Recent Posts

451

N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Teaser: Permanent Toothbrush, i.e. Iphi's Memorable Passwords

« Last post by iphigenie on December 15, 2008, 11:46 AM »

Note: This is very much an exercise for me, and not that easy, as in the past 2 years I have mostly told other people what/how to build applications, and not written much myself beyond refactoring, I dont know how to start something from scratch anymore! I have no idea where I am going with this at the moment, hopefully having taken a step I will force myself through that feeling of reluctance into actually doing something, even something ugly.

Even though I am unlikely to take a job where I am that hands on anymore, it's good for me not to loose touch.

Perhaps I should call it Persistent Toothbrush - a more geeky name

452

N.A.N.Y. 2009 / NANY 2009 Withdrawn (sorry): Iphi's Memorable Passwords

« Last post by iphigenie on December 15, 2008, 11:34 AM »

(please fix this if i am doing it wrong)
I can't quite make it fit the theme, but it seems more potentiall useful than my "count your blessings" idea.
This is a tough call as I am gone abroad for the holidays, but I figure I ought to be able to fall back to a web based service option.

Application Name	Permanent Persistent Toothbrush (codename, for now)
Version	none yet
Short Description	Phase 1: generates passwords that are both strong and easy (for 1 person) to re-create.
Supported OSes	not sure yet, could be web based only
Download Link
Author

The premise:

We all have to come up with a phenomenal number of passwords both online and offline. More than we can remember. Current solutions are:
1) use the same 2-3 usernames and 2-3 passwords. Rather insecure in that once someone has one
2) use a strong password generator, and store these in a password manager. More secure but has a single point of failure
3) central ID systems like openID - great, but not widely used

I always preferred finding passwords that were easy to remember/trigger but strong. Then all I would need is a reminder manager - no need to store my passwords, just reminders that are only useful to me.

The key idea is that we remember sentences and stories far better than we remember random combinations of characters. And we remember patterns/processes fairly well too.

I will give an example - say I am joining the book site librarything.com and I need a password.

I start with the trigger "book", the program will then find a poem or quote about books (if it can) in its database (not sure whether i will store it all or use openly available content sites online in the background).

Books to the ceiling
Books to the sky
My piles of books are a mile high
How I love them
How I need them
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them

~Arnold Lobel

or

Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside a dog, it's too dark to read -- Groucho Marx

Now several passwords can be generated, but by either taking a sub sentence or first letters of words, swapping 2 to numbers and swapping 2 to upper case, you have a strong password.

And strangely enough, it is easier to remember this whole sequence than it is to remember something like "1aD1tDtr" or "Ih4lbbttIrt", and a trigger such as "outside of a dog" or "books to the ceiling" can be all you need even after not using it for a year.

The name comes from a memorable quote:

Treat your password like your toothbrush. Don't let anybody else use it, and get a new one every six months.
Clifford Stoll

The plan:

Phase 1: password + password reminder generator

- keyword/topic based database of quotes and poem
- supports contraints such as length, number of uppercase or digits required
- option to search online in open content
- supports the option for multiple language-specific source databases
- can save and export lists of generated passwords

Phase 2: reminder manager

either: (maybe, not happening within NANY): web widget to show password reminders on website log in forms - javascript bookmarklet perhaps?
or: (maybe, not happening within NANY): modification of open source password manager to be a reminder manager.

Feedback more than welcome, even if it is "don't bother, already been done, cant be useful"

453

N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Intro

« Last post by iphigenie on December 15, 2008, 11:05 AM »

It'd be great to see something from you.
Let me offer a truly self-serving idea (feel free to ignore it, of course).
I mention this because I feel it would be quick to do for someone capable.

Some while back I asked if someone could do this.
There were many helpful responses but none resulted in quite what I was seeking.
This was easy to do under OS/2 and I've always wished it were available under Windows.
None of the 'canned' applications does it.
It's Here.

As I say, if this strikes you as ludicrous, or beneath your talents, just ignore the idea.

