Yes, I have. I'm not entirely happy with it but to date it doesn't cause me serious problems. I know with FOSS that I can find alternatives, as they are already working on forks without systemd.
If it becomes a serious problem for me, I will adapt by exploiting and enjoying the freedoms of FOSS, while being very grateful to all the people who have contributed to Linux.
Currently if you want to have a choice to NOT use systemd, you have that choice in the BSD/GNU/Linux world.
I'm not an "OS evangelist", I'm a computer user. Years ago I decided that I WANTED to try to use an alternative OS (In my case, Ubuntu) instead of Windows.
So, I did. It wasn't easy, and it is true that there is a hard learning curve to replace existing "industry standard" apps with FOSS replacements. But it's NOT true that the replacements are "poor clones". That's FUD. The replacements are usually solid and reliable apps that have good functionality and can replace the "standard apps" with reasonable efficiency. I don't pretend it's easy, but it IS possible if you can commit to the effort required
Wow, all this Sturm and Drang about a company screwing over its customers. Didn't you read the license agreements? ?
The PC revolution is going fine, thank you. It's called "Linux". And YES, it works FINE on the desktop as soon as you realize that you CAN find effective and useful alternatives to all those "Windows-specific" applications.
Please mod parent up. I too have been running Linux on the desktop for many years, and I can do everything I need to do, whether locally or on the net. Sure, there's a few apps that don't work but then there's Wine and virtualization.
As more ecosystems appear, such as smart devices, cloud computing and who knows what's next, the smaller portion of the whole mess will be operating closed, proprietary software, since anyone building and selling these systems won't want to pay for that software when better software is free. When "hello world" in C++ is over 1 MB, you know there's cruft in there that you DON'T need. Why would a device maker want to include that in their product?
Hopefully as users and business realize they don't need to pay the rent-seekers just to use computers, those rent-seekers will fade away.
You know that and I know that, but there is a reality distortion field around Redmond. This Microsoft shill is really deeply unaware of how Linux compares to Windows.
You're missing a very important point: Under CANADIAN law, the maximum fine for all of these downloading offenses combined is 5000$, provided she's not downloading these files for commercial infringement. She CANNOT be forced by a court to pay more than 5000$ for all the allegations no matter what happens in court!
"A copyright holder can instead elect to protect his/her copyright under section 38.1, which allows for "a sum of not less than $100 or more than $5,000 as the court considers just." for all non-commercial infringement, and $500 up to $20,000 for each commercial infringement.[30]"
This is an excellent law: It protects real Canadians from the flood of toxic lawsuits the USA citizens are suffering.
Canada had to put it in to keep the USA from implementing punitive trade barriers, but in the USA they never put a cap on it so people can get screwed over big time by huge lawsuit judgements. In Canada the 5000$ cap means that no copyright owner will ever go to court to attack a person with no commercial infringement since the 5000$ won't even cover the lawyer costs to file the suit. So these nastygrams can be safely ignored.
It's not a matter of anonymizing supporters who want to pay a few dollars to a non-mainstream news source who do a good job and report on unpopular subjects. It's a matter of hiding the identity of a 1%er who decides to pour megabucks into a news source deliberately misleading the readers.
I will cheerfully admit to sending a few bucks to a cause which is controversial as long as I get to find out when some rich creep tries to buy a "big lie" in one of these corrupt "news" organizations.
Macs are nice: I like them. Sweet hardware and a well-polished interface. I'm writing this on a Macbook.:)
But I still keep my personal data and mail on a Linux system where I know what info the system is sending outbound. And I do keep an eye on that traffic with an IPS.
Going to a theater these days little more than a chance to listen to the airheads continually yapping and playing with their cell phones, breathe the air filled with cigarette smoke and sit in a small cramped chair that's sticky with spilled pop and god knows what else. All for 15 bucks and a HUGE price for crappy popcorn and weak, flat pop.
I'd rather poke my own eyes out with a stick than sit in a theater these days, just to watch the 17th remake of an "interpretation" of a crappy comic book.
The modern "theater experience" SUCKS!!! I'm perfectly happy to wait a few months for a movie to be available on streaming rental, a cable channel, or Netflix, so I can watch it on my home screen. If *that* cuts into industry profits then that's NOT my problem.
