>> PS, you said "Linux" when you meant "GNU/Linux"
> Give it up, Richard, no one's listening.
Please pay attention. My reasons for making the distinction were clearly laid out in the post. When talking about the kernel vs the whole "operating system" (whatever that means) there is a clear distinction between Linux (the former) and GNU/Linux (the latter).
> > AFAIK the kernel ("Linux") takes backwards-compatibility pretty seriously
> ballocks -- drivers break with every patchlevel release, sometimes because maintainers decide > the functions looked nicer with different names and in a different order. It's the userland > that tends to remain compatible over time.
We are clearly talking about user-space apps. The stability of the kernel itself is not under discussion--merely the API presented to user-space programs.
PS, you said "Linux" when you meant "GNU/Linux". AFAIK the kernel ("Linux") takes backwards-compatibility pretty seriously... obviously that's only a small part of the puzzle, the rest is up to the various distributors.
At the end of the day, does it matter? If you have the source to the programs you run then you can always update them to work with newer systems. If not then, well, that comes with the territory.
Why the hell aren't the.com/.net/.org registries run sensibly, i.e. in the same way that.uk is run by Nominet? It is practically impossible to lose control of a.uk domain once you have it.
After such a domain is detagged, Nominet try to contact thet registrant to confirm that they no longer want to use the domain. Only if the registrant confirms this, or fails to settle an invoice if one exists within 30 days, does the domain become 'suspended'. After 60 further days, the domain is cancelled and can be registered by someone else.
Nominet even make it a policy to dissuade domain spammers from registering expired domains:
Why does Nominet not publish exact dates for when domain names are cancelled?
Giving an exact date would compromise Nominet's policy of allocating domain names on a first-come, first-served basis. It could lead to an increase in speculative applications for domain names, which may result in an abuse of Nominet's registration automated systems.
Note that if you are performing an offline installation and want to install the full Desktop task, that you will need CD2 (since not all Desktop packages fit onto the first CD). Full details are in the release notes.
Newsflash:- Caring in any way whatsoever about the FSF's definition of freedom is due purely to a combination of a) mind control induced emotionalism, and b) neurological disability. It isn't based on anything remotely close to legitimate reason, and thus, feeling superior because you yourself happen to fall into this category is likewise delusional.
Demonstrably false. If ATI's drivers were free software then it would be possible to debug them when they go wrong. As it is, I run them, they crash my laptop, I and I'm stuck up shit creek without a paddle!
Because opening a new tab takes you to you home page, which takes the focus. Apparantly most normal, nontechnical users expect this.
If you don't like it, you have four options:
1. Press Ctrl+Enter after typing your address; this causes the address to be opened in a new tab
2. Set your home page to about:blank; creating a new tab then has the focus go to the address entry
3. Patch the source code
4. Use Firefox!
Bear in mind that the various devices may do different things on different operating systems.
On Linux,/dev/tty refers to the controlling terminal of the process that opened it. Therefore there is no reason to restrict its permissions... in fact to do so would prevent processes from writing to the terminal (if they wanted to do so directly to read a password, for instance, rather than relying on reading from stdin)./dev/tty[0-9]+ are the actual virtual consoles that one logs in on. They are owned by root:root until someone logs in on one whereupon they become owned by $user:tty./dev/pts/[0-9]+ are pseudo terminals that are created by a terminal emulator such as xterm, or a remote login server such as ssh. They are also owned by $user:tty
I thought the setgid bit on the executable causes it to run with 'tty' as its gid; which presumably gives it the privilige to write to the various tty devices under/dev.
Well, debian-installer itself does create log files, and they are attached to any bug reports filed against the 'installation-reports' package.
But this is an entirely separate process from upgrading. As far as apt is concerned, going from sarge -> etch is no different than upgrading a single package. It would be interesting to have apt automatically log all user interaction for every invocation with typescript, however...
I agree that filing a bug report can be annoying, but Debian at least makes it as easy as running reportbug, or sending an email to submit@bugs.debian.org. It has the best bug reporting process that I have seen--far easier than _any_ system that makes you sign up for an account (bugzilla). Of course, things could be worse! I wanted to file a bug report against Apple's OS X Mail program today (it's 2007 and this piece of crap doesn't use the IMAP NAMESPACE command yet...). I had to sign up for an Apple ID, and then apply for a WDC membership (which required me to agree to a 5000 word EULA). Finally I logged into the bug tracker, only to be greeted by 500 error caused by a null pointer exception.
