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Slashback GNU is Not Unix The Internet

Slashback: Documentary, Directory, FUD 204

Posted by timothy from the dispatch-from-sleepy-hollow-tennessee dept.
Slashback tonight brings some updates and clarifications to previous stories, including news of the successful production of both a BBS documentary and an open-source directory. Read on for more!

I goof, therefore I am sorry. Many readers submitted rebuttals to the claim I repeated that an Israeli web portal was the first to give users 1GB email accounts; Protein Shake, for one, writes that Spymac has them beat. "Forget Google, forget Israel's web portal... 1 GB e-mail is already out there. At least a few weeks ago. From their site '1 GB e-mail account, 350 MB combined storage, personal blog, forum, gallery, auctions and more...'"

"And this was back when phone lines were just strings painted to resemble copper ..." Jason Scott writes "The BBS Documentary, announced on Slashdot nearly three years ago, has wrapped up filming. With over TWO HUNDRED interviews in the can, I've been spending a lot of my spare time (and not-so-spare time) editing, but I decided to put out the first of what will likely be a few trailers for it. Stop by and check out how I've spent the last few years. The Documentary will be released as a 3-DVD set later this year."

It's like Who's Who, only different. Another gargantuan effort completed on a different front: Tony Stanco writes with word that "The 910-page Open Source Reference Book is available for download."

The project was announced just over a year ago; considering the contents that's not a bad turnaround.

It's nearly enough to make one cynical. Alex Wolfe writes "In a move worthy of the Luddites, the New York City Council is quietly trying to ban the Segway . The Council has proposed a law that's technically a ban on motorized scooters, but Harris Siliver, founder of Citystreets, an urban improvement organization, says the NYC Department of Transportation is specifically targeting the electric, non-polluting Segway. Silver is joined in his opposition to the bill by Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak."

Get out much? If you just can't get enough random flamebait, here's a small fix to follow the anti-Linux FUD spread earlier this month by Green Hills CEO Dan O'Dowd. InfoSec writes "This morning's Security Focus page had an article about Consumer Grade *nix. The writer of the article slams Linux for not having free automated updates, enabling services in default installations, and not warning users when they are using 'root'. Uhmm, I could be wrong, but hasn't Mandrake been doing that for quite some time?"

apt-get update seems to count as free updates to me (though those folks do take donations), and root-use warnings may not be perfectly applied, but they are found in various forms (depending on distro) at OS, WM, and application levels, including notices that certain tasks can only be run as root or other superuser. (I think it's Xchat that calls me "an idiot" when I've tried to run it as root.)
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Slashback: Documentary, Directory, FUD More

Slashback: Documentary, Directory, FUD

Comments Filter:

  • Funny. (Score:4, Funny)

    by Neil Blender ( 555885 ) <neilblender@gmail.com> on Thursday April 22, 2004 @08:02PM (#8945233)
    I read that headline and thought: Michael Moore.

  • 1GB Email Portal Goof (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Liselle ( 684663 ) * <slashdot@lisWELTYelle.net minus author> on Thursday April 22, 2004 @08:03PM (#8945238) Journal
    Many readers submitted rebuttals to the claim I repeated that an Israeli web portal was the first to give users 1GB email accounts;
    ...and as mentioned in another article, if the "on-duty" editor would listen to the subscribers occasionally [slashdot.org], someone would have known before it went live. Oops! :D

  • "non-poluting segway" (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 22, 2004 @08:08PM (#8945268)
    non-poluting segway

    Generating electricity still causes pollution, it just causes a lot less polution than a car.

    • Re:"non-poluting segway" (Score:5, Insightful)

      by JohnTheFisherman ( 225485 ) on Thursday April 22, 2004 @08:27PM (#8945409)
      Depends on how you generate it - you've merely passed the buck.

      I doubt the ban on Segways has anything to do with being Luddites. Those things take up at least 2-3x as much ground space as a person. The sidewalks can often be packed in NYC, and the street is full of cars. There's nowhere for Segways to go when it's busy, other than "on everybody else's feet."

      I think when Steve Jobs said that it would change the way we build cities, he was right. We HAVE to change the way we buld cities because it won't fit in any current cities. We'd need extra lanes to handle the traffic.
      • I think when Steve Jobs said that it would change the way we build cities, he was right. We HAVE to change the way we buld cities because it won't fit in any current cities. We'd need extra lanes to handle the traffic.

