I am a hard core Gentoo and FreeBSD user, a casual Ubuntu user, and I occasionally bother with Fedora. (Read: I maintain 2 labs at Loyola University Chicago. We use Gentoo for the majority of our machines and in both of our clusters. We use Ubuntu on a small number of lab machines, and we hate our current temporary Fedora Core 4 installs in our linux lab.)
The nice things about portage are (1) it works (FC4 users on AMD64 machines attempting to use RPM aren't able to claim this, doubly so if they attempt to use RPM to install MySQL on their Fedora boxes... trust me), (2) it uses metadata effectively (unlike RPM), (3) portage makes sure packages will be custom made for your machine.
The package management for Ubuntu is nice, and I think of it to be superior to RPM and the other update packages used on Fedora. However it does have a few flaws.
BTW, Yum was 'borrowed' From Yellow Dog Linux, a Red Hat offshoot for PPC.
I set up a Wildfire server at Loyola University Chicago, and it was exceptionally easy and secure. Since we use LDAP authentication in our computer science, we were able to instantly have user accounts pre-loaded. For Windows users, Wildfire should integrate with active directory very easily.
I would also recommend using Spark or Gaim as a jabber client.
Of course, the Spark admin plug-in for Wildfire is a good addition, as it provides a localized download area for the Spark Client and it helps to keep users up to date with the client.
Actuall, from what people from the company formerly known as InstallShield told me...
1-4. (As previously stated) 5. MS partners with you, and demands you give them a copy of every product for free 6. MS reverse engineers it (half assed) 7. MS releases their own version of your product 8. MS tries to buy out / take over your company. 9. Your company becomes irrelevant. 10. ??? 11. Profit!
Well, I guess I was cheating a wee bit... We have 32 machines in our Linux lab at Loyola University Chicago, so after getting a few machines Gentoo-ized, we do distributed compiles.
Also, we also image our machines using the tar command, so that also improves install time (30 - 40 minutes per machine).
But even so, we were clocking roughly 40 minutes to create one machine via full stage 3 install.
Actually, I've seen Gentoo installs take as little as 20 minutes on some of my lab machines. Of course, it was a new AMD64 machine from Compaq with 2 gigs of ram, which kinda helped things along.
The most time consuming part of doing a Gentoo install isn't the compile time, but the time spent waiting for the various packages and critical parts (Kernel) to download and unpack.
Yeah... but the wait is worth it. Do all of the necessary optimizations and use the proper ricer gcc flags, and it will make that old hardware screaming fast.
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in any size group.
I do agree with you, and now I'm wondering how long it will take before WGA will be the new Microsoft tool for delivering viri and other software based crapola to my server box.
"You know we're sitting on four million pounds of fuel, one nuclear weapon and a thing that has 270,000 moving parts built by the lowest bidder. Makes you feel good, doesn't it?" - Rockhound
"Components. American components, Russian Components, ALL MADE IN TAIWAN!" - Lev Andropov
Maybe the problem can be reduced by adding a descriptor. Artificially Genitically Modified Organism vs. Naturally Genitically Modified Organism. The former is the rat asshole enhanced corn, the latter is the stuff you get from Orville Redenbacher's popping corn.
Although, now that I think of it, this enhanced system of descriptors could be applied to DRM... Artificial DRM vs. Natural DRM. The former is, for example, Sony's XCP, while the latter, for example, is a duet of William Hung and and Yoko Ono with a chorus of flatulent dogs and glass bottles getting smashed with hammers.
Before I can really state my responce, I need to issue a slight bio-tech rant. Please stick with me here, as it will form the basis of my responce.
Notice, however, that genetically modified food is not labeled. That was accomplished by corrupting the U.S. government.
Actually, it has less to do with curruption/stupidity/general governmental stuff... There is no such thing as a non-genetically modified organism. Virtually every time plants cross-pollinate, animals (including people) breed, viri mutate.. a genetically modified organism results.
This is basic biology.
Now, some scientists have used natural processes to produce plants that can produce more product per given space (read: more corn per acre). This is good, and also can occur naturally.
