> It's the thing Microsoft fears the most - that > Javascript will evolve into something powerful > enough to be able to right [ahem] a > Microsoft Office clone in.
...I was never that impressed with Nero when I was a Windows user. I've run assorted versions on about 5 different machines: I found it to be a major resource hog, and at best had a failure rate of about 1 in 4 disks.
Since switching to Linux, I've become totally satisfied with k3b, which has worked perfectly for me "out of the box" with SuSE 9.2. It's about twice as fast as Nero was on the same machine running Win2K, and it's roughly 100 for 100 burn attempts so far.
Some of the difference may well be due to the fact that Linux handles multitasking better than Windows in any case. Maybe the pay-for versions of Nero are really lots better than the OEM versions (all I've ever used). Even so... Why should I pay for something to replace a free product that (as far I've been able to tell) already performs perfectly?
...that it's already making me money. I've written several magazine articles using 1.1, and the book I'm working on as well.
I've not yet tried the 2.0 previews on Linux, but they have both worked great on Windows. The UI improvements are quite nice, and interoperability with MS formats is even better than before.
Last time I reinstalled my Win2K machine, I didn't even bother with MS Office. OO.org is doing just fine by me.
First of all, I'm no Solaris expert. (Heck, I only switched from Windows to Linux full-time a month or two ago.) But I was curious, and thought it might be cool to run our main product on Sol-x86 along with the Linux and win32 versions.
I figured I'd be filling up an otherwise uneventful weekend, so I threw together a 433/256 out of spare parts, downloaded and burned the ISOs, and made myself a large pot of coffee. The installation took about 2 hours and pretty much everything I needed worked right the first time, and now I've got myself a nifty little SAMP server for testing. (Running Solaris 10, Apache 1.3.31, PHP 5.0.3, and MySQL 5.0.2-alpha.)
SuSE 9.2 detected and mounted my Olympus C-725 as a USB drive, and made it accessible in KDE (under my regular user account) the instant I plugged it in. No fstabbery required.
yes, security through obscurity keeps you asleep at night
I'm not advocating security through obscurity.The worm uses port 3306, the default port for MySQL. It appears not to use any others. Therefore, if it can't access 3306, it can't get to your MySQL server.
By the same token, I wouldn't set up the root directory for IIS as C:\InetPub, either: it's known to every worm and script kiddie on the planet, is therefore the first point of attack, and using a different one will stop many attempts to compromise IIS before they can even begin. That doesn't mean that's the only precaution you should take to secure IIS, and using a port other than 3306 isn't the only step you should take in securing MySQL, either.
All that I'm saying is that blocking 3306 and/or using a different port is effective against this particular threat, not that it's some sort of panacea. Please re-read my original post before jumping to conclusions.
3306 is the default port for MySQL, and the worm tries to use this port.
* If you need remote access to MySQL from within the same network, keep 3306 closed off at the firewall. And it won't hurt to use another port even so.
* If you do need to access a MySQL server from outside the same network, then you should definitely use something besides 3306.
* If you don't need to access MySQL remotely at all, then run mysqld with --skip-networking.
Hell, if I'd wanted to take the path of least resistance, I'd've left Windows XP on the blessed thing. But I despise XP in any case, and there are serious issues with SP2 vis à vis BitKeeper and especially Cygwin (my boss has already talked to the Cygwin developers and they're not terribly interested in trying to work around the problem), both of which I'm required to use for my job if I want to use a Windows desktop.
As for the age of the hardware, I've had more problems trying to run SuSE 9 or Mandrake 10 on my older machines than I did with installing SuSE on the new one.
I don't expect everything to work magickally all the time on Linux anymore than I would with Windows or Solaris, BTW -- just extremely surprised at just how fast, easy, and on-target the installation went. For instance, I've already looked at what's going to be required to upgrade the default installation of Mozilla, and it's going to be a PITA.
The reason I'm anxious to get rid of the Windows partition is so I'll have room for VMware and some virtual machines, because I need to build and test software on win32 and Solaris/x86. Other than that, I have little reason to go back to Windows for much of anything.
The best thing to do is to make the switch gradually, one application at a time.
... Eventually, it won't matter much to users anymore whether they run Windows underneath all that FOSS...