        Nah, i dont want to sound flamebaiting and trolling but really, maybe we should just not change the way we build cities and instead just forget about this fad, im sure it could find a niche market in the circus and maybe as a novelty for tourists to rent, but really, as a revolutionary trans

        • Re:"non-poluting segway" (Score:2, Informative)

          by Anonymous Coward
          You could say the same thing about a bicycle. The way people think is essentially what it comes down to. Which means people who feel safer in their mobile forts (when they're not) and paranoid fools who think someone is going to intentionally run over their toes (when they won't) just need some reprogramming ;)
          • No a bicycle is a 200 year old device that uses the laws of physics to remain naturally stable in motion and the laws of 'your foot' to remain naturally stable when stopped, it can travel at a range of useful speeds, requires no fuel and apart from pissing off drivers it can pretty much get around most cities without a big re-design, although a bicycle lane is an advantage. What will happen is we will get to the stage where there will be a normal lane, a fire lane, a bus lane, a bicycle lane, a segway lane

        • Re:"non-poluting segway" (Score:5, Insightful)

          by crucini ( 98210 ) on Friday April 23, 2004 @01:38AM (#8947061)
          I agree. What is the connection between being a "geek" and rooting for the Segway? There are things about geekhood I don't understand. Why assume that New York is "luddite" for wanting to ban this nuisance? Of course they should ban it. It's a motor vehicle that wants to run on the crowded sidewalks. The last thing Americans need is a way to avoid walking.

          However in more suburban areas it could fill a legitimate niche.
      • Have you ever been to any town in Europe? They've all had the same narrow streets for centuries, literaly.

        I'm not rebuilding my city just to accomedate a segway.

        • Re:"non-poluting segway" (Score:5, Informative)

          by lawpoop ( 604919 ) on Thursday April 22, 2004 @09:59PM (#8945909) Homepage Journal
          How many European towns have you been to? A lot of them have been retrofitted to accomodate cars, bikes, trains, buses, trams, trollies, etc.

          I think existing bike pathways, which you will find in a lot of European cities, will easily handle segway traffic.

          • Re:"non-poluting segway" (Score:5, Interesting)

            by Bigman ( 12384 ) on Friday April 23, 2004 @04:40AM (#8947633) Homepage Journal
            As someone who cycles to work (almost) every day, I'd not be too pleased to find the cycle lanes (such as they are) blocked by yuppies on wheels. To cycle long(ish) distances effectively you need to keep a constant speed - it's bad enough dodging potholes and motorists who think that because you have no engine you can stop instantaneously to avoid them.
            Having said that, Segways are cool technology, and for those with the brass balls to do so can travel fast enough to cause minimal problems to cyclists, it's just on the rare occasions I've seen them in use here (in the UK) people have been beetling along at snails-pace. It's a shame that they're so expensive. Of course, you could always build your own [tlb.org]. That is, until Segway's lawyers get to you and take your house...
        • Most of the narrow streets are now pedestrian zones, and as the sibling post pointed out, the streets outside the old town all have bikelanes, sidewalks, and even clicking cross-walk buttons for the blind. I never saw so many blind people in my life as when I was in Germany, and I think its entirely because its so much easier for them to get out alone there.

      • Re:"non-poluting segway" (Score:4, Informative)

        by blamanj ( 253811 ) on Thursday April 22, 2004 @08:42PM (#8945511)
        Note that NYC is behind San Francisco, which has banned them already [slashdot.org].

        • Re:"non-poluting segway" (Score:4, Informative)

          by bottlebrushtree ( 757479 ) on Thursday April 22, 2004 @09:05PM (#8945634)
          The ban was thanks to the work of Walk San Francisco, San Francisco's Pedestrian Advocacy Group.

          WalkSF.org [walksf.org]

          The sidewalks are no place for a vehicle that goes as fast as a Segway. This means Bikes also.

          For more information on why WalkSF helped get this law enacted check out

          Walk SF's Segway Page [walksf.org]

          • Good Site (Score:3, Insightful)

            by AmericanInKiev ( 453362 )
            Mod this guy - er bottle brush up.

