I don't hear those reasons when people dismiss PostgreSQL. The ones
I hear are:
VACUUM is a pain. It's true that VACUUM is annoying, but later releases (especially 8.0 and 8.1) make VACUUM much more tolerable; we have customers whose databases are busy 24/7, and although the load does go up during a VACUUM, the database is still perfectly usable.
PostgreSQL is slow. That was true, but the 8.x series has improved performance dramatically.
PostgreSQL is hard to install and administer. Really, I think this is a matter of taste. If you are used to MySQL, then yes, there is a learning curve. OTOH, I'm used to PostgreSQL and find myself having to learn MySQL, and MySQL feels just as weird and unintuitive to me as PostgreSQL might to a long-time PostgreSQL user.
Let's face it Windows applications are the *mainstream* apps in Business, do your goals include exposing your young students to these apps (i.e. do you plan to teach them how to use office apps ?).
This is such a stupid objection. My kids use Debian at home, and they use Firefox and OpenOffice. They took approximately 15 seconds to figure out MS Word at school based on what they knew of OpenOffice at home.
Kids are intelligent. You should not be in the business of teaching kids Microsoft Word or Excel. You should teach them general principles of word-processors and spreadsheets, and then they can adapt to any office software out there.
I mean, come on! If you know OpenOffice, are you really going to be stymied by Word?
Here at Roaring Penguin, we've pretty much standardized on Debian for the technical staff and Ubuntu for the non-technical staff. It works very well for us.
We do have one holdout on Slackware, but that's fine with me as long as he administers his own box...
... call your stuff "Windoze Defender" or "Developer Studio for Micro$loth Windoze" or "FooBar Draw, Lose32 Edition". Everyone will know what you mean, but M$ is unlikely to steal your name...
Here are some simple things you can do to harden your server. Note that they are not a substitute for actually fixing or removing broken scripts, but they can buy you time.
Enable SELinux. However, if you're running these kinds of scripts, you probably aren't protected by SELinux.
Mount/tmp with the noexec flag. Again, not complete protection if the malware is a script (because it can be invoked explicitly with the command interpreter), but it would stop this particular one.
Change the permissions on wget so that apache can't read or execute it. Or, remove wget completely from your server. Similarly for rsync, ncftp, etc.
For the last four years, I've been working on a product whose Web interface was written in PHP. It worked well for us, and was easy to write, is very stable, and is fairly maintainable.
However, our next product is not using PHP. We've switched to Perl (specifically, the Catalyst framework) for a number of reasons:
Part of the both products is written in Perl anyway, so reducing the number of languages helps avoid confusion. Ever write my $var; in PHP?:-)
PHP has maddeningly-inconsistent naming. in_array or inarray? nat_case_sort or natcasesort? htmlentities vs htmlspecialchars_decode vs html_entity_decode. Argh!!!
DBI. CPAN. What more can I say?
use strict; use warnings;. PHP has no equivalent notions; it's way too loose.
Apple is just as monopolistic as Microsoft, and always has been. Apple's friendliness with the open-source community is self-serving: Apple just needed a good OS quickly, and a free UNIX-like system was the obvious choice.
At heart, Apple is just another proprietary company, which is saved from being perceived as evil by it's small share of the computer market. (iPod is a different story; the large market share allows the evilness to come out.)
I block Web ads because it's easy to do. I block e-mail "ads" [aka spam] as well.
If I could somehow block ads from billboards and TV, I would do that too, but we lack the technology.
The only ads I don't mind are those in technical or computer publications, because I'm often interested in the products being advertised. Everything else, I just shut out.
The danger here isn't that InnoDB would be close-sourced, or that it will languish.
What Oracle can do is say "We love Free Software so much that we are ONLY releasing InnoDB under the GPL." That would destroy MySQL's commercial licensing plans, from which they derive most of their revenue. It means MySQL could no longer have "OEM Licensing" or any of the non-GPL'd schemes that bring in actual money. (Well, unless MySQL decouples itself from InnoDB, which means they'd be shipping an inferior product.)
The article is hardly cogent. Look at his main points:
A major flaw at the heart of the open source movement is the misconception that most individuals actually have the legal right to contribute their intellectual efforts to OSS projects
The GPL is quite clear on the process you have to go through in order to be able to contribute to a Free Software project. If you're seeking employment, then get an agreement in writing that you can contribute to OSS projects that don't compete with whatever your employer does. Simple.
The process of creating software is more akin to an engineering discipline than an artistic endeavour, and this raises another point of concern with OSS.
Actually, he's wrong. The process of creating good software is more akin to an artistic endeavour. He even shoots down his own argument a bit later:
We only have to look at the history of the electronic computer to see that the greatest advances in technology have been made by brilliant, strong-willed individuals, usually supported by a small team of dedicated engineers - not community-based projects.
Yes, like such open-source individuals as Larry Wall, John Ousterhout, Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman and others. There are lots of terrific OSS projects that are basically lead by one very bright person.
