Linux-Advocacy Digest #386, Volume #34 Thu, 10 May 01 07:13:04 EDT
Contents:
Re: Just how commercially viable is OSS?... (Was Re: Interesting MS speech on
OSS/GPL ( /. hates it so it's good (Marada C. Shradrakaii)
Re: No More Linux! (Donn Miller)
Re: Justice Department LOVES Microsoft! (Marada C. Shradrakaii)
Re: W2K/IIS proves itself over Linux/Tux (Donn Miller)
Re: bank switches from using NT 4 ("Tom Wilson")
Re: Windows NT: lost in space? ("Tom Wilson")
Re: VM Ware performance? ("Tom Wilson")
Re: Linux Users...Why? ("Joseph T. Adams")
Re: Linux Users...Why? (Terry Porter)
Re: No More Linux! (Terry Porter)
Re: Justice Department LOVES Microsoft! (Rick)
Re: Justice Department LOVES Microsoft! (Rick)
Re: Linux Users...Why? ("Joseph T. Adams")
Re: Windos is *unfriendly* (Pete Goodwin)
Re: Linux has one chance left......... (Pete Goodwin)
Re: Windos is *unfriendly* (Pete Goodwin)
Re: Windows makes good coasters (JamesW)
Re: How to hack with a crash, another Microsoft "feature" (JamesW)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Marada C. Shradrakaii)
Date: 10 May 2001 10:01:26 GMT
Subject: Re: Just how commercially viable is OSS?... (Was Re: Interesting MS speech on
OSS/GPL ( /. hates it so it's good
> And eventually, commercial all GNU/Linux distributors
>will fail... miserably. And GNU/Linux will simply remain as a free product.
I would add two caveats to that claim. First, if you have other revenue
sources, you might do better. IBM or HP will still be selling machines, even
if they can't move an O/S at a profit. If their business is not diversified
into service contracts, custom development, prepacked systems with hardware or
closed-source software, or cuddly penguin toys, they may be able to survive in
extremely minimal forms as almost 'charity cases'. I'm thinking along the
lines of street performers-- you're not charged for what you get, but you pay
to reward those who have provided you with a service you enjoy.
--
Marada Coeurfuege Shra'drakaii
Colony name not needed in address.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 06:03:11 -0400
From: Donn Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: No More Linux!
Dave Martel wrote:
>
> I decided to become a FreeBSD snob instead. <g>
I just installed Cygwin, and I love it! I love using XEmacs and gcc on
Windows. The best part is that I can compile most GNU software that I
normally use on FreeBSD on Windows. The bad part is that text entry
fields in both Explorer and Netscape don't obey emacs conventions. Like
for example, when I hit control-A to go to the beginning of a line, all
my text gets hi-lighted instead.
Actually, I've been posting here for a few months now, and during the
whole period, I had been running FreeBSD instead of Linux! I'm a sham,
a phony, a fake. But, as a cross-platform sort of a guy who uses both
nix and Windows, I still see a lot of stupid crap being spewed, and 99%
of it is from the Wintrolls. I had to laugh at Erik Funkensbusch's puny
attempts to defend Microsoft when people brought up that thing where
Windows shut down too fast with ATX power supplies. "Oh, the drive is
respnsible for flushing its own data with some capacitative power
remaining in the drive." Yeah right, Erik is just hopelessly in love
with MS, and will do anything to defend this stupid company. I can see
this horse-shit, and I do actual programming on Windows.
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------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Marada C. Shradrakaii)
Date: 10 May 2001 10:02:30 GMT
Subject: Re: Justice Department LOVES Microsoft!
>IBM dumped the ROMed Basic after the 286 series.
>
I believe it survived into at least the early PS/2 series-- I seem to recall
bringing it up on a junked model 30 (admittedly 8086, but introduced after the
AT). "Upgrading and Repairing PCs" (an excellent ref on old IBM models, at
least in early revisions) claims it lasted until the early 1990s.
--
Marada Coeurfuege Shra'drakaii
Colony name not needed in address.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 06:05:37 -0400
From: Donn Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy
Subject: Re: W2K/IIS proves itself over Linux/Tux
Jan Johanson wrote:
> Is there really any doubt that W2K rox the house?