FYI, the release notes have some tips about how you can use the 'script' program to automatically capture a log of the entire upgrade process, which makes it much easier to create good bug reports. Sure beats writing down steps taken by hand, and making mistakes or ommitting stuff due to human nature.:)
[Debian] could instantly surpass Ubuntu by pretty much adding all the stuff Ubuntu does (it's all FOSS anyway, right?),
It is not. Many of Ubuntu's changes involve installing non-free software by default. Debian will never do this. You may feel that this will consign the distribution to obscurity until the end of time; go right ahead, it won't change anything, because Debian is about freedom (and technical superiority) and not market share.
but making these small changes:
1. Give users an option to use commercial drivers right off. The new Ubuntu is doing this, but the implementation is still a little rough around the edges, and it's not at all clear that commercial drivers are frequently better than the FOSS ones, which is certainly true for GPU issues.
What is a commercial driver? There are plenty of commercial drivers that are already in Debian main. It is only non-free drivers that are relegated to the, um, non-free section; they will never be installed by default, because to do so would be to go against everything that the Debian project stands for.
2. Default to Iceweasel and Icebird. Debian does this already, so they are a leg up. True FOSS is true FOSS, right? And for some dumb reason Ubuntu still defaults to Evolution.
In fact the default apps are Epiphany/Evolution if you use GNOME and Konqueror/Kmail if you use KDE. As it should be--these apps are designed to work as a part of their respective desktop environments, rather than in spite of them, like Firefox/Thunderbird.
3. Make it even easier to turn on compiz/beryl. Still pretty hard even in feisty, requires xorg.conf editing and such... Lame.
As for the software, compiz is packaged for Debian, like any other piece of software. Beryl is not because of the upstream developers' rather... cavaliere attitude towards licensing an copyright. It's a sucky situation, but without a radical overhaul of the US legal system this is not going to change. More details at http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=3 88701.
As for editing xorg.conf... once composite is readt to be enabled by default, it will be enabled by default and every distribution will be able to use it by default. This will be up to the xorg developers themselves, since it is they who are in the best position to make this decision. Until then, Debian should not make invasive changes such as enabling optional and experimental features of core system software such as xorg.
4. Make the default menu look more like windows. You know: "Start" menu, Quicklaunch, App running display (with preview), System Tray, Clock/Calender. Eliminate the top bar that gnome defaults to.
Maybe they should just install XPDE by default? Or just give up and tell people to install Windows in the first place?
This annoys me a great deal actually. Every distro apart from Debian seems to think that it is necessary to change the default layout of their desktop environments so much that they become unrecognisable to inexperienced users. This makes it impossible to write distribution-neutral instructions on how to do anything in GNOME, KDE, etc. Grr!
6. Include some really good foss games. You know, games with 3d sound and video, and online multiplayer. Urban Terror is free (as in beer). Use that one, till a better full FOSS alternative comes along. Hell ioquake3 with the original quake 3 demo files would be better than what most distros ship with.
The games you mention are non-free. As I said above, if you want them installed by default then you are using the wrong distro. Try Ubuntu instead.
8. Make it REALLY EASY to get EVERY CODEC.
It is already very easy to obtain every codec that Debian is able to distribute. They are probably even ins
Perhaps you should actually read the release notes, which the original poster abridged for the purposes of trolling.
For many years, turning on the register_globals settings in PHP has been known to be insecure and dangerous, and this option has defaulted to off for some time now. This configuration is now finally deprecated on Debian systems as too dangerous. The same applies to flaws in safe_mode and open_basedir, which have also been unmaintained for some time.
Starting with this release, the Debian security team does not provide security support for a number of PHP configurations which are known to be insecure. Most importantly, issues resulting from register_globals being turned on will no longer be addressed.
If you run legacy applications that require register_globals, enable it for the respective paths only, e.g. through the Apache configuration file. More information is available in the README.Debian.security file in the PHP documentation directory (/usr/share/doc/php4,/usr/share/doc/php5).
