You've obviously never used Red Hat or have never been in a position to have to admin hundreds or thousands of machines. Red Hat offers a really good product, it is priced cheaper then any of the competition, by far (look at Suse's support pricing options for enterprise, and Microsoft's per incident or 5-pack incident pricing). Red Hat's support is honestly the best I've ever experienced and they contribute more to the kernel then any other source so their products tend to work and integrate really well. Perhaps people should start looking into things before speaking, rather then listening to what the slahbots have to say. Regards, Steve
Red Hat is simply enforcing what it has to... otherwise down the road some competitor will start illegaly associating itself with Red Hat's trademark and Red Hat won't be able to do a damn thing about it. You can't selectively enforce a trademark, its across the board or nothing at all (in most cases). This is actually one area where IP law kind of got it right, Red Hat clearly states that all of their patents may be used freely in any open source project, and that is completely legal and defendable in court according to IP law. Trademark law however is much more "fuzzy" and as such, allowing Centos free use of their name, or for that matter, all free software projects, and not any competitors could be more or less trademark suicide. Trademark law doesn't have a precedent for such and trademark law is a much less tested area in the courts (not to say that its not tested frequently, just not to the extent that IP law is). Regards, Steve
Err... the linux kernel is probably the most often forked piece of OSS. I don't know of a single distro that uses a stock kernel. Each ditro "forks" a version of their own and works on it in more detail there. When newer kernel branches are released, those branches are diffed and updated again... (more or less). Linus likes it that way. In fact, the kernel developers have accepted this to such an extent that they have decided that they may start including more experimental code in the stock kernel and let the distributors sort it out in their forks. Not to mention... alot of linux's media players are not half baked. MPlayer gui and Xine are two that I can think of off the top of my head that work better then most on windows. Real Player is another nice one.There is also quality software for every other category you listed including thunderbird, OpenOffice.org, gaim, gimp, eclipse, vim, apt and yum. Regards, Steve
Or leave it to the computer distributors to bundle their own? Kinda like DELL may include different CD creation stuff then HP, this would just extend it a little further. It's not like Windows is like linux and comes with 3,000 - 10,000 apps, I mean you would need a media player (winamp or itunes), a web browser (firefox or opera) a simple paint program and some games. While they are at it, OpenOffice.org could get thrown in there too. Regards, Steve
Also don't forget that often times,the OSS vulnerabilities are typically theoretical.For example, you see something like a strcpy to an unchecked char pointer somewhere deep in the code. You may not know when its called, why its called, and what series of events might set it off, but you fix it anyway and out goes the patch. Your system then gets patched whether or not that code could have ever even been exploited.
With Windows on the other hand, everything is a severe and serious vulnerability because if some company, or university, or just your typical hacker finds something, it definitly works and can be exploited simply because they found it. It couldn't have been found without them actually executing the exploit.
There are a million other things though to take into consideration, like what you said about how RH and Suse have tons of other software bundled with them. An interesting thing is that RH, Fedora, and Suse are all (according to secunia) patched from all known vulnerabilities. Windows XP Home and Pro both have 18 unpatched vulnerabilities, at least one of them being "highly critical", and Windows 2003 also has 5 unpatched (out of 44). Software will have bugs, we should try our best to code securely, but its never going to work 100%. What is more important is not how many patches were sent out, but how many haven't been taken care of yet. In RH and Suse's case, they seem to be just fine, but Windows has tons of open flaws. OSS also tends to get patches out way quicker. Whats even cooler is that if RH patches something, then Suse can just use that, and vice versa, talk about efficiency. Regards, Steve
Granted, my claim was made without any links unfortunately. However with a little googling, what I stated will become more obvious. ClamAV donors have paid subscriptions fees for ClamAV to be on certain select lists that anti-virus companies are on. I've never used these lists or interacted with them, but it is my understanding that they are kind of like mailing lists for virus companies to keep each other up to date on whats out there. According to ClamAV's site they more or less release updates daily. Perhaps they are small enough that they can bare the load. Major AV companies tend to toss out updates weekly unless something major is spreading. So it makes sense that ClamAV would beat them to it. Also, I know I've submitted at least 3 previously unknown viruses to Symantec and ClamAV and clamav did indeed update quicker( Symantec is what we use at my corporation, maybe one day I can convince the upper management to try out ClamAV, even if its just as a second defense) and I was also involved in a federal investigation regarding blaster. (I wasn't involved in creating it, but my network was one of the first 50 hit and so we had some valuable data and were known to be close to the source of the attack). I am by no means a virus expert and where as I personally like ClamAV for my own mail gateways, at my company we use Symantec, which is also very nice. I'm not saying one is better then the other, but am simply stating that ClamAV from my experience and also from the source that I unfortunately can't find, sometimes (not always)updates quicker Regards, Steve
