Actually, I think SUSE is far more likely. Given the Novell-Microsoft deal, Dell can just buy their SUSE licenses through Microsoft.
* Microsoft still makes money on it * They'd be using a popular and commercially-supported distro * SUSE bundles non-free software that allows MP3 playback, Flash, etc. out of the box * Dell can prevent a fall-out in their relationship with Microsoft
It's a win-win-win situation for Dell, Microsoft, and Novell, but a loss for the community.
No offense, but your reasoning is flawed. You're not an average user and thus you are able to differentiate between what could be spyware and what couldn't. When Joe Shmoe is presented with a pop-up asking if they want to install some cool new anti-spyware program (which is really just spyware in disguise), of course he'll click yes.
I work in my college's IT department and 95% of our problems are machines that are so infected with spyware and other crap that they barely run. As part of our pro-active approach to keeping student computers running, we remove all P2P programs, run Adaware, Spybot, Windows Defender, and eWido on their computers, and then their AV software. If their AV software is expired then we remove it and install Sophos, which we have a site license for. Despite all of this, it's not uncommon to get machines back multiple times because someone installed some program again and all the spyware is back.
And now, there have problems with default installs from certain manufacturers containing spyware.
Oh, and I have mentioned that almost all student computers are running XP SP2 (we will upgrade their computers to SP2 if they don't have it) and that our firewall blocks most common ports for attacks? Yes, we recommed Firefox, but it's not a total solution -- it has it's own problems and it doesn't solve issues with users deciding they really want to play a game and if they need to install some unknown software to do that, so be it.
What Vista might really benefit from is having used-based process and memory usage limits like the BSDs. Set the limits to be managed by an adaptive algorithm designed to distinguish normal activity from uncommon behavior (E.g., running a crazy number of threads for a single application, making a large number of connections to different machines, etc.) and allow the limit to be completely disabled / manually set for individual programs and as a whole. Also, although XP does include system recovery and the install media has a repair installation option, it would be nice if Vista tracked file changes like OS X and Linux and then intelligently traced those changes so that the system can be checked against install media and restored easily. Best of all, Vista should be able to completely prevent any program from messing with system folders or system processes. Even drivers and the like should be stored outside the system folders and should only be able to interact with the kernel through a protected interface... just as viruses spyware shouldn't be able to screw up the system neither should botched Symantec Internet Security installs.
I used to use Red Hat for versions 7.x, and I find the same problem with Red Hat as with other distros. I used Red Hat, Slackware, and Ubuntu over the course of 3 years and still install it occationally to find out how things are going in the Linux world. However, one thing as always bothered me. I would always run into issues with the quality of the software. Some programs like Gnome always worked well for me, however others didn't. I always felt a lot of sofware wasn't "solid" and was not really stable. Every time I would try out a new release, I would see new features or configuration tools, but things never real became more solid.
For example, package managers will break if you try to install software using other methods. Or software crash easily. I often see that many distros release with a plethora of bugs. For example, on Fedora Core 5, I ran into an issue where SELinux policies prevented printing services from working after an upgrade. Or when I tried to set up a dual-head display using a nVidia card (which was well supported) on a different machine, FC5's config utility wouldn't work. When I was running Ubuntu 5.04, I tried to install Fluxbox, but the packaged version had a bunch of errors, so I installed it by hand and broke the package manager. After I lost my Ext3 file system to a corruption, I stopped trusting Linux to be stable. It seems to me that there isn't enough Q&A being put into many distros and that many programs are written in such a manner that they only work in the most common of situations.
So, the question I have is, what is being done to ensure Q&A and improve what's already there rather just keep adding features and compounding the problem? When are we gonna have Linux distros that are rock-solid stable beyond just the out-of-the-box configuration but still functional and user-friendly?
I remember hearing a while back about a new prescription medication for alcoholics. It was supposed to block the active sites in the brain that the alcohol binds to, therefore preventing it from having any effect. If I remember correctly, the idea is that patients would give up on alcohol as it wouldn't do anything to them. Of course, it might also just cause them to switch to another drug if they are not at a point where they have the strength necessary to overcome their addiction.
A doctor would definitely know more than myself on that...