That's exactly how I did it. Mozilla, PHP, MySQL, gaim, xchat, gvim, OpenOffice, etc. Then I started using Cygwin for work. Finally, I got to the point where I'd been messing with a couple of apps providing virtual desktops and window customisation and thought to myself, "Why should I pay for something like WindowBlinds or Object Desktop when I can get the same sort of flexibility for free from just about any Linux distro? Why do I keep spending time looking for win32 ports of tools that do things that I need to get done, or jumping through hoops getting them to run under Cygwin?"
I had my current desktop system built for me in November. Came with Windows XP, which I promptly got rid of in favour of Windows 2000 Pro. In spite of the fact that all the hardware is commodity stuff, and the integrator had thoughtfully supplied me with nearly all the necessary drivers for Win9x/NT/2K/XP, it took me about a full day to install Win2K from scratch, run Windows Update, install drivers, configure hardware, *reboot about 35 times*, install software, etc.
This past weekend, I ditched Windows for SuSE 9.2. The installation itself, including time for running the SuSE Online Update to get their latest patches, was somewhere between 90 minutes and two hours. Number of reboots: *1*. (Yes, that's a "one".) At the end of this time I had a completely functional system, and all hardware had been autodetected and configured correctly. Number of drivers I had to load manually: *zero*. Number of trips to vendor websites to obtain drivers: *zero*. Number of apps I had to install separately before I could get any useful work done: *one* (BitKeeper). Number of apps that came with the distribution whose Windows equivalents either cost bucketloads or simply don't exist: *dozens*.
In fact, it wasn't until a day or two later that I printed out something, then realised that I'd not ever installed the printer. It was just there and ready to use. On Windows, installing that same printer took about an hour of loading drivers and fussing with the configuration to get it working properly.
I had/have exactly three issues:
1. KsCD didn't produce audible output until I told it to use direct access mode.
2. I had to change permissions on a bunch of email and other working files that I copied over from the Windows partition before Mozilla Mail and other apps could access them properly.
3. BitKeeper's not sending commit emails to our developer list. I'll probably have to get a bit of help configuring it and/or sendmail.
Executive summary:
1. "Everything just worked" rating >= 99%.
2. Anybody who says that Linux isn't ready for the desktop is misinformed, or a liar.
BTW, I still have two Windows boxes on my LAN (at least one of them will be getting converted to Linux as soon as I have time for it). When something goes wrong with one of them, I drop in a Knoppix CD to find out what's wrong and fix it. And when I use one of them remotely, the interface already seems clunky and counterintuitive, in spite of the fact that my reflexes aren't yet properly trained for the Linux desktop.
How much do I miss Windows? Well... I'll probably finish copying some miscellaneous files over from the the Windows partition and reformat it this weekend.
Even before I switched away from Windows, I was using plenty of perfectly good Open Source apps that I didn't have to compile, etc.
Mozilla, Firefox, PHP, MySQL (+GUI tools), phpMyAdmin, Perl, Python, Apache, Gaim, xChat, FileZilla, OpenOffice, etc., etc.
And there are numerous Linux distros that you don't have to compile from source yourself - you drop in a CD, pick the options you want, and let 'er rip. I'm using one of them right now, in fact. (There are even some that you don't have to install to use -- look at Knoppix, Gnoppix, BeatrIX, etc.)
The short version is that there is plenty of Open Source stuff out there that "just works", and you, sir, are either woefully ignorant of this fact, or just a troll.
Slashdot Mirror
> It's the thing Microsoft fears the most - that
> Javascript will evolve into something powerful
> enough to be able to right [ahem] a
> Microsoft Office clone in.
But it already is powerful enough -- it's just that it's either supported badly or not at all in Internet Explorer.
> Overnight, Windows becomes impossible to run
> without an instant rooting anywhere in Europe.
As opposed to the special protection that Europe enjoys against this happening now, right?
> we need a standardize event driven model for the
> web not this hacked together javascript nonsense.
And where have you been for the last 5 years...?
http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-2-Events
...I was never that impressed with Nero when I was a Windows user. I've run assorted versions on about 5 different machines: I found it to be a major resource hog, and at best had a failure rate of about 1 in 4 disks.