-cranioscopical (December 15, 2008, 08:20 AM)

Funnily enough the only place I ever wrote graphical UI apps was OS/2 (and that was purely to learn it). I still have the Visual Age registration codes somewhere...

I could probably do the math for the spacing and all that, since i did teach numerical physics.

the bit about manipulating icons totally daunts me, I wouldnt know where to start. And the problem is, if you don't know where to start with something, you end up getting sidetracked or procrastinating. Currently i am wasting my time going through tutorials and reading myself back up to date about 3 different languages and checking all the web frameworks out there.
My background is data processing, command line stuff, and web. I think I need something requiring less understanding of how the specific OS or window manager works.

I'm gravitating back to "iphi's memorable passwords" idea - because I don't like using tools that remember passwords for you, that is a security risk, neither is it smart to use the same combination everywhere - the best option is to have passwords that are hard to guess, but that can easily be re-triggered for the person even after not having used them for a while...
My full idea is too much for a nany but i might do part of it... desktop or web, that is the question.

I have actually taken the jump to write it up https://www.donation....msg142274#msg142274

454

General Software Discussion / Re: Best App to save whole webpage AND its linked pages?

« Last post by iphigenie on December 15, 2008, 10:09 AM »

I'm using the Lite or freeware version of Local Website Archive and seldom use HTTrack anymore. YMMV

-Cuffy (December 04, 2008, 08:50 PM)

LWA is my main "save web content" option - i have the pro version (at the time there was a size limit on the free version).

I like that it saves things in open format (kind of the same as save-full-page from a browser) but additionally offers search, notes and organisation.

I save recipes, craft patterns, programming references, articles etc - everything that I might want to retrieve even years later or . I also save the page for any shareware/freeware I download. Websites do disappear, after all.

BUT what it doesn't do is save more than one page at a time - now for a whole website cloning there is httrack, but when i have say an online manual, with dozens of pages, httrack is a lot of work to set up just to get "all the links on this page and that's it". I would love to add them all to LWA but one by one is too unwieldy.

455

N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Intro

« Last post by iphigenie on December 15, 2008, 05:56 AM »

I'm feeling rather discouraged/overwhelmed at trying a desktop app.
Tried in wxperl (since i can do perl in my sleep, or close) but realised that there is pretty much no way to package things properly for distribution. So will have to tackle something else.

Netbeans/java perhaps but I already have another product with a steep learning curve so I don't know.

456

General Software Discussion / Re: Check&Get or Power Favorites or Linkman

« Last post by iphigenie on December 15, 2008, 05:55 AM »

Link commander and linkman were my favorites when I tested them

I liked linkman's small bar for access, but for adding and managing I preferred link commander.

I have emailed resort labs and they have assured me that they were planning to release an update supporting chrome, and fixing one issue i had on the sync for opera bookmarks - but i haven't seen anything. So at the moment I am on wait-and-see.

457

N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Communal Idea Thread

« Last post by iphigenie on December 12, 2008, 04:35 PM »

It is a well known technique for thrift - wait 60 days before you purchase anything new, 30 days if you get it second hand etc. Makes you think - but only if you are honest with yourself.

I guess if the app had some links to open a browser and search, coded with the name of the item, that would be extremely simple and encourage research

458

N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Communal Idea Thread

« Last post by iphigenie on December 12, 2008, 05:43 AM »

Here's an idea:

"Purchase LockBox"

• This would be a utility where you add items to a list, specifying a description and it's cost.
• The program's job is to prevent you from spending money on large items on a whim.
• So when you put in a new entry, it adds a column that tells you how many days until you can buy the item, starting at 30 days.
• Every day you must bring up the program and push a button indicating that you still think buying the item is a good idea.
• If you fail to do this for any 24 hour period, the delay will reset back to 30 days.
• So only if you continue to indicate each day that you think buying the item is a good idea, will you reach the end of the 30 day period and be "permitted" to buy it.
• This also gives your "significant other" time to spot your intentions and put the kibosh on it.

