Wow, 1000 computers? If I had that many machines, I'd actually be able to build OpenOffice.org from source!
Nah, seriously though – you do have a good point there. The only reason I have so many machines in the first place is because I either desperately need them and then later on discover I didn't have much use for them after all, or else they were just given to me. And I guess it doesn't help that I never throw anything away. Or let anyone else throw something away that they can just give to me... I don't know about you, but I rather like those old 80's style TV sets with actual knobs and no remote control. I have three TV's right now – a big old Sony one, one of those black-and-white TV/clock radio type things, and then a handheld LCD TV – the first two were more or less given to me by family/friends who didn't need them, and then the last one was a gift. And the last one's the only one that's not older than I am.
As for keeping them running – easy solution for that, too. For the dev boxes, I'll do hacking and tweaking type stuff during the day, and then at night, while I'm asleep, I'll have the machines run whatever build I'm currently working on so that no time (or CPU power) gets wasted. The Optiplex I tend to leave on, just for the sake of convenience, and the server's no longer running as such so it stays off at night, too. As for the laptops – the GRiD's almost never plugged in anyway, since I don't use it too too often, and the other tends to be on batteries most of the time.
Whatever the case, I'm still not getting rid of anything. Except maybe a bit of floor space in my room, but I can live with that;-)
Well, first of all you'll note that only about half of the machines mentioned above are actually my own personal machines to do whatever I want with; the other six may have been mine at one point, but now belong to various family members, friends, etc. And I will admit that there are a few other machines I gave away to friends that aren't listed...
Anyway, since you asked so nicely:
AMD64 box – x86_64 development machine for my Linux distribution (Ultima Linux; the Web site's down, so I'm not posting the link)
COMPAQ Pentium III – regular x86 development machine; technically it is possible to run most everything on the 64 box, but I'd rather have a separate machine because a lot of stuff isn't designed to be cross-compiled like that
OptiPlex – originally intended as a spare machine for demoing Ultima Linux, and now I'm using it as my non-development, everyday-use type box. Just as you shouldn't use root for your personal user account, you shouldn't keep important stuff on a development box, because development work can really screw up the system configuration (and that's just if it works correctly)
Duron, former server – I've since taken the machine offline; our Internet connection's been problematic lately, and I think it's time to get a real server now. So it's become a convenient spare desktop machine, and I've put in a DVD drive so I can watch movies on it too:-)
Latitude laptop – I tend to like having a laptop around, since they're so conveniently portable. And since I don't get them that often (every laptop I've ever owned was someone else's that they upgraded and replaced), I tend to keep them as long as I can
GRiD 1720 – some people are obsessed with old cars, and while I'm not quite that insane myself, I do take pride in this machine. I've had the thing so damn long that it would practically be treason to get rid of it, and besides, it's the only box I've got that can run all my old DOS games
(I do have backups – I've been expecting the machine to fail for years, and tend to be a bit paranoid – but it's still much simpler and cheaper to just keep the machine I like rather than wasting my time with a new one I don't like.)
And the others aren't mine, so I can't do a thing about 'em;-)
If you ask me, I think the solution's pretty simple – just don't get rid of the things in the first place. We have around twelve or so machines in our house right now – six of them mine, and at least three others that were at some time – and almost all of them are still in active use, despite the fact that a couple of them are seemingly outdated. But yet I keep them.
Why? Simple. They're good machines, and they still have a great deal of value to me, so I may as well. And since I typically don't have much money for computer junk – I tend to spend it on much more important things – I figure a slower machine in my room's better than two faster ones that aren't. So that all works out.
Anyway, back to the machines. Right now I have five of my own six boxes in my room. The one is an HP with an AMD64 processor, brand-new, which we got at an auction for $300. Lucky me, but either way the thing's utterly irrelevant. But the others... the others are definitely worth telling.
Now that I have a 64-bit box, my brother's got my old one, which is a 2.4GHz Celeron with 512MB RAM. It's loud as hell, which is why I was so glad to give it to him.:-) It's a really fast machine, though, and with a new video card will be great for gaming. That's how most upgrades go, really – I replace my own box, and give him the old one.
Meanwhile, his old one's come back into my room. It's a COMPAQ DeskPro with a 650MHz Pentium III and 256MB RAM. Very quiet, so I like. Since it's probably my next-best box, I've made it the development machine for my Linux distribution. Not the world's fastest, but it's still pretty damn good, and I see no reason to get rid of it. And it can also be easily re-configured for other things, like recording Flash videos to tape. (I get bored sometimes...) We got the thing on eBay for $55, and I can guarantee that it's worth every penny.
