Linux-Misc Digest #182, Volume #24 Mon, 17 Apr 00 03:13:04 EDT
Contents:
static binaries and libndbm (Eric Melville)
KFM error ("KP")
Re: Redhat 6.2 broke! ("KP")
Re: Checking if fs is mounted (Eric Melville)
Re: how do I get pop3 working? ("James M. Wadkins")
Re: Windows 2000 has 63,000 bugs - Win2k.html [0/1] - Win2k.html [0/1] (The Ghost In
The Machine)
Re: PCMCIA modem problem ("Shawn Yeager")
Re: Linux Crashed and Can't Get Up (Peter T. Breuer)
Re: Linux Crashed and Can't Get Up (Peter T. Breuer)
Re: Redhat 6.2 broke! (David Steuber)
Re: multifile editor (Peter T. Breuer)
Re: KFM error (Dowe Keller)
Re: Redhat 6.2 broke! (Dowe Keller)
Re: Just wondering... (Bastian)
Re: Windows 2000 has 63,000 bugs - Win2k.html [0/1] - Win2k.html [0/1] (Tim Hockin)
Re: Windows 2000 has 63,000 bugs - Win2k.html [0/1] - Win2k.html [0/1] (Tim Hockin)
Lost my Master Boot Record (Ken Corbin)
Re: Checking if fs is mounted (Larry Ozarow)
Re: rlogin/rdist problems... (Steve Houseman)
How to boot to single user mode? ("Antony Mak")
Re: How Microsoft inhibits competition & innovation (David Steuber)
RE: Where are the environment variables? (HPBudlong)
download from netscape (tue)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Eric Melville <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: static binaries and libndbm
Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2000 22:21:45 -0700
i'm trying to compile a static perl binary for use on my chroot'd web
server. this is on a mostly stock slackware 3.6 system. however, it dies
and claims it can't find -lndbm while compiling the sucker. upon
experimentation, i found that i can do this:
$ gcc -lndbm file.c -o file
but this fails:
$ gcc -static -lndbm file.c -o file
and says that it can't find the library for ndbm. is there a difference
between the libraries used when i compile with -static? how can i
overcome this obstacle?
-E
------------------------------
From: "KP" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: KFM error
Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2000 17:17:53 -0700
Reply-To: "KP" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
I received this KFM error "could not write file:xx perhaps access denied"
when trying to copy a file to my httpd folder. I right clicked on the file
and checked all of the permissions and it still wouldn't work.
What do I need to do to copy or move a file? In Win98 it is simple, drag
and drop.
------------------------------
From: "KP" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Redhat 6.2 broke!
Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2000 17:13:16 -0700
Reply-To: "KP" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Well, I figured out how to switch back to KDE, at the login prompt, but I
don't think GNOBE will work.
"KP" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:8ddbet$rii$[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> I switched to the GNOBE from KKE and now, it doesn't work. I can move the
> mouse around and nothing happens! I tried to use the command prompt to
> switch back to the KKE interface, but it won't work, nothing opens! I
> suppose I should just unistall Linux and wait until it gets better.
>
>
------------------------------
From: Eric Melville <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Checking if fs is mounted
Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2000 22:38:24 -0700
#!/bin/sh
# look for filesystem in mount table
mount | grep "fsname" > /tmp/fstest
# if temp file is empty, file system has not been mounted
if [ -z "/tmp/fstest" ]; then
mount fsname
else
echo "already mounted /mnt/fsname"
fi
rm /tmp/fstest
note that i havn't actually tried to run this, there might be syntax
errors. but you get the idea.
on the other hand, i would just set them to auto and leave them mounted
all the time.
-E
> This doesn't really cause a problem other than an error message, but I
> got to thinking..there must be some way to check if a drive is mounted
> before trying to mount it again, like an 'if...else' statement. What
> would that script lool like?
------------------------------
From: "James M. Wadkins" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.networking,comp.os.linux.setup,linux.redhat.misc
Subject: Re: how do I get pop3 working?
Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2000 22:32:56 -0700
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
I don't have an answer to your problem, but I do have a question. Are
you able to retrieve any mail from either of these mail system from
another machine on your net?
Kirk Wythers wrote:
>
> I'm trying to set up my office machine as a pop3 server. I have tried both
> the standard poper that ships with redhat 6.2 and qpopper. Both give me the
> same "relaying denied" error message when I try and access the machine from
> home (by the way I can ftp and telnet to the machine just fine). Does this
> message mean anything to anybody? Have I overlooked something simple?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Kirk
--
James Wadkins
General Manager
VTAT, Inc.