-mouser (November 14, 2008, 07:02 PM)

This is actually a cool idea, and would get coverage on all the thrifty/simplicity etc. blogs out there, possibly even lifehack and the like

459

Living Room / Re: Frozen Bubble - Now available in Flash!

« Last post by iphigenie on December 12, 2008, 05:42 AM »

I am amazed at this game, the idea that is written in perl and the sourcecode is available.

As an old perl hand this is very intriguing 

460

N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Communal Idea Thread

« Last post by iphigenie on December 12, 2008, 05:32 AM »

I am about to chicken out - I am a client/server and web developer, and the last time I did anything desktop-ey was playing with visual age C++ on OS/2 to learn the basic APIs. I haven't got a clue how to do a "normal" application.

I thought I would if I could find an idea, but most of my ideas are the kind of software i wish someone were doing, and totally out of my reach. The only think i can imagine doing is a password generator for passwords that are strong but possible to remember. But frankly, there are a couple already out there i think.

461

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Slysoft 20% discount on all products Expires Wednesday, December 31 2008!

« Last post by iphigenie on December 11, 2008, 05:54 PM »

There are special coupons for returning customers if one asks and  also volume discounts.

-expat83 (December 21, 2007, 11:15 AM)

You know, I own 3 of your products, and last winter I emailed you asking if the fact that I already owned 3 would get me a discount on another one.

Didn't get a reply - and I just decided I didnt need the product enough and could live without. If there was a more official scheme, or a member's area with that kind of information, you might have had the sale.

462

General Software Discussion / Re: How do you manage your email?

« Last post by iphigenie on December 11, 2008, 05:49 PM »

popfile is awesome - the only bayesian filter I ever used that could not only learn about spam, but i taught it to recognise
- newsletters & automated letters
- professional email
- personal email
Once trained it could tell the difference between a colleague sending me an email about work or about going clubbing thursday night!

463

Living Room / Re: Christmas Gift Ideas Under $25... Make a List!

« Last post by iphigenie on December 10, 2008, 06:48 AM »

I'd love some good science based toy ideas for kids all ages - not the gimmicky stuff, but stuff that will be fun while perhaps encouraging a passion for  knowing...

They got a telescope with small astronomy books (adapted to each age) 2 years ago, but I think I need something more fun this year

Considering the usb microscope, or a plain old one, but that might be silly to receive in the winter.

464

Living Room / Re: A rant on religiousness about OSes

« Last post by iphigenie on December 10, 2008, 06:20 AM »

I'm currently looking for a job, and I get these amazing proposals for system administration or senior architect with salaries that are almost silly for the job - but I have moved on.

-iphigenie (December 09, 2008, 06:45 PM)

Must be nice.

-40hz (December 09, 2008, 09:09 PM)

Hmm, no it's not - i probably phrased it wrong. The precise things I should have said is "I keep being sent these adverts for sysadm or architect positions with surprising salaries" - they are not outright offers, they are not real proposals, just  a "hey we're looking for someone and your keywords matched". I probably wouldnt get them if I applied, being so over-experienced (although i think i would do way better as an infrastructure/architecture person than I would at a pure developer role, another thing I keep getting), and I am still hoping for something closer to one of my recent jobs. Will take a job like this as a short contract while waiting for the right option to come along, but it is starting to nag at me because I feel I am wasting my days.

Still, it is a good time to be an infrastructure person with 4-5 years of experience, there seems to be jobs around (here in the uk)

465

Living Room / Re: A rant on religiousness about OSes

« Last post by iphigenie on December 09, 2008, 06:45 PM »

They have preconfigured stacks that run just about anything you could want. Most of them are available for Windows, OSX, and Linux so you can be as "agnostic" as you'd like. Bitnami caters to all trade.

-40hz (December 09, 2008, 12:05 PM)

For my home stuff I would certainly be happy to use something like this - especially to test something, that is cool. (Used to be real hard to get decent quick try stacks on windows, that is very cool). I didnt know of that resource, will certainly bookmark and share it!