The next machine is a Dell Optiplex, 700MHz Celeron with 128MB RAM. Also $55 on eBay. Very good machine. I tend to buy a lot of machines on eBay, actually, since it's (1) cheap and (2) a good way to save old equipment and/or the environment. Anyway, it's right now my regular desktop box, so I don't have to keep valuable stuff on a development machine. Somewhat slow at times, but other than that just fine. I'm probably going to give it a memory upgrade sometime; it's not too expensive, and it's far preferrable to wasting my time and money getting a new box, moving my stuff over, finding something to do with the old one... besides, I've customized the case a bit, and don't want to lose all my hard work on that!
Next after that is my server. It's the only one of my machines that stays outside my room. It's a 700MHz Duron, 256MB RAM, that my friend dragged over here because his parents didn't like him running it at their place. One of its memory cards is actually from another machine we upgraded; it already had both slots full, so we just stuck the extra RAM into a machine that needed it. Works every time. (Used to be his parents' old machine, by the way. When they got a new one, he was the one who decided to use it for what it's used for now.)
The next machine is my laptop, which I'm typing this on. It's a 233MHz Pentium – the original kind, not a P-II – with 96MB RAM. My aunt gave it to me after she upgraded. It's now replaced my old laptop, which is a Micron XPE, P-133, with 80MB RAM that one of my parents' friends eventually replaced with a new one. My brother has the thing now. Since laptops are so expensive, and hard to find at good prices on eBay, I held on to the thing for years – even after it became "outdated". Still runs just fine as far as I'm concerned.
And speaking of laptops and not throwing them away – this next machine's the spitting image of it. Probably my favorite machine of all time, this GRiD 1720 laptop was built back in 1990, and for all I know may even be a few months older than I am. We've had
OK, going to reply to both comments here to save myself the trouble of replying to the one, waiting for the/. timeout thing, then replying to the other...
Nazo-San – I was intentionally ignoring the "real" answer (creative misinterpretation is your friend...) Although either way, one of these days I probably should take a look at.hack – sounds somewhat interesting, I just never have the time because I'm too busy with real hacking stuff. Linux developers never rest.
Oh, and you utterly failed to mention OpenBSD:-)
AC – for the record, I'm not at all an OpenBSD "fanboy"; I'm mostly a Linux guy myself, although I have toyed around with BSD a bit and happen to like it from what I've seen. My main reason for posting that particular joke had nothing to do with fanboy-ism or any of that other stuff, it was mostly because it's hard not to crack a joke about a system that has in HUGE letters on their homepage everything you never wanted to know about their security record.
(I'm guessing the next security hole will likely be discovered in about eight more years, shouldn't really take that long...)
Confusing? Not necessarily. I've probably posted this a few times by now, but will post it again – it's a hell of a lot easier than you think. I happen to be a distro maintainer myself, and get a lot of e-mails from people who have tried my system, and either wanted to say how much they liked it, or else ask about some minor issue (usually after installation). We're talking first-time users here with no prior experience, most of them switching from Microsoft.
So it must be the installer, right? Nope, not at all. My own distro is based more or less on Slackware, and the installer's been left entirely intact – which means that it's very flexible, but has a few rough edges, especially for first-time users. And yet they seem to have no problem at all with it. So I don't think it's really that.
If you ask me, the trick is you have to be willing to learn. You don't start out an algebra class by punching stuff into a calculator; likewise, you shouldn't start with Linux by dumbing down the installation and configuration. It really isn't that hard at all – you just have to be willing to learn "the right way" of doing things, and don't be afraid to try things out. And if you don't like my idea of "the right way," so be it; the nice thing about Linux is that you have the freedom to choose which specific distro you like best.
By the way, if anyone is interested – I've right now got everyone in my family hooked on Linux now. And despite what you may think, it wasn't easy to convert them – I had enough of a time just convincing them to quit using Internet Explorer a couple years ago, and it took a while to show them just how much better the Way of the Penguin truly is... but once they saw it, they were immediately addicted.
And to think that only a couple years ago, I was just starting with a copy of Red Hat 8.0 that came with a copy of Linux for Dummies... and that the whole reason I switched to Linux was because it looked prettier than Windows. Time sure does fly...
“In it, one amazingly powerful virus was able to wipe out almost all major operating systems with the exception of the single one”
So, let's try guessing what the single one is... OpenBSD?:-)
Virus Writer 1: Hmm, let's see... first we have to crack the unbreakable encryption on the root password...