Yes, because unix systems stay up longer. Remember the "awesome" MTTF
that Windows 2000 exhibits? LOL.
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------------------------------
From: "Tom Wilson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy
Subject: Re: bank switches from using NT 4
Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 10:09:27 GMT
"Ayende Rahien" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:9ddmh6$l4n$[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
>
> "Tom Wilson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
>
>
> > Seriously, that has got to be one of *nix's nicest features. The ability
> to
> > access ANY block device like a standard file cuts so many layers of
> > complexity out of low level device IO. Just try to write an FDISK-like
> > utility for Windows and one in UNIX. (I have, and the former isn't easy
> for
> > the 9x line. I had to resort to assembler and use some interrupt calls.
NT
> > at least has some low level access stuff nestled in the API. They aren't
> all
> > that good, but they're there at least) With *nix, its as easy as opening
a
> > file, seeking to an offset, doing a binary read or write, then closing
> it.
> > That simple.
> >
>
> Well, did you check \Device\ group?
> I'm not sure if it exist on 9x, thought.
>
I found the easiest way under 95/98 was to access the extended DOS functions
via assembly as I have a fair bit of experience with that sort of thing.
PITA, but I could be certain of it working. NT, at least, has some low level
routines in the API to do those sorts of things. Ironic when you think about
it. NT normally discourages direct access like that and it has such routines
while 95/98 doesn't.
At any rate, that was a long time ago when I needed a utility to quickly
activate other partitions then reboot from scripts. I was running 95, DOS,
and SCO Xenix System V from separate partitions and liked Xenix fdisk's
ability to activate a partition from the command line so I wrote similar
versions for the other OS's. Even ported it to Linux as a learning exercise.
------------------------------
From: "Tom Wilson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Windows NT: lost in space?
Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 10:12:59 GMT
"Matthew Gardiner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> Tom Wilson wrote:
> >
> > "Aaron R. Kulkis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> > news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> > > Tom Wilson wrote:
> > > >
> > > > "Matthew Gardiner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> > > > news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> > > >
> > > > <snip>
> > > >
> > > > > > Yes...they are a nation of chess-players, compared to the US,
which
> > > > > > is a nation of poker-players.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > when it comes to this sort of algorithm development, the
> > chess-player's
> > > > > > mind will always be the best for the task
> > > > > >
> > > > > Mind you, wouldn't you play chess if you lived in Siberia, from
> > negative
> > > > > 50 degrees celcius during the winter to a max of 35-40 degrees
celcius
> > > > > during the summer.
> > > >
> > > > Explains the massive amounts of Vodka guzzled, too.
> > >
> > > No...the vodka guzzling is for the same reason that medieval Europe
lived
> > > on wine... fresh water that isn't properly treated is potentially
lethal.
> > > And most tap water in Russia is NOT potable
> >
> > I wish *I* could find so good an excuse as that (Big vodka fan) <g>
>
> Just to note, the rubbish we get in the west, is not the real vodka. My
> father was on a trip in the Czech Republic, the taste of the real
> Russian vodka is awsome.
Any alcoholic beverage sold in the states is crap. The best rum is
Venezuelan and the best vodka, Russian. We *DO* make the best moonshine,
though. (Native West Virginian)
Russian vodka is very smooth and deceptive. It kicks like a mule but is very
polite about it <g>
------------------------------
From: "Tom Wilson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: VM Ware performance?
Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 10:24:12 GMT
"Interconnect" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:9ddcpc$sgq$[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> Hi everyone,
>
> If anyone has experience with VM Ware your help is most appreciated.
>
> There is a game application that runs on Windows. The game requires
> 900Mhz processor GForce II accelerator card and 256MB RAM.
>
> ( I am concerned with performance LOSS by adding VM Ware. )
>
> If I had an AMD1.3Ghz processor with 512MB RAM would performance through
VM
> Ware be at least equivalent to a 900Mhz processor. (Assuming I assing
256MB
> RAM for VM Ware to run in.)