5429 Valley Wells Way
Las Vegas, NV 89113
702-873-0480
702-873-0049 Fax
http://www.vtat.com
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (The Ghost In The Machine)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.os.linux.redhat
Subject: Re: Windows 2000 has 63,000 bugs - Win2k.html [0/1] - Win2k.html [0/1]
Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 05:44:27 GMT
In comp.os.linux.advocacy, David Steuber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote on Mon, 17 Apr 2000 03:00:01 GMT
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] (abraxas) writes:
>
>' > Fucking GOTO's all over the place.
>'
>' Have you looked at the source for the linux kernel?
>
>david@Interloper:> pwd
>/usr/src/linux
>david@Interloper:> find . -name '*.c' -exec grep ' goto ' {} \; | wc
> 580 2212 19404
>
>Color me surprised. Some of those are in comments, BTW. This is the
>2.2.14 kernel from kernel.org.
A slight quibble.
On a 2.2.13-5 kernel (Red Hat 6.0), I used a slightly different query,
and got far more:
bash$ find . -name '*.c' | xargs grep '\<goto\>' | wc
6553 21194 267319
bash$
(the \< ... \> construct means that goto must be delimited by
non-word characters, which means things like abcgotoabc won't match :-) )
This kind of surprises me too, although a number of these might
be in the device drivers. Or in the comments, as stipulated above.
Also, I think the 'xargs' construct is a tad more efficient, mostly
because the constructed grep command line will have more than one file
argument.
bash$ find . -name '*.c' | xargs grep -i '\<goto\>' | wc
6554 21199 267357
indicates that there's one goto out there with upper case. :-)
For what it's worth. Now...can we get rid of these GOTOs? Would it
be worth it?
[.sigsnip]
--
[EMAIL PROTECTED] -- insert random misquote here
------------------------------
From: "Shawn Yeager" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.hardware,comp.os.linux.networking,comp.sys.laptops
Subject: Re: PCMCIA modem problem
Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 00:49:59 -0500
I'm using the same Dell laptop and Mandrake 7.0 installed and had the modem
operational without a hitch.
Shawn
zoobe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:8d9qtt$1c2$[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> I have a similar problem. I'm using a Dell Latitude CPi with a Xircom
> ethernet/modem combo. I've read the PCMCIA HOWTO several times and have
> found no help there. I'm new to Linux on laptops.
>
> How are you verifying that it does not connect with any serial port? I'm
> using Redhat 6.1 and according to the PCMCIA howto cardmgr should record
the
> device information for each socket in the "stab" file; however; I cannot
> find the "stab" file in any of the locations it lists. Do you know where
it
> is located in the Redhat dist?
> (HOWTO: section 4.1)
>
> Erik
>
>
> "Alexei Pankin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:8d86q4$[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> > I installed Redhat 6.2 on my Compaq Armada 7800. PCMCIA driver loads
> > and cardctl recognizes successfully my modem, but it looks like it does
> not
> > connect with any serial port and minicom does not work.
> >
> > I would appreciate any suggestions.
> >
> > Alex.
> >
> >
>
>
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Peter T. Breuer)
Subject: Re: Linux Crashed and Can't Get Up
Date: 17 Apr 2000 07:51:13 +0100
Bob ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
: Thank you gentleman for siding with the "Newbies" out there trying to
: learn a new system, and doing it with kindness. Linux is hard to learn at
Would you mind QUOTING the lines you are replying to, and responding
below them? Thanks.
: first and the "Newbies" need all the help they can get.
They "need" to learn how to help themselves. Just like anyone. But where
in the post you replied to do you see anything that could be construed
as disagreeing with you? It doesn't say "help them", but it does point
out that "read the manual" may not be the preferred learning style of
many.
: youngej wrote:
[complete thread quote snipped]
Peter
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Peter T. Breuer)
Subject: Re: Linux Crashed and Can't Get Up
Date: 17 Apr 2000 07:54:32 +0100
lukas ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
: Iwould like to know if I must run fsck with the correct linux partition...
No. You must run it with the incorrect linux partition as argument.
: I got the same problem but i share my hard disk with windows. If I run
: fsck /dev/hda1 would this affect my Windows partition?....
No, it'll affect your mac. What do you think!