Do you really believe that its not encrpyted with many large encryption keys dependent on the satellite or location that the signal is coming from? Each signal's individual key also changing with time? The military signal is one of the most guarded military technologies, infact even if your authorized to use it, it can still be a pain syncing up. Usually the sync will only be good for a period or time and/or at some location. If you theoretically did crack the signal, it'd only do you good in your country or wherever you picked up the signal from. The military signal with enough statellites could easily allow you to send a missile from any where in the world to a picnic table with a can of soda on it and have the missile just skim the top of the can. It is damn accurate and the military takes no chances with it. Regards, Steve
I can't find the link, but the irconic thing is that ClamAV, the free virus scanner, was once evaluated and found to update its database sometimes faster then both symantec and mcaffee. Regards, Steve
I think part of the idea is to possibly bring back some hibernated bacteria. They should become reanimated with higher temperatures and more humidity. Bacteria have been known to hibernate for millions of years. If warming the planet did bring them back then we could quickly see a regrowth of mars. With the new temperatures and lots of room for the bacteria to spread it'd be interesting and if nothing else a fun experiment. I can't believe we've even reached the point where we can consider more or less recreating a whole planet, its amazing. And if your worried about destroying mars, we might as well learn from our mistakes now before one day when we'll need to leave earth because its not able to support life and we'll have no clue what to do. Think of it as preparing for the worst:) Regards, Steve
You seem to think that linux's only worth is that its free and runs on cheap hardware. That is certainly not why I use it, and although I've used macs and are okay to work on, people on slahdot way overrate the whole mac "experience". It's certainly great as a desktop but I could never see it being used in many businesses, it looks more childish then windows xp. Also, I prefer the gui interfaces of linux (in particular Gnome) to OSX and Windows. IMHO its the cleanest and most professional looking desktop at the moment while still maintaining ease of use. Finally, linux has a huge software colelction and a very easy method of isntalling it all (at least on most distros). So let's see, I can go with a Mac mini for $500 + $300 (monitor) + keyboard + mouse, or go grab an entire PC for $433 to $600 that comes with everything I need and I can run linux on it. Mac mini is a very nice and small little beast, but apple's hardware is the only reason I'd ever buy it. I've never been impressed by their software and I'd have to immediately put yellow dog on it. I also find linux easier to use from a user perspective, even my parents can use fedora, where as they couldn't even navigate off of the desktop in OSX (yes, they've tried). Just because it looks nice doesn't mean using it is. Linux will win because of its stability, ease of use, large library of readily avaible software, and a great community (not everyone wants windows that slurp around your screen, etc...). Regards, Steve
I've never used welfare or foodstamps. I've never used any public education facilities. I'll probably never get and social security despite what Dub-ya is saying. Yet every pay check damn near 30% of my money goes to those useless services (to me atleast). I don't have any desire to help people who are too lazy to get a job and work for a living. I also have no desire to place large amounts of money into a big pot that I'll never get to take out of simply because of my age and some mishandling of the funds by the government, eventhough I've been "promised" my share. It's about time people start paying for things I want because I've been paying for things other people want. If the government keeps doing things like this I'll be happy because this is an unbiased service that benefits anyone who wants it. Its not only for poor people, or black people, or pregnant teenagers, or the elderly. This wireless service is for everyone and its about time. Yes I know that government offers many services for everyone, i.e. the police, but specialized services like the aforementioned ones are never targeted to your typical middle class 20-something white male, eventhough percentage wise we pay the most taxes (as a group, not individually). Regards, Steve