>
> Any ideas if it's possible to run 2 video cards, one for the Linux system
> and the other for Windows running through VM Ware on top of Linux. Do you
> know of anyone doing this and their success or otherwise.
>
> Would a dual (900Mhz) processor setup be more effective, than a single
> 1.3Ghz chip?
>
> Thanks again for your time.
>
> Mark.
I use VMWare and what you want to do just plain isn't possible,
unfortunately. You're best off just running the game on a native Windows
install and not wasting your time. Sorry!
------------------------------
From: "Joseph T. Adams" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Linux Users...Why?
Date: 10 May 2001 10:34:38 GMT
Brent R <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
: It has never ceased to astound me that people would do away with their
: favorite apps just for a moderate increase in OS quality. That's one
: thing I've never really understood about this movement I guess.
It's far more than a moderate increase, and I don't think most people
switch "just" for that reason - there are many others as well.
: To me, I like Linux but Windows has so many great apps that I cannot do
: without it.
I can't (and don't) work productively without my favorite Linux/UNIX
apps, although ports to NT exist for some of them, making my day job,
which requires NT, a lot more tolerable than it otherwise would be.
But I can't understand how the quality of a non-portable app can
exceed the quality of the OS to which it is inextricably tied. I also
don't see how the quality of a closed-source app can be objectively or
even subjectively measured.
Granted, I've worked with some Windows apps that seemed at the time to
be of decent quality. The acid test of quality turned out to be time
itself. These apps broke over time due to changes in DLLs, OCXs,
APIs, etc., literally forcing me and/or my employers to "upgrade" the
apps along with the OS itself.
This happens on Linux sometimes, but FAR less frequently, and with far
less heinous consequences. Usually it only happens if developers
write non-portably, or use bleeding-edge or experimental kernel or
library features whose interface is not yet definitively established.
It never breaks the entire OS, as its Windows counterparts do, and it
can usually be fixed fairly easily if you're willing to read USENET
and apply a patch or two, or upgrade to a newer (and almost always
free) version of the app in question.
Joe
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Terry Porter)
Subject: Re: Linux Users...Why?
Reply-To: No-Spam
Date: 10 May 2001 10:30:36 GMT
On Thu, 10 May 2001 00:35:46 -0700,
GreyCloud <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I worked at the other end of the electronics spectrum... before leaving
> I was doing automated test engineering. Writing test for old logic
> boards and analog boards was the best thing I liked.
>
I've done a little atm, enjoyed making up the probes etc.
Sounds like your era was a little harder than mine,
as micros came to my rescue in this area:)
> --
> V
--
Kind Regards
Terry
--
**** ****
My Desktop is powered by GNU/Linux.
1972 Kawa Mach3, 1974 Kawa Z1B, .. 15 more road bikes..
Current Ride ... a 94 Blade
Free Micro burner: http://jsno.downunder.net.au/terry/
** Registration Number: 103931, http://counter.li.org **
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Terry Porter)
Subject: Re: No More Linux!
Reply-To: No-Spam
Date: 10 May 2001 10:33:54 GMT
On Thu, 10 May 2001 06:03:11 -0400,
Donn Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Actually, I've been posting here for a few months now, and during the
> whole period, I had been running FreeBSD instead of Linux! I'm a sham,
> a phony, a fake.
We knew that, fellow UNIX brother, and never held it against ya :)
> But, as a cross-platform sort of a guy who uses both
> nix and Windows, I still see a lot of stupid crap being spewed, and 99%
> of it is from the Wintrolls. I had to laugh at Erik Funkensbusch's puny
> attempts to defend Microsoft when people brought up that thing where
> Windows shut down too fast with ATX power supplies. "Oh, the drive is
> respnsible for flushing its own data with some capacitative power
> remaining in the drive." Yeah right, Erik is just hopelessly in love
> with MS, and will do anything to defend this stupid company. I can see
> this horse-shit, and I do actual programming on Windows.
>
--
Kind Regards
Terry
--
**** ****
My Desktop is powered by GNU/Linux.