When it comes to work/production I am afraid I am old school - what you don't know is what will hurt you later. I tweak my OS (or make people tweak, nowadays) with a pickness about security, automation, monitoring and performance.

But for everything else, why not install your own? File servers are a piece of cake if you have an even moderate amount of technical acumen. Same goes for most web servers, web apps, gateways, and routers. Even configuring a security appliance becomes pretty straight forward when you use something like Untangle Gateway.

Perhaps you're just feeling a little tired?  

-40hz (December 09, 2008, 12:05 PM)

Probably very true. I'm currently looking for a job, and I get these amazing proposals for system administration or senior architect with salaries that are almost silly for the job - but I have moved on. I don't want to do that again. Oh, I dont mind jumping in now and then to see if I can help my guys, coach/guide/help with the mysterious horrible problem (been there this year doing just that) but doing more than that I am not so sure... - been at it 15 years, from "webmistress" to "CTO" and all sorts in between - and frankly if I never install another server except to dabble for fun it will be fine with me.

I probably miss it though - how else could i explain the third box currently in the kitchen with dual boot freeBSD and opensolaris, one with a netbeans/java/lucene/liferay set up, the other with perl and python frameworks all at various level of playing with... Theoretically I am done with messing with OSes and ready for them to become commodities (did i mention that file system on opensolaris? that is nearly ready to become universal commodity, if it can fulfill what it promises). Practically I just love the fun feeling you get messing with a new flavor, figuring it out, when you don't have a project with a deadline depending on it.

466

Living Room / Re: A rant on religiousness about OSes

« Last post by iphigenie on December 09, 2008, 06:10 PM »

Zaine, I'm glad you are clarifiying some of those points, I did move this post to a separate thread because although something you posted triggered it, it was not due to something you said. I know you are more clever and open minded and your post's intentions did nothing to deserve the rant, but it somehow pressed buttons that were sensitive based on so many things in the past. So I ranted elsewhere

I have made a lot of companies adopt open source, including linux - and the reason I rant about it is that I read so much about it that is rose tinted. The case can be made without being fake about it, and I think the linux community often is stealing the thunder of the other open source projects, and that cannot help.

Linux is not that stable when your business depends on it and you have to build/run/deploy things on it. No OS or platform ever feels stable in that context, there's always mysterious issues.

On linux and BSD typical nightmares include: things bound to the wrong library version (i lost a lot of time and got a lot of client aggro over an openssl issue of that kind), permission issues (arrrrrggggghhh for permission issues! - especially the fact that sometimes it is sensitive to the permissions 2 folders higher than the file in question), symbolic link issues (aaarrrggh for symbolic link issues too!), network driver issues (we had to switch from rackspace/redhat to another managed hosting/distribution due to one of them that they just could never trace, at the networking level), update issues (redhat broke perl modules when updating! and rackspace would not turn it off... Glad they fixed up2date since. I have also had several package managers break php5 and apache when removing php4), paths issues (theres always several ways to do it and frankly you never know for sure where your configuration information will end up. Firefox for example...)

On some of your other points I think I was simply pointing out some possible and common misunderstandings - it is common for linux advocates to claim all the "stack" as being justification for linux being better, when the stack is available across the open source OS board, and half of it on windows and others too. I know you know, but as I said I have had to read and interact with people far less clued up, and naively spouting this stuff. Commercial distributions also like to keep this concept on the incorrect side of fuzzy, as it is good for business.

Please get me right, this is not a rant against linux.

-iphigenie (December 09, 2008, 05:55 AM)

And then you go on to rant about... Linux.

-zridling (December 09, 2008, 04:53 PM)

I can rant about anything, pretty much. I have ranted about windows, linux, bsd, all sorts of apps - I have had ugly stuff happen with so many different tools and platforms. I have horror stories and stupid mistakes across the board. Don't get me started on *&^%$ zope, or rails, or sendmail (especially that one!)... I can also rave about certain aspect of the same (except perhaps sendmail, never went back)

467

Living Room / Re: A rant on religiousness about OSes

« Last post by iphigenie on December 09, 2008, 11:17 AM »

All OSes are insecure in the hands of an uninformed user. Granted, some are safer because an uninformed user cannot even begin to use them.