On the other hand, some other scientists have crossed genes from, say rat assholes, with corn, for example. They do this to see what effect a single gene has. This is good for their research, however, it is very very very very bad if they should ever introduce rat asshole enhanced corn into the food supply. (end of rant)
Definitely, DRM products should be labeled.
I agree. I think "This album has been enhanced and/or contaminated with rat assholes, MSG, radioactive waste, raw sewage, highly infectious biological agents, anything Sony, Chlorine and/or Mustard gas, rusty nails, farm runoff, or the equivalent DRM." has a pretty good chance of providing consumers the proper notification that the album in their hands contains DRM.
Toss in the complete inability to hack that most script kiddies have... and now you also have security through stupidity.
I always loved watching my snort logs when some kiddie attempted to 0wn my FreeBSD server running Zope/Plone + Apache by tossing every IIS 5 attack they have a script for.
With the ever-changing technologies, the key skill no longer becomes knowing how to use any particular tool, piece of hardware or software, but rather becomes the ability to adapt and effectively learn how to use any tool or environment......To evaluate them, give them novel, creative problems and the tools to learn how to adapt to the environment, and search for solutions. Evaluate their ability to use the resources at their disposal to come up with their own solutions to the problems.
I agree.
Of course, once any user knows how to search and learn as they go, the next most important skill that must be sharpened is the ability to filter fact from crap.
Personally, I think it is good to teach any programming class using an IDE and command line for code compiles.
From my experiences... When I learned Java, we used BlueJ. We never did command line compiles, and as a result, we suffered when our IDE died due to a server issue. When I learned OOP, we were encouraged to use Visual Studio for our c++ code, however, we all found it easier to use gcc for some of our projects.
Now for my Python coding, I use Eclipse (IMHO, the best IDE for Java and Python using PyDev) for coding and command line for extended testing and deployment.
One of my professors covered both IDE and command line compilation in one lab... he simply made us do it. After that, it was never an issue.
Slashdot Mirror
Ramen!
I am a hard core Gentoo and FreeBSD user, a casual Ubuntu user, and I occasionally bother with Fedora. (Read: I maintain 2 labs at Loyola University Chicago. We use Gentoo for the majority of our machines and in both of our clusters. We use Ubuntu on a small number of lab machines, and we hate our current temporary Fedora Core 4 installs in our linux lab.)
The nice things about portage are (1) it works (FC4 users on AMD64 machines attempting to use RPM aren't able to claim this, doubly so if they attempt to use RPM to install MySQL on their Fedora boxes... trust me), (2) it uses metadata effectively (unlike RPM), (3) portage makes sure packages will be custom made for your machine.
The package management for Ubuntu is nice, and I think of it to be superior to RPM and the other update packages used on Fedora. However it does have a few flaws.
BTW, Yum was 'borrowed' From Yellow Dog Linux, a Red Hat offshoot for PPC.
I would also recommend Wildfire (formerly Jive).
I set up a Wildfire server at Loyola University Chicago, and it was exceptionally easy and secure. Since we use LDAP authentication in our computer science, we were able to instantly have user accounts pre-loaded. For Windows users, Wildfire should integrate with active directory very easily.
I would also recommend using Spark or Gaim as a jabber client.
Of course, the Spark admin plug-in for Wildfire is a good addition, as it provides a localized download area for the Spark Client and it helps to keep users up to date with the client.
Actuall, from what people from the company formerly known as InstallShield told me...
1-4. (As previously stated)
5. MS partners with you, and demands you give them a copy of every product for free
6. MS reverse engineers it (half assed)
7. MS releases their own version of your product
8. MS tries to buy out / take over your company.
9. Your company becomes irrelevant.
10. ???
11. Profit!
Well, I guess I was cheating a wee bit... We have 32 machines in our Linux lab at Loyola University Chicago, so after getting a few machines Gentoo-ized, we do distributed compiles.
Also, we also image our machines using the tar command, so that also improves install time (30 - 40 minutes per machine).
But even so, we were clocking roughly 40 minutes to create one machine via full stage 3 install.
The video was heavily edited.
Actually, I've seen Gentoo installs take as little as 20 minutes on some of my lab machines. Of course, it was a new AMD64 machine from Compaq with 2 gigs of ram, which kinda helped things along.
