With computers, the stupidest thing you can do is spend extra money to prepare for your needs for tomorrow. Buy for what you need now, and by the time you outgrow it, things will be cheaper, faster and larger.
Generally true, but the case is a possible exception to that rule. If you're planning to have five drives today (four for RAID and one for system), and foresee adding another four-drive RAID, might as well get a case today that supports nine or more drives. At the same time, I have seen a fairly impressive amount of case innovation recently... the argument goes both ways I suppose!
First, forget hardware RAID solutions. While their effectiveness is debatable for commercial and enterprise applications, it's definitely overkill for a home solution (particularly a media server). (Unless of course you have more money than sense.) But Linux RAID (md, multi-disk) is mature, stable, and well-tested. It's portable from one machine to another. It's free. With even modest hardware, it will be plenty fast for a home media server. Don't even bother with those pseudo RAID solutions that are built into your motherboard (or implemented via firmware or a proprietary driver): Linux software RAID and true hardware RAID beat these solutions in just about every conceivable way.
Now, do you really need RAID? Many people equate RAID and backup. They are not equal. RAID is no substitute for a good backup. In the case of a media library, you do own all the media, right?:) There's your backup. Worst case, you lose the time spent ripping the media. So there's an argument to just use JBOD. However, I do use RAID5 for a bit of safety. If two drives fail simultaneously, I fall back on the media. But if only one drive fails, then I can replace the drive, rebuild the array, and lose very little time. It's quasi-backup. It's just too expensive for an individual to maintain multiple live copies of this much data.
If I were to build a fileserver for someone right now, this is what I'd use:
Case: Lian Li PC-A16B, with an additional hard drive module (I actually have one of these on order right now)
Motherboard: Biostar TForce TF7025-M2 (on-board gigabit LAN, high-quality solid capacitors, low-power single chip north- and south-bridge, integrated video)
Cheapest AM2 processor (single core is fine for a strictly fileserver)
1 GB RAM (even 512 MB would probably be fine, but RAM is cheap right now!)
Seasonic S12-400 power supply
4x Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB hard drives (500 GB is pretty sweet for price/capacity right now; SilentPCReview is currently recommending the Western Digitals for coolest/quietest high-capacity drives)
A PATA-to-Compact flash adaptor (such as this one), and a 1 GB or bigger compact flash card to use as your "system" disk (i.e. install the OS here).
I have another post on this thread where I went into more detail about the choice of case. Quick summary: if you care about noise, don't cram your drives close together, or you'll have to use an obscenely loud high-speed fan to keep them cool. If you allow at least 0.5" between each drive, you can keep your drives cool with a low-speed (quiet) fan. That's why I'm buying the Lian Li case mentioned above: room for up to nine drives, with adequate spacing between each.
The 4-3 devices modules are cute, but a pain to deal with when you want to replace a drive (you have to rip apart 4 sets of cables). I'm not entirely satisfied with the 4-3 modules that I have, I prefer the older 3:2 units with a 80mm fan. Stick to only putting 2 drives in those old 3:2 units and you get superior airflow because there's no strange grillwork between the intake fan and the hard drives. You might get the same out of those 4-3 units if you install a drive in the middle upside down to create a decent gap.
But if you want maximum storage density, go look at the SuperMicro (or others) SATA 5:3 backplanes. Hot-swap (assuming your chipset supports it) SATA trays that fit (5) drives into (3) 5.25" bays. Merge that with a 4U rackcase or one of the (9) 5.25" bay cases from Lian Li (PC A16) and you have (15) SATA slots to play with. Or you could do (3) 5:3 and (1) 3:2 in that CM Stacker case for a total of (18) drives. (There are 3 types of SATA hotswap backplanes, 5:3 for cases with clean sides in the 5.25" bays, 4:3 for cases with guide-rails or tabs in between the 5.25" bays, and 3:2 units. Some cases have metal tabs designed to guide 5.25" devices into place, they'll interfere with 5:3 backplanes.)
One caveat to the "X-in-Y" drive boxes (where X is the number of 3.5" hard drives and Y is the number of 5.25" bays and X > Y): noise (and/or cooling). In my experience (home Linux software RAID-5, 4x400), you need at least 1/2 inch between drives to cool them quietly. When I had a house, I kept my drives in a Chenbro SR10769. This case has a 120mm fan directly behind each group of 4 drives, and a 92mm fan in front of each group of drives. I ran ultra-high speed Delta fans in that case, and stored the server in the basement. The drives stayed under 30 degree C, but the case sounded like a jet engine.
I moved into an apartment, and no longer have the luxury of keeping my drives in an enormously loud server. So I put the drives in the lower drive bay of the Antec P180 case. Now the drives have one low-speed (quiet) 120mm fan behind them. The drives stay in the mid 30s, which is plenty cool. But the case is very quiet. I credit the fact that the P180 gives a good 1/2 inch or so between each drive. Compared to the Chenbro (and every other X-in-Y solution I've seen), which sandwich the drives together as close as possible, you get effective cooling with substantially less airflow.
If quietness is of any concern, put at least a half inch between each drive. Doing so will allow you to cool your drives effectively and quietly.
Also, FWIW, the CM Stacker case can be useful: just put one 3.5 inch hard drive in each 5.25 inch bay. The only tricky part is rigging some kind of airflow over the drives. I tried doing this, actually. I sealed off all the non front or back openings of the Stacker (including the sides). I used shock cord (aka bungee cord) to soft mount the drives. I built a 3x120mm fan frame out of foamboard to mount behind the drives (i.e. between the drives and the motherboard). It worked, but was quite ugly. I now have the Lian Li PC-16B on order with an extra hard drive module. The mounting is semi-soft (rubber grommets are used to reduce vibrations) and the spacing is one drive per 5.25 bay. Plus, there's a 120mm fan in front of each drive. In the future, when I upgrade my array, I'll buy another hard drive module, and have room for a total of nine hard drives (two four-drive arrays plus one system disk).
interesting - i've been playing guitar for a couple of years now, and one thing i notice is that my ring finger on my left (fretting) hand, is now longer than my index finger, but on the right, the reverse is true.
So, does wailing on the guitar make half of your brain better at mathematics?
Just an anecdote (not trying to prove/disprove anything)... My major in college (computer science) required a fair amount of math. While doing homework, I liked to take breaks to play guitar. Whenever I intensely worked on math for a while, then went to play guitar, I always felt like I was a better player. Granted, this is a totally un-scientific observation, but for me personally, I always found it interesting: after getting "in the zone" with my math studies for a while, improvisation came more easily/naturally, learning songs by ear was much easier---I just felt more "in tune" (pun intended) with the guitar.