Hehe- which is where Linux Elitism begins...

-Edvard (December 09, 2008, 10:30 AM)

hehehe, i had BSD in mind with this one - but many linux distributions might also qualify. Never saw it as a virtue myself.

Although as someone who learned a lot of things in unix, I am very much someone who is almost more at ease with a console than a windowed environment, when trying to get work done, from there i can figure out things from the ground up. Kind of always have to do it, as I have used too many things, how the heck can i remember where slackware puts its network config or where debian puts its package files. There's man, locate, grep for these.

Currently trying to set up an open solaris server for fun, but not sure at all how to make sure stuff i installed via the pkg install is started automatically etc. Thankfully I dont have a deadline (currently between jobs, taking contracts if anyone knows someone, either as super experienced sassy tech leader, dev team manager, web project manager, or single-person build team. Also bored enough I might help with your project for fun/trade) so without a deadline it is fun to poke (but I am wasting a lot of time, letting it sit for days. how do people stay motivated when dabbling?)

Iphi, this is one hell of a post and one I will be linking to next time I spot a Holy OS War.
At the very least, I will post Iphi's Law in bold and all caps...

-Edvard (December 09, 2008, 10:30 AM)

Yay! go ahead, make me famous! I'll tell the author of Nebbe's rule I plagiarized him. He won't mind (it comes from the ada world and slighly forgotten)

As much as I love Linux, I have to admit. 7 years in, I still sometimes tear my hair out and say (softly to myself under my breath...) "If this was Windows, I'd just do this".
But now that I've gotten used to it and have taken advantage of the benefits I have with Linux, I shudder at the thought of having to deal with Windows' shortcomings in the same area.

-Edvard (December 09, 2008, 10:30 AM)

Yes, there is a lot each could take from the other. I have that a lot, comes right after the "how the heck do you do this on this OS again?" moment, the "why can't they do it like windows/linux/bsd?" moment.
And why the heck can't it be called ipconfig on *EVERYTHING* since they are all using the same layer?

And so many things NONE of them does right yet. Memory management, file systems (although sun's latest gem is extremely promising, and open source!), navigation & launch (cascade menus suck and docks are not much better!), dealing with I/O, dealing with multiple sound/media paths, removable devices - there's just plenty we haven't figured out how to do right, and we could do with having a good look at old interfaces like next, os/2 and more to see whether there were better ways we forgot (probably nostalgia rose tinted idea but...).

And why have we lost the truly excellent xpipeman somewhere along the way? No OS should be complete without a pipe and a marble game (sorry, personal wish, and one i am probably the only person in the universe to have)

All in all, kudos for a great post. Now, about this problem I have with 'pon'...

-Edvard (December 09, 2008, 10:30 AM)

Oh poor thing. We have routers for that kind of stuff...

Last time i had to deal with ppp it was ISDN dial up and it was DEFINITIVELY NOT FUN. I ran a gateway built myself for a while, mostly for mail (postfix, teapop, if anyone is curious) then decided it was "too much like work" (was still doing a significant bit of sysadmin at the time), put a connection sharing shareware on one of the windows boxes (was actually super excellent stuff!) used that for a while.

When i switched to cable I went back to a linux box as the gateway/server, which was my mail server (postfix, teapop and dovecot by then) and also a backup DNS for the web agency I was a director in. I later decided it was a ridiculous use of energy and bought a cheap wireless router, moved my mail to fastmail and my backup DNS to xname. The cheap router was first netgear, but that didnt work with World of Warcraft all that well, then an ASUS router. Had 2 of those for 3 years now (one on the top floor bridging to one on the ground floor), won't bother.

