The Default for Slackware 3.4 and earlier was for the Installer to not prompt the user to install a root password. The installer worked well, and even had an 'adduser' script which made it easy to add your user-level account. I have a friend who ran her newly installed Slackware 3.4 system on the Internet for several weeks before I read her IP address in the headers of a fresh email message, tried logging in on my old account on her system (it had been wiped a few weeks earlier when she did the fresh reinstall). On a lark I typed 'root' at the username prompt and was at a bash prompt instantly. Through a telnet session over the Internet.
As we were saying, a default install of a Linux system not that long ago. Random people are rolling new Linux distros all the time.
90% of the functionality for 50% of the price. That's a good business model and it makes Microsoft very rich but it doesn't make for great software.
That depends on your definition of 'great.'
There are some really, really marvelous tools out there. Both in software and in hardware. But I'll hazard to propose the notion that for regular productive work, the 90% quality of a Ford pickup truck, at $28,000 is much more practical and useful than the 99.5% quality of a Rolls-Royce pickup truck, which I'm sure you could special order for a few million dollars.
Microsoft's development tools today are kinda in the same market niche as Borland's Turbo Pascal was in the 80's. Affordable to any grunt with a few hundred to blow on the retail box.
Compare that to what you'll spend for a development suite from Sun, IBM, HP, Apple, etc. Have you ever priced that stuff from Sun or IBM??
I'm sure there would be an explosion of development for GNU/Linux if there was such a tool where everything was at the developer's fingertips like Visual Studio.
I thought the whole point in Open Source was 'putting everything at the developers fingertips.'
Now, that's an understatement. At most productive companies, IT is just an expense, and one that runs a constant risk of turning into a money pit. Which is why companies prefer to 'outsource' as much as possible of it a big outside company. And they'll select a brand of tech where there's a veritable sea of competing support organizations they can contract with. Like Microsoft. Maybe they'll be able to substitute in 'Linux Company X' someday, but not at this point.
Hiring 'intelligent people for IT staff' is the opposite of what many companies want as a requirment.
Part of that is because Linux admins are usually better than MSCEs
Also part of that is because there's such a paucity of unusual 'off the beaten path' apps for a user to install on a non-Windows desktop. The users are all forced into a straight-jacket computing environment and there's little they can do about it.
Which can be good for an authoritarian work environment. It throws away a few decades of innovative anarchy that many companies have benefitted from, however.
Nope. What's required to prosecute a copyright violation is someone claiming ownership.
Do you have a 'writing' to prove you took the pictures you on vacation and have in a shoebox? Do you have a legal trail of evidence showing they're yours? Probably not, but it's irrelevant because nobody is challanging your ownership.
It's frightening that people now cite Groklaw as a font of wisdom.
Microsoft claims that they're going to have proper dual stack in Longhorn, but they've said that before so can you trust them on that? Also, won't that break compatibility with applications written for the current implementation?
The Legacy word processor was cannibalized and turned into WordStar for Windows. I had a new shrinkwrapped box of it and sold it on eBay to a collector.
You're kidding, right? Macs are the machines where they jam if you put the wrong Music CD in the drive. And Apple cultivates a customer base of the kind of people who hire a tech to plug in a new mouse.
But you're wasting your precious uptime statistics.
You can atone for your sins if you'll promise to put Slackware on an unused 486 box, leave it in the corner running, and report once in awhile what it's uptime had gotten to.
You're wrong. My friend isn't some pundit on Slashdot. He's a professional photographer. He bristles at the idea of somebody stealing his work, and he isn't casual in his knowledge of copyright law. He's the complete opposite of the kind of person who would assert 'contrived' copyright rules.
I bought the images, at auction, from the original photographer's heirs. It was a sale. It was not a licensing of the images. It was not a purchase of 'a copy.'
Slashdot Mirror
The Default for Slackware 3.4 and earlier was for the Installer to not prompt the user to install a root password. The installer worked well, and even had an 'adduser' script which made it easy to add your user-level account. I have a friend who ran her newly installed Slackware 3.4 system on the Internet for several weeks before I read her IP address in the headers of a fresh email message, tried logging in on my old account on her system (it had been wiped a few weeks earlier when she did the fresh reinstall). On a lark I typed 'root' at the username prompt and was at a bash prompt instantly. Through a telnet session over the Internet.
As we were saying, a default install of a Linux system not that long ago. Random people are rolling new Linux distros all the time.
I could take a crash-prone NT or Linux box and put Minix on it. It would become far more stable, and easily 10 times less useful.
90% of the functionality for 50% of the price. That's a good business model and it makes Microsoft very rich but it doesn't make for great software.