Just out of curiosity, why do you want Novell to give RH a run for their money? Both are from the same country. RedHat contributes significantly more code to the kernel and they open source all of their patents and any other technology they require. It's stated in their mission statement. Novell on the other hand just recently got into the game and will quickly leave the game if they find that its not profitable. They've been looking for their niche for nearly a decade now just moving from one thing to the next until they can make some major cash. If in 3 years they still aren't making as much as they desire, they'll move right on and drop linux. RedHat has been around for a long time and their life is linux, without it they are nothing. They've been good to the community and are the only reason that business even takes linux seriously. Why would you want to get rid of that? Regards, Steve
This post is 100% true. Why mod as troll? Any major operation is using Oracle. Any one seriously using Oracle is using RedHat. Even if you aren't using Oracle, most firms with a large linux infastructure use Red Hat. They have the experience, and support that a real company needs. They make an excellent product and they rely on that product. Novell is an alternative, but in all honesty, they recently came into the linux game and only did so because they think it will be profitable. If it turns out not to be, they'll move right along to the next thing and drop linux. Novell has been trying to find a truly profitable area for nearly a decade. RedHat's life is linux and they open source everything they do. They also commit significantly more code then anyone else and so are very familiar with the kernel and other projects like OpenOffice.Org and especially Gnome. Regards, Steve
Redhat has something like 2 billion in the bank, not as much as Microsoft, but enough to throw some weight around. Anyway, from the few guys I know at Red Hat it seems that this is to do legitimate lobbying. They pretty much just want to let politicians know that there is open source and other alternatives out there. Alot of politicians only see Microsoft. If Red Hat didn't do this, then Microsoft would be the only contender in the ring, throwing punches at open source and open source isn't even there to defend itself. This will give linux a much needed presence in many areas. Red Hat isn't going to pay politicians to force their software places, it seems their goal is to simply educate. How can you complain about that?:) Regards, Steve
Fedora Core 3 ships with not a single port open and very good friewall configuration. In addition, it enables SELinux by default. You can't really beat that today unless you disconnect the computer from the internet. Regards, Steve
Those 1600 patents can only be used to contribute to OpenSolaris or related projects, all of which must also be licensed under the CDDL. I'd hardly call that open, especially considering that they can't even be used in conjunction with the linux kernel (a.k.a one of the largest open source projects alive) Regards, Steve
Yea, it doesnt matter if they were cracked or not... Its only 1,073,741,824 possible keys. Sit in a car for an hour or so with a key wired to a pda or computer and you can just try every combo. Regards, Steve
Have you ever used SELinux? It's security model is undeniably the best I've ever seen. The only thing is, if your not careful, you can easily lock yourself out of your own system. SELinux achieves just about everything EROS is trying to achieve, except SELinux actually extends it further and it runs on a platform with a lot of support and software already available. To check out what it is capable of, go download Fedora Core 3 which comes with it by default and has some policies for various services. Regards, Steve
The perfect rock paper scissor strategy is literally pure randomness. The neat thing about this computer is that it learned the rules of RPS just by watching two people play it. It didn't learn strategy, but it did learn which beats which and what constitues as a draw. Regards, Steve
Err actually out of the available choices, Red Hat was probably the best to go with. Red Hat does more with the kernel and embedded linux systems then any other major distro on the market. Who would you have recommended? Regards, Steve
After researching this a bit, it appears slashdot was duped. The screenshot is a fake and the site that was linked to just made up a mock google web site and stuck the images in the top. Check the source of the html, the images and things are linked off of Google but the html appears to be from a different source. Either that or I'm seriously mis reading things and confused as hell. Regards, Steve
Not trying to start a distro war here. But yea Gnome 2.10 looks real sweet and if you want an OS with it integrated really nicely, try out Fedora. The only reason I'm saying this is because the Fedora devs do nearly all (or at least alot) of the Gnome coding and so everything fits in nicely. Regards, Steve
Slashdot Mirror
You've obviously never used Red Hat or have never been in a position to have to admin hundreds or thousands of machines. Red Hat offers a really good product, it is priced cheaper then any of the competition, by far (look at Suse's support pricing options for enterprise, and Microsoft's per incident or 5-pack incident pricing). Red Hat's support is honestly the best I've ever experienced and they contribute more to the kernel then any other source so their products tend to work and integrate really well. Perhaps people should start looking into things before speaking, rather then listening to what the slahbots have to say.