            - I think the Segway has an important place - or rather I think that low-impact electric vehicles have an important place.

            Its hard to imagine mass transit solving the last mile effectively, and the segway (small electric etc . . . ) Is most certainly a better solution that hydrocarbon convertors.

            I salute Dean Kamens creative idea - and let's not forget or pretend that the segway is anything other than the logical extension of the electric wheelchair - perfect for resto

            • Re:Good Site (Score:3, Interesting)

              by evilviper ( 135110 )
              - I think the Segway has an important place - or rather I think that low-impact electric vehicles have an important place.

              That's fine. Neighborhood electric vehicles have a place, but segways do not. Cars like the GEM have actual safety devices built-in, can be driven legally on the streets, and can be found as cheap as Segways. They also have more power, higher speed, etc.
            • Its hard to imagine mass transit solving the last mile effectively, and the segway (small electric etc . . . ) Is most certainly a better solution that hydrocarbon convertors.
              I have a solution for the last mile problem in mass transit. The project code-name is "walking" and I think I'll market it as Legway.
              • It's always easiest to say Just Walk.

                But let's make a couple of basic assumptions, and then we'll realize why progress means improving on the default of walking.

                Assume people do not want to live in a cubicle the size of a bread truck. Now assume that people need to interact with a population which affords them the benefits of scale - restaurants, opera, decent employeement etc - all these things require a large number of people. You can improve both side of the density conundrum simultaneously only by imp
          • Actually the NY law doesn't mention sidewalks. It bans motorised scooters per se. And the argument for the law, given in its text, seems dubious at best:

            "The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission reported 4,390 emergency room-treated injuries associated with motorized scooters in the year 2000. Thirty-nine percent of those injured were under 15 years of age."

            Compare this with figures for bicycles [cpsc.gov]:

            "The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that over 600,000 persons suffered bicycle
          • So what are they doing against joggers and other maniac runners?

  • Trailers in wma and quicktime?? (Score:4, Funny)

    by deathguppie ( 768263 ) on Thursday April 22, 2004 @08:12PM (#8945297)

    so the trailers for The open source documentary are in a closed format???

  • SUSE (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anthony Boyd ( 242971 ) on Thursday April 22, 2004 @08:12PM (#8945298) Homepage
    The writer of the article slams Linux for not having free automated updates, enabling services in default installations, and not warning users when they are using 'root'.

    SUSE gives me free updates via YAST, comes with all services disabled in the "minimal graphical install" default that I use (well, networkable services are not enabled, but things like cron are), and when I log in via root, the desktop is a red graphic with a pattern of large bombs all over it. Sound fairly perfect to me. The only other thing would be a warning at the command line for a non-GUI root login, and in fact I sorta get that, because the default for the root shell prompt is different.

    • Re:SUSE (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Telex4 ( 265980 )
      Is there any GNU/Linux distribution worth it's salt that doesn't provide some automated upgrade system, other than those that target the kind of geek who would be doing it themselves anyway?

      And given that, on my parents' machine for example, they don't even have root in the list of users when they login, I'm not sure how they'd ever be running anything as root anyway.

      There has to be a fairly small set of people manually doing security updates, and who are ever running things as root without realising it.
    • the desktop is a red graphic with a pattern of large bombs all over it.

      kind of reminds me of You are full of bombs and/or keys [errorwear.com] from that old game Gauntlet [klov.com]. Now your computer really can be full of bombs!

  • 1 Gb is possible right now (Score:5, Informative)

    by Carlos Silva ( 773727 ) <carlos.silva@COL ... m minus caffeine> on Thursday April 22, 2004 @08:12PM (#8945299) Journal
    I don't know if everyone around here knows.. but if you create a Blogger account you can be one of the lucky ones to try out Gmail beta, even if you have some kind of problem in using it (tinfoil hat crowd :) it's always a Good Thing to try it out...
    Until now.. it has been pretty good.. at least for me..