It has been off since at least the release of sarge. They are merely stating that there will be no security updates released for security bugs in PHP applications that are only exposed when register_globals is set on (which, again, has not been the default configuration for years)!
Slashdot Mirror
If somebody's ISP is blindly rejecting mails due to nothing more than a positive Spamhaus hit then that's the fault of the ISP!
:(
No accounting for idiots I guess!
Well, Nominet is the registry, not the registrar. They are analogous to Verisign rather than GoDaddy.
.uk domain is £2.50 per year, compared to about £9 for a .com!
Anyone can join Nominet and resell domains as a registrar. The usual price for a
>> PS, you said "Linux" when you meant "GNU/Linux"
> Give it up, Richard, no one's listening.
Please pay attention. My reasons for making the distinction were clearly laid out in the post. When talking about the kernel vs the whole "operating system" (whatever that means) there is a clear distinction between Linux (the former) and GNU/Linux (the latter).
> > AFAIK the kernel ("Linux") takes backwards-compatibility pretty seriously
> ballocks -- drivers break with every patchlevel release, sometimes because maintainers decide
> the functions looked nicer with different names and in a different order. It's the userland
> that tends to remain compatible over time.
We are clearly talking about user-space apps. The stability of the kernel itself is not under discussion--merely the API presented to user-space programs.
Solaris?
PS, you said "Linux" when you meant "GNU/Linux". AFAIK the kernel ("Linux") takes backwards-compatibility pretty seriously... obviously that's only a small part of the puzzle, the rest is up to the various distributors.
At the end of the day, does it matter? If you have the source to the programs you run then you can always update them to work with newer systems. If not then, well, that comes with the territory.
After such a domain is detagged, Nominet try to contact thet registrant to confirm that they no longer want to use the domain. Only if the registrant confirms this, or fails to settle an invoice if one exists within 30 days, does the domain become 'suspended'. After 60 further days, the domain is cancelled and can be registered by someone else.
Nominet even make it a policy to dissuade domain spammers from registering expired domains: Why does Nominet not publish exact dates for when domain names are cancelled?
Giving an exact date would compromise Nominet's policy of allocating domain names on a first-come, first-served basis. It could lead to an increase in speculative applications for domain names, which may result in an abuse of Nominet's registration automated systems.
If your OS allows spyware to install itself into the EFI partition then it is broken. :)
Which is not, a part of Linux, nor will it ever be while the driver relies on proprietary firmware.
That's clearly not an option, unless he wants his company to be shut down for infringing on Microsoft's copyrights.
One can be so much more productive when one is not beset by what I have grown to call the Windows Migrane.
But if you try to redistribute it, Transgaming will change their license to prevent you from doing so.
You can find out with the Unofficial Debian HCL. Currently it indexes modules included in Etch's kernel, which is based on Linux 2.6.18.
http://www.google.com/search?q=define:child
The word is clearly used in reference to offspring/progeny!
Note that if you are performing an offline installation and want to install the full Desktop task, that you will need CD2 (since not all Desktop packages fit onto the first CD). Full details are in the release notes.
Nonsense, that is a common lie trotted out by companies that don't really want to release free software drivers.
See the Ralink cards for examples of drivers that only consist of free software.
Truer words were never, erm, implied!
Because opening a new tab takes you to you home page, which takes the focus. Apparantly most normal, nontechnical users expect this.
If you don't like it, you have four options:
1. Press Ctrl+Enter after typing your address; this causes the address to be opened in a new tab
2. Set your home page to about:blank; creating a new tab then has the focus go to the address entry
3. Patch the source code
4. Use Firefox!
Bear in mind that the various devices may do different things on different operating systems.
/dev/tty refers to the controlling terminal of the process that opened it. Therefore there is no reason to restrict its permissions... in fact to do so would prevent processes from writing to the terminal (if they wanted to do so directly to read a password, for instance, rather than relying on reading from stdin). /dev/tty[0-9]+ are the actual virtual consoles that one logs in on. They are owned by root:root until someone logs in on one whereupon they become owned by $user:tty. /dev/pts/[0-9]+ are pseudo terminals that are created by a terminal emulator such as xterm, or a remote login server such as ssh. They are also owned by $user:tty
On Linux,
I thought the setgid bit on the executable causes it to run with 'tty' as its gid; which presumably gives it the privilige to write to the various tty devices under /dev.