"We have conversations where we say an attacker might do this or an attacker might do that. Now there is a face to some of those guys," Anderson said. "They were just as much geeks as we were."
Maybe its just me, but I would assume these guys would actually have spent time securing their own computers, dealing with spyware and warms, etc. Maybe even attempting to hack their own computers to test it. More so, do they not keep up on the latest techie news given that they are geeks?
Maybe if all MS programmers signed up to receive slashdot digests every day and took the time to read the articles and comments, they would learn from others' experiences with MS products and use those critiques to improve their products.
How did you manage to do that? Who hired you? Did you ever write any of this up? It seems like something that would be really interesting to do. Do you have any tips or useful information on how to find jobs, etc.?
Theo should have responded to that post, asked what this guy could do to help them get the info. they needed, and when Theo found out he couldn't do jack, left him alone. If you ignore him long enough, he'll go away and some face could have been saved.
Also, I am a teenager. But, I'm not the one playing UT 2004 using binary drivers on my Linux box, that would be my 30-40 year old friends who administer Linux, AIX, etc. boxes for a living -- they work for an IBM business partner.
What use my computers (a Mac, a PC laptop, and a PC desktop) for? Using productivity apps for school, Web design, managing my photos, managing and playing my music, watching movies, browsing slashdot, e-mail, chat, exploring the different services in Unix. I used Linux as a desktop for 2-3 years before I was given my laptop as a present. Well, then I wanted to use the Gefore video card in it, use the wi-fi card, use my audio card, be able to manage the battery usage with ACPI, etc. Well, let me tell you -- I _had_ to go back to using Windows because the Linux distros didn't support half my hardware properly, and I got tired of not being able to do half things a desktop computer is for.
As of now, I bought myself a Mac because only a Mac can do half the things I listed above decently, yet still have access to a Unix command line when I want, nedit, Bluefish, etc. I've started to miss Fluxbox, though, and so I decided to try OpenBSD.
OpenBSD is definitely a more professional OS, unlike Linux, which often seemed like a quick hack to me. (I really got tired of things not compiling from one release of Slackware to another , etc.)
But, overall, my point is that none of the open source Unices are ready for the desktop. I'm not asking for an incredibly user-friendly Unix, I'm asking for one which works (like OpenBSD) when I try to compile something on it. I'm also asking for the type of userland programs that work as well as iTunes (I love my iPod, and Rhythmbox would never work correctly), iPhoto, etc. I know that there are alternatives out there, but I'll be honest -- they don't compare to the multimedia Apps of MacOS 10.3. I hope that one day, I can run Fluxbox and other Unix-only apps on a true desktop (versus a workstation which is what Unix boxes of today are).
I've been reading the posts on the misc mail list for OpenBSD, and I think a few things need to be said.
First, Theo and the other developers, although making good points, are being quite rude to employees. I think that its important for them to push this issue, but I think they are handling it immaturaly. Flaming Adaptec (ex-)employees is not a good move, even if Scott did make a post on OSNews -- attack the companies economic base through a boycott instead.
Secondly, I think that if Theo and the gang started an organized boycott of Adaptec raid controllers in a professional manner, then got those people to sign a petition, write to Adaptec, and such along with getting a pretty accurate count of how many of Adaptec's raid controllers have been purchased by those boycotting Adaptec, they might be able to show themselves to be consisting of a large enough market to cause a dent in Adaptec's profits. Not only OpenBSD, but also FreeBSD, NetBSD, and Linux users who feel that its important to use open source drivers. This may require a bit of work, but its the most effective way to get Adaptec's attention. I mean, how many open-source Unix servers are using their raid cards? How many of those users, admins, etc. realize the importance of an open source driver so it can be maintained by the community, since most companies have been slow (to say the least) to update their binary drivers? Not to mention, the flexibility involved with porting it to different Open-source Unix OS's and using it with different software configurations and versions?
Thirdly, some people are arguing that that Adaptec will release an SDK in 4 months, but given the history of the Adaptec drivers and drivers by other companies, that would probably involve using a binary driver... which wouldn't help.
I think that if the open source OS's are going be taken seriously by vendors, then they need to act in a professional manner and show their economic strength through well-crafted reports and well-organized efforts.