The most time consuming part of doing a Gentoo install isn't the compile time, but the time spent waiting for the various packages and critical parts (Kernel) to download and unpack.
Sweet! The site features all of the various Linux distros in action, including Gentoo doing its endless install compile.
( As a side note, http://webpages.cs.luc.edu/~gkt/ has a video of a Gentoo install. )
Yeah... but the wait is worth it. Do all of the necessary optimizations and use the proper ricer gcc flags, and it will make that old hardware screaming fast.
Most likely, it runs NetBSD. The 2006.1 release of Gentoo Linux will support it too.
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in any size group.
I do agree with you, and now I'm wondering how long it will take before WGA will be the new Microsoft tool for delivering viri and other software based crapola to my server box.
Actually, I thought it was a story featuring Chuck Norris and Jonathan Brandis...
Happy Fun Ball may stick to some types of skin.
"You know we're sitting on four million pounds of fuel, one nuclear weapon and a thing that has 270,000 moving parts built by the lowest bidder. Makes you feel good, doesn't it?" - Rockhound
"Components. American components, Russian Components, ALL MADE IN TAIWAN!" - Lev Andropov
Maybe the problem can be reduced by adding a descriptor. Artificially Genitically Modified Organism vs. Naturally Genitically Modified Organism. The former is the rat asshole enhanced corn, the latter is the stuff you get from Orville Redenbacher's popping corn.
Although, now that I think of it, this enhanced system of descriptors could be applied to DRM... Artificial DRM vs. Natural DRM. The former is, for example, Sony's XCP, while the latter, for example, is a duet of William Hung and and Yoko Ono with a chorus of flatulent dogs and glass bottles getting smashed with hammers.
Actually, it has less to do with curruption/stupidity/general governmental stuff... There is no such thing as a non-genetically modified organism. Virtually every time plants cross-pollinate, animals (including people) breed, viri mutate.. a genetically modified organism results.
This is basic biology.
Now, some scientists have used natural processes to produce plants that can produce more product per given space (read: more corn per acre). This is good, and also can occur naturally.
On the other hand, some other scientists have crossed genes from, say rat assholes, with corn, for example. They do this to see what effect a single gene has. This is good for their research, however, it is very very very very bad if they should ever introduce rat asshole enhanced corn into the food supply.
(end of rant)
I agree. I think "This album has been enhanced and/or contaminated with rat assholes, MSG, radioactive waste, raw sewage, highly infectious biological agents, anything Sony, Chlorine and/or Mustard gas, rusty nails, farm runoff, or the equivalent DRM." has a pretty good chance of providing consumers the proper notification that the album in their hands contains DRM.
Any list of engineering failures is incomplete without Windows ME.
Apparently, they don't suck at sucking.
Or if you want to look at it this way...
They suck at being exceptional... They are exceptional at being sucky.
No. The Flying Spagetti Monster launched a preemptive strike in order to clear the bay for his chosen pirates.
Ramen.
Yeah... and some people also call that **College**
No, real men read the raw packet data in binary as it streams by on their 1000BaseT connection.
Toss in the complete inability to hack that most script kiddies have... and now you also have security through stupidity.
I always loved watching my snort logs when some kiddie attempted to 0wn my FreeBSD server running Zope/Plone + Apache by tossing every IIS 5 attack they have a script for.
I agree.
Of course, once any user knows how to search and learn as they go, the next most important skill that must be sharpened is the ability to filter fact from crap.
Yeah... the last time ol' Billy saw people in costumes like that, it was in an Apple commercial back in the 90's.
Personally, I think it is good to teach any programming class using an IDE and command line for code compiles.
From my experiences... When I learned Java, we used BlueJ. We never did command line compiles, and as a result, we suffered when our IDE died due to a server issue. When I learned OOP, we were encouraged to use Visual Studio for our c++ code, however, we all found it easier to use gcc for some of our projects.
Now for my Python coding, I use Eclipse (IMHO, the best IDE for Java and Python using PyDev) for coding and command line for extended testing and deployment.
One of my professors covered both IDE and command line compilation in one lab... he simply made us do it. After that, it was never an issue.
"Mike broke the Hubble!" - Crow and Tom Servo