  • Spymac 1GB email is not so desirable (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 22, 2004 @08:14PM (#8945313)
    I think Spymac's 1GB email came right after Google's announcement. The thing is, I honestly don't want to tell people, "email me at blah blah @ spymac.com." It seems I might be misconstrued as an Apple zealot (well technically I am a zealot, but I try not to project it onto people in a way that pisses them off). I have a mac.com [mac.com] address, but spymac.com [spymac.com] just doesn't sound business-like.

    reeddavid.com [reeddavid.com]

    • "spy" in the name.... (Score:2, Interesting)

      by zogger ( 617870 )
      ... IS sort of put-offish what with security concerns, etc. I got as far as the huge sign in questionnaire, that and having to run script told me to not follow through with an account there.

      I'd like to try google's, especially if they had created a huge wall of spam-be-not around their service. Coolguys and non spammers inside, everyone else outside. Google is big enough to pull off a system like that, and has the smarts to make it work.

  • Talking Penguin (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 22, 2004 @08:15PM (#8945325)
    Maybe linux should come with a talking penguin that pops up and offers suggestions:

    "It looks like you're trying to delete a file. Would you like to free up more disk space?"

    "You are running as root. Running as root can be bad for your computer. Would you like to change users?"

  • Sidewalk Utilization Quotas (Score:3, Funny)

    by persaud ( 304710 ) on Thursday April 22, 2004 @08:15PM (#8945334)
    No need to single out Segway. Limit the square footage of sidewalk that can be used by single humans during rush hour.

    This will allow use when the sidewalk is empty (which can yield a registration fee that goes towards sidewalk maintenance).

    For rush hour, a square footage quota will incent R&D for the scooter-pooling version of Segway.

  • Shells would be so much better (Score:5, Funny)

    by Neil Blender ( 555885 ) <neilblender@gmail.com> on Thursday April 22, 2004 @08:16PM (#8945341)
    not warning users when they are using 'root'.

    admin@local host #su
    Password:

    WARNING YOU ARE NOW ROOT!

    #adduser fred

    WARNING YOU ARE ROOT, ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO DO THIS? (Y/N) Y

    #passwd fred

    WARNING YOU ARE ROOT, ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO DO THIS? (Y/N) Y

    Changing password for user fred.
    New password:

  • If you speak Russian (Score:5, Informative)

    by prostoalex ( 308614 ) * on Thursday April 22, 2004 @08:27PM (#8945411) Homepage Journal
    Doesn't matter much for most of the Slashdotters, but if you happen to read Russian (or always wanted to learn that language), Yandex Mail [yandex.ru], which is part of Yandex, Russia's largest Web portal and search engine, announced unlimited mail storage space with maximum letter size of 10 MB and unlimited attachments (as long as the message with all the attaches stays below 10 MB).

    Basically, they will just keep buying more hard drives as you grow your message store.

  • Odd mail providers (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Telex4 ( 265980 ) on Thursday April 22, 2004 @08:27PM (#8945412) Homepage
    I would rather get an e-mail address that I can be sure I'll still have in five years time. When I first migrated from web-based mail to a POP3 service, I went through about three providers until I hit on one (GMX) that was stable, but then they stopped translating the pages into English, and after a year of guessing how to use the spam tools in German, I got fed up.

    Now I just have my own egomaniacal domain name, and no matter what happens, short of a change in the domain name system, I'm guaranteed I can keep my e-mail and web addresses.

    I could trust Yahoo! or Google, but it's an unfortunate fact of the lovely web that, when it comes to something like e-mail, with someone like Spymac I'd always be waiting for them to close shop, or charge some silly fee, or relocate to Uganda and only run their web site in a few obscure tribal dialects.
    • I can be sure I'll still have in five years time

      Then get your own domain and forward the e-mail to whatever @yahoo or @google you happened to be.

      Some (most?) domain registrars will even do such forwarding for free for you...

  • Biased wibbles... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dj245 ( 732906 ) on Thursday April 22, 2004 @08:28PM (#8945417) Homepage
    ...but Harris Siliver, founder of Citystreets, an urban improvement organization, says the NYC Department of Transportation is specifically targeting the electric, non-polluting Segway. Silver is joined in his opposition to the bill by Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak."

    Maybe that could have read "...but Harris Siliver, founder of Citystreets, an urban improvement organization, says the NYC Department of Transportation is specifically targeting the electric scooter that uses an unconventional method of control and is much faster than pedestrians and frequently piloted by speed demons. Silver is joined in his opposition to the bill by Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak."