But we are doing work on our old house, and wiring everything with cat6 cable, have a rack in the basement with a nortel box (off ebay) and patch panel - all nicely gathering dust next to the ebayed sun sparc machine etc etc. When the top floor is finally painted and carpeted (might presuppose me taking a job or contract again) we will connect all this up and get a basement server...

perhaps...

Whenever i get tempted to set up a DNS or mail or file server in house again, i go get some fresh air and wait till it passes.

468

Living Room / Re: A rant on religiousness about OSes

« Last post by iphigenie on December 09, 2008, 10:39 AM »

Could you provide a link to the specific post you mentioned, so I can better understand what you're responding to?

Well that was the reason I posted it elsewhere, because i am not really responding to it. The thread today was the "is windows xp really that good" post - but nothing in that thread ends up deserving the kind of rant, it's just that I have seen it so many times much louder and worse (thankfully not here, we're all too clued up for it most of the time), so I started responding in there, thought "that's silly, nobody in there deserves that" and posted in a new thread.

Still, I guess this morning someone had p****ed on my cornflakes since I have gone on my soapbox 3 times today, twice here and once on friendfeed.

 

469

Living Room / Re: Gizmo's Tech Support Alert Newsletter Merges with Windows Secrets

« Last post by iphigenie on December 09, 2008, 10:33 AM »

I think the target public of the newsletter is different, and perhaps it can grow to the quality of your typical glossy pc magazine, minus the pointless reviews. I am far too interested and far too involved/advanced as a user for this to have value for me. Especially when several of the articles really taste of rehash from feeds I read, and others smell of sponsored content (perhaps they are not, i am naturally suspicious having worked in b2c and b2b publishing long enough).

But i wouldnt have posted here except i got 2 emails today to make me renew - that kind of annoyed me enough to come and see what others were saying, and say something too.

470

General Software Discussion / Re: UNISON - Outlook alternative.

« Last post by iphigenie on December 09, 2008, 08:01 AM »

hmm, i remember using zimbra 2-3 years ago for something like that. Since then they have been purchased (by yahoo?) but are still open source. I might want to compare the two in my never ending quest for the perfect solution

471

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Internet Download Manager - special Christmas discount

« Last post by iphigenie on December 09, 2008, 07:59 AM »

I used reget, i remember it was one of the best i tested.

I bought IDM - that was several years ago, and I have never had to pay for an upgrade or anything, and it has always worked flawlessly - including with chrome as soon as it was out, near enough.

472

Living Room / Re: A rant on religiousness about OSes

« Last post by iphigenie on December 09, 2008, 07:47 AM »

I am rather agnostic when it comes to OSes...

my own desktop machine is windows xp. I own 4 licenses. I have tried multiple times to go full open source, and have at times at work for development machines. It has always had a multi boot option to another OS, OS/2, DLD ( a german linux distribution which was very nice, bought by suse around 97?), Suse, Slackware, BSD variants, opensolaris, but since the death of OS/2 (which was my main OS for about 4 years) it is almost always on windows. The main reason is a)games b)a few programs, (changed over time, was dreamweaver and freehand back then, now it is mostly email and information management - i am too young to have learned pine and as a result i need a good email client)

If i had to bring a novice to computers I would probably choose a linux based option right now. If it was a young child whom I also want to get hooked on messing about, I would pick a slackware or debian based desktop distribution, for example Vector, because it is nice to have a mature, non commercially minded, and meant-to-be-fiddled-with distribution underneath the GUI. For an adult who is wary (say, elderly parents) I would pick Ubuntu-based Mint (this week, it could be something else next week), or I would make them shell out for a mac or windows. After all this is what they are most likely to encounter elsewhere.

If i had to use an open source desktop to work, I suspect I would go for suse right now. I have known it a long time. Or I might go for a BSD or solaris based desktop, because that is what I would most likely be using on the servers, and it might make it easier. Vector was my desktop of choice in the early 2000s and it is getting new versions, so I might also revisit that.

