together some impressive demos.
Zope seems like the real deal when it comes to Open Source companies. They release for free and then do commercial add-on and support. Cool stuff.
Zope has two sites: Zope.com and Zope.org. Send your developers to Zope.org and your boss to Zope.com.
.org is their community development site (which also runs on Zope). It is a very active very homey collaborative environment.
.com is the suit-friendly corporate face of Zope. This is where you send your boss to assure him that you can get commercial support / training. Zope certification will begin soon. This is one of the few certification programs that I'm ever likely to even consider.
All in all, Zope is a really solid piece of software. The new CMF does a great job of separating roles. Don't forget to visit the Demos (very informative).
Good luck with Zope. You will not ever regret using it.
Slashdot Mirror
I know that the conventional wisdom is:
But, in reality, NetBSD runs on so many platforms as a side effect of their stated policy to implement things the Right Way rather than ever relying on hacks.
NetBSD is one of the cleanest, most logical, and most innovative open source projects out there.
For example, NetBSD takes an insanely good idea (the FreeBSD ports collection) and makes it even better. Pkgsrc (NetBSD's answer to ports) is built in such a way that allows you to run it on Solaris, Linux, and a number of other operating systems. Plus it has a built-in package security auditing tool.
FreeBSD et al are moving toward NetBSD's innovative init system which in my mind combines the power of SysV and the ease of use of *BSD.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe NetBSD was the first OS anywhere to support ipv6.
NetBSD always seems to chug away in relative obscurity, with even BSD folk ignoring and misunderstanding it. Yeah, it's great for embedded work. Yeah, it'll run on almost anything. But it's also a really great workstation. And their uncompromising approach to quality and correct implementation make it a very stable and logical general purpose OS.
So, I for one welcome the new logo, and hope that it helps to bring NetBSD out of the shadows and allows my fellow open source users to enjoy another excellent operating system.
-Peter
Frisbee is a university project that we use to do software regression testing. We have to reimage machines all the time.
Read the whitepaper for how it works. The long and the short of it, is that I can take a hard disk image that previously was deployed via Ghost and 5 CDs and distribute it to N machines on our LAN in about 4 to 5 minutes. Cool stuff.
-Peter
Hmm... Not quite there yet. The collection of command line tools could probably be rolled into something that automates system management the way SystemImager does. But even then, radmind rather unintelligently seems to recopy entire files.
Also, how is partitioning taken care of.
No, I'm still looking for something like SystemImager that handles multiple Operating Systems. Perhaps extending SystemImager to support others will be the easiest way.
As a side note, Frisbee, which was mentioned in a previous thread, is the killer app for LAN-based system imaging. Wow!
-Peter
I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned SystemImager. If you haven't looked at it for maintaining large numbers of Linux boxes, scamper off and take a look now. It is worth your time.
Now, that being said, I recently had the opportunity to evaluate using a number of OpenBSD boxes, but I couldn't find a utility for maintaining a bunch of the boxes in the same manner as SystemImager (i.e. Incrementally update servers from a golden master via rsync).
So, has anyone run found anything that does what systemimager does, but that is cross-platform? Do any SystemImager developers out there want to comment on the potential difficulty in supporting other-than-Linux operating systems in SystemImager?
SystemImager is one of the most useful tools I've ever seen, however, I believe that it would be an enterprise "killer app" if it could do MacOS X, *BSD, Windows etc.
-Peter
Could someone set up a bittorrent for those?
-Peter
Has anyone driven one of these? I've been told they are cool. They are only 60lbs, made of a carbon fiber, and look bad ass. I've often thought it looked like the perfect local commuter vehicle.
There is a distributor in Cali from what I hear.
-Peter
Yes, but why reinvent the wheel? :-)
-Peter
For those who haven't tried the KnoppixKDE edition, it's great. Last I heard, the developer of this Knoppix remaster was working on a new version. Does anyone know if it is nearing completion?
KnoppixKDE doesn't have all the software that the full Knoppix distro has, but I generally find it to be a little more comfortable and much more unified.
The only thing that was missing (I think) in the last version was Scribus. Scribus is a QT app that comes with Knoppix that looks like it may eventually be a good alternative to Pagemaker and perhaps QuarkExpress or InDesign. It's got a ways to go, but it's already quite useable for simple layout.
-Peter
Go One Velomobile : The best part is the carbon monocoque chassis.
-
... Wouldn't you rather a nice, cold shower?
Ahh, fun with Ask Jeeves.