Virus Writer 2: No, you idiot! You can't do that until you've found a security vulnerability in the operating system itself!
1: Well, there is the guy running the machine in the first place...
2: Yeah, like anyone would install a secure operating system that requires insane amounts of technical experience and just spontaneously fall for some virus scam thing...
1: I guess you're right then... oh well, back to waiting for another security hole...
So, what's next after this?
on
On Apple vs Apple
·
· Score: 2, Funny
Now that the two Apples are dueling it out, what's next? Let me guess, I can't listen to the White Album on my (black) iPod nano? Hmm, as soon as I can find someone to keep saying “number nine... number nine...” we'll have to show them what a revolution really looks like!
Local auction at some thing for ye olde local university's English department (my dad teaches there). Donated by some local tech company. Either way I'm not going to argue, it's one hell of a machine... compiled X11 in only an hour and a half, which I'd have to say is pretty damn good considering that it's such a horribly bloated package.
Right now all the machines I own have come from various family members and friends who've upgraded – e.g., all three of the laptops I own (GRiD 1720 286, now dead; Micron XPE, Pentium-133, right now dual-booting Linux and OpenBSD; and a Dell Latitude CP, Pentium-233, my main laptop that I'm typing this on now) – or auctions (a Dell Optiplex GX100 with a Celeron-700, $55 on eBay; a Compaq DeskPro EP6000 with Pentium III-650, also $55 on eBay; and probably my favorite machine, a top-of-the-line HP box with an Athlon 64 3200+, SATA disks, PCI Express, and a ton of other new stuff I can barely even remember... got the CPU and keyboard at an auction for just $300!) Definitely a great way to save money, and if you know where to look and/or are extremely lucky you can often get really new stuff for far less than it should normally cost.
One other quick tip – if you have something people would consider worth paying money for, such as a Linux distribution, you may be able to earn a couple bucks from that... although so far I haven't gotten too too much money from my own distro, most people are just freeloaders...
First of all, I believe it's spelled n00b, with zeroes instead of O's... and second of all, I am fully aware that it was entirely missing the point. I just hate cell phones.
I have to say that I've been pretty happy with HP lately – really nice to have a company supporting open source development efforts, you know? Right now I've got an HP box to develop an AMD64 port of my Linux distro – AMD64 3200+ with 512MB RAM, PCI Express, 80GB SATA disk – love the thing. Runs my system nicely, and dead silent too. Plus it was only $300 at an auction. Lucky me.
(As far as printers are concerned, on the other hand, not exactly thrilled with some of the newer DeskJets – I tend to be an Epson guy myself, the DeskJets tend to break too easily. Although then again, I still have yet to have any problems whatsoever with one of the original DeskJets, which I still use even today, despite it being older than I am. Runs like a charm.)
But maybe that also explains why noisy computers are so damn annoying? (Well, other than the noise itself, of course.) My old machine was probably the noisiest one I've ever heard, and now I've got a dead-silent HP one with an AMD64...
Well, technically ReactOS is working on creating something more or less like the parent described (a Windows-compatible drop-in replacement) – the only real problem is that it's not exactly there yet.
Although then again, all the random crashes do look like they happen around the right place...;-)
The one problem with that is that the honor system doesn't always work so well – and there's still a good chance of nasty accidents happening while logged in as root (accidental "rm -rf/", anyone?), intentionally or otherwise. I'd say the software should control the security policy, and that's that...
By the way, doubt this will really be useful for anyone but I don't really use NFS much for my own systems – too slow, and requires a network connection the entire time you're working. Usually I just have everything stored on a single central machine and then if I want to work on it I use "scp" to copy it back and forth to whatever machine it currently needs to be on. Takes a bit of checking if you forget which machine has the latest version, but other than that it works fairly well, at least for me.
Even though I tend to be a Linux guy myself (as evidenced by the fact that I've got my own Linux distribution and everything), I have to say that OpenBSD is definitely one of my favorite systems... considerably faster than even Slackware, and I'd definitely rather have an OpenBSD system for ultra-secure stuff. And not to mention that I'm an obsessive OpenSSH user... makes me wish I had the money to support them myself, because I definitely don't want to see any of their projects disappearing any time soon...
Slashdot Mirror
Wow, 1000 computers? If I had that many machines, I'd actually be able to build OpenOffice.org from source!
