I understand that you're doing this with the best of intentions and all, but do you really want to totally lock them down?
Basically you'll just be giving these people glorified word processors instead of real computers. While I applaud this effort, it's really a very short sighted (imho) goal. It reminds me of the parable about giving a man a fish and teaching a man to fish. You are very much just giving away fish and locking out the possibility of learning to fish.
I understand that if you give them out with root passwords you'd probably just end up with mostly unworking boxes in a short time. You'd probably also have a support nightmare, with people expecting help with their free computer. I'm just wondering if there isn't some middle road where you can leave things semi-open to change and configuration without leaving it completely vulnerable.
As for advice, I dunno, I've always been better with questions than answers.:-)
I'm going to be setting up a smallish (~300 gigs) linux fileserver for testing. I'll do some benchmarking (with Reiserfs and XFS) and see how it looks. Since my company has lately restricted my choices for hardware and software (no more sun:-( ), I need to find a decent alternative. Since I hate AIX (the rs6000 hardware is nice, though), I'm pretty much stuck with using linux.
When the hell is somebody going to put some work into NFS to get it up to par?
You're right, of course. UFS does do journaling, but it's slow as butt. Solstice disksuite doesn't compare to Veritas' volume management though. Either in terms of ease of use or features.
But what do I know, I just run file servers for a living.
By the way, I currently prefer Sun/Veritas for the task over Linux. That may not be the case in a few more months, but the tools aren't there yet for Linux.
Veritas is working on a version for linux. They're in beta right now. I actually love veritas. It's practically required if you want to run a file server on a Sun box. Sun, in their infinite wisdom, hasn't gotten around to including a journaling file system or logical volume management into their OS. Check out http://beta.veritas.com
An accusation of plagiarism presupposes that Gibson intentionally took these phrases and copied them into his book without giving due credit. Perhaps an exact quote from the book, matched up with the quotes from TDHOHH would enlighten us all. "...sometimes it's easier to desire and pursue the attention and admiration of 100 strangers than it is to accept the love and the loyalty of those closest to me" Similar words have been said and written many times, does that make TDHOHH plagiarists too? One of the problems with forums like/. is that people post before they come up with a well-reasoned argument and supporting evidence. It has sped up discussion to the point where it is as important to some to have first post as it is to have the best post. But that's just my not well-reasoned, unsupported opinion.:-)
You forgot to mention one key ingredient to a bugfix/patch: make sure that you charge $90 or so for it. Also, it is a good idea to release only some of your bugfixes for free and to sell the rest. That way you can keep the idiots coming back for more.
Slashdot Mirror
It worked for Chairface Chippendale.
http://www.worth1000.com/entries/375722/copycat-chairface-chippendale
I understand that you're doing this with the best of intentions and all, but do you really want to totally lock them down?
:-)
Basically you'll just be giving these people glorified word processors instead of real computers. While I applaud this effort, it's really a very short sighted (imho) goal. It reminds me of the parable about giving a man a fish and teaching a man to fish. You are very much just giving away fish and locking out the possibility of learning to fish.
I understand that if you give them out with root passwords you'd probably just end up with mostly unworking boxes in a short time. You'd probably also have a support nightmare, with people expecting help with their free computer. I'm just wondering if there isn't some middle road where you can leave things semi-open to change and configuration without leaving it completely vulnerable.
As for advice, I dunno, I've always been better with questions than answers.
I'm going to be setting up a smallish (~300 gigs) linux fileserver for testing. I'll do some benchmarking (with Reiserfs and XFS) and see how it looks. Since my company has lately restricted my choices for hardware and software (no more sun :-( ), I need to find a decent alternative. Since I hate AIX (the rs6000 hardware is nice, though), I'm pretty much stuck with using linux.
When the hell is somebody going to put some work into NFS to get it up to par?
You're right, of course. UFS does do journaling, but it's slow as butt. Solstice disksuite doesn't compare to Veritas' volume management though. Either in terms of ease of use or features. But what do I know, I just run file servers for a living. By the way, I currently prefer Sun/Veritas for the task over Linux. That may not be the case in a few more months, but the tools aren't there yet for Linux.
Veritas is working on a version for linux. They're in beta right now. I actually love veritas. It's practically required if you want to run a file server on a Sun box. Sun, in their infinite wisdom, hasn't gotten around to including a journaling file system or logical volume management into their OS. Check out http://beta.veritas.com
An accusation of plagiarism presupposes that Gibson intentionally took these phrases and copied them into his book without giving due credit. Perhaps an exact quote from the book, matched up with the quotes from TDHOHH would enlighten us all. "...sometimes it's easier to desire and pursue the attention and admiration of 100 strangers than it is to accept the love and the loyalty of those closest to me" Similar words have been said and written many times, does that make TDHOHH plagiarists too? One of the problems with forums like /. is that people post before they come up with a well-reasoned argument and supporting evidence. It has sped up discussion to the point where it is as important to some to have first post as it is to have the best post. But that's just my not well-reasoned, unsupported opinion. :-)
You forgot to mention one key ingredient to a bugfix/patch: make sure that you charge $90 or so for it. Also, it is a good idea to release only some of your bugfixes for free and to sell the rest. That way you can keep the idiots coming back for more.