When was the last time a CPU failed at stock speed with the stock cooler?
The obsession with aftermarket cooling solutions for all but the harder core overclockers strikes me as about as ridiculous as engine oil companies' claims of their oil increasing engine life over other oils. When was the last time you heard about an engine seizing that didn't straight-up run out of oil or suffer from a factory error?
True, but some people (such as myself) have a different/additional obsession: silent computing. Stock heatsink/fan combos usually do an adequate cooling job, but don't necessarily do it quietly. With an efficient heatsink, you can often run the fan more slowly (or not at all with a low-power CPU) and drastically reduce the amount of noise coming from you PC.
Does anyone else silently cheer whenever you read a headline about DRM being cracked?
I mean, I'm not an anarchist or cheering for piracy. I just think that DRM strips or at least greatly hinders fair use and artificially inflates the cost of media. The latter is particularly irksome: part of the cost of your CDs, DVDs, HD-DVDs, Blueray Discs is to pay for the research, development and deployment of DRM. I'm sure that's not a trivial cost.
The more I think about this, the more worked up I get: it's paying for features that nobody wants. We are literally paying more to get less.
Making personal copies of media, I believe, should be totally within our fair use rights. I know lots of people with young children who make copies of their DVDs. Their kids watch the DVDs over and over again, and their grubby little hands aren't well-suited for handling the somewhat fragile media. Solution: make a cheap copy of a DVD, and let the kids use that one. Likewise, I copy and encode all the DVD movies I own to my hard drive for a movie-on-demand system. I still own the DVD, so why can't I copy it? (Maybe I should thank the DRM pushers for trying to combat my laziness?)
Just out of curiosity... how big are HD-DVD and Blueray movies? Last I recall, the media sizes were 30 and 60 GB, respectively. Do most movies take up all that space? I mean (in my experience), most 480p DVD movies seem to average just under 9 GB (the full capacity of a dual-layer DVD).
Second, what about dependencies, how does she know to read the README file or anything else to figure out what she needs to build this source. You don't exactly include all the source of all the libraries you coded with, do you? Rarely have I seen a project coded from scratch with no dependencies.
Just to play devil's advocate... someone could write a nice GUI for Gentoo's Portage system. Might be an interesting experiment, as you rarely here "Gentoo" and "Grandma" or "Joe Sixpack" in the same sentence.
Of course I'd rather read about such an experiment than actually do the work:)
Remember the "advanced" controllers for the original Nintendo, the NES Max and NES Advantage? The Advantage was the huge, arcade-style controller. I never had one, but friends did. I didn't like it. What I did like, and own, was the NEX Max.
Now, the thing I hated about it was that "sliding" left thumb control wasn't very precise. But I fixed that by taking it apart and actually inserting the D-pad from a regular NES controller. A real simple hack that gave me the customary precision of the standard NES controller, the more "natural" and comfortable shape of the Max, as well as the all-too-important turbo buttons.
Nowdays, I like the standards Playstation2 controller to be the best. It just feels natural in my hands.
It just occurred to me that Microsoft has been accused of abusing their monopoly power by bundling applications with their operating system. E.g., IE versus Netscape, Windows Media Player versus RealPlayer, etc. (For anyone who's not familiar with this idea: Microsoft, due to their operating system monopoly status, has an unfair advantage in the applications market.)
Now, clearly you can build and ship an Ubuntu (or just about any other Linux distribution) machine pre-loaded with tons of free software. And that probably needs to happen to make Linux effective for the "unwashed masses".
But, is it possible for Microsoft to take a look at this, and use it as an excuse to start forcing more 3rd party software developers out of the market? If I remember correctly, Microsoft's defense to the monopoly abuse allegations has always been something like "but these applications are part of the operating system." Dell shipping Ubuntu plus a lot of applications kind of supports Microsoft's claim (in a weird, twisted way, which I'm sure Microsoft's well-paid lawyers could use to their advantage).
Now the educated consumer, Joe Merlot, will be interested. Joe Merlot is an upper-middle class office worker with undergrad-grad degree. Joe might not know care about Linux until he is too frustrated with Windows (Vista or otherwise) to want to have to put up with purchasing another box with it.
Joe Merlot! That's awesome! So I think it's somewhat fair to say that these Dell Linux machines have a similar (but not the same obviously) appeal as a Mac: they appeal to a more "distinguished palette".
The geeky guys at work talk about how great Linux is all of the time. Joe wants to see it for himself but the potential learning curve of having to install Linux scares him away.
In my 10+ years of using Linux, I've deliberately always stayed with the more "geeky" distributions: Slackware, Debian and now Gentoo. This was because I wanted to learn more about the system and enjoyed tinkering, deliberately breaking things, etc. Recently, though, I don't have as much time to play, so I thought I'd give Ubuntu a try. I installed it on my laptop (Thinkpad T43) and was dumbfounded at how easy it was to install. It literally asks about four questions (what language, what keyboard, what timezone, and do you want to use the whole disk); a half hour or so later, reboot and it's done. Everything worked automatically. (Granted, I did have to install a few more packages, but having worked with Gentoo exclusively over the last few years... you get the point.)
Anyway, my point is that the installation has now been reduced to a ridiculously simple process. I think Joe Merlot is smart enough to do it himself. However, I bet the idea of installing Linux is still kinda scary to him, no matter how simple.
Yes, this is a highly specific example. But these people do exist; I work with them every day (and I'm sure you too). Vista's advent left a weird gap in the PC consumer world -- few want to buy Vista, but don't want to pay for a Mac. This is where Ubuntu Linux can actually compete in the desktop market.
I don't doubt that the Joe Merlots exist, and I think your scenario is probably pretty accurate. I just wonder how many of these types are out there. My skepticism (cynicism?) stems from the fact that I personally haven't met these types. Colleagues at my previous job could be split into three camps: Joe Sixpack, hardcore Linux geeks and Microsoft/Windows fanboys. In my current job, all our production software runs on Linux. Yet our PCs are still loaded with Windows (but we actually do all our work on a Linux guest through VMWare!).
To be fair, however, there are a couple people who could, with a little prodding, be pushed into the Joe Merlot category.
I still think the whole thing is fascinating. I wonder if Dell will release the sales volume for these machines?