I support the work of Theo and the other OpenBSD developers -- I believe they are right, but I think the open source community has to join together for a common cause and be professional about such things.
If we, as a community, can make this happen in a professional manner, and win, then maybe, just maybe, we can extend this to other vendors. If we can't pull together, then we're fighting a losing battle against closed source OS's such as Windows and venders such as Adaptec, and we might as well give up now.
We can do this, I know we can. But, we have to do it correctly. So, come on folks, act professional, realize what's at stake, and organize. Think of the visibility the grass roots democratic groups got when they organized and acted like a unified front -- they didn't win the election, but that was surely noticed.
My mom sells RH to her clients and RH has confirmed that all they (her clients) need to do is buy one copy and then install it on all of their machines. If that doesn't cover support, then it's less expensive to just buy one copy of RH Enterprise Linux and several RH Network licenses.
Yeah, I'm an IB freshmen at Deerfield Beach High, FL. It's the ghetto school of all ghetto schools. I'm going to try to start a computer club next year. As per testing out... we have Bio, Chem, Physics, eng, Spanish, French, Japanese, Soc Anthrop, History, Art, and Drama. Nevermind the cool CS stuff.... We had psychology, but the teacher stunk and most of the students flunked the IB tests, so they dropped it. I doubt the school would give us any money for my future club.
Ok... Red Hat has become an XP of the Linux world. I admit it, I use 8.0, but I am dying for Slackware 9 to come out, so I can switch to that. I feel boxed in by Blue curve and their utils. I miss RH 7.3. I switched to Blackbox as my wm and such, but I still feel pulled down by Red Hat as if it's bloated, clunky, and restricting. I like RH's tools, but I think that they've gotten rid of the power. They only put menu options like Internet in their menus instead of Mozilla. If you know the programs you can fix that, but what about newbies who want to see this great choice Linux offers? They've gone too corporate, and lost sight of Tux.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, I think SUSE is far more likely. Given the Novell-Microsoft deal, Dell can just buy their SUSE licenses through Microsoft.
* Microsoft still makes money on it
* They'd be using a popular and commercially-supported distro
* SUSE bundles non-free software that allows MP3 playback, Flash, etc. out of the box
* Dell can prevent a fall-out in their relationship with Microsoft
It's a win-win-win situation for Dell, Microsoft, and Novell, but a loss for the community.
No offense, but your reasoning is flawed. You're not an average user and thus you are able to differentiate between what could be spyware and what couldn't. When Joe Shmoe is presented with a pop-up asking if they want to install some cool new anti-spyware program (which is really just spyware in disguise), of course he'll click yes.
I work in my college's IT department and 95% of our problems are machines that are so infected with spyware and other crap that they barely run. As part of our pro-active approach to keeping student computers running, we remove all P2P programs, run Adaware, Spybot, Windows Defender, and eWido on their computers, and then their AV software. If their AV software is expired then we remove it and install Sophos, which we have a site license for. Despite all of this, it's not uncommon to get machines back multiple times because someone installed some program again and all the spyware is back.
And now, there have problems with default installs from certain manufacturers containing spyware.
Oh, and I have mentioned that almost all student computers are running XP SP2 (we will upgrade their computers to SP2 if they don't have it) and that our firewall blocks most common ports for attacks? Yes, we recommed Firefox, but it's not a total solution -- it has it's own problems and it doesn't solve issues with users deciding they really want to play a game and if they need to install some unknown software to do that, so be it.
What Vista might really benefit from is having used-based process and memory usage limits like the BSDs. Set the limits to be managed by an adaptive algorithm designed to distinguish normal activity from uncommon behavior (E.g., running a crazy number of threads for a single application, making a large number of connections to different machines, etc.) and allow the limit to be completely disabled / manually set for individual programs and as a whole. Also, although XP does include system recovery and the install media has a repair installation option, it would be nice if Vista tracked file changes like OS X and Linux and then intelligently traced those changes so that the system can be checked against install media and restored easily. Best of all, Vista should be able to completely prevent any program from messing with system folders or system processes. Even drivers and the like should be stored outside the system folders and should only be able to interact with the kernel through a protected interface... just as viruses spyware shouldn't be able to screw up the system neither should botched Symantec Internet Security installs.