That depends on your definition of 'great.'
There are some really, really marvelous tools out there. Both in software and in hardware. But I'll hazard to propose the notion that for regular productive work, the 90% quality of a Ford pickup truck, at $28,000 is much more practical and useful than the 99.5% quality of a Rolls-Royce pickup truck, which I'm sure you could special order for a few million dollars.
Microsoft's development tools today are kinda in the same market niche as Borland's Turbo Pascal was in the 80's. Affordable to any grunt with a few hundred to blow on the retail box.
Compare that to what you'll spend for a development suite from Sun, IBM, HP, Apple, etc. Have you ever priced that stuff from Sun or IBM??
I'm sure there would be an explosion of development for GNU/Linux if there was such a tool where everything was at the developer's fingertips like Visual Studio.
I thought the whole point in Open Source was 'putting everything at the developers fingertips.'
What went wrong?
What part of 'the Network Admin also doubles as the receiving clerk' do you not understand?
True. To Linus, init(8) is an application.
There's probably a 24-hour cooling-off period after I post this, where my wife will refuse sex until I regain some sense of non-geekness.
What?? You don't roll a ten-sider to decide which position(s) to use each time??
No, Linux will run in 'virtual machines' on a Mainframe. Running Linux as the sole OS on a Mainframe would be a resource travesty.
IT is NOT for making money
Now, that's an understatement. At most productive companies, IT is just an expense, and one that runs a constant risk of turning into a money pit. Which is why companies prefer to 'outsource' as much as possible of it a big outside company. And they'll select a brand of tech where there's a veritable sea of competing support organizations they can contract with. Like Microsoft. Maybe they'll be able to substitute in 'Linux Company X' someday, but not at this point.
Hiring 'intelligent people for IT staff' is the opposite of what many companies want as a requirment.
Part of that is because Linux admins are usually better than MSCEs
Also part of that is because there's such a paucity of unusual 'off the beaten path' apps for a user to install on a non-Windows desktop. The users are all forced into a straight-jacket computing environment and there's little they can do about it.
Which can be good for an authoritarian work environment. It throws away a few decades of innovative anarchy that many companies have benefitted from, however.
Nope. What's required to prosecute a copyright violation is someone claiming ownership.
Do you have a 'writing' to prove you took the pictures you on vacation and have in a shoebox? Do you have a legal trail of evidence showing they're yours? Probably not, but it's irrelevant because nobody is challanging your ownership.
It's frightening that people now cite Groklaw as a font of wisdom.
Microsoft claims that they're going to have proper dual stack in Longhorn, but they've said that before so can you trust them on that? Also, won't that break compatibility with applications written for the current implementation?
Wow. A textbook example of FUD.
Wow. A built-in FTP client? Would you mind if I installed a packet sniffer on your network?
Solaris and HP-UX desktop users?
Wow. That's cool. I think I saw an Osborne 1 last week, too.
Well, duh. The users all wear heavy copper ankle chains.
Actually, what Ray Bradbury has recently done is denounce M. Moore for misappropriating the title of his great novel, Fahrenheit 451.
The Legacy word processor was cannibalized and turned into WordStar for Windows. I had a new shrinkwrapped box of it and sold it on eBay to a collector.
There used to be a local "computer fair" at the University of Washington that I enjoyed going to
Was that the one with the flea market in the side room where you could get wire-wrap sockets real cheap?
You're kidding, right? Macs are the machines where they jam if you put the wrong Music CD in the drive. And Apple cultivates a customer base of the kind of people who hire a tech to plug in a new mouse.
At least Defcon is still around.
Your father also has the concession contract for big budget-size bags of Cheetos?
And, add to that, Leonard Nimoy with round ears singing The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins. The whole world crumbles.
Well, I suppose that's so if you're a complete idiot.
But then, we established that we're not talking about someone in the Apple Store waving around plastic.
But you're wasting your precious uptime statistics.
You can atone for your sins if you'll promise to put Slackware on an unused 486 box, leave it in the corner running, and report once in awhile what it's uptime had gotten to.
You're wrong. My friend isn't some pundit on Slashdot. He's a professional photographer. He bristles at the idea of somebody stealing his work, and he isn't casual in his knowledge of copyright law. He's the complete opposite of the kind of person who would assert 'contrived' copyright rules.
I bought the images, at auction, from the original photographer's heirs. It was a sale. It was not a licensing of the images. It was not a purchase of 'a copy.'
Smash and grab artists don't use the valet key. They use a crowbar.
1. To break the window.
2. To pry open the glovebox.