Please try and phrase your questions more carefully. This is a public
forum ;-).
Peter
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Redhat 6.2 broke!
From: David Steuber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 05:59:59 GMT
Kevin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
' KDE KKE whatever. A better name is needed.
I don't think a better name will help at this point. What would help
is if you provided accurate details of your problem. Some vague
statement about moving a mouse around and nothing happening is
certainly not information.
For example, is the mouse cursor moving on the screen when you move
the mouse? Did you set up X correctly? Did you ever have a working
graphics display with Redhat 6.2? Are you getting any error messages?
The problem usually resides with the device that pokes the keyboard.
Try adjusting it to give some detail.
--
David Steuber | Hi! My name is David Steuber, and I am
NRA Member | a hoploholic.
http://www.packetphone.org/
Bank error in your favor. Collect $200.
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Peter T. Breuer)
Subject: Re: multifile editor
Date: 17 Apr 2000 08:00:31 +0100
Charles Esson ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
: I know I should be using "vi" "find" and "grep".
: I would however like an editor that.
: 1) displays the line number.
: 2) allows me to search all file in the directory and sub directory with
: a couple of clicks and a sting entry.
: 3) allow me to have multiple windows open.
: Can anyone suggest a nice simple to use option for a ex Visual C++
: editor user.
vi does the above (at least in its vim incarnation). So does [x]emacs.
Why do you think it doesn't?
Curious.
The standard answer to "give me my VC++ editor", is "use nedit".
Peter
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Dowe Keller)
Subject: Re: KFM error
Date: 16 Apr 2000 22:39:34 -0700
On Sun, 16 Apr 2000 17:17:53 -0700, KP <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>I received this KFM error "could not write file:xx perhaps access denied"
>when trying to copy a file to my httpd folder. I right clicked on the file
>and checked all of the permissions and it still wouldn't work.
> What do I need to do to copy or move a file? In Win98 it is simple, drag
>and drop.
Does the httpd folder have user's write permission turned on?
--
dowe [EMAIL PROTECTED]
---
prototype, n.:
First stage in the life cycle of a computer product, followed by
pre-alpha, alpha, beta, release version, corrected release version,
upgrade, corrected upgrade, etc. Unlike its successors, the
prototype is not expected to work.
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Dowe Keller)
Subject: Re: Redhat 6.2 broke!
Date: 16 Apr 2000 22:41:25 -0700
On Sun, 16 Apr 2000 17:13:16 -0700, KP <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Well, I figured out how to switch back to KDE, at the login prompt, but I
>don't think GNOBE will work.
What the *HELL* is GNOBE?
--
dowe [EMAIL PROTECTED]
---
prototype, n.:
First stage in the life cycle of a computer product, followed by
pre-alpha, alpha, beta, release version, corrected release version,
upgrade, corrected upgrade, etc. Unlike its successors, the
prototype is not expected to work.
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Bastian)
Subject: Re: Just wondering...
Date: 17 Apr 2000 06:06:58 GMT
On 16 Apr 2000 21:55:06 GMT, Robie Basak wrote:
>Oh, well. There is an alternative called getmail, but I don't know if
>it supports concurrent connections:
>http://www.qcc.sk.ca/~charlesc/software/getmail/
>
>Robie.
>--
Just looked at it, and it doesn't support IMAP servers. Guess which servers
I need to query! But thanks anyway.
Bastian
------------------------------
From: Tim Hockin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.os.linux.redhat
Subject: Re: Windows 2000 has 63,000 bugs - Win2k.html [0/1] - Win2k.html [0/1]
Date: 17 Apr 2000 06:27:34 GMT
In comp.os.linux.misc abraxas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
:> Fucking GOTO's all over the place.
: Have you looked at the source for the linux kernel?
: Same thing.
: Theyre fast.
dammit yttrx - I thought you hated linux, or at least 'preferred slowaris
and Crapintosh'? :)
To stay on topic - goto is an unconditional jump, and the compiler can
optimize that better than a conditional jump
--
Tim Hockin
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
This program has been brought to you by the language C and the number F.
------------------------------
From: Tim Hockin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.os.linux.redhat
Subject: Re: Windows 2000 has 63,000 bugs - Win2k.html [0/1] - Win2k.html [0/1]
Date: 17 Apr 2000 06:29:23 GMT
In comp.os.linux.misc The Ghost In The Machine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
: For what it's worth. Now...can we get rid of these GOTOs? Would it
: be worth it?
nope - almost all of them are optimizations on various common-paths (fast
paths).