    I'm all for ways to get rid of cars and pollution. But these scooters travel at a good speed, much faster than pedestrians. They have separate lanes for bikes, or they make bikes ride in the street. They do this because biking amongst pedestrians is often dangerous at high speeds. Doesn't it make sense that segwaying at high speeds among pedestrians is dangerous too? I'm not saying ban the segway. But getting it off the sidewalk is probably not a bad thing. Sidewalks are for people. Bike lanes are for bikes. Where does the segway go? The bike lanes? The street? I don't know, but I would be scared every time a scooter bore down on me with a person on it at 12MPH. As Marty McFly Jr. said, "Hey, I'm walking here!"

    • Re:Biased wibbles... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by DoubleD ( 29726 )
      Why not simply issue tickets for unsafe movement on a sidewalk. Do we really need laws banning forms of transportation that can be used responsibly and safely?

      Regulate the behavior not the device (kind of like the general slashdot opinion of DeCSS).

      • Re:Biased wibbles... (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        So if I ride my car on the sidewalk when there is no one there that should be fine? Pedestrians and wheelchairs are the only things that ever belong on the sidewalk. There is no such thing as a safe segway on the sidewalk. If they want to press their luck with the cabs like those nutso bike messengers do then it is their karma.

      • Do we really need laws banning forms of transportation that can be used responsibly and safely?

        How can a segway be used, in New York, safely and responsibly? They aren't allowed in public, so what are you going to do with them? Spend several thousand dollars on them so you can drive around your apartment?

        I am a bit torn on the subject. I see powered scooters sold on the streets here all the time, and you know that practically the only use for them is kids driving down the street. They can't be used of

        • I don't know about NYC, but I know in NC anyway, parking lots are considered "public vehicle areas" which fall under all the same laws as highways (roads), and if that's the case in NYC as well, then you can only use it inside ;)
    • What astounds me is that this group would name itself "a pedestrian advocacy group". The segway is a motorized vehicle. A segway is *not* a pedestrian.

      Where does this newspeak lunacy end? If siliver wants to argue that segways are safe, and should be allowed to mingle -- I disagree -- but so be it, he is perfectly within his rights to bring his argument. But to try and frame and cripple the debate by purposefully polluting language is f'ing sad.

      Segways belong on the street like other motor vehicles
    • on www.citystreets.org/segway2.html [citystreets.org] they say:

      we also understand that to say "Segways can't be ridden on sidewalks in NYC" is essentially to argue that "Segways shouldn't exist in NYC", since the only place left to ride them would be on streets. And to tell someone standing on an unprotected platform to mix with 8,000 pound SUV's is not a reasonable thing to say as it places the Segway rider in unacceptable danger.

      I don't know anything about this "pedestrian advocacy group', but this seems really backward

  • OSS Reference: add your gov-relevant project (Score:5, Informative)

    by persaud ( 304710 ) on Thursday April 22, 2004 @08:29PM (#8945432)
    For submitting a new listing (free) for the next edition of the book, go here [egovos.org].

  • WOW! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by agslashdot ( 574098 ) <sundararaman DOT ... AT gmail DOT com> on Thursday April 22, 2004 @08:31PM (#8945438)

    This is such an awe-inspiring effort. Logging 200 hours of footage over 3 years...I can imagine the amount of dedication, effort, logistics & scheduling that went into making this possible.
    Hats off to you!

    I'm into my 4th month of filmmaking right now. Logged 20+ hours so far, a dozen interviews under my belt, lots of travel, caffeine, sleepless nights...and I've barely begun. By the time I hope to be finished, I hope to have about 50 hours of footage. Just sifting thru all that, deciding which segment will make the cut & which won't...gigantic effort. I can't even imagine what you're going thru, narrowing down 200 hours into 3 DVDs. I wish you luck & lots & lots of patience.

    There was this one documentary I watched recently - "Begging Naked" - that tracked this prostitute thru 7 yeas of her life. 7 years!!! In those 90 minutes of footage, you can practically see the person aging in front of you. The prostitute goes from being a young sexy hooker making pots of money in a Manhattan apartment to an old haggard woman living under a tree in Central Park out of a cardboard box. The person who made this film started filming in her 20s & is now in her 30s & the film still hasn't gotten a theatrical release. And she keeps plugging away. That's motivation for you!