-Peter
...I'm willing to entertain that he used "to" correctly. However, someone should inform him that "being" is intransitive. :-)
-Peter
Jaw-breaking? I'm glad you posted. I think I'll just back slowly away from my keyboard now.
-Peter
Seriously though, MacOSX includes zsh and just about every Linux and BSD distro has a port. Give it a shot. It's worth it.
# Peter's
# Comfort options
setopt CORRECT AUTO_LIST AUTO_MENU
alias ls='ls -F'
alias ll='ls -laF'
# Tab completion for "cd" only returns directories
compctl -g '*(-/)
# Set the prompt
PROMPT='%m}%~> '
-Peter
I can rename the files and then name them back after encoding, but man, what a pain.
So, consider unicode #1 on my feature wish-list. Or maybe I'll quit bitching and fix it. Nah.
-Peter
I know that FreeBSD's jail allows for some level of virtualization. My question is, how technically does this differ from the jail mechanism or does it?
As a side note this sounds like a really cool idea, especially if you could virtualize multiple instances.
-Peter
Now if Quark would get off their duffs and release a native MacOS X version of QExpress, I would celebrate. As it is, Adobe's Indesign keeps looking better and better.
Adobe lets you download a 30 day trial which looks good and has me really wanting to switch.
-Peter
Ironic that the Soviet socialist regime would produce canonical utopian writing while simultaneously providing creative material for truly disturbing stories like Nabokov's Bend Sinister.
Is it too late to weigh in with Bend Siniter as my vote for a distopian novel? It is the sort of book you read exactly once.
The pkgsrc version of KDE 3.0.1 is _very_ high quality. Everything works as expected (except ksirc in the kmenu which must have the path specified).
Seriously folks, if you haven't looked at NetBSD because you wondered what its niche is, try it for your workstation. A lot of people recommend FreeBSD for workstations and servers, OpenBSD for firewalls, and NetBSD for your toaster that should be running *BSD. Don't believe it. NetBSD is a very comfortable workstation.
Some other things that have impressed me with NetBSD:
- The new init system. Starting services is logical and a snap
- How much better disk performance is than I remember it.
/usr/X11R6/bin/xf86cfg. NetBSD is one of the few distributions that has really configured this to work. This program autodetects all of my hardware. All I need to do is set what screen resolutions I want. (right click on the monitor in the "screen" section. - The very high quality of the pkgsrc collection. Everything that I have built has gone off without a hitch.
...there's a lot more folks.
NetBSD has really impressed me with this version (1.6), and it isn't even fully released. I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in a robust, easily maintained workstation.-Peter
It seems like this is really necessary. I assume we can't just include the MS TrueType fonts with a distro. I just installed NetBSD and added the MS TrueType fonts via kde from my Win2k partition. KDE looks great! It would be great if we could bag the old 75 & 100dpi fonts. But obviously NetBSD can't just install with default MS fonts.
If you know of any Free versions of these fonts, perhaps you could provide a link?
Maybe there should be a project somewhere for the development of quality, free TrueType fonts for use with every system.
-Peter
Seriously, check it out for everything from HTML, XML, SQL, CSS etc. They cover a lot.
-Peter
Maybe some opportunities for worlds to meet?
-Peter
Don't believe me? Check out these screenshots:
GNUMail on Linux/GNUStep
GNUMail under Aqua/MacOS X
Don't write off GNUStep just because they haven't reached the popularity of KDE or GNOME. I think that with Apple's dominance in the UNIX market place, that we may see GNUStep become increasingly important.
-Peter
You obviously haven't had a full growler of Moose Drool :-)
-Peter
I find that after a really hard semester during which I've done nothing but pound my head at school and work. A good beer is the best way to unwind and relax. Jordan most definitely deserves it.
Best of luck to you Jordan, and thank you for all the really great work you've done for the world's best OS.
-Peter
Zope seems like the real deal when it comes to Open Source companies. They release for free and then do commercial add-on and support. Cool stuff.
Zope has two sites: Zope.com and Zope.org. Send your developers to Zope.org and your boss to Zope.com.
.org is their community development site (which also runs on Zope). It is a very active very homey collaborative environment.
.com is the suit-friendly corporate face of Zope. This is where you send your boss to assure him that you can get commercial support / training. Zope certification will begin soon. This is one of the few certification programs that I'm ever likely to even consider.
All in all, Zope is a really solid piece of software. The new CMF does a great job of separating roles. Don't forget to visit the Demos (very informative).
Good luck with Zope. You will not ever regret using it.
-Peter