1972 Kawa Mach3, 1974 Kawa Z1B, .. 15 more road bikes..
Current Ride ... a 94 Blade
Free Micro burner: http://jsno.downunder.net.au/terry/
** Registration Number: 103931, http://counter.li.org **
------------------------------
From: Rick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy,comp.sys.mac.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy
Subject: Re: Justice Department LOVES Microsoft!
Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 06:37:28 -0400
Ayende Rahien wrote:
>
> "Rick" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
>
> > Legacy apps would break all over the place in "new" MS OS's
>
> I seriously doubt it.
> *Some* applications does, but they are by far the minority.
> Hell, I can play DOOM (the original, meant for DOS on 386) on XP.
> And I could play GoldenAxe (meant for Dos on XT) if I had the response rate
> that it now require.
>
> > > They tried several times- both new OSes and new
> > > frameworks within the MacOS. They couldn't seem
> > > to make it work.
> >
> > Which they are you talking about now? Apple or M$?. Apple legacy apps
> > would have run under Copland (without new features), but Copland never
> > got out the door. Legacy apps DO run under OS X.
>
> They did *that* by including a the old OS with the new one, not very good
> solution, IMHO.
--
Rick
------------------------------
From: Rick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy,comp.sys.mac.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy
Subject: Re: Justice Department LOVES Microsoft!
Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 06:37:47 -0400
Ayende Rahien wrote:
>
> "Rick" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
>
> > Legacy apps would break all over the place in "new" MS OS's
>
> I seriously doubt it.
> *Some* applications does, but they are by far the minority.
> Hell, I can play DOOM (the original, meant for DOS on 386) on XP.
> And I could play GoldenAxe (meant for Dos on XT) if I had the response rate
> that it now require.
>
> > > They tried several times- both new OSes and new
> > > frameworks within the MacOS. They couldn't seem
> > > to make it work.
> >
> > Which they are you talking about now? Apple or M$?. Apple legacy apps
> > would have run under Copland (without new features), but Copland never
> > got out the door. Legacy apps DO run under OS X.
>
> They did *that* by including a the old OS with the new one, not very good
> solution, IMHO.
It works.
--
Rick
------------------------------
From: "Joseph T. Adams" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Linux Users...Why?
Date: 10 May 2001 10:36:58 GMT
Brent R <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
: Dave Martel wrote:
:> However.... I'm going to give FreeBSD a try as soon as the v4.3
:> packages hit the store shelves. Why? Believe it or not, because of
:> that stupid d*mn linux penguin logo. Tux looks like a Fisher-Price
:> toddler toy. I'd feel like an idiot wearing a Tux T-shirt, or
:> interviewing for a job with a Tux pin on my lapel or driving around
:> town with a Tux bumper sticker.
:>
:> But the BSD Demon is really neat!
: Anyone (besides Linux, BG, Ritchie/Thompson, etc.) wearing any
: OS-related propaganda should be shot on sight on principal. Just like
: the 40 year old guys wearing Darth Maul T-shirts at computer shows.
If someone sends me a Linux or OpenBSD shirt I will wear it proudly!
If you try to shoot me though, do yourself a favor and don't miss,
because I shoot back, and I won't. :)
Joe
------------------------------
From: Pete Goodwin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Windos is *unfriendly*
Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 08:32:20 +0100
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] says...
> And desirable things doable out-of-the-box.
Still pretty hard...
> Linux allows my private system to act as a proxy web server, ssh login
> server, mail server, newsserver, etc., all accessed via ssh tunneling
> from my work system through the only port not blocked and/or heavily
> filtered and monitored. Linux also allows me to use my private linux
> system to act as a NAT and firewall box to other systems on my private
> LAN. I can direct all my GUI displays to forward through ssh to my work
> system, all through an encrypted channel. I can browse the web from
> work using my private linux system as a proxy web server with all web
> traffic between the internet and my work system encrypted and going
> over the ssh port. I can login via ssh to my private system from work
> and send and receive mail, read and post to USENET, ftp to anywhere on
> the internet, edit files, run GUI apps, etc. etc.
Great. Maybe you can tell me how to make my system work with DHCP and
IPchains without stamping on the NIC drivers.
