...but I have to agree with the blog linked at the end of the story: His abrasive form of Free Software evangelism has become more of a liability than an asset to the very cause he seeks to promote.
Oh, I've got no illusions here. I do believe Linux is inherently more secure, but only marginally. The main reason we don't hear about Linux malware on a daily basis is that the installed base is too small for the malware authors to seriously target it.
...that my primary OS at home and work is Linux. I guess I'd better check when I go into the office on Monday whether Chrome has been removed from my Windows VM; but given that the Windows VM is primarily used to access the corporate Intranet (most of which absolutely requires IE anyhow, don't get me started...), losing Chrome from there isn't the end of the world. I do 99% of my web access from the Linux host system!
Just be careful (wear your safety goggles), especially if you've got a drive with glass platters. Glass shards being flung by an angle grinder sound like they could be at least moderately hazardous...
My understanding is the Terminal Services (a.k.a. RDP) support is part of the proprietary plugin; the version most distros have in their repositories has VNC support enabled. AFAIK it is a compile time switch in the OSE version.
Try typing VBoxHeadless --help and see if any VNC options are listed.
I have one system (at home) that is running the OSE version from the Ubuntu VirtualBox PPA, and it definitely supports VNC.
USB in guests still works fine for me (well maybe "fine" is too strong of a word... let's just say it didn't seem to get any worse when they switched to the plugin architecture). I run a Ubuntu 10.04 host with Windows and Linux guests of various flavors, so YMMV if your setup is different.
The minor weirdness I've noticed is that the Open Source binaries which are available on their site (without the plugin) have no remote console capability, even though the OSE version available on most Linux distros has a built-in VNC console server. So they effectively still have two separate versions...
Drew Baden, chairman of the physics department at the University of Maryland, said it is far more likely that there are measurement errors or some kind of fluke. Tracking neutrinos is very difficult, he said.
I imagine Dr. Baden might be a little insulted to be referred to as an "armchair physicist"...
Actually, I'm sure they're hoping it is real (while probably believing in their hearts that it is measurement error). If it turns out to be real, this is Nobel Prize caliber stuff... one for the history books.
If there's a problem in the underlying measurement tools or method, it doesn't matter how many times you do it, the numbers will still be wrong in spite of being "statistically valid". As I've noted in another reply, I'm not saying it's impossible... I'm just leaning towards measurement error. From the FA: "But the group understands that what are known as "systematic errors" could easily make an erroneous result look like a breaking of the ultimate speed limit, and that has motivated them to publish their measurements."
The ultimate test is whether this result is reproducible by other researchers using different methods.
I'm sure they thought of it. But they may not yet have accounted for all possible sources of error. Perhaps one of the tools they've been using to check those numbers is mis-calibrated in some subtle way...
A-yup. Most likely they've either measured the distance wrong, or the timebases aren't perfectly synchronized, leading to this (apparently) "impossible" result.
OK, but under this scenario you're already locked into a closed-source solution anyway (this hypothetical other commercial product). I don't see how something that solution depends on also being closed-source makes things any worse.
I still fail to see how this move by Oracle represents a serious (or even moderate) threat to FOSS. MySQL has been dual-licensed since day 1. Are people just now waking up to the fact -- 16 years late! -- that whoever owns the MySQL code base is allowed to have their own proprietary fork?
Ummm... what? Debian has no problem distributing dual-licensed code, as long as one of the licenses (the one which applies to the version in their repositories) is GPL-compatible. Oracle can't "take back" the GPL-licensed version, so where's the problem for Debian?
I fail to see how the proprietary version of MySQL could ever have a large impact on the software ecosystem. The Open Source version will remain free now and forever (as a fork if necessary); there's an excellent FOSS alternative (PostgreSQL); users who are accustomed to paying for DBs will mostly continue to use MS SQL Server, the full-blown proprietary Oracle database product, or DB2 (possibly with a tiny minority of them jumping ship for the proprietary MySQL); and Oracle simply does not -- and will not, under any plausible scenario -- have anywhere near the sort of leverage Microsoft had back in the 1990s which allowed them to cram Windows down everyone's throats. The situation isn't even remotely comparable.
While in general I wouldn't trust Oracle as far as I could throw a rackmount database server, it really seems to me that there is pretty much nothing they can do in this case to screw over anyone outside of their own paying MySQL customers. So IMO the take-home message is: Just say "no" to becoming a paying MySQL customer!
The OSE edition of VirtualBox includes a VNC server (as opposed to the RDP server included in the proprietary extension) that provides similar headless console functionality. The VNC feature appears to be disabled in the binaries they distribute, but is available as a compile-time configuration option if you build from source, or (I believe) enabled by default if you install from your distro's repository.
Heck, MySQL development has been dormant even during Sun days.