I used to use Red Hat for versions 7.x, and I find the same problem with Red Hat as with other distros. I used Red Hat, Slackware, and Ubuntu over the course of 3 years and still install it occationally to find out how things are going in the Linux world. However, one thing as always bothered me. I would always run into issues with the quality of the software. Some programs like Gnome always worked well for me, however others didn't. I always felt a lot of sofware wasn't "solid" and was not really stable. Every time I would try out a new release, I would see new features or configuration tools, but things never real became more solid.
For example, package managers will break if you try to install software using other methods. Or software crash easily. I often see that many distros release with a plethora of bugs. For example, on Fedora Core 5, I ran into an issue where SELinux policies prevented printing services from working after an upgrade. Or when I tried to set up a dual-head display using a nVidia card (which was well supported) on a different machine, FC5's config utility wouldn't work. When I was running Ubuntu 5.04, I tried to install Fluxbox, but the packaged version had a bunch of errors, so I installed it by hand and broke the package manager. After I lost my Ext3 file system to a corruption, I stopped trusting Linux to be stable. It seems to me that there isn't enough Q&A being put into many distros and that many programs are written in such a manner that they only work in the most common of situations.
So, the question I have is, what is being done to ensure Q&A and improve what's already there rather just keep adding features and compounding the problem? When are we gonna have Linux distros that are rock-solid stable beyond just the out-of-the-box configuration but still functional and user-friendly?
Thanks,
RJ
I remember hearing a while back about a new prescription medication for alcoholics. It was supposed to block the active sites in the brain that the alcohol binds to, therefore preventing it from having any effect. If I remember correctly, the idea is that patients would give up on alcohol as it wouldn't do anything to them. Of course, it might also just cause them to switch to another drug if they are not at a point where they have the strength necessary to overcome their addiction.
A doctor would definitely know more than myself on that...
"We have conversations where we say an attacker might do this or an attacker might do that. Now there is a face to some of those guys," Anderson said. "They were just as much geeks as we were."
Maybe its just me, but I would assume these guys would actually have spent time securing their own computers, dealing with spyware and warms, etc. Maybe even attempting to hack their own computers to test it. More so, do they not keep up on the latest techie news given that they are geeks?
Maybe if all MS programmers signed up to receive slashdot digests every day and took the time to read the articles and comments, they would learn from others' experiences with MS products and use those critiques to improve their products.
Do these people live in a hole or something?
How did you manage to do that? Who hired you? Did you ever write any of this up? It seems like something that would be really interesting to do. Do you have any tips or useful information on how to find jobs, etc.?
Theo should have responded to that post, asked what this guy could do to help them get the info. they needed, and when Theo found out he couldn't do jack, left him alone. If you ignore him long enough, he'll go away and some face could have been saved. Also, I am a teenager. But, I'm not the one playing UT 2004 using binary drivers on my Linux box, that would be my 30-40 year old friends who administer Linux, AIX, etc. boxes for a living -- they work for an IBM business partner. What use my computers (a Mac, a PC laptop, and a PC desktop) for? Using productivity apps for school, Web design, managing my photos, managing and playing my music, watching movies, browsing slashdot, e-mail, chat, exploring the different services in Unix. I used Linux as a desktop for 2-3 years before I was given my laptop as a present. Well, then I wanted to use the Gefore video card in it, use the wi-fi card, use my audio card, be able to manage the battery usage with ACPI, etc. Well, let me tell you -- I _had_ to go back to using Windows because the Linux distros didn't support half my hardware properly, and I got tired of not being able to do half things a desktop computer is for. As of now, I bought myself a Mac because only a Mac can do half the things I listed above decently, yet still have access to a Unix command line when I want, nedit, Bluefish, etc. I've started to miss Fluxbox, though, and so I decided to try OpenBSD. OpenBSD is definitely a more professional OS, unlike Linux, which often seemed like a quick hack to me. (I really got tired of things not compiling from one release of Slackware to another , etc.) But, overall, my point is that none of the open source Unices are ready for the desktop. I'm not asking for an incredibly user-friendly Unix, I'm asking for one which works (like OpenBSD) when I try to compile something on it. I'm also asking for the type of userland programs that work as well as iTunes (I love my iPod, and Rhythmbox would never work correctly), iPhoto, etc. I know that there are alternatives out there, but I'll be honest -- they don't compare to the multimedia Apps of MacOS 10.3. I hope that one day, I can run Fluxbox and other Unix-only apps on a true desktop (versus a workstation which is what Unix boxes of today are).
