In general, MORE TIME TESTING = MORE STABLE PRODUCT. And if it's not obvious already, Debian definitely takes their time testing.
The long testing part is due to the very big collection
of thirdparty packages that Debian has, along with very liberal
rules for package dependencies back and forward through various
releases. I'm sure that is a major headache for the maintainers except
for the "was-a-maintainer" that have left for something else.
So, long testing period does not imply higher quality with respect
to other Linux distributions, or *BSD for that matter.
I'm not sure why they divide by country. Are they implying that the laws and regulations of these companies should be stricter? Is this some sort of international contest to see who can restrict the rights of its internet users the fastest? The fact is that these nations are just relaying the spam. They might not be the origin of the spam so it's not like targeting a nationality will help.
Once I saw some statistics that USA is the originator of most of the spam.
nVidia CAN'T open up their drivers IIRC. nVidia was founded by a bunch of SGI engineers, and once they started producing products the folks over at SGI found some of their technology in the nVidia products. As part of the settlement, nVidia can't release the code since I think they had to license it from SGI in the end.
I'm talking about hardware specs, NOT code. nVidia does not release docs for ANY of its hardware! What is so secret about a NIC that thay cannot release the docs?
On the other hand, the NVidia FX5900 in my desktop machine (also running OpenSuSE 10.1) was
a breeze. Drop to run level 3, run installer, reboot, job done.
NVidia seems to make better blobs than ATI, but it is still
a blob:
Blobs are expedient. Many other open source operating systems cheerfully incorporate them; in fact their users demand them.
> System on a chip or at least integrated GPU and CPU cool. > I just wish it was Nvidia.
Why are posters so fond of the anti-open source hardware vendor NVidia? This is a company that refuses to release _any_ hardware documentation at all for any of its chipsets!
> There's a slight chance that AMD might be smart and release hardware specs
> for ATI cards, or make the drivers Free Software. If either of those things
> happen, this would be a very good thing, in my opinion.
AMD has, so far, been very open source friendly by releasing hardware
documentation. ATI used to be more open source friendly than they are now.
Hopefully the merger will lead to more hardware documentation beeing released
for ATI.
Re:I'm a "Plan 9 from Bell Labs" user
on
Driving Plan 9
·
· Score: 1
> Theo wanted our compilers when he didn't want the license > (as imposed by Lucent lawyers) but since they have been dual > licensed we've not seen him around.
> Some people seem to think that just because the vendor of some application that is
> closed source never announces and only acknowledges its security errors when publicly
> called on it that the application must be more secure.
Hey, there so many preaching, yes, preaching, that open source is secure "because it has
a million eyes looking at the source". Of course, that is not the case. (I think that
open source is very good for security, but not for the above commonly cited reason.)
There are few binary blobs vendors that claim that binary blobs are secure because
the applications are binary blobs. Yes, they do exicist, but who take them seriously:-)
But, but, known exploits with fixes hidden by the developer until a official release
is made available? Ooops, seems that Firefox developers does this!
> I think they're referring to people like me who still run 1.0.7 and need to upgrade to 1.5.0.4. I choose not to upgrade because I think the 1.5 interface is too sloppy compared to the 1.0.7 interface.
You need to upgrade because Firefox is full of security holes, deemed critical by the developers themselves, but patched. Firefox security record is not exactly glorious.
People think that just because some application is open source it's secure; how wrong they are to believe that.
Re:What about Opera, Safari and Konq.
on
Firefox Usage Climbing
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
> Would Taco like to furnish us with those stats?:P
Please include the OS as well. My guess is that Windows is dominating, contrary to what the posts indicate;-)
The same thing that happens whenever a big company doesnt pay a fine. Absolutly nothing.
Since you cant put a corporate entity in jail, and current structures are such that shareholders and executives face few legal penalties for the actions of the corporation (rather than thier own personal actions, such as in the enron ordeal) there's little real incentive for them to actualy pay up.
EU can bar the company from doing any business in EU, or severly restrict what it does. I'm sure that EU has a range of options from the do-nothing to the draconian, if it so choose.
> The kind of people who are still running Windows 98 are exactly the same people who will happily run Linux. And these same people really care about whether it's supported by Microsoft or not.
You forgot the/sarcasm, so now you will be modded Insightful;-)
> Not quite all. Eg Handelsbanken uses certificates instead and is thus safe from MITM attacks.
But your the certificate can be stolen, though. One bank used to use a certificate and a 4 digit PIN code for access, and only Windows was supported. Sure certificates are better than nothing, but they need to be augmented with something else to make them safer.
Safelite allowed itself to be scared into settling, but not before the company looked at its software license agreement and saw that Oracle promised to indemnify the company against these claims.
This show why indemnification clauses is bad for open source projects. So including something like Postfix into a Linux distro or a *BSD may very well open you up for litigation in the future under certain conditions.
> PS: Comparing to systems of similar clock speeds and ignoring there architecture is a bad idea. A 1Gz P3 is faster than a first generation 1Gz P4 for most apps.