On a totally unrelated note, whenever I hear the word "Merlot", no matter what context, I always, always think of the movie Sideways. Has this happened to anyone else who's seen the movie?
Has anyone done any formal projections of how well these are expected to sell?
What/who is the target market? From my (admittedly limited) point of view, there are only two types of users: Linux users and "everyone else". The Linux users, such as myself, already know how to install Linux, so they have no need to buy a machine with it pre-installed. Everyone else doesn't know any better, so they'll just stick with what they know (Windows) or what is most heavily advertised (again, Windows), and/or what is most readily available (not Linux).
I'm not trying to be a nay-sayer or suggesting that this is bad. It's definitely cool to see and a step in the right direction. But I'm just curious about the source of the demand for these machines. My worry is that Dell responded to a bunch of Linux zealots who didn't think the situation through, and thought that Dell offering machines with Linux pre-loaded would be enough to make this year "the year of Linux". But are the people who did all the talking now doing the buying? I hope so. It'd just be sad to see too few of these machines sell because the the whole strategy was only half-baked.
I mean, for our favorite stereotype, Joe Sixpack, if he's even aware of this machine with Ubuntu pre-loaded, why would he want to buy it? It's not any cheaper. We know Joe Sixpack isn't concerned with, or is at least ignorant of, software freedom (free speech). All his friends and family probably use Windows. I haven't bothered to check, but I'm sure Dell isn't heavily marketing the Linux advantages. I guess that leaves word of mouth. Hopefully, Joe Sixpack has a nephew or friend who is a Linux user (but not zealot) and can give him some simple, practical ideas why he wants Ubuntu over Windows.
It will definitely be fun to see where this goes! I'm curious how Microsoft execs feel about this. I wonder if Microsoft and Dell have had any arguments or ill-will about this? There's gotta be some juicy drama in there somewhere!
Where in Canada? Actually, that isn't so important to me as this: what is the cost of living like where you live? E.g., is it a huge metropolitan area, more rural, etc? Do you rent or own your living quarters? What are you paying, if rent, and for how much? If you own, what is the cost of say a "typical" kind of 1500ish square foot home (say, three bedroom) in a good (meaning safe) neighborhood?
By working at home, I free up a huge amount of time for fun stuff. I typically get up around 6:45 and shuffle over to the computer. By 1:00-2:00 or so, I'm finishing up for the day.
That sounds too good to be true. What is your income like (sorry, don't know any polite way to ask the question)? Basically, I'm stuck in the Chicago area right now. Got a well-paying but boring/unliked job. I want to move, but my finance doesn't want to (plus we have a lease I'd rather not break). So I'm thinking that perhaps contracting is the way to go. As long as I don't have to start selling stuff to live, it might be the way to go.
3. Learn Java and the current "hot" frameworks and libraries. I'm pretty lukewarm towards Java as it's not a terribly exciting language. However, it is the unofficial server-side standard. Learn it well, and you'll be turning away work on a regular basis. Because it's got a low barrier to entry, there are a ton of terrible Java programmers out there. If you can distinguish yourself with clean designs and implementations, and deliver in a reasonable fashion, then you'll be worth your weight in gold.
I'm a proficient C/C++ developer, with plenty of proficient experience. I'm not the best, but I think I'm pretty good. I've dabbled with Java, and am certain I can learn whatever it takes. So what are the current "hot" frameworks and libraries?
Just another real-world example: I bought a four (4) year old house in Peoria, Illinois (about 120k people, greater area has around 300k people) for $164k. That's right in the middle of town, good neighborhood, a huge 1/2 acre lawn, 1300 square feet plus basement, two-car attached garage. I was fifteen minutes from pretty much anywhere.
My friend bought a house in a Chicago suburb for $385k. The house is loosely comparable to mine: roughly the same square footage, but 100 years old, has a slightly leaky basement, three-car not-attached garage, and a teeny lawn. But it is within walking distance of the Metra, though it's still and hour door-to-door to commute downtown.
I think I'm in a somewhat similar situation. I spent the first five years out of college working in the IT organization of a huge midwestern (USA) manufacturing company. Pay and benefits great (especially considering the low cost of living in a smaller town), the hours were flexible (40--45/hour week typical), and I had my own house.
One of my best friends from college took a job with a startup finance company (he's a veteran of this industry), and invited me to come along. I moved to Chicago with my girlfriend for slightly more pay, but a huge opportunity. At the same time, I wanted to try working for a smaller company and focus more on technical work (rather that playing the bureaucracy games of a huge company).
Fortunately, the new job pays enough that I can keep my house and pay for a condo that my girlfriend and I rent.
However, though the company is doing great, and the opportunity for me to retire or at least semi-retire young is still there, I find myself already thinking about quitting (it's only been about six months). I'm feeling a bit burned out already: 10+ hour days are the norm. My friend, boss and co-worker (there's only four of us in the whole company) regularly work 12 hour days. I don't find the subject matter all that interesting.
Part of me thinks that maybe I should leave IT all together. But on the other hand, I think it's just this job giving it a bad flavor. Granted, I don't have 20 years in, but I think it's worth considering whether or not you're really unhappy with IT, or just the application of IT in your current position. I know deep down inside that I still love technology, programming, tinkering, hacking, and all that... but I don't have time for it now, and when I do have time, don't feel like doing it. But I think that's just the frustration with my current job talking.
If I do quit and go somewhere else, I'm going to be hard-pressed to find a job that pays well enough to not have to sell my house, unless I stay in finance (the finance industry pays programmers extremely well).
I'd suggest that before you jump ship to a whole new career, switch companies/industries, but stay in IT.
Is there an official list of Ubuntu version numbers and their respective version names? E.g., this is version number 7.04 and named "Feisty Fawn". What are all the other names and versions? Is this documented on the Ubuntu site somewhere?
A quick offtopic example is when my driver's license was suspended, and the judge said it would be suspended for 90 days. Fine. To me, that meant that on day 91, it was no longer suspended, and I could drive. Long story short, I got caught driving on day 92 and arrested for driving on a suspended license -- because I hadn't paid a "reinstatement fee". Now, how was I supposed to know about that? When I posed this question to the court I was told only that "it's the law".
I realize there will always be certain circumstances or specific areas where laws need to get detailed and intense, but for the majority of things the average citizen is going to do, there is a problem if that average citizen cannot comply with the law because he cannot access it or cannot understand it.
That's because we (in the US) live in a "lawyer-eaucracy".