I've been reading the posts on the misc mail list for OpenBSD, and I think a few things need to be said.
First, Theo and the other developers, although making good points, are being quite rude to employees. I think that its important for them to push this issue, but I think they are handling it immaturaly. Flaming Adaptec (ex-)employees is not a good move, even if Scott did make a post on OSNews -- attack the companies economic base through a boycott instead.
Secondly, I think that if Theo and the gang started an organized boycott of Adaptec raid controllers in a professional manner, then got those people to sign a petition, write to Adaptec, and such along with getting a pretty accurate count of how many of Adaptec's raid controllers have been purchased by those boycotting Adaptec, they might be able to show themselves to be consisting of a large enough market to cause a dent in Adaptec's profits. Not only OpenBSD, but also FreeBSD, NetBSD, and Linux users who feel that its important to use open source drivers. This may require a bit of work, but its the most effective way to get Adaptec's attention. I mean, how many open-source Unix servers are using their raid cards? How many of those users, admins, etc. realize the importance of an open source driver so it can be maintained by the community, since most companies have been slow (to say the least) to update their binary drivers? Not to mention, the flexibility involved with porting it to different Open-source Unix OS's and using it with different software configurations and versions?
Thirdly, some people are arguing that that Adaptec will release an SDK in 4 months, but given the history of the Adaptec drivers and drivers by other companies, that would probably involve using a binary driver... which wouldn't help.
I think that if the open source OS's are going be taken seriously by vendors, then they need to act in a professional manner and show their economic strength through well-crafted reports and well-organized efforts.
I support the work of Theo and the other OpenBSD developers -- I believe they are right, but I think the open source community has to join together for a common cause and be professional about such things.
If we, as a community, can make this happen in a professional manner, and win, then maybe, just maybe, we can extend this to other vendors. If we can't pull together, then we're fighting a losing battle against closed source OS's such as Windows and venders such as Adaptec, and we might as well give up now.
We can do this, I know we can. But, we have to do it correctly. So, come on folks, act professional, realize what's at stake, and organize. Think of the visibility the grass roots democratic groups got when they organized and acted like a unified front -- they didn't win the election, but that was surely noticed.
What about using Fourier Transforms of some sort? I'm no math genius, but I do know that they are used in digital signal processing and the like.
My mom sells RH to her clients and RH has confirmed that all they (her clients) need to do is buy one copy and then install it on all of their machines. If that doesn't cover support, then it's less expensive to just buy one copy of RH Enterprise Linux and several RH Network licenses.
Yeah, I'm an IB freshmen at Deerfield Beach High, FL. It's the ghetto school of all ghetto schools. I'm going to try to start a computer club next year. As per testing out... we have Bio, Chem, Physics, eng, Spanish, French, Japanese, Soc Anthrop, History, Art, and Drama. Nevermind the cool CS stuff.... We had psychology, but the teacher stunk and most of the students flunked the IB tests, so they dropped it. I doubt the school would give us any money for my future club.
Ok... Red Hat has become an XP of the Linux world.
I admit it, I use 8.0, but I am dying for Slackware 9 to come out, so I can switch to that. I feel boxed in by Blue curve and their utils. I miss RH 7.3. I switched to Blackbox as my wm and such, but I still feel pulled down by Red Hat as if it's bloated, clunky, and restricting.
I like RH's tools, but I think that they've gotten rid of the power. They only put menu options like Internet in their menus instead of Mozilla. If you know the programs you can fix that, but what about newbies who want to see this great choice Linux offers?
They've gone too corporate, and lost sight of Tux.
There is no argument... the _Dune Chronicles_ are the messiah of science fiction. Long live Dune!!!