> Unequalled product quality. This is the company that brought us such hallmark products as the scientific handheld calculator (the venerable HP35 and its follow-ons)....
I still use an HP 28S calculator I bought about 15 years ago to replace the even older HP 41C. The quality is superb.
Slashdot Mirror
The long testing part is due to the very big collection of thirdparty packages that Debian has, along with very liberal rules for package dependencies back and forward through various releases. I'm sure that is a major headache for the maintainers except for the "was-a-maintainer" that have left for something else.
So, long testing period does not imply higher quality with respect to other Linux distributions, or *BSD for that matter.
If Debian want amd64 support they better do so ;-)
> Yes, Hormel Foods is based in Austin, MN.
;-)
Hormel Foods sells SPAM not spam, and last time
I checked they were quite picky about spelling
Once I saw some statistics that USA is the originator of most of the spam.
I'm talking about hardware specs, NOT code. nVidia does not release docs for ANY of its hardware! What is so secret about a NIC that thay cannot release the docs?
NVidia seems to make better blobs than ATI, but it is still a blob:
> System on a chip or at least integrated GPU and CPU cool.
> I just wish it was Nvidia.
Why are posters so fond of the anti-open source hardware vendor
NVidia? This is a company that refuses to release _any_ hardware
documentation at all for any of its chipsets!
> There's a slight chance that AMD might be smart and release hardware specs > for ATI cards, or make the drivers Free Software. If either of those things > happen, this would be a very good thing, in my opinion. AMD has, so far, been very open source friendly by releasing hardware documentation. ATI used to be more open source friendly than they are now. Hopefully the merger will lead to more hardware documentation beeing released for ATI.
> Theo wanted our compilers when he didn't want the license
;-)
> (as imposed by Lucent lawyers) but since they have been dual
> licensed we've not seen him around.
Is there any license for the compilers other than
http://cm.bell-labs.com/plan9/license.html ?
It sure looks it's written by lawyers, though earlier versions was worse
> Some people seem to think that just because the vendor of some application that is > closed source never announces and only acknowledges its security errors when publicly > called on it that the application must be more secure. Hey, there so many preaching, yes, preaching, that open source is secure "because it has a million eyes looking at the source". Of course, that is not the case. (I think that open source is very good for security, but not for the above commonly cited reason.) There are few binary blobs vendors that claim that binary blobs are secure because the applications are binary blobs. Yes, they do exicist, but who take them seriously :-)
But, but, known exploits with fixes hidden by the developer until a official release
is made available? Ooops, seems that Firefox developers does this!
> I think they're referring to people like me who still run 1.0.7 and need to upgrade to 1.5.0.4. I choose not to upgrade because I think the 1.5 interface is too sloppy compared to the 1.0.7 interface.
You need to upgrade because Firefox is full of security holes, deemed critical
by the developers themselves, but patched. Firefox security record is not
exactly glorious.
People think that just because some application is open source it's secure; how wrong
they are to believe that.
> Would Taco like to furnish us with those stats? :P
;-)
Please include the OS as well. My guess is that Windows is dominating,
contrary to what the posts indicate
EU can bar the company from doing any business in EU, or severly restrict what it does. I'm sure that EU has a range of options from the do-nothing to the draconian, if it so choose.
> Surely no one sells sub-terabyte storage servers anymore.
Most "storage" servers sold today have less than a terabyte
of capacity.
> Sounds like the Patriot Act's at Slashdot as well...
;-)
You mean it as a joke, but I'm sure that Slashdot hands over
information to when required by the PATRIOT Act.
So much for the Anonymous Coward
> The kind of people who are still running Windows 98 are exactly the same people who will happily run Linux. And these same people really care about whether it's supported by Microsoft or not.
/sarcasm, so now you will be modded Insightful ;-)
You forgot the
> Not quite all. Eg Handelsbanken uses certificates instead and is thus safe from MITM attacks.
But your the certificate can be stolen, though. One bank used to use a certificate
and a 4 digit PIN code for access, and only Windows was supported. Sure certificates
are better than nothing, but they need to be augmented with something else to
make them safer.
Ah, my misunderstanding then. Thanks.
You are missing the point. A Linux distro or a *BSD can not, in general, afford litigation.
> Reminds me of people who "hate america" because they don't agree with you.
There are those innocent children and women that do not agree you to be bombed....
This show why indemnification clauses is bad for open source projects. So including something like Postfix into a Linux distro or a *BSD may very well open you up for litigation in the future under certain conditions.
> Where does it end up?
In "VIP Gold" folder along with mails from the Sales department. Can not officially call it spam, can we?
> PS: Comparing to systems of similar clock speeds and ignoring there architecture is a bad idea. A 1Gz P3 is faster than a first generation 1Gz P4 for most apps.
The slowest release of P4 was a 1.3GHz.
> Unequalled product quality. This is the company that brought us such hallmark products as the scientific handheld calculator (the venerable HP35 and its follow-ons)....
I still use an HP 28S calculator I bought about 15 years ago to replace
the even older HP 41C. The quality is superb.
This is the commercial mindset: authoritarian and deceitful.