A former co-worker and I had a discussion on this not too long ago. It's arguable that, as a whole, collective group, the lawyers have more power than anyone else. The laws are written in "legalese" such that they can only be interpreted by lawyers.
No matter how much bribery goes on, the people receiving the bribes are generally lawyers.
On this and so many other threads, there are numerous posts where people argue that we should all walk or ride our bikes to work. Electric car discussion: just walk or ride your bike, it's way more efficient/enviro-friendly than any car. Talk about gyms? Running to the gym and back is as good a workout as driving their and then working out. Urban sprawl: just walk everywhere!
I agree with this principle 100%. But...
Regarding commuting: I live in the Chicago area. What am I to do in the freezing cold rain and snow? Do the folks screaming "just ride your bike" have snow in their areas? How about ice on sidewalks and roads? What about safety? It just looks risky to ride your bike somewhere like Chicago where there's too much traffic, low visibility and a million crazy cab drivers. I work downtown; unless I live downtown, there's few areas that I can afford to live in that are within walking distance (and the weather and safety discourages me from riding a bike).
Regarding exercise: trying to run or jog in the city? That's not really a good workout, considering you have to stop every minute or two to wait on a traffic light. Why run/swim/whatever instead of walking? It's about time. The amount of calories I can expend, and the workout I can give my heart and lungs has much better time efficiency with running than walking. I'd love to walk two hours a day, but I just don't have the time. So 30--40 minutes of running makes up for that.
I really want to live this kind of "ideal" life, where my commute results in the least pollution (i.e. walking), my daily life includes an implicit workout (i.e. more walking), etc, etc. I just can't figure out how to do it without giving up lots of time, money and or safety (and at the risk of sounding whiny, add "comfort" to that list, although spending more than a couple minutes in the coldest days of a Chicago winter are just torture).
I'm surprised that Microsoft hasn't chimed in here because for every open specification we get in the OSS world, they also get. That's where all those Microsoft drivers come from. And only on occasion is a vendor-supplied driver better that the Microsoft one. Open sourcing any drivers also helps Microsoft support more hardware out of the box, without a multitude of licensing agreements and royalty schemes.
Isn't typical Slashdot-think quite the opposite? I.e., Microsoft prefers closed hardware specifically because it locks out the OSS world? Licensing agreements and royalty schemes are a small price to pay to make sure Linux users can't use some great new hardware. Furthermore, most manufacturers of this great new hardware want or even need it to work on Windows, so the licensing agreements and royalty schemes are really in Microsoft's favor.
Incorrect. The poor person in this case is obviously not working as hard. He obviously didn't work as hard at school, nor has he worked hard enough to acquire the extra education needed to get a better job. He has not worked hard enough to learn how to make more money. He has not learnt the most productive ways in which to direct his hard work.
What about teachers? Granted, they get much more than a week off, but many of them must take on summer jobs to support themselves during their "vacation". I've never been a teacher, but have many friends that are teachers, and that job looks pretty hard to me: long hours, lots of standing, planning, meetings, creative challenges, regulation, etc. There are plenty of teachers who are very hard working, have impressive educational credentials, and certainly direct their hard work in very productive ways.
Let's not confuse physically hard work with actual hard work. It's intellectually easy to perform grunt work for 80 hours a week for 40 years. It doesn't require any thought, any planning, any ambition or any risk-taking. In fact it is the path of least resistance, i.e. the easy route.
Much "grunt work" involves physical risk-taking. There is also much "grunt work" required to maintain our comfort level. As much as we want to deny it, such comfort does come at a price.
So do you scoff at physical laborers when you see them? E.g., the people building our roads or picking up our garbage or making signs for new businesses?
For the same reasons some extremely talented and capable people become teachers (knowing they'll never make the money they could in other fields), some people choose to do "grunt work". It's not because they're lazy or risk-adverse; it's what interests them. My girlfriend's brother works in a sheet metal union for a sign company. He's not lazy, he's not stupid, but he's not at all interested in "intellectual" type jobs. He likes what he does and is good at it.
Nah, this deal affects all of us. It basically says Microsoft is going to start suing users of Linux (except Novell's customers). Not that they are, but it makes people who care about this stuff nervous.
So it's really the SCO debacle all over again, right? We can be pretty confident that nothing major will really happen, but there will be this awful tense period, with slowed (possibly negative) Linux adoption due to the massive FUD created by this license agreement.
In other words, we're back to the assumed meeting between the Microsoft sales reps and a CTO. The CTO either really wants to use Linux, or at least is using it to negotiate better pricing with MS. Either way, MS comes back with, "Oh, you don't want to use that, it has hidden licensing costs and/or you're likely to get sued for using it."
Although, this time it's a little more worrisome. Previously, with the SCO ordeal, there was never any "official" SCO-Microsoft link. And nobody cared about SCO to begin with. Now it's Microsoft in the forefront and a company that at least used to be one of the "good guys".
This is totally off-topic, but I thought I'd try for the/. opinion anyway...
Basically, I'm now working for (read: being micro-managed by) a large, successful manufacturing company. I live in my hometown, am close to my family, have about as good of job security as is realistically possible, am reasonably compensated, have a comfortable 12-minute commute. I bought a house two years ago.
A close and trusted friend has been in this "algorithmic trading" business for the last few years. He's basically kicking out on his own, with a small number of other invdividuals experienced in the same. And I'm invited.
Taking this job would mean a huge increase in pay (almost 2x what I make now, 3x if the company is profitable and pays the expected bonus). Plus, being part of a tiny company, I would have an immense of amount of ownership in my work, and actually have a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. But I'd have to move about 3 hours away from my hometown, family and serious girlfriend.
TFA had a typical comment from Theo or any OpenBSD core team member: "As we become aware of more problems in the C language, we are trying to be very agressive to make the code cleaner. Just the standard OpenBSD proactive auditing process."
My question is this: what is the "standard OpenBSD proactive auditing process"? Before, I've lightly asked about this on the misc@ mailing list, but the answers weren't very helpful, generally paraphrased as (1) experience or (2) study the CVS diffs.
Well... that's nice, but I'd like to have a more straightforward "beginner's approach", something a little more accessible. I agree that only experience will make you a truly great secure and correct coder, but it would be nice to have a book that explained (and gave examples) of the kinds of things that the OpenBSD developers routinely look for in their code audits.