Linux distribution when i just want to mess with things: Arch linux, for the compile-from-source power, and Slackware, for pure speed, clean efficiency, and unix like shape. If I want to mess not with the OS but with a new framework, say, or service, I go FreeBSD. 4 minutes to install the core, then about 5 minutes to get everything ready through ports, start the right portsinstall and let it download, install and compile all you need, pottering about and answering a question every few minutes (can be avoided with a script if you do it often)

For a server, say a mail or web server, I think I would still go for a BSD distribution as a default. Although Solaris is awfully sexy, I have been playing with it and that file system... that file system... If it had to be linux it would probably be debian.
For a file/corporate server, i might go opensolaris or even windows server (budget allowing).

473

Living Room / Re: A rant on religiousness about OSes

« Last post by iphigenie on December 09, 2008, 05:55 AM »

Please get me right, this is not a rant against linux. I have used linux a lot, I was using slackware in 1995, that's how far back linux and I go.

I am a big fan of opensource, i think it is the future and have been saying it for over 15 years. I have forced it down the throat of numerous people, convinced some companies to go with it, failed to convince others (one notorious failure meant the company spent hundreds of thousand on Autonomy, and yet the final product didnt deliver the solution. Perhaps open source woudlnt have either, but it would have been faster and cheaper the the same failure.). But it is not perfect, it does not have the monopoly on innovation, good ideas, efficency.

You make the case for open source realistically and aware of the warts (often the warts are documentation, partial support for hardware, lack of detail polish etc.)

But as someone who has used many OSes, I get tired of the arrogance of some linux users, an arrogance that often makes claims that are totally untrue.

The one that really irks me is that many of the claims are linked to things used by linux distributions which arent at all linux. They are used by linux, but they come from other projects, other people, and they existed independently of linux. Open souce is not Linux! Most innovations do not come out of linux, they are just compiled on it or ported to it.

Innovation happens in open source projects, and also in closed source projects, and in universities and companies. Most of it does NOT happen in linux distributions, very few innovate in anything (very few write anything apart an installer and package manager, very few create anything except a wallpaper and icons), all the rest comes from other projects.

Innovation finds its way onto major linux distributions after it appears elsewhere. Now some people involved in some distributions volunteer on some of the innovative open source projects, but that is usually after these projects have left the forefront of innovation. Neither is there that much innovation in the linux kernel, it is all about stabilisation and steady performance on multi cores these days (as it should be!!! don't mess with it!!!).

And while we are at it, gnome is not linux, kde is not linux, gimp is not linux, firefox is not linux, apache is not linux, perl is not linux, openoffice is not linux, reiserfs is not linux, iptables is not linux, mysql is not linux neither are the hundreds of librairies everything rests on, or the applications everyone uses, or the windows managers, or the games... oh sorry, i ranted about this already.

474

General Software Discussion / Re: Is XP really that good?

« Last post by iphigenie on December 09, 2008, 05:46 AM »

This sounds like one of those discussions where someone hasn't used Linux for more than ten minutes in the past year, but knows in detail how bad it is. In other words, it's not true to my experience

-zridling (November 30, 2008, 03:23 AM)

This would have been a very commendable attitude if it wasn't followed by a list that is more religious belief than truth - made me want to rant, which i did elsewhere

The point of this thread was a very open minded discussion saying "oh, windows XP works pretty well"

My take on this is simple: it works pretty well because it is old. It has been here for years and as a result
- the current hardware is overpowered for it (my first xp machine had 256M of ram and it did really well on it)
- annoyances have been ironed out
- it is easy for hardware makers to have decent drivers
- but it also has accumulated a huge collection of generic drivers
- there has been time for freeware to emerge for all the annoyances that are linked to taste (= things which annoy a subset of people)
- software that was written years ago still works
- most people have used it enough (even if only on other people's machines) that it is universally familiar (this is the bit that linux alas cannot beat)

This all creates a pretty nice and tight package, and a success on the scale that makes the original hype campaign for XP (I was an OS/2 person back then, i hated that campaign full of misinformation) actually not ridiculous at all...