;-)
Nah, seriously though – you do have a good point there. The only reason I have so many machines in the first place is because I either desperately need them and then later on discover I didn't have much use for them after all, or else they were just given to me. And I guess it doesn't help that I never throw anything away. Or let anyone else throw something away that they can just give to me... I don't know about you, but I rather like those old 80's style TV sets with actual knobs and no remote control. I have three TV's right now – a big old Sony one, one of those black-and-white TV/clock radio type things, and then a handheld LCD TV – the first two were more or less given to me by family/friends who didn't need them, and then the last one was a gift. And the last one's the only one that's not older than I am.
As for keeping them running – easy solution for that, too. For the dev boxes, I'll do hacking and tweaking type stuff during the day, and then at night, while I'm asleep, I'll have the machines run whatever build I'm currently working on so that no time (or CPU power) gets wasted. The Optiplex I tend to leave on, just for the sake of convenience, and the server's no longer running as such so it stays off at night, too. As for the laptops – the GRiD's almost never plugged in anyway, since I don't use it too too often, and the other tends to be on batteries most of the time.
Whatever the case, I'm still not getting rid of anything. Except maybe a bit of floor space in my room, but I can live with that
Well, first of all you'll note that only about half of the machines mentioned above are actually my own personal machines to do whatever I want with; the other six may have been mine at one point, but now belong to various family members, friends, etc. And I will admit that there are a few other machines I gave away to friends that aren't listed...
:-)
;-)
Anyway, since you asked so nicely:
AMD64 box – x86_64 development machine for my Linux distribution (Ultima Linux; the Web site's down, so I'm not posting the link)
COMPAQ Pentium III – regular x86 development machine; technically it is possible to run most everything on the 64 box, but I'd rather have a separate machine because a lot of stuff isn't designed to be cross-compiled like that
OptiPlex – originally intended as a spare machine for demoing Ultima Linux, and now I'm using it as my non-development, everyday-use type box. Just as you shouldn't use root for your personal user account, you shouldn't keep important stuff on a development box, because development work can really screw up the system configuration (and that's just if it works correctly)
Duron, former server – I've since taken the machine offline; our Internet connection's been problematic lately, and I think it's time to get a real server now. So it's become a convenient spare desktop machine, and I've put in a DVD drive so I can watch movies on it too
Latitude laptop – I tend to like having a laptop around, since they're so conveniently portable. And since I don't get them that often (every laptop I've ever owned was someone else's that they upgraded and replaced), I tend to keep them as long as I can
GRiD 1720 – some people are obsessed with old cars, and while I'm not quite that insane myself, I do take pride in this machine. I've had the thing so damn long that it would practically be treason to get rid of it, and besides, it's the only box I've got that can run all my old DOS games
(I do have backups – I've been expecting the machine to fail for years, and tend to be a bit paranoid – but it's still much simpler and cheaper to just keep the machine I like rather than wasting my time with a new one I don't like.)
And the others aren't mine, so I can't do a thing about 'em
If you ask me, I think the solution's pretty simple – just don't get rid of the things in the first place. We have around twelve or so machines in our house right now – six of them mine, and at least three others that were at some time – and almost all of them are still in active use, despite the fact that a couple of them are seemingly outdated. But yet I keep them.
:-) It's a really fast machine, though, and with a new video card will be great for gaming. That's how most upgrades go, really – I replace my own box, and give him the old one.
Why? Simple. They're good machines, and they still have a great deal of value to me, so I may as well. And since I typically don't have much money for computer junk – I tend to spend it on much more important things – I figure a slower machine in my room's better than two faster ones that aren't. So that all works out.
Anyway, back to the machines. Right now I have five of my own six boxes in my room. The one is an HP with an AMD64 processor, brand-new, which we got at an auction for $300. Lucky me, but either way the thing's utterly irrelevant. But the others... the others are definitely worth telling.
Now that I have a 64-bit box, my brother's got my old one, which is a 2.4GHz Celeron with 512MB RAM. It's loud as hell, which is why I was so glad to give it to him.
Meanwhile, his old one's come back into my room. It's a COMPAQ DeskPro with a 650MHz Pentium III and 256MB RAM. Very quiet, so I like. Since it's probably my next-best box, I've made it the development machine for my Linux distribution. Not the world's fastest, but it's still pretty damn good, and I see no reason to get rid of it. And it can also be easily re-configured for other things, like recording Flash videos to tape. (I get bored sometimes...) We got the thing on eBay for $55, and I can guarantee that it's worth every penny.
