On 2014-07-11 at 8:57:16 Theo de Raadt wrote: > Daniel is doing the right thing. Fully loaded lynx can be in the ports tree > too, and we can keep track of the download statistics to see both users who > download it every year...
Dear Theo, Please permit me the distinct pleasure of saving you the trouble of tracking one user, me, a man from Alabama with a sense of humor and a little (not a lot!) common sense to go along with it. I downloaded the port tree and installed lynx yesterday (July 19) with the utmost haste, for I feared that lynx might have just met its untimely end for good in spite of the fanfare and hoopla on the tech list. So I offer my confession in full below, if you care to follow along. (Spoiler: the confession below is only a light-hearted attempt at levity from a simple fellow that doesn't mind having a little fun at his own expense :-) I had unsubscribed from the various lists on July 5 thinking that I needed to unplug a little from the world at large. (I know, I could have just suspended mail for a couple of weeks or so with majordomo.) In the meantime, I was mildly perturbed that my clock was off several hours (funny, there's a faq about that...,) because I had installed a Samsung EVO 840 SSD with OpenBSD exclusively (time is good) and I had to re-install the old drive, because I had a file on either LinuxMint or Windows 8.1 (triple boot with OpenBSD) that I needed for my business. Well, sir, when I put my SSD back in and booted up, the clock is off: 5 hours to be exact. Sure, I can config the kernel with "timezone 300" or I can just mentally add 5 hours to the clock every time I look at tmux. Or, better yet, I'll just reinstall from scratch. That's a great idea. I downloaded the July 18 snapshot sets early Saturday morning (19th) and booted up. I ran sysmerge. Some changes. Cool. I usually install the files from sysmerge and vi my little changes manually. Minimal interference with perfection and so forth. I get this annoying beep while in vi, and of course, I know to head right over to /etc/wsconsctl.conf and uncomment keyboard.bell.volume=0. Can't stand the beep (or flashing screen) you know. Guess what? Where's the wsconsctl.conf file? Supposed to be in /etc. I must have a defective installation or something. I say to myself, "So fire up lynx and head right on back to OpenBSD.org to check SHA256 sigs. I know it can't be something on OpenBSD's side of the fence." You all know what's coming don't you? I mean, if this ain't funny, I don't know what is! I get "ksh: lynx: not found" !!! Maybe I didn't type that correctly. So I try it two more times. (hahahahaha, talk about hard-headed Alabama users.) "ksh: lynx: not found" I just can't believe it. You all are gonna love this. I grab my cell phone and check current.html, but I don't really see anything related to lynx. I then cut over to snapshots, and, Behold!, a brand new batch of sets dated July 19!! That's my ticket for sure...just had a funky snapshot from the 18th. It happens every once in a while. Maybe... I do another FRESH install with the bestest and freshest sets direct from Canada, baby. On the Samsung SSD, this takes mere seconds. I boot up, and, shazam! no lynx. I slowly realize that there's absolutely nothing wrong with my installation, not from the July 18 sets nor from the July 19 sets. I take off to MARC, and in 5 minutes I'm reading this topic "lynx: disable old protocols." For a while, things look favorable for lynx to stay in base. I sure hope so, but, hey, lynx ain't here now! My heart's beating faster with every "next in thread." Then theo@ steps in: > Daniel is doing the right thing. Fully loaded lynx can be in the ports tree > too, and we can keep track of the download statistics to see both users who > download it every year... Sure, Daniel's doing the right thing. We're just removing crusty old protocols. Surely lynx will stay in base, after all, right?! Theo said "fully loaded lynx can be in the ports tree *too*... But what does Theo mean about "both users who download it every year"? Then this: > If lynx was removed from base, and only available in ports... how many of > you would even know of it's existance and use it? Yes folks, I continued on with my reading, noticing a few others who used lynx regularly, knowing that the worst was to come. I blinked back the tears at the idea of life without lynx. Why, for years, I had thought that OpenBSD's web site was optimized just for us lynx users. (Tell me you didn't laugh at that.) Lynx was in base, carefully audited, and ready for anything I could throw at it. And I did. Lynx will slurp in the entire mysql documentation as one file and let me search with absolute confidence and alacrity. Firefox? core dump every time, baby. I don't know about gopher, or those other protocols (that is, I don't use them,) but the web or files on localhost? Absolutely, lynx is where it's at! or, where it's been ... For seven years, I've been surfing the textual net (in Advance User mode, of course, like any other self-respecting OpenBSD Power User) with the greatest dexterity and efficiency, because I can turn VI keys ON! Sure, I can use firefox and chrome, but where's VI mode? So I unabashedly confess, I grabbed lynx from ports, ran make install, and typed in lynx at the shell and got... "Lynx file "/etc/lynx.lss" is not available." Yup, you guessed it. /usr/bin/sudo find / -name 'lynx.lss', and, lo, it's in /usr/local/share/examples/lynx. Yeah, baby, I'm close to OpenBSD nirvana now. I copy that lynx style sheet (no, I didn't look at it--what's a lynx style sheet?) over to /etc and voila! lynx fires up...in funny colors... Do you know how long it took me to get my little lynx.cfg file just so? with the colors set so the loaded page would match my man page look in xterm? Nothing hellish either. I'm talking sophisticated inconsolata-font in cool,soothing green2 on black xterm with brightred underline, brightcyan links, and yellow active...oh, stop the drooling now. I'll share my config if you really want it :) After a little reading, however... ah yes, we delete the offending lynx.lss file, then '/usr/bin/sudo touch /etc/lynx.lss' and finally, our familiar friend lynx lights up the comforting page we've all known and loved, www.openbsd.org, in all its former lynxified glory. Moral of the story? Keep up with the mailing lists. Fwiw, too, why can't folks treat the OpenBSD team with respect and admiration? I burnt a few Mb's of precious Verizon bandwidth to watch part of an interview with Theo, and my thought was initially, (and I hope you don't take offense :) Theo, you looked tired. Tired of ignorance. Tired of apathy. Tired of insane, meaningless interview questions. Tired of ingratitude. Tired of fighting the good fight for rightness in system development. I know a little something about being on a level where no one else really thrives. You guys are my "social network," 'cause no one around me has the slightest idea of what's in my head. They just say I'm a little scary in the brain department. I wish all of you the absolute best. You're the best of the best. I know of no other operating system (or mailing list) like this one. I hope to enjoy it for many more years (I'm 52 now, and didn't really get into computing until late even though I was a math major who completed his Bachelor's Degree in Biblical Studies, but that's another story.) We use OpenBSD at my work (commercial food equipment sales & service) for website and our inventory system, written by yours truly. I'm gearing up to work up a dispatch and equipment system, but I'm the General Manager, and I have so many other things on my plate. So I don't have a lot of time for hacking, but I know I'll put OpenBSD to work in a lot more ways. Good stuff. Really. By now, you surely know I wasn't whining about lynx. Hope you enjoyed my story-telling. I think henning@ looks for stories about OpenBSD from time to time. Maybe he'll like one of mine some day. Gilbert -- They say computers never lie, but I'd never trust a computer. Would you?