Well, debian-installer itself does create log files, and they are attached to any bug reports filed against the 'installation-reports' package.
But this is an entirely separate process from upgrading. As far as apt is concerned, going from sarge -> etch is no different than upgrading a single package. It would be interesting to have apt automatically log all user interaction for every invocation with typescript, however...
I agree that filing a bug report can be annoying, but Debian at least makes it as easy as running reportbug, or sending an email to submit@bugs.debian.org. It has the best bug reporting process that I have seen--far easier than _any_ system that makes you sign up for an account (bugzilla). Of course, things could be worse! I wanted to file a bug report against Apple's OS X Mail program today (it's 2007 and this piece of crap doesn't use the IMAP NAMESPACE command yet...). I had to sign up for an Apple ID, and then apply for a WDC membership (which required me to agree to a 5000 word EULA). Finally I logged into the bug tracker, only to be greeted by 500 error caused by a null pointer exception.
FYI, the release notes have some tips about how you can use the 'script' program to automatically capture a log of the entire upgrade process, which makes it much easier to create good bug reports. Sure beats writing down steps taken by hand, and making mistakes or ommitting stuff due to human nature. :)
[Debian] could instantly surpass Ubuntu by pretty much adding all the stuff Ubuntu does (it's all FOSS anyway, right?),
It is not. Many of Ubuntu's changes involve installing non-free software by default. Debian will never do this. You may feel that this will consign the distribution to obscurity until the end of time; go right ahead, it won't change anything, because Debian is about freedom (and technical superiority) and not market share.
but making these small changes:
1. Give users an option to use commercial drivers right off. The new Ubuntu is doing this, but the implementation is still a little rough around the edges, and it's not at all clear that commercial drivers are frequently better than the FOSS ones, which is certainly true for GPU issues.
What is a commercial driver? There are plenty of commercial drivers that are already in Debian main. It is only non-free drivers that are relegated to the, um, non-free section; they will never be installed by default, because to do so would be to go against everything that the Debian project stands for.
2. Default to Iceweasel and Icebird. Debian does this already, so they are a leg up. True FOSS is true FOSS, right? And for some dumb reason Ubuntu still defaults to Evolution.
In fact the default apps are Epiphany/Evolution if you use GNOME and Konqueror/Kmail if you use KDE. As it should be--these apps are designed to work as a part of their respective desktop environments, rather than in spite of them, like Firefox/Thunderbird.
3. Make it even easier to turn on compiz/beryl. Still pretty hard even in feisty, requires xorg.conf editing and such... Lame.
As for the software, compiz is packaged for Debian, like any other piece of software. Beryl is not because of the upstream developers' rather... cavaliere attitude towards licensing an copyright. It's a sucky situation, but without a radical overhaul of the US legal system this is not going to change. More details at http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=3 88701.
As for editing xorg.conf... once composite is readt to be enabled by default, it will be enabled by default and every distribution will be able to use it by default. This will be up to the xorg developers themselves, since it is they who are in the best position to make this decision. Until then, Debian should not make invasive changes such as enabling optional and experimental features of core system software such as xorg.
4. Make the default menu look more like windows. You know: "Start" menu, Quicklaunch, App running display (with preview), System Tray, Clock/Calender. Eliminate the top bar that gnome defaults to.
Maybe they should just install XPDE by default? Or just give up and tell people to install Windows in the first place?
This annoys me a great deal actually. Every distro apart from Debian seems to think that it is necessary to change the default layout of their desktop environments so much that they become unrecognisable to inexperienced users. This makes it impossible to write distribution-neutral instructions on how to do anything in GNOME, KDE, etc. Grr!
6. Include some really good foss games. You know, games with 3d sound and video, and online multiplayer. Urban Terror is free (as in beer). Use that one, till a better full FOSS alternative comes along. Hell ioquake3 with the original quake 3 demo files would be better than what most distros ship with.
The games you mention are non-free. As I said above, if you want them installed by default then you are using the wrong distro. Try Ubuntu instead.
8. Make it REALLY EASY to get EVERY CODEC.
It is already very easy to obtain every codec that Debian is able to distribute. They are probably even ins
It already is the default, and I believe it has been since before the issue of the use of Mozilla corp's trademarks was raised.