--
Tim Hockin
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
This program has been brought to you by the language C and the number F.
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Ken Corbin)
Subject: Lost my Master Boot Record
Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 06:25:24 GMT
Been making a number of attempts to install Redhat 6.1 and/or 5.0 on an old
486 system. Got pretty close last time. Wouldn't boot off the hard drive,
but if I booted from a rescue disk it ran just fine from the hard drive.
Problem is that somewhere along the line I tried installing LILO to the
master boot record, instead of the partition boot record like I usually
do. Something went wrong with that boot record, and now nothing I do seems
to be able to fix it. Latest thing I've tried is wiping the entire disk,
deleting all partitions and creating new ones with DOS fdisk hoping it would
replace the master boot record. No luck, I'm still getting an aborted LILO
boot when I try to boot from the hard disk.
Anyone have any idea how I can get a good boot record back in my hard
disk???
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Larry Ozarow)
Subject: Re: Checking if fs is mounted
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 06:41:30 GMT
On Sun, 16 Apr 2000 22:38:24 -0700, Eric Melville <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
was delivered of:
>#!/bin/sh
>
># look for filesystem in mount table
>mount | grep "fsname" > /tmp/fstest
>
># if temp file is empty, file system has not been mounted
>if [ -z "/tmp/fstest" ]; then
> mount fsname
>else
> echo "already mounted /mnt/fsname"
>fi
>
>rm /tmp/fstest
>
>note that i havn't actually tried to run this, there might be syntax
>errors. but you get the idea.
>
>on the other hand, i would just set them to auto and leave them mounted
>all the time.
>
>-E
>
>> This doesn't really cause a problem other than an error message, but I
>> got to thinking..there must be some way to check if a drive is mounted
>> before trying to mount it again, like an 'if...else' statement. What
>> would that script lool like?
In addition to this perfectly good solution, if you check the bash man
page you'll find reference to the little-used .bash_logout file, which
is executed when a login shell exits. You could use this to unmount
the filesystem on logout, rather than depending on shutdown to do it
for you (as I assume you do).
Larry
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Steve Houseman)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.networking
Subject: Re: rlogin/rdist problems...
Date: 16 Apr 2000 19:18:56 +0100
Hal,
Although I'm not the OP, thats a useful nugget of info for my hoard!
Thanks,
Steve Houseman
--
currently steve.houseman at virgin net
------------------------------
From: "Antony Mak" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: How to boot to single user mode?
Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 14:53:10 +0800
Hi All,
My SuSE Linux box was configured without floppy and CDRom. How can I boot to
"single user mode" at "boot:" prompt?
Thanks in advance,
Antony.
------------------------------
Crossposted-To:
comp.lang.java.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy
Subject: Re: How Microsoft inhibits competition & innovation
From: David Steuber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 07:00:01 GMT
Kevin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
' Walter Dnes wrote:
' >
' > BTW, X-Windows has been around a long time.
'
' X-Windows? What's that? Do you have a URL for this program?
...
' My point: If you were wrong about something as well-known
' as the X Windowing System's name, then perhaps you're wrong
' about everything.
Well, you knew what he was talking about, so arguing semantics or
spelling is not really a point to make.
You could have pointed out that the first graphical user interface and
mouse pointing device were actually invented at the Stanford Research
Institute before Xerox formed the PARC. PARC took on many of the
people from SRI and continued the research.
Steve Jobs saw the work at PARC and was inspired to use it for the
Lisa computer. The Lisa was a flop, but the Mac picked up the slack.
It was especially helpful to Apple when they made an alliance with
Adobe after a little thing called PostScript was licensed for use in
laser printers, allowing the first WYSIWYG word processors.
I don't have a case to cite, but apparantly Xerox sued Apple for
stealing the idea of using a GUI. Xerox lost. When Microsoft came
out with Windows 3.0 (the first usable version), or maybe it was an
earlier version, Apple sued Microsoft. Apple lost.
Apple failed, to this very day, to ever create a preemptive
multitasking operating system. Microsoft did that with NT and then
later with Windows 95 (although it didn't work as well as NT). OS/2
was out before Win95 with a protected mode, 32 bit, preemptive
multitasking system. Before any of that, there were some Unix like
systems for the PC that were not in wide use. There was Xenix for
one. I believe that was owned by Microsoft, but not developed by
them. Xenix was sold and became known as the Santa Cruz Operation, or
SCO.