I have always preferred another OS to tinker with or develop on, but throughout it all I have always had my day to day desktop machines as windows, especially at home. Granted it mostly was because of certain pieces of software and games. But I guess I am typical.

You get the same effect if you use an older version of linux (do patch the libraries, though), without the newer, less stable bells and whistles.

It takes time to become efficient

475

Living Room / A rant on religiousness about OSes

« Last post by iphigenie on December 09, 2008, 05:31 AM »

(this was triggered by a near-religious linux post in a thread about windows XP. I figured I wouldn't pollute that with my rant and will just rant where people can ignore it easier)

Please don't come and tell me that your particular OS is the bestest of them all, super stable, easy to manage, easy to learn, no security issues. It isn't. None of them are. If you think so you have forgotten all the times you scratched your head or tore your hair trying to figure out how to do...

It always bothers me when I see people get religious about an OS (or programming language) - this started as an open minded conversation and at some point it starts being an advocacy discussion - with people using the usual myths about each other's OS (linux is not that user unfriendly and mishmashy, neither is windows that insecure or unstable). The worst is that most of the people get all religious not about the reality of their OS (or language) but the idea of the OS, and the image it projects about them.

Once someone gets religious, then others feel they have to defend their choice (even if they weren't religious about it, their image has been attacked, implying that they are morons/heretics for using something else. Hard to shut up after that)

I have used: several flavors of DOS, Vax/VMS, SunOS, Solaris, Opensolaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, desktop distributions of BSD, Windows 3.11, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Vista, Windows Server (NT, 2003, 2008), AIX, OS/2, HPUX, SGI, MacOS, about 20+ flavors of linux over 15 years.

I have administrered/managed, in a commercial setting: DOS, SunOS, Solaris, FreeBSD, Windows (the whole list above except for server 2008 which i only played with), AIX, OS/2, MacOS, Linux: Slackware, Redhat, fedora, debian, DLD, Suse, Centos, and a few specialised one (router/firewall) i can't remember right now. Some as servers, some as desktops.

So when people talk to me about how wonderful X is, or how innovative, I tend to see red.

First, If you cannot list at least 3 ways in which the other person's OS is better than yours (things you wish your OS had) then you don't know enough to debate in the first place. This is called Nebbe's rule when applied to programming languages, i'll call it iphi's rule for OSes.

1. All OSes suck - they fall way short of what an OS should be and might be one day - but most of them don't suck enough that we cannot get used to them and like them

2. All OSes are unstable - at least any one I have ever used with a GUI has had mysterious crashes, problems, freezes. The worst was probably redhat/fedora, and that even without a GUI.

3. Updates and software install are a problem on all OSes. There will be numerous cases and people who have had things mess up just by trying to install or uninstall on any OS - whether windows, macos, solaris, bsd, aix, linux distributions. If you think you haven't had any you either have been extremely lucky, or you have forgotten the teething problems in your enjoyment of the idea of your OS.

4. All OSes are insecure in the hands of an uninformed user. Granted, some are safer because an uninformed use cannot even begin to use them.

5. All OSes are frustrating - With any OS, there's a time right out of the box where they are fun. Then as you start to really do work with them, especially with deadlines, the cracks will appear and you will tear your hair out. Then if you stick with them you will get to the point where they are stable, work to your satisfaction, and you will be comfortable like and old couple. It can take a month or 18 to get there, depending on luck, the match between the chosen OS and the task you are trying etc.

6. All OSes are fun if you use them to dabble. If you use an OS mostly to have fun and dabble, without pressure, you will like it better. So if you used windows at work but linux at home, linux will feel infinitely more easy, fun, stable - because you can just put up or ignore things that are less than ideal, and what projects you conceive will be projects that fit within the limitations of your chosen platform. If you have linux at work but windows at home (for games and chatting), you might feel otherwise. I have at some point or another absolutely hated every single OS I have had to use, except for the ones I have only ever dabbled with.