Since switching to Linux, I've become totally satisfied with k3b, which has worked perfectly for me "out of the box" with SuSE 9.2. It's about twice as fast as Nero was on the same machine running Win2K, and it's roughly 100 for 100 burn attempts so far.
Some of the difference may well be due to the fact that Linux handles multitasking better than Windows in any case. Maybe the pay-for versions of Nero are really lots better than the OEM versions (all I've ever used). Even so... Why should I pay for something to replace a free product that (as far I've been able to tell) already performs perfectly?
> Everyone knows security through obscurity doesn't
> work.
Tell that to the CodeTalkers.
...that it's already making me money. I've written several magazine articles using 1.1, and the book I'm working on as well.
I've not yet tried the 2.0 previews on Linux, but they have both worked great on Windows. The UI improvements are quite nice, and interoperability with MS formats is even better than before.
Last time I reinstalled my Win2K machine, I didn't even bother with MS Office. OO.org is doing just fine by me.
First of all, I'm no Solaris expert. (Heck, I only switched from Windows to Linux full-time a month or two ago.) But I was curious, and thought it might be cool to run our main product on Sol-x86 along with the Linux and win32 versions.
I figured I'd be filling up an otherwise uneventful weekend, so I threw together a 433/256 out of spare parts, downloaded and burned the ISOs, and made myself a large pot of coffee. The installation took about 2 hours and pretty much everything I needed worked right the first time, and now I've got myself a nifty little SAMP server for testing. (Running Solaris 10, Apache 1.3.31, PHP 5.0.3, and MySQL 5.0.2-alpha.)
SuSE 9.2 detected and mounted my Olympus C-725 as a USB drive, and made it accessible in KDE (under my regular user account) the instant I plugged it in. No fstabbery required.
1999 called. They want their meme back.
There are several Linux distros out there that Just Work on most hardware. There's plenty of good software for it.
The problem isn't with Linux anymore -- the problem is with consciousness needing to be raised.
What do you think OO.org uses?
Oh, um, wait a minute... Wow, Maporama rocks -- thanks for the link!
I didn't have to log in to read the article. Odd...
That had to be what happened.
As other have remarked, it's not a bad idea to create a new account with all of root's privileges, then delete the root account.
There aren't. Where did you get the idea that there are?
I'm not advocating security through obscurity.The worm uses port 3306, the default port for MySQL. It appears not to use any others. Therefore, if it can't access 3306, it can't get to your MySQL server.
By the same token, I wouldn't set up the root directory for IIS as C:\InetPub, either: it's known to every worm and script kiddie on the planet, is therefore the first point of attack, and using a different one will stop many attempts to compromise IIS before they can even begin. That doesn't mean that's the only precaution you should take to secure IIS, and using a port other than 3306 isn't the only step you should take in securing MySQL, either.
All that I'm saying is that blocking 3306 and/or using a different port is effective against this particular threat, not that it's some sort of panacea. Please re-read my original post before jumping to conclusions.
3306 is the default port for MySQL, and the worm tries to use this port.
* If you need remote access to MySQL from within the same network, keep 3306 closed off at the firewall. And it won't hurt to use another port even so.
* If you do need to access a MySQL server from outside the same network, then you should definitely use something besides 3306.
* If you don't need to access MySQL remotely at all, then run mysqld with --skip-networking.
This affects MySQL on Windows only, and does not exploit MySQL so much as it exploits Windows users who don't take basic precautions.
Things to do to keep from getting wormed:
1. Set a strong password for the root account.
2. Don't let root log in from an arbitrary host. Don't let root log in from anywhere but 127.0.0.1/localhost if at all possible.
(1 and 2 should be SOP for any MySQL installation as soon as you've verified that mysqld is actually running.)
3. Run MySQL on a port other than 3306.
4. Switch to something besides Windows.
Hell, if I'd wanted to take the path of least resistance, I'd've left Windows XP on the blessed thing. But I despise XP in any case, and there are serious issues with SP2 vis à vis BitKeeper and especially Cygwin (my boss has already talked to the Cygwin developers and they're not terribly interested in trying to work around the problem), both of which I'm required to use for my job if I want to use a Windows desktop.
As for the age of the hardware, I've had more problems trying to run SuSE 9 or Mandrake 10 on my older machines than I did with installing SuSE on the new one.