Put another way, I feel I have a good understanding of the fundamentals of secure C programming: generally prefer strncpy() (or strlcpy()) to strcpy(), know when to use memmove() or memcpy(), always check input parameters to make sure they are within the defined boundaries of the function, etc... but surely there's more than just these well-known general rules of thumb, right? It would be nice if core OpenBSD developers could have their secure C programming expertise dumped into a book!
I made the assumption that most Slashdot folk would take it for granted that there are discrepancies in the Bible; I counted on it being common knowledge.
I had always just taken the "common knowledge" stance myself, until I read Holy Blood, Holy Grail. (Yeah, I jumped on The DaVinci Code bandwagon.) There's a chapter in that book where the authors do an interesting (IMHO) analysis of the discrepancies in the Bible. My copy is on loan to a friend right now, so I can't cite it directly. But from memory, I believe one of the more substantial discrepancies deal with the details of Jesus' birth and events that happened after his death.
So are defending the fundies and their literal interpretation of that oral tradition we call the Bible, or are you just calling my intellectual integrity into question?
If you are from the camp that would argue that there are absolutely no inconsistencies in the Bible, then I'm just going to give up now. It's just not worth the effort? Which version of the Bible are we even talking about? There's differences from one version to the next!
My rhetorical question was intended for like-minded secular snobs who point and laugh at these assholes who take this folklore so seriously that they live and die by some joke of a literal interpretation, totally missing the point.
In my experience, it's the same story over and over again:
No major distribution channels. Sure, there are plenty of places to order your off-the-shelf system with Linux installed, but none of the big players offer it (or if they do, it's tucked away so as to be practically non-existant).
No real cost advantage. Yes, it's free, but enonomies of scale make Windows pretty cheap when installed on a new PC, and that cost is hidden anyway. Just look at all the recent discussions about major PC vendors' Linux offerings: they're not any cheaper or possibly even more expensive!
Stability is no longer an issue. Or, Linux no longer "competes" in the desktop stability realm. When I first started running Linux, the stability and multitasking capabilities blew Windows 95 out of the water. With Windows 2000 and XP, I've yet to see anything beyond anecdotal evidence that Linux is more stable.
Nobody cares. At least, none of the PC desktop consuming masses care. If people have a working Windows PC, why should they switch? For idealogy? Doubt it.
It's too hard to use. This is a Catch-22 we unfortunately can't get away from. Sure, there's plenty of anecdotal evidence of the "my grandma runs Linux without any problems" variety, but most people are used to Windows. For whatever reason, most people learn to live with the differences Microsoft introduces from one Windows version to the next. But most Linux distros are still too different from the familiar for the average person to make the leap. The catch is that, if Linux was an exact clone of Windows, again, why would anyone switch?
Zealots. I don't think this affects most people, but at least one of my co-workers hates Linux (and open source in general) because of the zealotry he was subjected to in the past. He thinks that all open source is created just to undermine Microsoft, that it's all hard to use, that it's all just a rip-off of Microsoft, and some other nonsense. But it does irk me when the Linux Fanboys get modded up here on Slashdot for their asinine anecdotal stories about why Linux and open source is so much better than Microsoft's offerings. Have a little humility man! If it truly is a "war" to you, then that kind of arrogance is only going to get you killed. Have a little humility, admit that Linux isn't perfect, and make it better.
Easier development platform. Again, speaking to a smaller audience, but the development tools for Windows are much more mature and integrated. Okay, let's just assume that feature-wise, the two platforms are equal. But does any Linux development environment have the level of integration and ease-of-use that the latest version of Visual Studio does? I mean, you can really start developing your project in Visio, and have Visual Studio start building your class interface for you! And what does OSS have? Graphviz? It's so sad, but I work with a lot of effectively lazy programmers---people who like to code, but (just like the masses with a desktop) want their development environment automatically set up for them, and they only want to know exactly what they need to to get the job done (they're not "true hackers"). The kind of sophistication combined with ease of use that Visual Studio offers a novice programmer simply isn't avaible in the open source world. And the business world loves this: they don't want their developers spending time learning and configuring their environment, they want them turning out code (even if it's not very good code).
Windows 95 and ME were junk, Windows 98 is debateable, but Windows 2000 and XP are decent competitors to Linux. I'd like to think that Linux was responsible, at least in part, for the bettering of Windows---it's real competition! But I think it's up to Linux to make the next big leap in offering something special, something unique.
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Generally true, but the case is a possible exception to that rule. If you're planning to have five drives today (four for RAID and one for system), and foresee adding another four-drive RAID, might as well get a case today that supports nine or more drives. At the same time, I have seen a fairly impressive amount of case innovation recently... the argument goes both ways I suppose!
First, forget hardware RAID solutions. While their effectiveness is debatable for commercial and enterprise applications, it's definitely overkill for a home solution (particularly a media server). (Unless of course you have more money than sense.) But Linux RAID (md, multi-disk) is mature, stable, and well-tested. It's portable from one machine to another. It's free. With even modest hardware, it will be plenty fast for a home media server. Don't even bother with those pseudo RAID solutions that are built into your motherboard (or implemented via firmware or a proprietary driver): Linux software RAID and true hardware RAID beat these solutions in just about every conceivable way.
Now, do you really need RAID? Many people equate RAID and backup. They are not equal. RAID is no substitute for a good backup. In the case of a media library, you do own all the media, right? :) There's your backup. Worst case, you lose the time spent ripping the media. So there's an argument to just use JBOD. However, I do use RAID5 for a bit of safety. If two drives fail simultaneously, I fall back on the media. But if only one drive fails, then I can replace the drive, rebuild the array, and lose very little time. It's quasi-backup. It's just too expensive for an individual to maintain multiple live copies of this much data.
If I were to build a fileserver for someone right now, this is what I'd use:
I have another post on this thread where I went into more detail about the choice of case. Quick summary: if you care about noise, don't cram your drives close together, or you'll have to use an obscenely loud high-speed fan to keep them cool. If you allow at least 0.5" between each drive, you can keep your drives cool with a low-speed (quiet) fan. That's why I'm buying the Lian Li case mentioned above: room for up to nine drives, with adequate spacing between each.
One caveat to the "X-in-Y" drive boxes (where X is the number of 3.5" hard drives and Y is the number of 5.25" bays and X > Y): noise (and/or cooling). In my experience (home Linux software RAID-5, 4x400), you need at least 1/2 inch between drives to cool them quietly. When I had a house, I kept my drives in a Chenbro SR10769. This case has a 120mm fan directly behind each group of 4 drives, and a 92mm fan in front of each group of drives. I ran ultra-high speed Delta fans in that case, and stored the server in the basement. The drives stayed under 30 degree C, but the case sounded like a jet engine.