Walnut Creek was selling FreeBSD back in the early 90s. Linux was
still a college student's project at the time. There was of course
Minux which was the inspiration for Linux. Linus wanted to write a
better Minux and moved into writing a POSIX compliant OS from
scratch.
Meanwhile there was the GNU project. It predated Linux by some
years. In fact, Linux would be nowhere without GNU, hence GNU/Linux.
I don't know when XFree86 was started. It was necessary because the X
Window System was never free in the GNU sense.
Meanwhile, Microsoft was doing quite well. DOS was the OS for the
PC. There were a couple competitors. However, Microsoft had already
amassed enough market share to convince the OEMs to only license the
Microsoft OS. IBM never saw the need to have an exclusive license
with Microsoft because it didn't occur to them that someone would
reverse engineer the BIOS. It was the clones that made Microsoft
rich. Very good fortune indeed. And Microsoft answered the door when
fortune knocked.
In spite of all this, Microsoft didn't have the grasp that it has
today. Windows was a complete flop for the first several releases.
The software was not useable and nobody seemed interested. However,
Microsoft knew that GUI was the future of the desktop. Steve Jobs
told them so. The proof was in the Mac. While the machine had a
niche market, it was a large enough niche to be profitable. Not bad
for a system that is not at all DOS compatible.
Because Microsoft had free money coming in from the PC clone makers,
it could continue to work on Windows. Version 3.0 was the first
useable version. I became interested in it at that point because I
had an application that needed to allocate more memory than you could
under DOS without a DOS extender like PharLap. I also liked the idea
of device independent graphics. I had no knowlege of Unix and X at
the time. I had played on the Mac, but the machine I had was just too
slow for C development. The 386 was out and the 486 was just released
at that time. The PC had some real power. The PC was cheap. So was
Borland's C++ compiler.
Then along comes Windows 3.1. It added multimedia to 3.0. It added
TrueType font support. Now Microsoft had a contender. By the time
Windows 95 was ready, Windows 3.1 had a large library of applications
that worked for it. Some of those apps could also be run under NT.
NT was new and not popular. That didn't matter to Microsoft. So they
forked the Win32 API. Dumb move, but they did it. Windows 95 could
run most all the 16 bit stuff. There was no application barrier to
entry.
Apple, with their closed system and arrogant management was not being
innovative. They figured that they had the GUI. The thing is,
Microsoft made many of the applications for the Mac. MS Word was
first available on the Mac. Excel was available on the NeXT and then
the Mac and then Windows. Microsoft had learned all Apple had to
teach about GUI programming and design. With many more competitors in
the Windows market, Microsoft had more to beg, borrow, or steal.
Internet Explorer was not the first application to be incorperated
into a Microsoft operating system. When DOS 6.0 came out, Microsoft
had included built in disk compression. This disk compression was
stollen from Stack Electronics. Stack sued Microsoft and won. In DOS
6.2, disk compression was taken out. With Windows 95, a non
infringing compression scheme was put in. Where is Stack?
When Windows 95 came out, the Internet was catching on to people
outside of large universities and corperations. Small ISPs were
beginning to offer dial-up access to the Internet. AOL had a
primative Internet gateway. So did Compuserve, BIX, and Prodigy. A
start up called Netscape Communications had a graphical web browser
based on NCSA Mozaic. The company had an astonishingly successful IPO
in 1995. Microsoft had no Internet strategy. They thought that since
AOL was the most popular online service, they would create MSN and
take the market. MSN didn't fly. To this day, Microsoft is still
pushing MSN. They also own WebTV, which they bought outright.
Netscape became a problem for Microsoft when their browser could run
JavaScript and then Sun's Java. These technologies had the
theoretical potential to make the operating system moot. Microsoft
relied on Windows and DOS for their bread and butter. The office
applications were doing well because of bundling arangements with
larger OEMs like Dell, Gateway 2000, Packerd Bell, HP, etc. All that
was threatened if people could run any OS they wanted. Microsoft set
out to kill Netscape. It only took four years.
Java was another problem. Fortunatly, Sun was holding Java close to
their chest. While Sun had contributed many useful technologies to
the computing community, Java was kept proprietary. Microsoft simply
bought a license and proceeded to 'embrace and extend'. This was
after some initial FUD where Microsoft tried to push ActiveX as the
way to download code to run in the web browser. Netscape wasn't dead
yet, so people were using Java.
