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Grex > Jelly > #70: Microsoft rolls out "Vista" |  |
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| 25 new of 203 responses total. |
maus
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response 121 of 203:
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Feb 15 17:08 UTC 2007 |
SLED is SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop
RHEL is Red Hat Enterprise Linux
What is the time commitment to tweaking it to useability? Are you able
to be notified of updates and automagically apply them?
up2date/yum/zmd/zen-updater are really nice and save me loads of time
and aggrivation.
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keesan
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response 122 of 203:
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Feb 15 22:17 UTC 2007 |
There are no 'updates'. The author and the users compile things and offer
them to others for use. I compiled lynx and ghostcript and netpbm, all with
help, and packaged them. Anyone who feels like it adds whatever they like
and if it does not work, asks for help. xpdf did not work with libc5 X so
I figured out how to get pdftoppm to work instead, used with zgv. Someone
put together for me a 1-floppy version to use with my USB camera. I put
together an 8MB loop version to put ON my USB camera (on the memory card).
Someone else used the 1-floppy version to learn on then I compiled a special
kernel for them to run linux in 8MB ramdisk for use in Prague. They put
together mutt and sound packages for us. Another list member and I are going
to compile busybox against uclibc. He just compiled uclibc and made me an
account on his computer. This is not a turnkey sort of linux.
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maus
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response 123 of 203:
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Feb 15 23:32 UTC 2007 |
That sounds like a lot of fun for a hobbyist who has more time than
anything else. At some point, when I have the time, I may check it out,
but I will say that it is ill suited for the use that I make of Linux
(or any other OS+Software stack). When I have machines that I or others
count on, I cannot rely on some guy in usenet; I have to have solutions
that are backed by a company with a financial incentive to do things
right, whether that is to keep software patched and automatically
available, or to provide well-integrated and thoroughly tested useful
software. If a security patch is not available because the user
community does not think the software is hip, my users are put at risk.
Patch management becomes extra important when you have a large number of
internet-facing computers; the one system that you forget to manually
patch can be the toe-hold for a malicious intruder or for rot and
entropy to set in.
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nharmon
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response 124 of 203:
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Feb 16 00:51 UTC 2007 |
The only reason I've come across for running SLED or RHES is to get
support from Oracle (and probably other software vendors). Otherwise,
CentOS is great. :)
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maus
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response 125 of 203:
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Feb 16 03:20 UTC 2007 |
Support for the OS and bundled apps is important, too. That said, for
home use, I do go for CentOS/OpenSuse/Windows Server Basic
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keesan
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response 126 of 203:
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Feb 16 04:02 UTC 2007 |
Our little linux is for single users, not companies. The only support is our
ibiblio mailing list. We have currently active members in New Zealand
(author), Australia (two), all over the United States, Prague, Lithuania, and
have had Poland, England, France, Spain, Hong Kong, Nigeria, Germany,
Netherlands, Sweden, Argentina, and who knows where else. Lots of lurkers.
Several of us learned linux via the list.
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twenex
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response 127 of 203:
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Feb 16 13:30 UTC 2007 |
There are more Linuxes available for single users or households and not for
companies than just basiclinux.
Ubuntu, for example, though I've never been Uber-impressed w/ it.
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cross
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response 128 of 203:
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Feb 16 13:55 UTC 2007 |
Ubuntu is certainly used in some companies!
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keesan
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response 129 of 203:
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Feb 16 15:37 UTC 2007 |
Ubuntu does not work (out of the box) on much of our hardware. It insisted
on 128MB RAM and 2GB (to install to) and could not find the ISA modem or sound
card. Dumped you right into X (I had trouble figuring out how to get back
out). Did not have kermit or opera or zgv. We got it to dial once by
manually configuring and removed it.
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cross
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response 130 of 203:
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Feb 16 16:47 UTC 2007 |
What you do is pathological.
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keesan
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response 131 of 203:
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Feb 16 17:28 UTC 2007 |
Cross, please stop picking on me. If what I write annoys you, put me in your
twit filter instead.
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nharmon
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response 132 of 203:
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Feb 16 17:37 UTC 2007 |
Some of us wouldn't get anything done if we had to put as much time into
it as Sindi does.
