On 12/7/05, UNIX admin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Dennis, those guys are just about as clueless as a Linux-loving geek can get. > > They don't have the experience to comprehend what they're being told -- after > all, if they knew anything about anything, they wouldn't be enamoured with > Linux.
Well, there is nothing wrong with Linux in its place. Just so long as I don't have to trust it long term. Like Windows, it seems to work for a while and then it just doesn't anymore. For unknown reasons too. Perhaps that is just my experience however. Seems to work well enough in some places however. I try, I really do, to keep an open mind. Three nights ago I decided to once again throw myself onto the sword of Linux for my personal edification. I have been trying to run through a successful Linux From Scratch process for some three years now. I first started back in 2002 or so and felt that I could learn a lot if I went through the process. I support the idea that Linux promotes : open source and free to use. However, I really wanted to build an up to date Linux revision on my old Sparc 20. Back in 2002 I used a copy of Red Hat Linux 6.2 for Sparc. This seemed to install and run well enough. For Linux that is. By late 2004 I was told by various people that my problems with getting the Linux From Scratch process to work on Sparc was due to architecture issues and that really, I should just get an x86 system and then keep plowing forwards. I put out the idea that this "open" source thing called Linux is supposed to work all over the place and if various tools and code bits are so covered in Intelisms and x86 assembly bits that it can not be built reliably on another architecture then its a failure in my book. Call me crazy but I gave up the build process ( not at all fast on an old Sparc 20 ) and the machine got Solaris 8 installed. Which runs just fine. Then, the wave of insanity and idealism swept over me once again and in a fit of stupidity I downloaded the minimal install CD for Debian on Sparc. This seems to boot well enough and I was able to install the Debian base OS bits. At least that is what I think happened because the box never ever was able to boot. The kernel would panic and crash at first boot. I then figured the problem was me. I am the silly moron here that can not figure out how to configure silo and initrd and the kernel file location and things like that. I then worked diligently with some Linux people ( IRC is great really ) on the #debian IRC channel and we were comepletely unable to get the machine to boot at all. It would boot the Debian install CD of course and I could then mount the filesystems and mess with SILO and in desperate attempts try to boot this wonderful Linux thing. Just once. It never did. By 3 AM I tossed in the towel as did the fellows on the #debian IRC chan that were completely perplexed. It was disturbing. A fresh install could not boot and we could not get it to boot. We then did the install all over again. Just for the sake of it. After the this attempt I was in no better shape : http://www.blastwave.org/dclarke/stuff/debian_failure.txt I went straight to the install CD to boot and get a shell just so I can see what is in the /boot filesystem as well as the root filesystem and then into a downward spiral of madness trying to boot ... just once. What scares me is that it seems to be crawling into every crack of the computer industry and I just worry about the quality of the thing. I don't think it is being used in nuclear control facilities or in medical control systems I hope. Would you put your life in the hands of a system running Linux? Based on what I have seen, no way. Dennis ps: the line that says "40823MB HIGHMEM available" is just priceless.
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