    Project Outsourced - the film [projectoutsourced.com]

    • Re:WOW! (Score:5, Funny)

      by telstar ( 236404 ) on Thursday April 22, 2004 @10:33PM (#8946076)
      "This is such an awe-inspiring effort. Logging 200 hours of footage over 3 years...I can imagine the amount of dedication, effort, logistics & scheduling that went into making this possible.
      Hats off to you!"
      • Actually, the whole thing is just footage of a series of ANSI pictures and MUD sessions being downloaded over a 2400 baud modem while some 13 year old's mom periodically picks up the phone in the other room interrupting the feed.

  • Tony Stanco - SELinux project leader? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 22, 2004 @08:31PM (#8945445)
    On the second page of the "Open Source Reference Book", which is introduced
    with the sentence "The Government Open Source Advisory Committee is a group of
    Open Source project leaders...", there is this line:


    "For the SELinux Chair Tony Stanco...... Tony@egovos.org"


    What does this mean?

  • Turing Test (Score:5, Funny)

    by timotten ( 5411 ) on Thursday April 22, 2004 @08:35PM (#8945468) Homepage
    ...it's Xchat that calls me "an idiot" when I've tried to run it as root...

    It's nice to see that we finally have chatbots which pass the Turing test.

  • Free, but not automatic (Score:5, Insightful)

    by peacefinder ( 469349 ) * <alan.dewitt@gmAA ... inus threevowels> on Thursday April 22, 2004 @08:35PM (#8945470) Journal
    [...] apt-get update seems to count as free updates to me [...]

    Sure, they're free, but they're not automatic. This may be spurious, hairsplitting FUD, but what the hell... let's get rid of it:

    In the default installation, have the installer create a tool to run the update from a random server chosen from a list of approved servers for the distro. Assign it to run at a random time, then repeat it weekly as a cron job called something obvious like weeklyupdate.

    Do this for all free *nix distros. Move on.

    • Assign it to run at a random time, then repeat it weekly as a cron job called something obvious like weeklyupdate.
      How about something obvious like cron-apt [debian.org]?

    • nuts, auto is a bad idea. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by twitter ( 104583 ) on Thursday April 22, 2004 @09:48PM (#8945848) Homepage Journal
      Software should not be pushed for practical and philisophical reasons.

      The whole point of free software is user control. Free software is big enough for you and I to agree to dissagree about it, you do things your way and I'll do them mine.

      Here are some situations where you don't want auto updates:

      • Dial up connection
      • Unstable distro
      • Qualified systems

      The above constitutes a majority of installations. Most people still have dial up. Most people prefer the hottest software around. It is difficult to get upgrades over a modem unless you scale back to stable and only take what security.debian.org offers.

      How does Microsoft do the same thing, you might ask. Obviously, they don't.

      • The whole point of free software is user control. Free software is big enough for you and I to agree to dissagree about it, you do things your way and I'll do them mine.

        Fair enough, but I'm talking about default behavior, not required behavior.

        Anyone running a development branch of anything can be assumed to know enough to disable the automatic updater. So can administrators of qualified systems. A new user of a free *nix cannot be assumed to know enough to get updates at all, so it seems to me it'd be r
      • How does Microsoft do the same thing, you might ask. Obviously, they don't.

        Windows update keeps my Windows (R) Operating System up-to-date by automatically downloading and installing critical security patches at a time that suits me! So fuck off!

        Microsoft releases patches for it's stable branches, just like everyone else. There is no use of an unstable branch outside Microsoft's own beta runs, and even then auto-update still functions.

        Also, why not visit windowsupdate.com to scan for and download th
        • Updates are the responsibility off the Linux Vendor. This is one of the reasons to use Mandrake or Red Hat or SuSE, or Debian, or several others; as opposed to rolling your own. They go through compile updates for your software and provide an easy way to install them.

          Everyone of the ones mentioned provide an easy way of checking and downloading updates for your distro.

          Several provide automatic tools. Perhaps all do, but I am not positive for some. Even if they don't, it would be possible to script you

    • Sure, they're free, but they're not automatic.

      What's wrong with that?

      This author is obviously an idiot for saying Linux should have automatic updates. Windows only recently got automatic updates, and it's disabled by default.