Microsoft added hooks to their JVM so that Java applications could use
the Win32 SDK. While this destroyed portability, it was useful. The
comp.lang.java news groups were filled with debates over 'pure' Java
vs Microsoft Java for many months. Sun tried to keep Java pure, but
they just didn't have the resources that Microsoft had. Today, Java
is just another programming language. The real shame of it is, I had
some simple benchmarks with Sun's 1.1.3 JDK where the Jitted code
could actually outperform C++ code doing the same calculations. The
Java bytecodes contain enough information for a JVM to optimize the
code when generating native codes for its platform. The optimization
actually worked better than Microsoft's C++ compiler's.
So far, in all this time, Microsoft made no major innovations. They
did borrow some good ideas. OpenDoc -> OLE. SOM -> COM. CORBA ->
DCOM. For some reason, Microsoft insisted on having incompatible
standards every step of the way. Could it be to preserve their
monopoly? Well, it worked. Imagine, they bent IDL and COM so that it
would work with Visual Basic. Why did they do that? Visual Basic is
probably the best selling 'programming' system out there. It allows
just about anyone to hook together ActiveX controls like tinker toys
to build applications for data entry and other fun stuff. In one form
or another, BASIC has always been a Microsoft product. No, they
didn't invent it. It was just the first product Microsoft ever made.
They had an interpreter for the Apple II. It was always popular with
the kids. It still is.
Now Linux is on Microsoft's RADAR screen. As with Java, Microsoft is
currently using FUD tactics. Microsoft talks of TCO, support,
standards, etc. As with Java, Microsoft knows that FUD won't work for
long. The famous Halloween Paper spells out the long term attack.
Decomoditize the protocols. Now that Internet Explorer is the largest
browser on the Internet (in more ways than one ;), Microsoft can
embrace and extend. Look at Media Player. How long can Progressive
Network's Real Player stand against that? They are a rerun of
Netscape. What about USB? It isn't easy to get documentation from
USB device manufacturers. I know. I tried getting specs for the
QuickCam VC that is now owned by Logitech. A camera standard wasn't
publicly available at the time, and from what I heard, the Windows
driver was working around a hardware bug.
DVD is another one. I have a DVD PCMCIA decoder card. I never could
get reference documentation to write a Linux driver for it so that I
could have a hardware decoder for playing DVD movies in Linux.
A project I am working on now requires documentation from the ITU.
They charge many swiss franks for each document. There are also CODEC
issues. I have some reference implimentations. However, there are
apparantly patents on some of the codecs. Microsoft can easily afford
to license for NetMeeting. I can not. I don't know if there is a
future in speak freely or not. I tend to think that H.323/H.324 will
be the standard.
>From my point of view, it is as if the other companies want to
maintain a Microsoft monopoly. It's not just Microsoft. Perhaps they
don't know about 'The Microsoft Method'. Do a Deja search for it. It
is a well written diatribe against Microsoft, complete with
citations. In any case, the way Microsoft will try to slow down Linux
is to close the hardware. Don't think they can't do it. What do you
think the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is all about? While the
DOJ makes a reluctant case against Microsoft, the government still
buys many PCs that run Microsoft software. Is the TCO really lower
for Microsoft? I would love to see some numbers.
--
David Steuber | Hi! My name is David Steuber, and I am
NRA Member | a hoploholic.
http://www.packetphone.org/
ROMEO: Courage, man; the hurt cannot be much.
MERCUTIO: No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church-
door; but 'tis enough, 'twill serve.
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (HPBudlong)
Subject: RE: Where are the environment variables?
Date: 17 Apr 2000 07:01:42 GMT
RE: Where are the environment variables?
bash, sh, and ksh and similar shells use environment variables such as $PS1,
$PS2. printenv lists some but not all of these, e.g. $PS1 is listed, $PS2 is
not, though $PS2 clearly has a value and shows up with
echo $PS2
This is true with other environment variables as well.
Why don't they all show up in printenv?
Best wishes
Helen Budlong
------------------------------
From: tue <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: download from netscape
Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 06:30:04 GMT
hi...i've got some problem downloading files from the internet using
netscape 4.7 . whenever i click on the download button , it open the page
and start showing weird characters on the browser instead of prompting me
which folder should i put the file in . could anybody help me ? thanks
--
Posted via CNET Help.com
http://www.help.com/
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