> This is all done with software that comes out-of-the-box on my linux
> distro. This is all IMPOSSIBLE on Windows without purchasing a LOT
> of extra software after you've installed Windows 2000, or Windows ME,
> or Windows 98, or Windows 98 SE, or Windows NT 4, ......or even
> the beta version of Windows XP and some of it is just not on Windows
> at all.
I'm not likely to try what you've done so I couldn't really comment on
wether it's really "impossible" without "purchasing a lot of extra
software". Especially since some if it is already free or already on
Windows.
--
---
Pete Goodwin
All your no fly zone are belong to us
My opinions are my own
------------------------------
From: Pete Goodwin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Linux has one chance left.........
Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 08:38:13 +0100
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] says...
> >So in other words you don't know what you are talking about and have
> >no facts to back up your foolish statement?
>
> No, in other words, YOU don't know what you're talking about, and have
> no facts to back up your foolish statements. But I would require
> magical powers to convince you of that, obviously, in the face of your
> purposeful ignorance and great fondness for criminal behavior.
You said "DirectX sucks" and you offer nothing to back up that
statement.
When challenged on that point, you fall to childishly throwing back
what's been said to you.
C'mon, either put up or shut up. How does "DirectX suck"?
--
---
Pete Goodwin
All your no fly zone are belong to us
My opinions are my own
------------------------------
From: Pete Goodwin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Windos is *unfriendly*
Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 08:33:53 +0100
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] says...
> >Show me where I spouted gibberish. I didn't.
So, the lack of answer to this tells me, as usual, I'm correct.
> With Word you have to boot your computer, click on the start button, select Word,
> start typing, finish typing, pull down the file menu, select print, click OK
> on the print dialog, and wait for your printouts to complete.
>
> With StarOffice I just type and print....only two steps. See how much easier
> it is?
Yeah right. Add the same steps you omit in StarOffice and see what
happens.
--
---
Pete Goodwin
All your no fly zone are belong to us
My opinions are my own
------------------------------
From: JamesW <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Windows makes good coasters
Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 10:04:13 +0100
In article
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] says...
> Doesn't apple use X in their OS X??
>
No - the X in Mac OS X is a roman 10. Apple have there own
graphics/windowing layer called 'Aqua'. I guess Apple reckoned they knew
a thing or two about GUIs :)
However you can run X on Mac OS X if you want to with XonX.
Screenshots:
http://www.mit.edu/~rueckert/XFreeAqua2.jpg
http://www.mit.edu/~rueckert/XFreeAqua2.jpg
------------------------------
From: JamesW <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: How to hack with a crash, another Microsoft "feature"
Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 11:54:13 +0100
In article <1_jK6.74$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED] says...
> "Bob Hauck" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> > On Tue, 8 May 2001 23:15:25 -0500, Erik Funkenbusch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> wrote:
> >
> > > The encoded data is (just the one line, not including carriage return):
> > >
> > > 2jhGjyD<qYwDgilj0sohkVuAy.
> >
> > Anybody can make an unbreakable code if you only need to keep one line
> > of data secret.
>
> Thank you. This is exactly what I was saying. So long as the algorithms
> are secret, the size of the key or any other value is irrelevant, it's
> effectively unbreakable.
> > The problem comes with trying to use the code to
> > encrypt lots of data over a period of time. Relying on a secret
> > algorithm is just horribly bad practice, no matter how good you think it
> > is. It takes only one disgruntled former employee to destroy your
> > scheme.
>
> It's not a matter of how "good" it is, it's simply a matter of how "secret"
> it is. If your disgruntled employee cannot access the encryption algorithm,
> they can't leak it. That's why the military uses black boxes for
> cryptography. They're kept secure and only a tiny few have access to their
> internals. You just pump data in and out.
>
No it's not what you were saying - as Bob points out your example is
unbreakable because there is just one line. If you were to use a secret
but weak algorithm to encode a large quantity of data it would be
vulnerable. A weak algorithm is weak - simple as that. Given a reasonable
amount of encoded data it will be cracked.
------------------------------
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