I moved into an apartment, and no longer have the luxury of keeping my drives in an enormously loud server. So I put the drives in the lower drive bay of the Antec P180 case. Now the drives have one low-speed (quiet) 120mm fan behind them. The drives stay in the mid 30s, which is plenty cool. But the case is very quiet. I credit the fact that the P180 gives a good 1/2 inch or so between each drive. Compared to the Chenbro (and every other X-in-Y solution I've seen), which sandwich the drives together as close as possible, you get effective cooling with substantially less airflow.
If quietness is of any concern, put at least a half inch between each drive. Doing so will allow you to cool your drives effectively and quietly.
Also, FWIW, the CM Stacker case can be useful: just put one 3.5 inch hard drive in each 5.25 inch bay. The only tricky part is rigging some kind of airflow over the drives. I tried doing this, actually. I sealed off all the non front or back openings of the Stacker (including the sides). I used shock cord (aka bungee cord) to soft mount the drives. I built a 3x120mm fan frame out of foamboard to mount behind the drives (i.e. between the drives and the motherboard). It worked, but was quite ugly. I now have the Lian Li PC-16B on order with an extra hard drive module. The mounting is semi-soft (rubber grommets are used to reduce vibrations) and the spacing is one drive per 5.25 bay. Plus, there's a 120mm fan in front of each drive. In the future, when I upgrade my array, I'll buy another hard drive module, and have room for a total of nine hard drives (two four-drive arrays plus one system disk).
Just an anecdote (not trying to prove/disprove anything)... My major in college (computer science) required a fair amount of math. While doing homework, I liked to take breaks to play guitar. Whenever I intensely worked on math for a while, then went to play guitar, I always felt like I was a better player. Granted, this is a totally un-scientific observation, but for me personally, I always found it interesting: after getting "in the zone" with my math studies for a while, improvisation came more easily/naturally, learning songs by ear was much easier---I just felt more "in tune" (pun intended) with the guitar.
True, but some people (such as myself) have a different/additional obsession: silent computing. Stock heatsink/fan combos usually do an adequate cooling job, but don't necessarily do it quietly. With an efficient heatsink, you can often run the fan more slowly (or not at all with a low-power CPU) and drastically reduce the amount of noise coming from you PC.
Does anyone else silently cheer whenever you read a headline about DRM being cracked?
I mean, I'm not an anarchist or cheering for piracy. I just think that DRM strips or at least greatly hinders fair use and artificially inflates the cost of media. The latter is particularly irksome: part of the cost of your CDs, DVDs, HD-DVDs, Blueray Discs is to pay for the research, development and deployment of DRM. I'm sure that's not a trivial cost.
The more I think about this, the more worked up I get: it's paying for features that nobody wants. We are literally paying more to get less.
Making personal copies of media, I believe, should be totally within our fair use rights. I know lots of people with young children who make copies of their DVDs. Their kids watch the DVDs over and over again, and their grubby little hands aren't well-suited for handling the somewhat fragile media. Solution: make a cheap copy of a DVD, and let the kids use that one. Likewise, I copy and encode all the DVD movies I own to my hard drive for a movie-on-demand system. I still own the DVD, so why can't I copy it? (Maybe I should thank the DRM pushers for trying to combat my laziness?)
Just out of curiosity... how big are HD-DVD and Blueray movies? Last I recall, the media sizes were 30 and 60 GB, respectively. Do most movies take up all that space? I mean (in my experience), most 480p DVD movies seem to average just under 9 GB (the full capacity of a dual-layer DVD).
Just to play devil's advocate... someone could write a nice GUI for Gentoo's Portage system. Might be an interesting experiment, as you rarely here "Gentoo" and "Grandma" or "Joe Sixpack" in the same sentence.
Of course I'd rather read about such an experiment than actually do the work :)
Remember the "advanced" controllers for the original Nintendo, the NES Max and NES Advantage? The Advantage was the huge, arcade-style controller. I never had one, but friends did. I didn't like it. What I did like, and own, was the NEX Max.
Now, the thing I hated about it was that "sliding" left thumb control wasn't very precise. But I fixed that by taking it apart and actually inserting the D-pad from a regular NES controller. A real simple hack that gave me the customary precision of the standard NES controller, the more "natural" and comfortable shape of the Max, as well as the all-too-important turbo buttons.
Nowdays, I like the standards Playstation2 controller to be the best. It just feels natural in my hands.
It just occurred to me that Microsoft has been accused of abusing their monopoly power by bundling applications with their operating system. E.g., IE versus Netscape, Windows Media Player versus RealPlayer, etc. (For anyone who's not familiar with this idea: Microsoft, due to their operating system monopoly status, has an unfair advantage in the applications market.)
Now, clearly you can build and ship an Ubuntu (or just about any other Linux distribution) machine pre-loaded with tons of free software. And that probably needs to happen to make Linux effective for the "unwashed masses".
But, is it possible for Microsoft to take a look at this, and use it as an excuse to start forcing more 3rd party software developers out of the market? If I remember correctly, Microsoft's defense to the monopoly abuse allegations has always been something like "but these applications are part of the operating system." Dell shipping Ubuntu plus a lot of applications kind of supports Microsoft's claim (in a weird, twisted way, which I'm sure Microsoft's well-paid lawyers could use to their advantage).
Joe Merlot! That's awesome! So I think it's somewhat fair to say that these Dell Linux machines have a similar (but not the same obviously) appeal as a Mac: they appeal to a more "distinguished palette".
In my 10+ years of using Linux, I've deliberately always stayed with the more "geeky" distributions: Slackware, Debian and now Gentoo. This was because I wanted to learn more about the system and enjoyed tinkering, deliberately breaking things, etc. Recently, though, I don't have as much time to play, so I thought I'd give Ubuntu a try. I installed it on my laptop (Thinkpad T43) and was dumbfounded at how easy it was to install. It literally asks about four questions (what language, what keyboard, what timezone, and do you want to use the whole disk); a half hour or so later, reboot and it's done. Everything worked automatically. (Granted, I did have to install a few more packages, but having worked with Gentoo exclusively over the last few years... you get the point.)
