On Thu, Mar 22, 2007 at 10:41:08AM -0600, Bob Beck wrote:
> Linux distros do the first to market and damn the
> consequences game just as well as Microsoft ever has.
>
> "Third party software" - in linux? fuck in Linux distributions
> everything in userland is third party software. Linux is a kernel. The
> operating system is then a collection of things put together by
> bundlers.
>
> Do I think either vendor does a good job, no, but is Microsoft doing
> a better job of it than say, Red Hat? Yep. You betcha. If you right
> now took a magic fairy wand and replaced windows in all the broadband
> connected machines out there with a full featured (and that means all
> the bells and whistles, not spending half a day turning all the shit
> off and un-setuiding all the inane shit that is setuid root) Red Hat
> install with similar tools, I'm pretty sure you'd have a virus and
> worm shitstorm that would make what we see now hitting our mailservers
> from windows machines look like a tiny little unoffensive fart - from
> a vegetarian at that. And yes a big chunk of the problem is the knuckle
> dragging mouth breather in front of the keyboard - thank god that's
> not OpenBSD's targeted userbase, although some days reading misc@
> I wonder.
I'm a babe in the BSD woods but I've spent 8 years with Linux. I
started with RH, din't like the philosophy and switched to Debian
Potato, then Sarge. My big new box is on Etch, my small box will
probably OpenBSD.
Please don't tar (so to speak) all linux with the RH brush. I don't
know what happens if one chooses to install Debian and select 'desktop'
task. I don't choose any tasks and get a base install, then add one
thing at a time as I need it. After reading the securing-debian book
(harden-doc.deb) I found that there wasn't much that applied to a base
install. Their challenge is that they need to provide choice so they
have what they call reasonable defaults. They also have several
different packages to do the same thing, each of which has to work on
being installed. I think they do a good job, given their mandate.
My current frustration is that the copyleft licences (such as GPL) are
being moved to the right for some things (like the GFDL) and conflicting
with debian policy. That means, for example, that the tar(1) man page
is a summary that points you to GNU's web page. Not very helpful. This
is another reason I'm looking at OpenBSD.
There are only two reasons why I haven't tried OpenBSD yet:
1. My Athlon box is on Etch (testing) and until Etch is stable, I
don't want to mess with my tool box (486, Sarge).
2. When I try OpenBSD, it will be on the 486. I'm working out in
my own mind how the patches work given an old slow box.
In any event, I _will_ try OpenBSD on the 486 once the Athlon is runing
Debian stable. I will try to breathe through my nose and keep my
fingers on the home keys.
Doug.