And yet it still seems to be the most popular FOSS database, in spite of this. I'd say this is an indication of a mature product that already meets many users' needs. Even if Oracle orphans it, the situation going forward won't be much (if at all) worse than it already was under Sun. Users who had a problem with the stagnation of MySQL have already moved on (or are in the process of moving on) to something else.
If MySQL is still an important part of the FOSS ecosystem by then, interest will shift to MariaDB (or some other fork), and/or someone else will pick up the FOSS version of the MySQL codebase and maintain it. On the other hand, if the majority of the FOSS community is moving on anyway by that point (e.g. to PostgreSQL), then it won't matter if MySQL is "quietly forgotten about".
The part of the user base that would become dependent on these extensions would be the same users who are already OK with the idea of paying for MySQL. Isn't this a very small fraction of MySQL users? None of the myriad FOSS projects that depend on MySQL would be affected, and few (if any) of those FOSS projects would ever move over to the proprietary version since it would force them to adopt a dual-license model as well (which is darned near impossible to do retroactively for anything that has community involvement in the development process).
When Oracle eventually pulls the plug on development of the FOSS version and jacks up the price of the proprietary version, the FOSS community can indeed fork (or jump ship to an existing fork like MariaDB assuming it is viable), since by definition they're not dependent on the proprietary extensions in the first place.
The only people who get screwed are the people who signed up for the proprietary version up front.
The pictured systems were diskless; everything was network based -- PXE boot, with swap partition and home directory mounted via NFS. With more modern hardware (the linked forum thread is from 2005) you might have a harder time getting 2 to a crate since the CPU heatsinks may be too tall; but using heatsinks designed for 1U/2U rackmount would probably solve this.
My take on it is that it is in fact some sort of hypervisor. The "hardware assist" they refer to is probably nothing more than VT-X/VT-D (or possibly some minor variation thereof). I find it a pretty big stretch to believe that Intel would spend a lot of effort developing a major new hardware feature just to accommodate McAfee.
While it may in fact be true that most of the current installed base of computers don't have gigabit ports, this is changing. Most new motherboards have had gigabit ports on them for several years now.
Slashdot Mirror
...but I have to agree with the blog linked at the end of the story: His abrasive form of Free Software evangelism has become more of a liability than an asset to the very cause he seeks to promote.
Oh, I've got no illusions here. I do believe Linux is inherently more secure, but only marginally. The main reason we don't hear about Linux malware on a daily basis is that the installed base is too small for the malware authors to seriously target it.
...that my primary OS at home and work is Linux. I guess I'd better check when I go into the office on Monday whether Chrome has been removed from my Windows VM; but given that the Windows VM is primarily used to access the corporate Intranet (most of which absolutely requires IE anyhow, don't get me started...), losing Chrome from there isn't the end of the world. I do 99% of my web access from the Linux host system!
Just be careful (wear your safety goggles), especially if you've got a drive with glass platters. Glass shards being flung by an angle grinder sound like they could be at least moderately hazardous...
My understanding is the Terminal Services (a.k.a. RDP) support is part of the proprietary plugin; the version most distros have in their repositories has VNC support enabled. AFAIK it is a compile time switch in the OSE version.
Try typing VBoxHeadless --help and see if any VNC options are listed.
I have one system (at home) that is running the OSE version from the Ubuntu VirtualBox PPA, and it definitely supports VNC.
USB in guests still works fine for me (well maybe "fine" is too strong of a word... let's just say it didn't seem to get any worse when they switched to the plugin architecture). I run a Ubuntu 10.04 host with Windows and Linux guests of various flavors, so YMMV if your setup is different.
The minor weirdness I've noticed is that the Open Source binaries which are available on their site (without the plugin) have no remote console capability, even though the OSE version available on most Linux distros has a built-in VNC console server. So they effectively still have two separate versions...
I wonder how long it'll be before they start screwing with VirtualBox...
These are real physicists, not armchair ones.
Well, the chairman of the physics department at the University of Maryland appears to be skeptical too:
Drew Baden, chairman of the physics department at the University of Maryland, said it is far more likely that there are measurement errors or some kind of fluke. Tracking neutrinos is very difficult, he said.
I imagine Dr. Baden might be a little insulted to be referred to as an "armchair physicist"...
Actually, I'm sure they're hoping it is real (while probably believing in their hearts that it is measurement error). If it turns out to be real, this is Nobel Prize caliber stuff... one for the history books.
If there's a problem in the underlying measurement tools or method, it doesn't matter how many times you do it, the numbers will still be wrong in spite of being "statistically valid". As I've noted in another reply, I'm not saying it's impossible... I'm just leaning towards measurement error. From the FA: "But the group understands that what are known as "systematic errors" could easily make an erroneous result look like a breaking of the ultimate speed limit, and that has motivated them to publish their measurements."