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cross
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response 133 of 203:
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Feb 16 19:58 UTC 2007 |
Regarding #131; I'm not picking on you. I'm just saying that what you do is
pathologically different from what the vast majority of Ubuntu users do. I
don't understand why you'd pitch in about what business users do anyway, since
you're so far removed from that case that it's silly. Btw- in Computer
Science, the word `pathological' does not have the same meaning it has in
criminal justice.
You should also learn to use paragraphs.
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keesan
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response 134 of 203:
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Feb 16 23:34 UTC 2007 |
So what does pathological mean in computer science?
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cross
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response 135 of 203:
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Feb 16 23:50 UTC 2007 |
Essentially, pushed to an extreme. So, for instance, some times we say that
algorithms exhibit `pathological behavior' if we hit some sort of edge case
that greatly increases the algorithm's running time or something of that
nature.
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easlern
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response 136 of 203:
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Feb 17 00:04 UTC 2007 |
Counter to understanding maybe? Patho = abnormal and logos = knowledge I
think.
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mcnally
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response 137 of 203:
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Feb 17 00:54 UTC 2007 |
It's a good thing cross didn't use another, related term to describe
Sindi's behavior. But the insult potential of describing someone
else as "the degenerate case" would be pretty unmistakable, even if
it wasn't meant in a critical sense.
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cross
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response 138 of 203:
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Feb 17 04:18 UTC 2007 |
Hmm, I tend not to think of it like that. For instance, when someone says,
``the pathological case of quicksort'' one is typically referring to an input
that gives an O(n^2) running time (ie, one that is quadratic in the size of
the input). Rather, that's the worst case running time for a pathological
input.
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maus
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response 139 of 203:
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Feb 17 06:32 UTC 2007 |
I will say that it seems to me that keesan exerts more effort than it
would be worth to the majority of Linux/BSD users to get a working
system, and that the hardware on which keesan does this costs
significantly more in having to fiddle with it than it would to replace
with something more recent and more supportable (one for which
replacement parts can be obtained easily and which the OEM has not
disavowed).
This is not to say that everyone should dump their older machines, but
there is a threshold age beyond which a machine demands more effort than
it is worth. I lump 32bit Sparcstations, pre-pentium 2 PCs and System7
and earlier Macs into this category.
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keesan
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response 140 of 203:
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Feb 17 13:13 UTC 2007 |
keesan spends almost no money on entertainment. And provides or sets up 10-20
free computer systems a year to friends, neighbors, etc., who otherwise would
not have any computers, and learns a lot, and gets a system that is much more
pleasant to work with than anything that could be purchased.
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cyklone
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response 141 of 203:
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Feb 17 14:03 UTC 2007 |
"More pleasant" being a subjective term that, as you define it, would not
apply to the vast majority of computer users.
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johnnie
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response 142 of 203:
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Feb 17 15:16 UTC 2007 |
Well, the setting-it-up part is no doubt a big PITA, but the end result
is likely pleasing, particularly if the ultimate user is concerned about
the simple things (such as email and word-processing).
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keesan
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response 143 of 203:
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Feb 17 15:42 UTC 2007 |
I enjoy learning to set it up and I hate GUIS. I just figured out how to set
up 38MB of linux with three browsers, and kermit and a few other useful things
which includes X and a window manager and email and text editor.....
for someone who only wants to use it for browsing and email. Her ex husband
liked what I set up for him. She also wants Office Suite which is no fun at
all to set up and wants 121MB typical (Office 97) plus the 150MB of minimal
Win98.
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cross
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response 144 of 203:
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Feb 18 00:58 UTC 2007 |
You're free to hate whatever you want. My concern is that, when you set
someone up with some recycled computer, that you inject your own biases and
potentially prevent them from doing useful stuff in a way that's compatible
with the mainstream. Certainly, installing Windows 98 on someone's computer
isn't a good idea; it's ridiuled with security problems. You'd be better off
figuring out how to install Ubuntu or something lik ethat.
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keesan
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response 145 of 203:
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Feb 18 01:20 UTC 2007 |
Why is Ubuntu better than Slackware? Win98 is only to run WORD on (not all
of Office Suite, I was told. She just can't tell them apart). Linux for
internet. With Opera. No Shockwave Flash or noises. Good for email.
I am setting it up to go into X directly, with a menu.
Ubuntu does not work well on old hardware. It could not even find our modem
or sound card, and it wastes most of the memory on unneeded daemons and boots
slowly and runs slowly.
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