A few years ago, I handed a netbook to my 80-year old father-in-law. He was used to a Windows PC, but he was visiting and he wanted to check the BBC website. After about 10 minutes I asked him if he knew that it was running Linux (Xubuntu) and he was surprised, as he had no problems at all doing just what he wanted to do.
So Linux on the desktop Just Works. It is a genuine and viable alternative to anyone who wants to use a system that isn't continually monetizing *you* as the product to everyone's benefit except you.
In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't really matter. The world will always need hydrocarbons, so they will always be valuable. They are needed for plastics, chemicals and all kinds of useful things besides fuel.
There's no need to teach CS grads about security. Here's why:
If a cyber security breach happens, then the company that produced and sold the vulnerable software is never responsible. All end user rights have been signed away in a EULA or some other crooked scheme, so the end user gets to shoulder all the risk.
Since the company sees no impact of a cybersecurity incident, the company execs take no hit. Since they take no hit, the programmers and CS grads who wrote the crap software that caused the problem in the first place also see no impact.
Did people stop shopping at Target? Nope. Are any of the companies that have recently been breached seen senior executives going to jail? Nope. Maybe a few people got fired and stock prices temporarily dipped, but there's so many of these breaches lately that they are all getting lost in the noise.
So there's no point in teaching the CS grads anything about cybersecurity, since it doesn't mean anything to them. It doesn't make them any money and the companies that will be hiring them don't give a damn either.
All the "same laws" that apply to all other consumer products are pretty well useless. Read a cell phone contract or any so-called "warranty" carefully on any "consumer" product and you'll realize you have f-all rights. Manufacturers and vendors are continually chipping away at "consumer rights" with the willing assistance of their well-paid Congress, Senate and SCOTUS critters.
Try to take a broken toaster back to any big box retailer and get your money back: Unless they really want your repeat business they will make you suffer in a long line to get a "reconditioned" replacement that won't last a week.
The real advantage of F/OSS is that it gives you no warranty or promise of any kind, but that it DOES give you the capability of fixing it yourself and making the system do what YOU want. As long as your software is controlled by a vendor or any other third party that does NOT have your interests at heart, you remain at their mercy. And they will only act in their best interests, not yours.
Apple makes money selling hardware. That's their business model. So, they will do whatever it takes to encourage selling new shinies, including encouraging their customers to "trade up" to a newer model via hype, minor upgrades or "social engineering" to get their customers ready to buy.
Companies selling "durable goods" love to have their customers buy their products more often than necessary. They all use these sorts of tactics to make that happen to improve their bottom line. Apple is no different.
I suspect that if there was a post about how the BB-8 droid keeps it's head on, sooner or later there would be a comment about systemd.
Respectfully, worrying about commenters staying on topic on Slashdot is like worrying about hurricanes: There ain't nothing you can do to stop them since they're gonna do what they're gonna do!:):):)
Linux on the desktop has been a good and reliable alternative for both power users and home users for several years now.
There's a few choices to make and settings to configure (turn off UEFI as needed and select Mint/Xubuntu/Fedora/OpenSuse) but anyone can find a LUG or google the help they need to handle these easy steps.
These days the need for using a CLI is zero unless you have some weird hardware or very rare configuration.
And yes, the datamining IS a problem: Raping the customer's privacy is always a problem!
The real bad guys ALREADY have strong encryption. PGP is free and widespread. Hizbollah operate a fiber network in Lebanon, just to make it hard for Israel to tap their traffic. Cyber criminals and terrorists know how to use strong encryption to protect their traffic.
So all you're doing by putting backdoors in all the products is to allow the bad guys to break into those devices and steal law-abiding citizen's data, while not affecting the ability of the bad guys to communicate securely. The backdoors ENABLE the criminal behaviour while doing NOTHING to help the victims of the bad guys.
When strong encryption is outlawed, only outlaws will have strong encryption.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, I have. I'm not entirely happy with it but to date it doesn't cause me serious problems. I know with FOSS that I can find alternatives, as they are already working on forks without systemd.
If it becomes a serious problem for me, I will adapt by exploiting and enjoying the freedoms of FOSS, while being very grateful to all the people who have contributed to Linux.
Currently if you want to have a choice to NOT use systemd, you have that choice in the BSD/GNU/Linux world.
I'm not an "OS evangelist", I'm a computer user. Years ago I decided that I WANTED to try to use an alternative OS (In my case, Ubuntu) instead of Windows.