Regards,
Steve
It's just in regards to their specific trademark. Read this
Regards,
Steve
Red Hat is simply enforcing what it has to... otherwise down the road some competitor will start illegaly associating itself with Red Hat's trademark and Red Hat won't be able to do a damn thing about it. You can't selectively enforce a trademark, its across the board or nothing at all (in most cases). This is actually one area where IP law kind of got it right, Red Hat clearly states that all of their patents may be used freely in any open source project, and that is completely legal and defendable in court according to IP law. Trademark law however is much more "fuzzy" and as such, allowing Centos free use of their name, or for that matter, all free software projects, and not any competitors could be more or less trademark suicide. Trademark law doesn't have a precedent for such and trademark law is a much less tested area in the courts (not to say that its not tested frequently, just not to the extent that IP law is).
Regards,
Steve
Err... the linux kernel is probably the most often forked piece of OSS. I don't know of a single distro that uses a stock kernel. Each ditro "forks" a version of their own and works on it in more detail there. When newer kernel branches are released, those branches are diffed and updated again... (more or less). Linus likes it that way. In fact, the kernel developers have accepted this to such an extent that they have decided that they may start including more experimental code in the stock kernel and let the distributors sort it out in their forks. Not to mention... alot of linux's media players are not half baked. MPlayer gui and Xine are two that I can think of off the top of my head that work better then most on windows. Real Player is another nice one.There is also quality software for every other category you listed including thunderbird, OpenOffice.org, gaim, gimp, eclipse, vim, apt and yum.
Regards,
Steve
Or leave it to the computer distributors to bundle their own? Kinda like DELL may include different CD creation stuff then HP, this would just extend it a little further. It's not like Windows is like linux and comes with 3,000 - 10,000 apps, I mean you would need a media player (winamp or itunes), a web browser (firefox or opera) a simple paint program and some games. While they are at it, OpenOffice.org could get thrown in there too.
Regards,
Steve
Also don't forget that often times,the OSS vulnerabilities are typically theoretical.For example, you see something like a strcpy to an unchecked char pointer somewhere deep in the code. You may not know when its called, why its called, and what series of events might set it off, but you fix it anyway and out goes the patch. Your system then gets patched whether or not that code could have ever even been exploited.
With Windows on the other hand, everything is a severe and serious vulnerability because if some company, or university, or just your typical hacker finds something, it definitly works and can be exploited simply because they found it. It couldn't have been found without them actually executing the exploit.
There are a million other things though to take into consideration, like what you said about how RH and Suse have tons of other software bundled with them. An interesting thing is that RH, Fedora, and Suse are all (according to secunia) patched from all known vulnerabilities. Windows XP Home and Pro both have 18 unpatched vulnerabilities, at least one of them being "highly critical", and Windows 2003 also has 5 unpatched (out of 44). Software will have bugs, we should try our best to code securely, but its never going to work 100%. What is more important is not how many patches were sent out, but how many haven't been taken care of yet. In RH and Suse's case, they seem to be just fine, but Windows has tons of open flaws. OSS also tends to get patches out way quicker. Whats even cooler is that if RH patches something, then Suse can just use that, and vice versa, talk about efficiency.