The next machine is a Dell Optiplex, 700MHz Celeron with 128MB RAM. Also $55 on eBay. Very good machine. I tend to buy a lot of machines on eBay, actually, since it's (1) cheap and (2) a good way to save old equipment and/or the environment. Anyway, it's right now my regular desktop box, so I don't have to keep valuable stuff on a development machine. Somewhat slow at times, but other than that just fine. I'm probably going to give it a memory upgrade sometime; it's not too expensive, and it's far preferrable to wasting my time and money getting a new box, moving my stuff over, finding something to do with the old one... besides, I've customized the case a bit, and don't want to lose all my hard work on that!
Next after that is my server. It's the only one of my machines that stays outside my room. It's a 700MHz Duron, 256MB RAM, that my friend dragged over here because his parents didn't like him running it at their place. One of its memory cards is actually from another machine we upgraded; it already had both slots full, so we just stuck the extra RAM into a machine that needed it. Works every time. (Used to be his parents' old machine, by the way. When they got a new one, he was the one who decided to use it for what it's used for now.)
The next machine is my laptop, which I'm typing this on. It's a 233MHz Pentium – the original kind, not a P-II – with 96MB RAM. My aunt gave it to me after she upgraded. It's now replaced my old laptop, which is a Micron XPE, P-133, with 80MB RAM that one of my parents' friends eventually replaced with a new one. My brother has the thing now. Since laptops are so expensive, and hard to find at good prices on eBay, I held on to the thing for years – even after it became "outdated". Still runs just fine as far as I'm concerned.
And speaking of laptops and not throwing them away – this next machine's the spitting image of it. Probably my favorite machine of all time, this GRiD 1720 laptop was built back in 1990, and for all I know may even be a few months older than I am. We've had
OK, going to reply to both comments here to save myself the trouble of replying to the one, waiting for the /. timeout thing, then replying to the other...
.hack – sounds somewhat interesting, I just never have the time because I'm too busy with real hacking stuff. Linux developers never rest.
:-)
Nazo-San – I was intentionally ignoring the "real" answer (creative misinterpretation is your friend...) Although either way, one of these days I probably should take a look at
Oh, and you utterly failed to mention OpenBSD
AC – for the record, I'm not at all an OpenBSD "fanboy"; I'm mostly a Linux guy myself, although I have toyed around with BSD a bit and happen to like it from what I've seen. My main reason for posting that particular joke had nothing to do with fanboy-ism or any of that other stuff, it was mostly because it's hard not to crack a joke about a system that has in HUGE letters on their homepage everything you never wanted to know about their security record.
(I'm guessing the next security hole will likely be discovered in about eight more years, shouldn't really take that long...)
Confusing? Not necessarily. I've probably posted this a few times by now, but will post it again – it's a hell of a lot easier than you think. I happen to be a distro maintainer myself, and get a lot of e-mails from people who have tried my system, and either wanted to say how much they liked it, or else ask about some minor issue (usually after installation). We're talking first-time users here with no prior experience, most of them switching from Microsoft.
So it must be the installer, right? Nope, not at all. My own distro is based more or less on Slackware, and the installer's been left entirely intact – which means that it's very flexible, but has a few rough edges, especially for first-time users. And yet they seem to have no problem at all with it. So I don't think it's really that.
If you ask me, the trick is you have to be willing to learn. You don't start out an algebra class by punching stuff into a calculator; likewise, you shouldn't start with Linux by dumbing down the installation and configuration. It really isn't that hard at all – you just have to be willing to learn "the right way" of doing things, and don't be afraid to try things out. And if you don't like my idea of "the right way," so be it; the nice thing about Linux is that you have the freedom to choose which specific distro you like best.
By the way, if anyone is interested – I've right now got everyone in my family hooked on Linux now. And despite what you may think, it wasn't easy to convert them – I had enough of a time just convincing them to quit using Internet Explorer a couple years ago, and it took a while to show them just how much better the Way of the Penguin truly is... but once they saw it, they were immediately addicted.
And to think that only a couple years ago, I was just starting with a copy of Red Hat 8.0 that came with a copy of Linux for Dummies... and that the whole reason I switched to Linux was because it looked prettier than Windows. Time sure does fly...
Coming up next... a recipe for baked trolls :-)
So, let's try guessing what the single one is... OpenBSD?
Virus Writer 1: Hmm, let's see... first we have to crack the unbreakable encryption on the root password...
Virus Writer 2: No, you idiot! You can't do that until you've found a security vulnerability in the operating system itself!
1: Well, there is the guy running the machine in the first place...