      I know a lot of OSes, and I can't think of any other one that automatically updates. It's a stupid idea to give people less control. Maybe it could be a setup option on Mandrake or something, but other than that, it's a terrible idea.

      Come in one day, your computer has crashed, se

    • Within the first two hours of a Fedora or RHEL install, the Red Hat Netowrk services daemon will contact a server and begin flashing a red exclamation mark in the notification area of the desktop if there are updates available. If a user clicks it, they'll get updates - either free ones from a Fedora mirror if they're using Fedora or paid ones from Red Hat Network if they've brought EL.

      This is default behavior.

    • In the default installation, have the installer create a tool to run the update from a random server chosen from a list of approved servers for the distro. Assign it to run at a random time, then repeat it weekly as a cron job called something obvious like weeklyupdate.

      Fedora does this. It's not on by default (you need to symbolically link it into your rc.d) but it runs yum nightly to download and install updates.

  • Don't know how they do it now.... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by geomon ( 78680 ) on Thursday April 22, 2004 @08:36PM (#8945475) Homepage Journal
    but SuSE used to have a bright, red background with big, black bombs tiled all over the place while logged in as root in X.

    A little hard to miss that much blinding backcrap.

  • "Ship it now, fix it once it's sold" (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 22, 2004 @08:43PM (#8945516)
    Is it a good business model? No, but Linux has no monopoly on it.

    That credo was invented by greedy, proprietary corporations.

    I used to post a sign over my desk which said "If you haven't the time to do it right the first time, how will you ever find the time to do it over?"

    It always pissed off the powers when they stopped by.
    • That credo was invented by greedy, proprietary corporations.

      But also a useful strategy for other businesses as well. Your funding runs out in three days. It will take three weeks to fix that last remaining nasty bug. Do you:

      A) Fire all the employees and wistfully remark, "well, we tried"?

      B) Release the software with that bug in it, issue a 1.1 version later, and retain your employees?

  • Now... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by zeruch ( 547271 ) <zeruch.deviantart@com> on Thursday April 22, 2004 @08:51PM (#8945560) Homepage
    ...while Linux still has it's hangups and limits (like every other OS), has anyone else noticed that arguments presented in selected media outlets has moved to ever more uninformed/poorly researched tripe? It was almost excusable a few years ago because the territory could be seen as arguable new or alien to the status quo at the time. But these days? That shit is just plain unprofessional and sloppy.

    • That's the Wintel press for you. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by twitter ( 104583 ) on Thursday April 22, 2004 @10:06PM (#8945950) Homepage Journal
      has anyone else noticed that arguments presented in selected media outlets has moved to ever more uninformed/poorly researched tripe? ... That shit is just plain unprofessional and sloppy.

      That's true, but there are some very encouraging signs too.

      The problem is that some people are producing magazines that pretend to be news, but are really advertisements. These magazines will continue to ignore everything but their patron's wares and will always be clueless. They also continue to offer FUD to reassure clueless administrators their money was well spent. Microsoft planned to spend more than a billion dollars promoting XP and that kind of money feeds an entire ecosystem of shills and quacks. "Computer" magazines that don't cover free software but instead encourage you to purchase eXPensive junk are not worth reading.

      The good news is that reputable news outlets are catching on. They are specifying what OS and software are effected by what they used to call "computer viruses". Most have penetrated the SCO FUD machine and reported it for what it is. Microsoft can shake their advertising budget at them still, but reputable news sources are going to pick credibility over the wishes of an advertiser.

    • I just looked at that site and I'm not really impressed. The four articles I looked at which supposedly debunk others don't include any references. It's all done with hand-waving arguments. Now I'm not saying those arguments are incorrect, just that if you're going to go after false claims you should have independent sources to back up your assertions too.

      For a good comparison, check out the following two articles:

      If you're gonna debunk the shills,

  • Torrent Please! (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Just because I wanted to relive some of the good old BBS days, doesn't mean I want to download the 14MB trailer at 9600 baud ;)

  • warning: /. post is inaccurate (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    "The writer of the article slams Linux for not having free automated updates"

    The article specifically talks about Lindows (Linspire), not Linux distros in general.