Regards,
Steve
Granted, my claim was made without any links unfortunately. However with a little googling, what I stated will become more obvious. ClamAV donors have paid subscriptions fees for ClamAV to be on certain select lists that anti-virus companies are on. I've never used these lists or interacted with them, but it is my understanding that they are kind of like mailing lists for virus companies to keep each other up to date on whats out there. According to ClamAV's site they more or less release updates daily. Perhaps they are small enough that they can bare the load. Major AV companies tend to toss out updates weekly unless something major is spreading. So it makes sense that ClamAV would beat them to it. Also, I know I've submitted at least 3 previously unknown viruses to Symantec and ClamAV and clamav did indeed update quicker( Symantec is what we use at my corporation, maybe one day I can convince the upper management to try out ClamAV, even if its just as a second defense) and I was also involved in a federal investigation regarding blaster. (I wasn't involved in creating it, but my network was one of the first 50 hit and so we had some valuable data and were known to be close to the source of the attack). I am by no means a virus expert and where as I personally like ClamAV for my own mail gateways, at my company we use Symantec, which is also very nice. I'm not saying one is better then the other, but am simply stating that ClamAV from my experience and also from the source that I unfortunately can't find, sometimes (not always)updates quicker
Regards,
Steve
Do you really believe that its not encrpyted with many large encryption keys dependent on the satellite or location that the signal is coming from? Each signal's individual key also changing with time? The military signal is one of the most guarded military technologies, infact even if your authorized to use it, it can still be a pain syncing up. Usually the sync will only be good for a period or time and/or at some location. If you theoretically did crack the signal, it'd only do you good in your country or wherever you picked up the signal from. The military signal with enough statellites could easily allow you to send a missile from any where in the world to a picnic table with a can of soda on it and have the missile just skim the top of the can. It is damn accurate and the military takes no chances with it.
Regards,
Steve
I can't find the link, but the irconic thing is that ClamAV, the free virus scanner, was once evaluated and found to update its database sometimes faster then both symantec and mcaffee.
Regards,
Steve
I think part of the idea is to possibly bring back some hibernated bacteria. They should become reanimated with higher temperatures and more humidity. Bacteria have been known to hibernate for millions of years. If warming the planet did bring them back then we could quickly see a regrowth of mars. With the new temperatures and lots of room for the bacteria to spread it'd be interesting and if nothing else a fun experiment. I can't believe we've even reached the point where we can consider more or less recreating a whole planet, its amazing. And if your worried about destroying mars, we might as well learn from our mistakes now before one day when we'll need to leave earth because its not able to support life and we'll have no clue what to do. Think of it as preparing for the worst:)
Regards,
Steve
You seem to think that linux's only worth is that its free and runs on cheap hardware. That is certainly not why I use it, and although I've used macs and are okay to work on, people on slahdot way overrate the whole mac "experience". It's certainly great as a desktop but I could never see it being used in many businesses, it looks more childish then windows xp. Also, I prefer the gui interfaces of linux (in particular Gnome) to OSX and Windows. IMHO its the cleanest and most professional looking desktop at the moment while still maintaining ease of use. Finally, linux has a huge software colelction and a very easy method of isntalling it all (at least on most distros). So let's see, I can go with a Mac mini for $500 + $300 (monitor) + keyboard + mouse, or go grab an entire PC for $433 to $600 that comes with everything I need and I can run linux on it. Mac mini is a very nice and small little beast, but apple's hardware is the only reason I'd ever buy it. I've never been impressed by their software and I'd have to immediately put yellow dog on it. I also find linux easier to use from a user perspective, even my parents can use fedora, where as they couldn't even navigate off of the desktop in OSX (yes, they've tried). Just because it looks nice doesn't mean using it is. Linux will win because of its stability, ease of use, large library of readily avaible software, and a great community (not everyone wants windows that slurp around your screen, etc...).
Regards,
Steve
File Trading
I've never used welfare or foodstamps. I've never used any public education facilities. I'll probably never get and social security despite what Dub-ya is saying. Yet every pay check damn near 30% of my money goes to those useless services (to me atleast). I don't have any desire to help people who are too lazy to get a job and work for a living. I also have no desire to place large amounts of money into a big pot that I'll never get to take out of simply because of my age and some mishandling of the funds by the government, eventhough I've been "promised" my share. It's about time people start paying for things I want because I've been paying for things other people want. If the government keeps doing things like this I'll be happy because this is an unbiased service that benefits anyone who wants it. Its not only for poor people, or black people, or pregnant teenagers, or the elderly. This wireless service is for everyone and its about time. Yes I know that government offers many services for everyone, i.e. the police, but specialized services like the aforementioned ones are never targeted to your typical middle class 20-something white male, eventhough percentage wise we pay the most taxes (as a group, not individually).