Anyway, my point is that the installation has now been reduced to a ridiculously simple process. I think Joe Merlot is smart enough to do it himself. However, I bet the idea of installing Linux is still kinda scary to him, no matter how simple.
I don't doubt that the Joe Merlots exist, and I think your scenario is probably pretty accurate. I just wonder how many of these types are out there. My skepticism (cynicism?) stems from the fact that I personally haven't met these types. Colleagues at my previous job could be split into three camps: Joe Sixpack, hardcore Linux geeks and Microsoft/Windows fanboys. In my current job, all our production software runs on Linux. Yet our PCs are still loaded with Windows (but we actually do all our work on a Linux guest through VMWare!).
To be fair, however, there are a couple people who could, with a little prodding, be pushed into the Joe Merlot category.
I still think the whole thing is fascinating. I wonder if Dell will release the sales volume for these machines?
On a totally unrelated note, whenever I hear the word "Merlot", no matter what context, I always, always think of the movie Sideways. Has this happened to anyone else who's seen the movie?
Has anyone done any formal projections of how well these are expected to sell?
What/who is the target market? From my (admittedly limited) point of view, there are only two types of users: Linux users and "everyone else". The Linux users, such as myself, already know how to install Linux, so they have no need to buy a machine with it pre-installed. Everyone else doesn't know any better, so they'll just stick with what they know (Windows) or what is most heavily advertised (again, Windows), and/or what is most readily available (not Linux).
I'm not trying to be a nay-sayer or suggesting that this is bad. It's definitely cool to see and a step in the right direction. But I'm just curious about the source of the demand for these machines. My worry is that Dell responded to a bunch of Linux zealots who didn't think the situation through, and thought that Dell offering machines with Linux pre-loaded would be enough to make this year "the year of Linux". But are the people who did all the talking now doing the buying? I hope so. It'd just be sad to see too few of these machines sell because the the whole strategy was only half-baked.
I mean, for our favorite stereotype, Joe Sixpack, if he's even aware of this machine with Ubuntu pre-loaded, why would he want to buy it? It's not any cheaper. We know Joe Sixpack isn't concerned with, or is at least ignorant of, software freedom (free speech). All his friends and family probably use Windows. I haven't bothered to check, but I'm sure Dell isn't heavily marketing the Linux advantages. I guess that leaves word of mouth. Hopefully, Joe Sixpack has a nephew or friend who is a Linux user (but not zealot) and can give him some simple, practical ideas why he wants Ubuntu over Windows.
It will definitely be fun to see where this goes! I'm curious how Microsoft execs feel about this. I wonder if Microsoft and Dell have had any arguments or ill-will about this? There's gotta be some juicy drama in there somewhere!
Where in Canada? Actually, that isn't so important to me as this: what is the cost of living like where you live? E.g., is it a huge metropolitan area, more rural, etc? Do you rent or own your living quarters? What are you paying, if rent, and for how much? If you own, what is the cost of say a "typical" kind of 1500ish square foot home (say, three bedroom) in a good (meaning safe) neighborhood?
That sounds too good to be true. What is your income like (sorry, don't know any polite way to ask the question)? Basically, I'm stuck in the Chicago area right now. Got a well-paying but boring/unliked job. I want to move, but my finance doesn't want to (plus we have a lease I'd rather not break). So I'm thinking that perhaps contracting is the way to go. As long as I don't have to start selling stuff to live, it might be the way to go.
I'm a proficient C/C++ developer, with plenty of proficient experience. I'm not the best, but I think I'm pretty good. I've dabbled with Java, and am certain I can learn whatever it takes. So what are the current "hot" frameworks and libraries?
Just another real-world example: I bought a four (4) year old house in Peoria, Illinois (about 120k people, greater area has around 300k people) for $164k. That's right in the middle of town, good neighborhood, a huge 1/2 acre lawn, 1300 square feet plus basement, two-car attached garage. I was fifteen minutes from pretty much anywhere.
My friend bought a house in a Chicago suburb for $385k. The house is loosely comparable to mine: roughly the same square footage, but 100 years old, has a slightly leaky basement, three-car not-attached garage, and a teeny lawn. But it is within walking distance of the Metra, though it's still and hour door-to-door to commute downtown.
I think I'm in a somewhat similar situation. I spent the first five years out of college working in the IT organization of a huge midwestern (USA) manufacturing company. Pay and benefits great (especially considering the low cost of living in a smaller town), the hours were flexible (40--45/hour week typical), and I had my own house.
One of my best friends from college took a job with a startup finance company (he's a veteran of this industry), and invited me to come along. I moved to Chicago with my girlfriend for slightly more pay, but a huge opportunity. At the same time, I wanted to try working for a smaller company and focus more on technical work (rather that playing the bureaucracy games of a huge company).
Fortunately, the new job pays enough that I can keep my house and pay for a condo that my girlfriend and I rent.
However, though the company is doing great, and the opportunity for me to retire or at least semi-retire young is still there, I find myself already thinking about quitting (it's only been about six months). I'm feeling a bit burned out already: 10+ hour days are the norm. My friend, boss and co-worker (there's only four of us in the whole company) regularly work 12 hour days. I don't find the subject matter all that interesting.
Part of me thinks that maybe I should leave IT all together. But on the other hand, I think it's just this job giving it a bad flavor. Granted, I don't have 20 years in, but I think it's worth considering whether or not you're really unhappy with IT, or just the application of IT in your current position. I know deep down inside that I still love technology, programming, tinkering, hacking, and all that... but I don't have time for it now, and when I do have time, don't feel like doing it. But I think that's just the frustration with my current job talking.
If I do quit and go somewhere else, I'm going to be hard-pressed to find a job that pays well enough to not have to sell my house, unless I stay in finance (the finance industry pays programmers extremely well).
I'd suggest that before you jump ship to a whole new career, switch companies/industries, but stay in IT.
Is there an official list of Ubuntu version numbers and their respective version names? E.g., this is version number 7.04 and named "Feisty Fawn". What are all the other names and versions? Is this documented on the Ubuntu site somewhere?
That's because we (in the US) live in a "lawyer-eaucracy".
A former co-worker and I had a discussion on this not too long ago. It's arguable that, as a whole, collective group, the lawyers have more power than anyone else. The laws are written in "legalese" such that they can only be interpreted by lawyers.
No matter how much bribery goes on, the people receiving the bribes are generally lawyers.