The ultimate test is whether this result is reproducible by other researchers using different methods.
I'm not saying it is impossible. Just that measurement error is more likely.
I'm sure they thought of it. But they may not yet have accounted for all possible sources of error. Perhaps one of the tools they've been using to check those numbers is mis-calibrated in some subtle way...
A-yup. Most likely they've either measured the distance wrong, or the timebases aren't perfectly synchronized, leading to this (apparently) "impossible" result.
OK, but under this scenario you're already locked into a closed-source solution anyway (this hypothetical other commercial product). I don't see how something that solution depends on also being closed-source makes things any worse.
I still fail to see how this move by Oracle represents a serious (or even moderate) threat to FOSS. MySQL has been dual-licensed since day 1. Are people just now waking up to the fact -- 16 years late! -- that whoever owns the MySQL code base is allowed to have their own proprietary fork?
Ummm... what? Debian has no problem distributing dual-licensed code, as long as one of the licenses (the one which applies to the version in their repositories) is GPL-compatible. Oracle can't "take back" the GPL-licensed version, so where's the problem for Debian?
I fail to see how the proprietary version of MySQL could ever have a large impact on the software ecosystem. The Open Source version will remain free now and forever (as a fork if necessary); there's an excellent FOSS alternative (PostgreSQL); users who are accustomed to paying for DBs will mostly continue to use MS SQL Server, the full-blown proprietary Oracle database product, or DB2 (possibly with a tiny minority of them jumping ship for the proprietary MySQL); and Oracle simply does not -- and will not, under any plausible scenario -- have anywhere near the sort of leverage Microsoft had back in the 1990s which allowed them to cram Windows down everyone's throats. The situation isn't even remotely comparable.
While in general I wouldn't trust Oracle as far as I could throw a rackmount database server, it really seems to me that there is pretty much nothing they can do in this case to screw over anyone outside of their own paying MySQL customers. So IMO the take-home message is: Just say "no" to becoming a paying MySQL customer!
The OSE edition of VirtualBox includes a VNC server (as opposed to the RDP server included in the proprietary extension) that provides similar headless console functionality. The VNC feature appears to be disabled in the binaries they distribute, but is available as a compile-time configuration option if you build from source, or (I believe) enabled by default if you install from your distro's repository.
Heck, MySQL development has been dormant even during Sun days.
And yet it still seems to be the most popular FOSS database, in spite of this. I'd say this is an indication of a mature product that already meets many users' needs. Even if Oracle orphans it, the situation going forward won't be much (if at all) worse than it already was under Sun. Users who had a problem with the stagnation of MySQL have already moved on (or are in the process of moving on) to something else.
If MySQL is still an important part of the FOSS ecosystem by then, interest will shift to MariaDB (or some other fork), and/or someone else will pick up the FOSS version of the MySQL codebase and maintain it. On the other hand, if the majority of the FOSS community is moving on anyway by that point (e.g. to PostgreSQL), then it won't matter if MySQL is "quietly forgotten about".
I don't think it is as bad as you think.
The part of the user base that would become dependent on these extensions would be the same users who are already OK with the idea of paying for MySQL. Isn't this a very small fraction of MySQL users? None of the myriad FOSS projects that depend on MySQL would be affected, and few (if any) of those FOSS projects would ever move over to the proprietary version since it would force them to adopt a dual-license model as well (which is darned near impossible to do retroactively for anything that has community involvement in the development process).
When Oracle eventually pulls the plug on development of the FOSS version and jacks up the price of the proprietary version, the FOSS community can indeed fork (or jump ship to an existing fork like MariaDB assuming it is viable), since by definition they're not dependent on the proprietary extensions in the first place.
The only people who get screwed are the people who signed up for the proprietary version up front.
If you don't mind going really ghetto, you can also mount motherboards in plastic storage crates using zip ties: http://techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=445461#p445461
The pictured systems were diskless; everything was network based -- PXE boot, with swap partition and home directory mounted via NFS. With more modern hardware (the linked forum thread is from 2005) you might have a harder time getting 2 to a crate since the CPU heatsinks may be too tall; but using heatsinks designed for 1U/2U rackmount would probably solve this.
My take on it is that it is in fact some sort of hypervisor. The "hardware assist" they refer to is probably nothing more than VT-X/VT-D (or possibly some minor variation thereof). I find it a pretty big stretch to believe that Intel would spend a lot of effort developing a major new hardware feature just to accommodate McAfee.
If that turns out to be the case, then all the better for Intel to fund it instead of the taxpayers.
What's your definition of "affordable"? Newegg has gigabit PCIe NICs starting at $15 (shipped); there are four choices under $25.
While it may in fact be true that most of the current installed base of computers don't have gigabit ports, this is changing. Most new motherboards have had gigabit ports on them for several years now.