Regards,
Steve
Just out of curiosity, why do you want Novell to give RH a run for their money? Both are from the same country. RedHat contributes significantly more code to the kernel and they open source all of their patents and any other technology they require. It's stated in their mission statement. Novell on the other hand just recently got into the game and will quickly leave the game if they find that its not profitable. They've been looking for their niche for nearly a decade now just moving from one thing to the next until they can make some major cash. If in 3 years they still aren't making as much as they desire, they'll move right on and drop linux. RedHat has been around for a long time and their life is linux, without it they are nothing. They've been good to the community and are the only reason that business even takes linux seriously. Why would you want to get rid of that?
Regards,
Steve
This post is 100% true. Why mod as troll? Any major operation is using Oracle. Any one seriously using Oracle is using RedHat. Even if you aren't using Oracle, most firms with a large linux infastructure use Red Hat. They have the experience, and support that a real company needs. They make an excellent product and they rely on that product. Novell is an alternative, but in all honesty, they recently came into the linux game and only did so because they think it will be profitable. If it turns out not to be, they'll move right along to the next thing and drop linux. Novell has been trying to find a truly profitable area for nearly a decade. RedHat's life is linux and they open source everything they do. They also commit significantly more code then anyone else and so are very familiar with the kernel and other projects like OpenOffice.Org and especially Gnome.
Regards,
Steve
Redhat has something like 2 billion in the bank, not as much as Microsoft, but enough to throw some weight around. Anyway, from the few guys I know at Red Hat it seems that this is to do legitimate lobbying. They pretty much just want to let politicians know that there is open source and other alternatives out there. Alot of politicians only see Microsoft. If Red Hat didn't do this, then Microsoft would be the only contender in the ring, throwing punches at open source and open source isn't even there to defend itself. This will give linux a much needed presence in many areas. Red Hat isn't going to pay politicians to force their software places, it seems their goal is to simply educate. How can you complain about that? :)
Regards,
Steve
Fedora Core 3 ships with not a single port open and very good friewall configuration. In addition, it enables SELinux by default. You can't really beat that today unless you disconnect the computer from the internet.
Regards,
Steve
Those 1600 patents can only be used to contribute to OpenSolaris or related projects, all of which must also be licensed under the CDDL. I'd hardly call that open, especially considering that they can't even be used in conjunction with the linux kernel (a.k.a one of the largest open source projects alive)
Regards,
Steve
Yea, it doesnt matter if they were cracked or not... Its only 1,073,741,824 possible keys. Sit in a car for an hour or so with a key wired to a pda or computer and you can just try every combo.
Regards,
Steve
Comcast in the States offers 6mbps down and something like 384 kbps (might be higher) up for $50 a month.
Regards,
Steve
Have you ever used SELinux? It's security model is undeniably the best I've ever seen. The only thing is, if your not careful, you can easily lock yourself out of your own system. SELinux achieves just about everything EROS is trying to achieve, except SELinux actually extends it further and it runs on a platform with a lot of support and software already available. To check out what it is capable of, go download Fedora Core 3 which comes with it by default and has some policies for various services.
Regards,
Steve
The perfect rock paper scissor strategy is literally pure randomness. The neat thing about this computer is that it learned the rules of RPS just by watching two people play it. It didn't learn strategy, but it did learn which beats which and what constitues as a draw.
Regards,
Steve
Err actually out of the available choices, Red Hat was probably the best to go with. Red Hat does more with the kernel and embedded linux systems then any other major distro on the market. Who would you have recommended?
Regards,
Steve
After researching this a bit, it appears slashdot was duped. The screenshot is a fake and the site that was linked to just made up a mock google web site and stuck the images in the top. Check the source of the html, the images and things are linked off of Google but the html appears to be from a different source. Either that or I'm seriously mis reading things and confused as hell.
Regards,
Steve
Not trying to start a distro war here. But yea Gnome 2.10 looks real sweet and if you want an OS with it integrated really nicely, try out Fedora. The only reason I'm saying this is because the Fedora devs do nearly all (or at least alot) of the Gnome coding and so everything fits in nicely.
Regards,
Steve