2: Yeah, like anyone would install a secure operating system that requires insane amounts of technical experience and just spontaneously fall for some virus scam thing...
1: I guess you're right then... oh well, back to waiting for another security hole...
Now that the two Apples are dueling it out, what's next? Let me guess, I can't listen to the White Album on my (black) iPod nano? Hmm, as soon as I can find someone to keep saying “number nine... number nine...” we'll have to show them what a revolution really looks like!
No, it's only “fucking kill off” when Steve Ballmer's the one promoting it.
'Cause he seems to have bought me out, too!
Local auction at some thing for ye olde local university's English department (my dad teaches there). Donated by some local tech company. Either way I'm not going to argue, it's one hell of a machine... compiled X11 in only an hour and a half, which I'd have to say is pretty damn good considering that it's such a horribly bloated package.
the reason why /. was converted to CSS!
Right now all the machines I own have come from various family members and friends who've upgraded – e.g., all three of the laptops I own (GRiD 1720 286, now dead; Micron XPE, Pentium-133, right now dual-booting Linux and OpenBSD; and a Dell Latitude CP, Pentium-233, my main laptop that I'm typing this on now) – or auctions (a Dell Optiplex GX100 with a Celeron-700, $55 on eBay; a Compaq DeskPro EP6000 with Pentium III-650, also $55 on eBay; and probably my favorite machine, a top-of-the-line HP box with an Athlon 64 3200+, SATA disks, PCI Express, and a ton of other new stuff I can barely even remember... got the CPU and keyboard at an auction for just $300!) Definitely a great way to save money, and if you know where to look and/or are extremely lucky you can often get really new stuff for far less than it should normally cost.
One other quick tip – if you have something people would consider worth paying money for, such as a Linux distribution, you may be able to earn a couple bucks from that... although so far I haven't gotten too too much money from my own distro, most people are just freeloaders...
First of all, I believe it's spelled n00b, with zeroes instead of O's... and second of all, I am fully aware that it was entirely missing the point. I just hate cell phones.
Yeah, but it works well for my own mini network. And honestly, I don't care if there's a "better way" to do it – my way works for me, and that's that.
I have to say that I've been pretty happy with HP lately – really nice to have a company supporting open source development efforts, you know? Right now I've got an HP box to develop an AMD64 port of my Linux distro – AMD64 3200+ with 512MB RAM, PCI Express, 80GB SATA disk – love the thing. Runs my system nicely, and dead silent too. Plus it was only $300 at an auction. Lucky me.
(As far as printers are concerned, on the other hand, not exactly thrilled with some of the newer DeskJets – I tend to be an Epson guy myself, the DeskJets tend to break too easily. Although then again, I still have yet to have any problems whatsoever with one of the original DeskJets, which I still use even today, despite it being older than I am. Runs like a charm.)
But maybe that also explains why noisy computers are so damn annoying? (Well, other than the noise itself, of course.) My old machine was probably the noisiest one I've ever heard, and now I've got a dead-silent HP one with an AMD64...
Well, actually it's already there. It's called the "off" button :-)
I'm calling the FBI anyway – I submitted that exact same story yesterday, and you rejected it!
Well, technically ReactOS is working on creating something more or less like the parent described (a Windows-compatible drop-in replacement) – the only real problem is that it's not exactly there yet.
;-)
Although then again, all the random crashes do look like they happen around the right place...
The one problem with that is that the honor system doesn't always work so well – and there's still a good chance of nasty accidents happening while logged in as root (accidental "rm -rf /", anyone?), intentionally or otherwise. I'd say the software should control the security policy, and that's that...
By the way, doubt this will really be useful for anyone but I don't really use NFS much for my own systems – too slow, and requires a network connection the entire time you're working. Usually I just have everything stored on a single central machine and then if I want to work on it I use "scp" to copy it back and forth to whatever machine it currently needs to be on. Takes a bit of checking if you forget which machine has the latest version, but other than that it works fairly well, at least for me.
Until MythBusters decides to try this one!
And furthermore, the guy who originally thought up this idea is a complete jack– ERROR 509, OUT OF BANDWIDTH
Even though I tend to be a Linux guy myself (as evidenced by the fact that I've got my own Linux distribution and everything), I have to say that OpenBSD is definitely one of my favorite systems... considerably faster than even Slackware, and I'd definitely rather have an OpenBSD system for ultra-secure stuff. And not to mention that I'm an obsessive OpenSSH user... makes me wish I had the money to support them myself, because I definitely don't want to see any of their projects disappearing any time soon...