Professionalism
I am am professional software developer, and so are all of the developers I employ. We all contribute to OSS projects. It's a myth that FOSS contributors are students or the unemployed; by and large, they're professional developers.
Innovation
OSS is not about innovation. It's about utility and usefulness. However, innovation is often a side-effect: Witness the amazing innovations of Perl, Tcl/Tk, Bit Torrent, SpamAssassin, and many others.
You probably want a FallbackMX host (or a bank of them) so backed-up outbound queues don't interfere with normal outbound processing.
The FallbackMX hosts can use a file system optimized for directories with lots of files in them (and can of course themselves be tuned as the parent poster suggested.)
Re:/. readers should care about WinZip because...
on
New Winzip in the Works
·
· Score: 2, Informative
I have no problem with software evolving. The problem is that deflate64 is a proprietary, undocumented compression algorithm (unlike the previous ZIP algorithms.) The only way to make an interoperable implementation is through reverse-engineering, and given the state of copyright law in the USA today, that's a dangerous prospect for Free Software.
/. readers should care about WinZip because...
on
New Winzip in the Works
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
... it supports a new "deflate64" compression that is NOT supported by zlib. As a result, clamd chokes on some ZIP files and can't scan them.
This pain-in-the-@ss aspect of the new Winzip is the most likely thing to affect/. readers.
Close down the TV broadcasting, fine. But leave Radio 1 and 2 alone.
I agree. CBC-TV is basically worthless except for the kids' shows. My kids really like them, and they're actually pretty good.
I listen to CBC radio a lot, and as long as you stay away from the occasional smug left-wing commentary, it's generally quite decent. On Radio 1, they're playing the "Best of..." past shows, and they're as good as new material.
As a father of three kids, I absolutely agree that many schools don't use homework correctly. My 11-year-old daughter spends far more time on homework than I ever did (and I wasn't a slacker---I did finish whatever homework I had.)
Part of the problem is that some parents think their kids "need" homework to learn, to build character or to be competitive. That's utter hogwash. The purpose of homework is to reinforce what was learned at school. Nothing more and nothing less.
My kids often get homework asking them to do things that they haven't even covered properly in class! The teachers expect them to learn new things from their homework, rather than just reinforcing things they've learned in class.
Too much homework is a symptom of lazy teachers and misguided parents. It's extremely frustrating, because it really hurts our family time and leads to lots of conflict.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't hear those reasons when people dismiss PostgreSQL. The ones I hear are:
Live.com doesn't even work for me. I'm trying Firefox 1.5 on Debian, and when I enter a search term, all I get is "Loading..." and nothing else.
Has anyone actually made it work under Firefox on Linux?
Try making a chart with more than a few hundred data points. Go eat supper while your computer grinds, churns and overheats.
Then resize the chart. Eat, grind, churn, overheat.
Head over to GNUPlot. Plots those hundreds of data points in under a second. Thank you.
15 users. Sendmail MTA. Dovecot IMAP server. 10MB max message size. No limits on mailbox size or age.
Let's face it Windows applications are the *mainstream* apps in Business, do your goals include exposing your young students to these apps (i.e. do you plan to teach them how to use office apps ?).
This is such a stupid objection. My kids use Debian at home, and they use Firefox and OpenOffice. They took approximately 15 seconds to figure out MS Word at school based on what they knew of OpenOffice at home.
Kids are intelligent. You should not be in the business of teaching kids Microsoft Word or Excel. You should teach them general principles of word-processors and spreadsheets, and then they can adapt to any office software out there.
I mean, come on! If you know OpenOffice, are you really going to be stymied by Word?
Here at Roaring Penguin, we've pretty much standardized on Debian for the technical staff and Ubuntu for the non-technical staff. It works very well for us.
We do have one holdout on Slackware, but that's fine with me as long as he administers his own box...
... call your stuff "Windoze Defender" or "Developer Studio for Micro$loth Windoze" or "FooBar Draw, Lose32 Edition". Everyone will know what you mean, but M$ is unlikely to steal your name...
Here are some simple things you can do to harden your server. Note that they are not a substitute for actually fixing or removing broken scripts, but they can buy you time.
For the last four years, I've been working on a product whose Web interface was written in PHP. It worked well for us, and was easy to write, is very stable, and is fairly maintainable.
However, our next product is not using PHP. We've switched to Perl (specifically, the Catalyst framework) for a number of reasons:
Apple is just as monopolistic as Microsoft, and always has been. Apple's friendliness with the open-source community is self-serving: Apple just needed a good OS quickly, and a free UNIX-like system was the obvious choice.
At heart, Apple is just another proprietary company, which is saved from being perceived as evil by it's small share of the computer market. (iPod is a different story; the large market share allows the evilness to come out.)
I block Web ads because it's easy to do. I block e-mail "ads" [aka spam] as well.
If I could somehow block ads from billboards and TV, I would do that too, but we lack the technology.