I don't expect everything to work magickally all the time on Linux anymore than I would with Windows or Solaris, BTW -- just extremely surprised at just how fast, easy, and on-target the installation went. For instance, I've already looked at what's going to be required to upgrade the default installation of Mozilla, and it's going to be a PITA.
The reason I'm anxious to get rid of the Windows partition is so I'll have room for VMware and some virtual machines, because I need to build and test software on win32 and Solaris/x86. Other than that, I have little reason to go back to Windows for much of anything.
That's exactly how I did it. Mozilla, PHP, MySQL, gaim, xchat, gvim, OpenOffice, etc. Then I started using Cygwin for work. Finally, I got to the point where I'd been messing with a couple of apps providing virtual desktops and window customisation and thought to myself, "Why should I pay for something like WindowBlinds or Object Desktop when I can get the same sort of flexibility for free from just about any Linux distro? Why do I keep spending time looking for win32 ports of tools that do things that I need to get done, or jumping through hoops getting them to run under Cygwin?"
"More people are smoking crack than drinking mango juice. Therefore, it's better for your health to smoke crack."
I had my current desktop system built for me in November. Came with Windows XP, which I promptly got rid of in favour of Windows 2000 Pro. In spite of the fact that all the hardware is commodity stuff, and the integrator had thoughtfully supplied me with nearly all the necessary drivers for Win9x/NT/2K/XP, it took me about a full day to install Win2K from scratch, run Windows Update, install drivers, configure hardware, *reboot about 35 times*, install software, etc.
This past weekend, I ditched Windows for SuSE 9.2. The installation itself, including time for running the SuSE Online Update to get their latest patches, was somewhere between 90 minutes and two hours. Number of reboots: *1*. (Yes, that's a "one".) At the end of this time I had a completely functional system, and all hardware had been autodetected and configured correctly. Number of drivers I had to load manually: *zero*. Number of trips to vendor websites to obtain drivers: *zero*. Number of apps I had to install separately before I could get any useful work done: *one* (BitKeeper). Number of apps that came with the distribution whose Windows equivalents either cost bucketloads or simply don't exist: *dozens*.
In fact, it wasn't until a day or two later that I printed out something, then realised that I'd not ever installed the printer. It was just there and ready to use. On Windows, installing that same printer took about an hour of loading drivers and fussing with the configuration to get it working properly.
I had/have exactly three issues:
1. KsCD didn't produce audible output until I told it to use direct access mode.
2. I had to change permissions on a bunch of email and other working files that I copied over from the Windows partition before Mozilla Mail and other apps could access them properly.
3. BitKeeper's not sending commit emails to our developer list. I'll probably have to get a bit of help configuring it and/or sendmail.
Executive summary:
1. "Everything just worked" rating >= 99%.
2. Anybody who says that Linux isn't ready for the desktop is misinformed, or a liar.
BTW, I still have two Windows boxes on my LAN (at least one of them will be getting converted to Linux as soon as I have time for it). When something goes wrong with one of them, I drop in a Knoppix CD to find out what's wrong and fix it. And when I use one of them remotely, the interface already seems clunky and counterintuitive, in spite of the fact that my reflexes aren't yet properly trained for the Linux desktop.
How much do I miss Windows? Well... I'll probably finish copying some miscellaneous files over from the the Windows partition and reformat it this weekend.
Aw man, I am just SO behind the times...
Actually, I'm quite glad to see all the win32 ports. I know they've been a great help to me in making the transition.
Hmmm...
Even before I switched away from Windows, I was using plenty of perfectly good Open Source apps that I didn't have to compile, etc.
Mozilla, Firefox, PHP, MySQL (+GUI tools), phpMyAdmin, Perl, Python, Apache, Gaim, xChat, FileZilla, OpenOffice, etc., etc.
And there are numerous Linux distros that you don't have to compile from source yourself - you drop in a CD, pick the options you want, and let 'er rip. I'm using one of them right now, in fact. (There are even some that you don't have to install to use -- look at Knoppix, Gnoppix, BeatrIX, etc.)
The short version is that there is plenty of Open Source stuff out there that "just works", and you, sir, are either woefully ignorant of this fact, or just a troll.
Bloody hell, and I just switched to Linux.
Whatever was I thinking...?
*/me hangs head in shame*