So, I did. It wasn't easy, and it is true that there is a hard learning curve to replace existing "industry standard" apps with FOSS replacements. But it's NOT true that the replacements are "poor clones". That's FUD. The replacements are usually solid and reliable apps that have good functionality and can replace the "standard apps" with reasonable efficiency. I don't pretend it's easy, but it IS possible if you can commit to the effort required
Wow, all this Sturm and Drang about a company screwing over its customers. Didn't you read the license agreements? ?
The PC revolution is going fine, thank you. It's called "Linux". And YES, it works FINE on the desktop as soon as you realize that you CAN find effective and useful alternatives to all those "Windows-specific" applications.
Security is a growth industry.
Please mod parent up. I too have been running Linux on the desktop for many years, and I can do everything I need to do, whether locally or on the net. Sure, there's a few apps that don't work but then there's Wine and virtualization.
As more ecosystems appear, such as smart devices, cloud computing and who knows what's next, the smaller portion of the whole mess will be operating closed, proprietary software, since anyone building and selling these systems won't want to pay for that software when better software is free. When "hello world" in C++ is over 1 MB, you know there's cruft in there that you DON'T need. Why would a device maker want to include that in their product?
Hopefully as users and business realize they don't need to pay the rent-seekers just to use computers, those rent-seekers will fade away.
You know that and I know that, but there is a reality distortion field around Redmond. This Microsoft shill is really deeply unaware of how Linux compares to Windows.
"They don't have a funding source"???
They get over a BILLION DOLLARS each year from the Canadian taxpayers.
in 2015 "the CBC received $1.036 billion from government funding". Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
"teach artificial intelligence systems how to conduct warfare."
Do you want Skynet?
Because that's how you get Skynet!
You're missing a very important point: Under CANADIAN law, the maximum fine for all of these downloading offenses combined is 5000$, provided she's not downloading these files for commercial infringement. She CANNOT be forced by a court to pay more than 5000$ for all the allegations no matter what happens in court!
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
"A copyright holder can instead elect to protect his/her copyright under section 38.1, which allows for "a sum of not less than $100 or more than $5,000 as the court considers just." for all non-commercial infringement, and $500 up to $20,000 for each commercial infringement.[30]"
This is an excellent law: It protects real Canadians from the flood of toxic lawsuits the USA citizens are suffering.
Canada had to put it in to keep the USA from implementing punitive trade barriers, but in the USA they never put a cap on it so people can get screwed over big time by huge lawsuit judgements. In Canada the 5000$ cap means that no copyright owner will ever go to court to attack a person with no commercial infringement since the 5000$ won't even cover the lawyer costs to file the suit. So these nastygrams can be safely ignored.
It's not a matter of anonymizing supporters who want to pay a few dollars to a non-mainstream news source who do a good job and report on unpopular subjects. It's a matter of hiding the identity of a 1%er who decides to pour megabucks into a news source deliberately misleading the readers.
I will cheerfully admit to sending a few bucks to a cause which is controversial as long as I get to find out when some rich creep tries to buy a "big lie" in one of these corrupt "news" organizations.
Macs are nice: I like them. Sweet hardware and a well-polished interface. I'm writing this on a Macbook. :)
But I still keep my personal data and mail on a Linux system where I know what info the system is sending outbound. And I do keep an eye on that traffic with an IPS.
I run Linux. I keep a Windows system around for minor software that needs it, but I don't put sensitive information on it like mail or personal data.
Linux is your partner. Microsoft is your master. Choose wisely.
Going to a theater these days little more than a chance to listen to the airheads continually yapping and playing with their cell phones, breathe the air filled with cigarette smoke and sit in a small cramped chair that's sticky with spilled pop and god knows what else. All for 15 bucks and a HUGE price for crappy popcorn and weak, flat pop.
I'd rather poke my own eyes out with a stick than sit in a theater these days, just to watch the 17th remake of an "interpretation" of a crappy comic book.
The modern "theater experience" SUCKS!!! I'm perfectly happy to wait a few months for a movie to be available on streaming rental, a cable channel, or Netflix, so I can watch it on my home screen. If *that* cuts into industry profits then that's NOT my problem.
Either one of two things happens:
1. Nothing bad happens - Company makes lots of money - C*O makes big bonus/stock options/whatever - Profit!!!
2. Bad things happen - Company is sued/destroyed/bankrupt - C*O gets fired - Golden parachute kicks in with lots of money - Profit!!!