The only ads I don't mind are those in technical or computer publications, because I'm often interested in the products being advertised. Everything else, I just shut out.
... they accept virtual cash, too! So this ten-dollar-bill really contains six paravirtualized ten-spots.
The danger here isn't that InnoDB would be close-sourced, or that it will languish.
:)
What Oracle can do is say "We love Free Software so much that we are ONLY releasing InnoDB under the GPL." That would destroy MySQL's commercial licensing plans, from which they derive most of their revenue. It means MySQL could no longer have "OEM Licensing" or any of the non-GPL'd schemes that bring in actual money. (Well, unless MySQL decouples itself from InnoDB, which means they'd be shipping an inferior product.)
I'm really glad I went with PostgreSQL.
The article is hardly cogent. Look at his main points:
A major flaw at the heart of the open source movement is the misconception that most individuals actually have the legal right to contribute their intellectual efforts to OSS projects
The GPL is quite clear on the process you have to go through in order to be able to contribute to a Free Software project. If you're seeking employment, then get an agreement in writing that you can contribute to OSS projects that don't compete with whatever your employer does. Simple.
The process of creating software is more akin to an engineering discipline than an artistic endeavour, and this raises another point of concern with OSS.
Actually, he's wrong. The process of creating good software is more akin to an artistic endeavour. He even shoots down his own argument a bit later:
We only have to look at the history of the electronic computer to see that the greatest advances in technology have been made by brilliant, strong-willed individuals, usually supported by a small team of dedicated engineers - not community-based projects.
Yes, like such open-source individuals as Larry Wall, John Ousterhout, Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman and others. There are lots of terrific OSS projects that are basically lead by one very bright person.
Professionalism
I am am professional software developer, and so are all of the developers I employ. We all contribute to OSS projects. It's a myth that FOSS contributors are students or the unemployed; by and large, they're professional developers.
Innovation
OSS is not about innovation. It's about utility and usefulness. However, innovation is often a side-effect: Witness the amazing innovations of Perl, Tcl/Tk, Bit Torrent, SpamAssassin, and many others.
You probably want a FallbackMX host (or a bank of
them) so backed-up outbound queues don't interfere with normal outbound processing.
The FallbackMX hosts can use a file system optimized for directories with lots of files in them (and can of course themselves be tuned as the parent poster suggested.)
I have no problem with software evolving. The problem is that deflate64 is a proprietary, undocumented compression algorithm (unlike the previous ZIP algorithms.) The only way to make an interoperable implementation is through reverse-engineering, and given the state of copyright law in the USA today, that's a dangerous prospect for Free Software.
... it supports a new "deflate64" compression that is NOT supported by zlib. As a result, clamd chokes on some ZIP files and can't scan them.
/. readers.
This pain-in-the-@ss aspect of the new Winzip is the most likely thing to affect
That would be because spammers ARE spoofing those IP addresses to send mail
Uh.... I don't think so. None of the examples I gave (255.255.255.255, 224.1.2.3 or 192.168.10.12) is a public unicast IP address.
Now if you can document a case of a spammer successfully completing an SMTP session from one of those addresses, I'd be mighty impressed.
For example, on the "IP" page, it said that 255.255.255.255 is sending spam, and that 224.1.2.3 "raised concern".
:-)
Of course, those are not valid unicast IP addresses.
On the other hand, 192.168.10.12 is "inoffensive". Phew!
If slashdot just re-ran old stories, you wouldn't notice.
Re-running "best of" shows improves CBC because they really do pick the best shows, AND they seem to skip the annoying ones like "The Current".
Ah, I see you are a dedicated CBC viewer. Solidarity!
Close down the TV broadcasting, fine. But leave Radio 1 and 2 alone.
I agree. CBC-TV is basically worthless except for the kids' shows. My kids really like them, and they're actually pretty good.
I listen to CBC radio a lot, and as long as you stay away from the occasional smug left-wing commentary, it's generally quite decent. On Radio 1, they're playing the "Best of..." past shows, and they're as good as new material.
When the NHL players were locked out, we got to see decent movies every Saturday night.
Now that the CBC reporters are locked out, the quality of CBC programming has improved immensely.
I love it!
As a father of three kids, I absolutely agree that many schools don't use homework correctly. My 11-year-old daughter spends far more time on homework than I ever did (and I wasn't a slacker---I did finish whatever homework I had.)
Part of the problem is that some parents think their kids "need" homework to learn, to build character or to be competitive. That's utter hogwash. The purpose of homework is to reinforce what was learned at school. Nothing more and nothing less.
My kids often get homework asking them to do things that they haven't even covered properly in class! The teachers expect them to learn new things from their homework, rather than just reinforcing things they've learned in class.
Too much homework is a symptom of lazy teachers and misguided parents. It's extremely frustrating, because it really hurts our family time and leads to lots of conflict.
My company (see my URL) is a startup. We have 9 employees and no venture capital. It's lots of fun!