  • Donald Duck using open source? (Score:5, Funny)

    by farnerup ( 608326 ) on Thursday April 22, 2004 @10:18PM (#8946021)
    On page 179 of the open source directory is the Swedish company "Kalle Anka AB" of Ankeborg. Or in English: Donald Duck Inc. of Duckburg.

    Seems like a reliable source of information ...

  • BBS documentary (Score:3, Interesting)

    by IGnatius T Foobar ( 4328 ) on Thursday April 22, 2004 @10:43PM (#8946128) Homepage Journal
    I was one of the interviewees for Jason Scott's BBS documentary. One of the things that I think is going to be successfully communicated (otherwise I'm going to go find Jason and make him do three more DVD's) is that BBS's are not a thing of the past -- the community is alive and well, albeit changed a bit. The days of dialup are definitely over, but people are finding more and more that they need to connect with people. It's so much more satisfying (for those with an actual brain that functions, anyway) than mindlessly consuming the big corporations' attempts to move everything into CONSUME OUR CONTENT format.

    It's the reason people love 'blogs, it's the reason they love IRC, and it's the reason they love sites like mine (see sig) that still follow the traditional BBS format. In some ways it's even better now, with the ability to have lots of people on at once.
  • I mean if the Segway was every 3rd object on the sidewalk, yeah it'd be a problem. But my guess is that maybe it's like 1 out of every 5000.

    They are neat to watch, I saw one at a college I was selling at. A radio station had it and it was plastered with ads. That's why I think that the Segway will never be that popular, it's too expensive and only the super rich and those that have advertising revenue streams will be able to use it.
    • It's actual motorized scooters with small, 2-stroke engines. On my walk from the train stration to the building, I pass three storefronts selling these things for around $100-300. If you look around you'll see

      The Segway is just getting caught in the crossfire and there probably some people who want to ban them as well, but the real problem is these scooters.
  • "Linux doesn't have automatic updates." Ignorant, caught in a time warp, or trolling? I pick the latter. We've had commercial trolls for a while. They post some inflammatory story to wind up the slashdot crowd, get tons of page views, then post something more conciliatory to ward off the raving loonies. Rob Enderle comes to mind, although I don't remember his specific exploits.

    I think more of the mainstream media is catching on to the commercial potential of trolling the linux crowd. Just make an unf
    • Except it doesn't. Not a standard system, and none of the distro's i've ever used ever had it. And if they did, it wouldn't properly update the stuff i'd compiled myself - so realistically, Linux can't have auto-updates unless they were entirely binary-only patches.
  • On Friday the last day of the MySQL Users' Convention (not be be confused with the previous MySQL User's Conventions held in Monty's home, but I digress...) I walked across the street to the former FAO Schwartz-themed shopping mall and was mauled by a couple of guys touring on Segways amidst pedestrian traffic. Some kind of promotion company allowed people to ride a Segway (followed closely by a man riding a smaller, easier to manuver scooter, which is what I would have chosen, too, funnily enough) at touri

  • Mandrake (Score:3, Funny)

    by Lars T. ( 470328 ) <{Lars.Traeger} {at} {googlemail.com}> on Friday April 23, 2004 @07:17AM (#8948101) Journal
    The writer of the article slams Linux for not having free automated updates, enabling services in default installations, and not warning users when they are using 'root'. Uhmm, I could be wrong, but hasn't Mandrake been doing that for quite some time?

    You forgot the "must not be French" clause ;-)

  • SpyMac is not that great (Score:3, Interesting)

    by randomErr ( 172078 ) <.ervin.kosch. .at. .gmail.com.> on Friday April 23, 2004 @07:51AM (#8948196) Journal
    I signed up for a SpyMac account when I read the post on the GMail story. Well here's my take on the service: SLOW and GLITCHY.

    I had to sign up 3 times before it would take my information.

    I've tried uploading my avatar for forums 7 times in 3 days and it still has yet to work. The same thing for selecting one of there a predefined picture.

    The e-mail page itself takes up 5 minutes to load.

    I sent a message from one of my accounts(www.2d.com) and it took 12 hours before it showed up in my inbox.

    This service seems more like a beta products then a production ready system. A couple of suggestions:
    -Cut back on the mac-esc graphics. They're killing your server.
    - Maybe turn your storage down to 100 megs until you can scale to meet the demands of what you have.
    - Give POP3/SMTP access to your system. See above 2 points.

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