On this and so many other threads, there are numerous posts where people argue that we should all walk or ride our bikes to work. Electric car discussion: just walk or ride your bike, it's way more efficient/enviro-friendly than any car. Talk about gyms? Running to the gym and back is as good a workout as driving their and then working out. Urban sprawl: just walk everywhere!
I agree with this principle 100%. But...
Regarding commuting: I live in the Chicago area. What am I to do in the freezing cold rain and snow? Do the folks screaming "just ride your bike" have snow in their areas? How about ice on sidewalks and roads? What about safety? It just looks risky to ride your bike somewhere like Chicago where there's too much traffic, low visibility and a million crazy cab drivers. I work downtown; unless I live downtown, there's few areas that I can afford to live in that are within walking distance (and the weather and safety discourages me from riding a bike).
Regarding exercise: trying to run or jog in the city? That's not really a good workout, considering you have to stop every minute or two to wait on a traffic light. Why run/swim/whatever instead of walking? It's about time. The amount of calories I can expend, and the workout I can give my heart and lungs has much better time efficiency with running than walking. I'd love to walk two hours a day, but I just don't have the time. So 30--40 minutes of running makes up for that.
I really want to live this kind of "ideal" life, where my commute results in the least pollution (i.e. walking), my daily life includes an implicit workout (i.e. more walking), etc, etc. I just can't figure out how to do it without giving up lots of time, money and or safety (and at the risk of sounding whiny, add "comfort" to that list, although spending more than a couple minutes in the coldest days of a Chicago winter are just torture).
What about teachers? Granted, they get much more than a week off, but many of them must take on summer jobs to support themselves during their "vacation". I've never been a teacher, but have many friends that are teachers, and that job looks pretty hard to me: long hours, lots of standing, planning, meetings, creative challenges, regulation, etc. There are plenty of teachers who are very hard working, have impressive educational credentials, and certainly direct their hard work in very productive ways.
Much "grunt work" involves physical risk-taking. There is also much "grunt work" required to maintain our comfort level. As much as we want to deny it, such comfort does come at a price.
So do you scoff at physical laborers when you see them? E.g., the people building our roads or picking up our garbage or making signs for new businesses?
For the same reasons some extremely talented and capable people become teachers (knowing they'll never make the money they could in other fields), some people choose to do "grunt work". It's not because they're lazy or risk-adverse; it's what interests them. My girlfriend's brother works in a sheet metal union for a sign company. He's not lazy, he's not stupid, but he's not at all interested in "intellectual" type jobs. He likes what he does and is good at it.
Nah, this deal affects all of us. It basically says Microsoft is going to start suing users of Linux (except Novell's customers). Not that they are, but it makes people who care about this stuff nervous.
So it's really the SCO debacle all over again, right? We can be pretty confident that nothing major will really happen, but there will be this awful tense period, with slowed (possibly negative) Linux adoption due to the massive FUD created by this license agreement.
In other words, we're back to the assumed meeting between the Microsoft sales reps and a CTO. The CTO either really wants to use Linux, or at least is using it to negotiate better pricing with MS. Either way, MS comes back with, "Oh, you don't want to use that, it has hidden licensing costs and/or you're likely to get sued for using it."
Although, this time it's a little more worrisome. Previously, with the SCO ordeal, there was never any "official" SCO-Microsoft link. And nobody cared about SCO to begin with. Now it's Microsoft in the forefront and a company that at least used to be one of the "good guys".
This is totally off-topic, but I thought I'd try for the /. opinion anyway...
Basically, I'm now working for (read: being micro-managed by) a large, successful manufacturing company. I live in my hometown, am close to my family, have about as good of job security as is realistically possible, am reasonably compensated, have a comfortable 12-minute commute. I bought a house two years ago.
A close and trusted friend has been in this "algorithmic trading" business for the last few years. He's basically kicking out on his own, with a small number of other invdividuals experienced in the same. And I'm invited.
Taking this job would mean a huge increase in pay (almost 2x what I make now, 3x if the company is profitable and pays the expected bonus). Plus, being part of a tiny company, I would have an immense of amount of ownership in my work, and actually have a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. But I'd have to move about 3 hours away from my hometown, family and serious girlfriend.
What do Slashdotters think?
TFA had a typical comment from Theo or any OpenBSD core team member: "As we become aware of more problems in the C language, we are trying to be very agressive to make the code cleaner. Just the standard OpenBSD proactive auditing process."
My question is this: what is the "standard OpenBSD proactive auditing process"? Before, I've lightly asked about this on the misc@ mailing list, but the answers weren't very helpful, generally paraphrased as (1) experience or (2) study the CVS diffs.
Well... that's nice, but I'd like to have a more straightforward "beginner's approach", something a little more accessible. I agree that only experience will make you a truly great secure and correct coder, but it would be nice to have a book that explained (and gave examples) of the kinds of things that the OpenBSD developers routinely look for in their code audits.
Put another way, I feel I have a good understanding of the fundamentals of secure C programming: generally prefer strncpy() (or strlcpy()) to strcpy(), know when to use memmove() or memcpy(), always check input parameters to make sure they are within the defined boundaries of the function, etc... but surely there's more than just these well-known general rules of thumb, right? It would be nice if core OpenBSD developers could have their secure C programming expertise dumped into a book!
I had always just taken the "common knowledge" stance myself, until I read Holy Blood, Holy Grail. (Yeah, I jumped on The DaVinci Code bandwagon.) There's a chapter in that book where the authors do an interesting (IMHO) analysis of the discrepancies in the Bible. My copy is on loan to a friend right now, so I can't cite it directly. But from memory, I believe one of the more substantial discrepancies deal with the details of Jesus' birth and events that happened after his death.
So are defending the fundies and their literal interpretation of that oral tradition we call the Bible, or are you just calling my intellectual integrity into question?
If you are from the camp that would argue that there are absolutely no inconsistencies in the Bible, then I'm just going to give up now. It's just not worth the effort? Which version of the Bible are we even talking about? There's differences from one version to the next!
My rhetorical question was intended for like-minded secular snobs who point and laugh at these assholes who take this folklore so seriously that they live and die by some joke of a literal interpretation, totally missing the point.
Seriously, I've always wondered that about the fundies. How can you interpret something literally when it contradicts intself?
Windows 95 and ME were junk, Windows 98 is debateable, but Windows 2000 and XP are decent competitors to Linux. I'd like to think that Linux was responsible, at least in part, for the bettering of Windows---it's real competition! But I think it's up to Linux to make the next big leap in offering something special, something unique.
Furthermore, speakin