What he said.
A few years ago, I handed a netbook to my 80-year old father-in-law. He was used to a Windows PC, but he was visiting and he wanted to check the BBC website. After about 10 minutes I asked him if he knew that it was running Linux (Xubuntu) and he was surprised, as he had no problems at all doing just what he wanted to do.
So Linux on the desktop Just Works. It is a genuine and viable alternative to anyone who wants to use a system that isn't continually monetizing *you* as the product to everyone's benefit except you.
In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't really matter. The world will always need hydrocarbons, so they will always be valuable. They are needed for plastics, chemicals and all kinds of useful things besides fuel.
There's no need to teach CS grads about security. Here's why:
If a cyber security breach happens, then the company that produced and sold the vulnerable software is never responsible. All end user rights have been signed away in a EULA or some other crooked scheme, so the end user gets to shoulder all the risk.
Since the company sees no impact of a cybersecurity incident, the company execs take no hit. Since they take no hit, the programmers and CS grads who wrote the crap software that caused the problem in the first place also see no impact.
Did people stop shopping at Target? Nope. Are any of the companies that have recently been breached seen senior executives going to jail? Nope. Maybe a few people got fired and stock prices temporarily dipped, but there's so many of these breaches lately that they are all getting lost in the noise.
So there's no point in teaching the CS grads anything about cybersecurity, since it doesn't mean anything to them. It doesn't make them any money and the companies that will be hiring them don't give a damn either.
Harper is a GIANT improvement on any of your current presidential candidates, save for Bernie.
All the "same laws" that apply to all other consumer products are pretty well useless. Read a cell phone contract or any so-called "warranty" carefully on any "consumer" product and you'll realize you have f-all rights. Manufacturers and vendors are continually chipping away at "consumer rights" with the willing assistance of their well-paid Congress, Senate and SCOTUS critters.
Try to take a broken toaster back to any big box retailer and get your money back: Unless they really want your repeat business they will make you suffer in a long line to get a "reconditioned" replacement that won't last a week.
The real advantage of F/OSS is that it gives you no warranty or promise of any kind, but that it DOES give you the capability of fixing it yourself and making the system do what YOU want. As long as your software is controlled by a vendor or any other third party that does NOT have your interests at heart, you remain at their mercy. And they will only act in their best interests, not yours.
Apple makes money selling hardware. That's their business model. So, they will do whatever it takes to encourage selling new shinies, including encouraging their customers to "trade up" to a newer model via hype, minor upgrades or "social engineering" to get their customers ready to buy.
Companies selling "durable goods" love to have their customers buy their products more often than necessary. They all use these sorts of tactics to make that happen to improve their bottom line. Apple is no different.
F*cked before, and f*cked after. Millions died under Mao. Ref: http://necrometrics.com/20c5m....
I suspect that if there was a post about how the BB-8 droid keeps it's head on, sooner or later there would be a comment about systemd.
Respectfully, worrying about commenters staying on topic on Slashdot is like worrying about hurricanes: There ain't nothing you can do to stop them since they're gonna do what they're gonna do! :):):)
Absolute NONSENSE. Stop spreading FUD!
Linux on the desktop has been a good and reliable alternative for both power users and home users for several years now.
There's a few choices to make and settings to configure (turn off UEFI as needed and select Mint/Xubuntu/Fedora/OpenSuse) but anyone can find a LUG or google the help they need to handle these easy steps.
These days the need for using a CLI is zero unless you have some weird hardware or very rare configuration.
And yes, the datamining IS a problem: Raping the customer's privacy is always a problem!
Agree entirely, but at least they are *trying* to get ahead of the problem.
That's better than the designers of IoT stuff and medical implants who seem to be completely oblivious to the real dangers of cyber attacks.
The real bad guys ALREADY have strong encryption. PGP is free and widespread. Hizbollah operate a fiber network in Lebanon, just to make it hard for Israel to tap their traffic. Cyber criminals and terrorists know how to use strong encryption to protect their traffic.
So all you're doing by putting backdoors in all the products is to allow the bad guys to break into those devices and steal law-abiding citizen's data, while not affecting the ability of the bad guys to communicate securely. The backdoors ENABLE the criminal behaviour while doing NOTHING to help the victims of the bad guys.
When strong encryption is outlawed, only outlaws will have strong encryption.